For the past decade almost, I had been using Samson Rubicon R8a Ribbon Tweeter Studio Monitors. If you take a gander at the "Who is Singular Path?" excerpt on the home page, you can see those there in the photo provided.
Those were honestly my VERY first studio monitors I ever bought. I bought them in the Fall of 2012 when my band at the time needed to record a demo and I was buying the equipment necessary to get the job done. Back then I had NO clue what I was doing (As most don't when first starting out) or knew anything about the kind of equipment needed. At the time, a guy named Darren was working at the Guitar Center nearby me and he directed me to purchase a PreSonus Audio Box USB Studio Interface, a Sennheiser e609 Mic (That I still own), a few cables for hooking everything up and a pair of those Samson Rubicon's that were used and actually previously owned by him personally.
Obviously as my needs changed throughout my career in audio, I've since upgraded my interfaces many times over and have acquired a vast array of different kinds of mics to use. However, what remained throughout those times were those Samson's. In other words, I got some mileage out of those monitors. They carried me through every single studio setup I've had up until currently, and I've used them on every project to date that I've been a part of. I knew those monitors inside and out. As most know, having that ability is quite an advantage, but after years of using those, I felt like a change needed to be made. There were things I realized my beloved Samson's were holding me back from in order to get more transparent mixes & masters. Obviously knowing them inside and out allowed for me to work around the setbacks and realize the parts missing, but I figure I'm at a point where I should work smarter and not harder, ya feel me?
So fast forward to now, I've been working at a music store part time on the weekends for the past year, and what that means is that often times I get SUPER tremendous deals on Gear that comes in. I had been going back and forth between getting a pair of Yamaha HS8's or a pair of PreSonus Sceptre 8's. The Sceptre's were more expensive, but I was willing to save for them. However, the deal of the century came in and the music store bought in a pair of used Yamaha HS8's. Knowing that these wouldn't last long, I had to make the leap and get them.
Reluctantly, I decided to trade in the old Samson Rubicon's, along with a couple pedals I hadn't used in years and paid a whopping $96 for these. I say reluctantly because I didn't want to get rid of the Samson's. I had planned on using them as reference monitors, and simply because they held sentimental value for me. However, the result? An investment VERY well worth it and I don't regret the trade. I've been playing music and my favorite records on these for the past few days trying to get acquainted, and it was almost like I was hearing all these records for the first time. I even listened to old projects to make sure they still held up, and luckily some of them do! At least the ones I felt were my best works, so that was a nice confidence booster!
So, essentially these are going to be my main monitors for a LOOOONG time. They don't call them the industry standard for nothing huh? The low end is much more present, the high mids aren't as prickly as they were on the Samson's so my ears won't get fatigued as fast, and the detail in the high end is just way more articulate.
I'm excited to begin working on my next projects with these at the helm!
- Max Barber: In-House Studio Owner/Music Producer & Audio Engineer
Only going to make all of engineering, mixing, and mastering even better!