Auratones

Often when mixing audio, as a reality check, engineers like to monitor on different sets of speakers. In the 1970s and 80s when car speaker systems were often not very good, engineers would play their mixes on a small set of speakers called Auratones that had one 5 ¼"speaker inside a cabinet approximately 6 ½"on each side.
Whether true or not, a popular theory at the time was that if the mix sounded good on the Auratones, it would sound great on a good set of speakers.
Today, car speaker systems often sound better than studio control rooms, so it's not usually necessary to "dumb down" the monitors, although material heard on AM radio will sound less bright, since the AM bandwidth is only 5 kHz.
Still, listening to the mix on different speakers can be useful. For example, speaker systems with subwoofers can expose low frequency artifacts that might need to be high-passed. If far-field speakers were used during the mix, near-field speakers might add a different perspective, and vice-versa. Checking the mix on headphones or earbuds (since that's how many people listen to music) might reveal some issues as well.
Also, it can be helpful to monitor at different volumes. Which may be why the Auratones were used, since they would playback at lower levels than typical studio monitors. Because when speakers are loud, the ear naturally compresses the sound, so that material, even at low volumes in the mix, can be easily heard. This is always the case when mixing on headphones.
Monitoring at low levels, and possibly even with some steady-state noise in the room, might reveal that the vocal has been mixed too loudly or that certain tracks aren't being heard.


Видео Auratones канала MrAudioSoundImages