The Augspurger Monitor Demo Tour was created with the goal of providing a complete listening experience. I believe that listening to monitors at a trade show or in a store can be useful to get a first impression, but nothing compares to being able to test them for a few weeks in your own studio. This approach allows you to evaluate their performance in the real context of day-to-day workflow, from production to mixing to mastering.
Then again, studio monitors are a working tool and should be judged during the production phase NOT at the end of it with mastered tracks!
Below is the interview that Alberto Roveroni did with Alex Trecarichi, who tells us about his first impressions and first-hand experience with Augspurger monitors and which you can find on this YouTube link:
First impressions
Question: How did you find the Augspurger listening system in the early days?
Alex: I’ll be honest, in the first few days I had a bit of a hard time getting used to it, because the listening is very different than what I was used to. The horn tweeter is also a little more challenging. I had to switch from my monitors to Augspurger to parameterize it. But once I got used to it, I have to say that the quality is extremely high: there is incredible definition in the bass, they are very precise, and even on the midrange frequencies they have a detail that I hardly found in other speakers.
The role of monitors today
Question: What does an audio monitoring system represent to you today?
Alex: Nowadays, monitors are one of the most important elements within a recording studio. I and many other colleagues work almost entirely in ITB (In The Box), so external hardware plays an increasingly marginal role. What really makes a difference, in my opinion, is a quality acquisition chain and, most importantly, the monitors along with the acoustic treatment of the room.
Translation between mix and real world
Question: How did you get along with the translation of the mixes made with Augspurgers into the real world?
Alex: During the rehearsal period I mixed an album and three tracks by other artists. The album was sent to Mike Marsh in England for mastering. Apart from a few minor revisions, everything was already balanced correctly. The mastering engineer required no major changes, which meant that the balance of the sound was already perfect. Mike Marsh, by the way, does not use compression in mastering, and the result was excellent. Everyone was very satisfied.
First impact with the Augspurger system
Question: Tell us about your first impact with the Augspurger system.
Alex: When you brought them in, I was used to my listening. We listened to some reference tracks and then we switched to Augspurger once we calibrated. I have to say I was speechless. It was like going from low definition listening to very high definition listening.
Mixing experience with Augspurger
Question: How did you find mixing with the Augspurger system?
Alex: At first I had to do some back and forth with the other speakers, because the listening style with the horn tweeter is very different from what I was used to. It takes some time to get used to that kind of listening, but once you get used to it, it’s great.