Active studio monitors for Home audio

I have a pair of Digidesign RM2's lurking around somewhere, and love them. Bang for buck (paid 1k for them) they are very hard to beat.

Digidesign RM2 |

Perhaps I prefer the sound of monitors as I settled with a pair of PMC MB2's as my reference speaker at home.

 

For general music listening they are great. What is really noticeable is the stereo separation. The inverted tweeter reproduces all the highs. As mentioned the low end is surprisingly good with the front ports, even on the Alpha 50s with a 5" woofer. Having the port in front means I can place the speaker closer to the wall.

 

Since starting to look at this it seems you get more for your money with the pro stuff vs typical audiophile.

 

Hard to know if that's true. Are the budget class D amp circuits in the budget active monitors really better than say a really cheap class D integrated or separate? Are the drivers in the studio minis better than the drivers in the hifi minis? You do get whatever advantages come with active vs. passive crossovers, but to some degree also you still get what you pay for. No doubt in the home hifi biz you pay for veneer and other kinds of cosmetic elements....and in the the high-end hifi market you pay other kinds of premiums as well -- sometimes for audiophile approved parts that may or may not be worth the extra expense and sometimes just for boutique scale and marketing cache that definitely is not worth the expense. But you know there are $200 a pop active studio monitors and $2,000 a pop active studio monitors, just like there is a spectrum of price and performance in home gear.

 

I'm on my third set of actives at home. Picked up a pair of AVI DM5s the other day for a very good price.

They don't come with an onboard DAC so there's a Yamaha DSP-E800 being called in to enable TV and source hookup in the short term. I'll look to get something more permanent in the future.

Personally, I've loved going down the active route. Find the right ones and you're good to go.

And they're right down the audiophile path too. Amps designed for each driver, active crossover arrangement, ideally WAF up there (okay, two out of three ain't bad!). Just get a source, a preamp and you're done.

 

Stealth 8

You should all check these out. Great design, sound, and price. Only thing I’d upgrade to from there would be the fancy ATC’s which at axpona I thought were amazing.

 

Ah, no, not so. They do.

 

Well, my Adams sure don't. But if you say it's possible, I will accept there are other nearfield monitors that will fill the room. I just haven't heard them yet. Which ones are you referring to?

 

By coincidence, I was in a store in Edinburgh the other day that specialises in dance music. Check out Underground Solush'n in Edinburgh.

They had a pair of gloss black speakers out, 8" woofers, and a distinctive, very WAF unfriendly ring on the bass driver itself. They sounded excellent. Light, airy, everything I've heard described about passive speakers costing oodles more.

The Akai RPM 500 retails for about £250 a pair, while the model I heard, the RPM 800, comes in at around £450-500.

 

Acoustic Energy AE22 actives, AVI ADM9 and DM10 variants, Akai RPM800s, Genelec, Mackie...and of course, it depends on your room size.

 

Good point. It shouldn't be a problem to fill a small room. Problems I heard were in a rather large living room.

 

Sure! It's the same considerations as per passive speakers I think.

The AE22s were incredible speakers, AVI's DM10 will give you 250w to each woofer and a further 75w to the tweeters, my Quads give me about 65w/40w and the AVI DM5 about 50w. Ample for most needs.

 

I have a pair of these in a desktop set up. Use it mostly for casual music listening or interfaced via an Audient ID4 to allow my to run my guitar through the speakers for recording/practice. To me they are ok for music listening or playing NPR during the day, good imaging if you get the set up right (angled in, height correct) but seem a little congested on complex music. I don't have anything specifically to compare them with as they are the first active monitors I've owned but they work well enough for casual use and guitar playing. Since I tend to run this set up at relatively low volume and nearfield listening, it works fine. Not sure I'd be happy with them as my primary audio rig though, they sure aren't Harbeths.

 

They really are quite good, and far better than the price might indicate. I used them as my mains for a while, and have 3 across the front stage of my small home theater setup. Outstanding dispersion as well, they really fill a room. Anyone looking for a budget complete amp/speaker can add a source or passive control (I've used a Schiit SYS) and be well ahead for anywhere near the price.

 

And remember, music fans, the real definition of the term, "too revealing":

"revealing".

 

Has anyone heard the Mackie MR624? I've watched a couple reviews. Inexpensive and excellent, apparently. Z reviews on youtube was pretty gaga.

 

I hope you'll understand my English.

Use JBL LRS305. I work a lot at a computer at home (IT Administrator). Due to the fact that my basic audio system is a tube amplifier, I did not want to use it when the music is the background to work. I wanted to have a good sound and stereo image.
The speakers are great, they are not tiring with long listening, but they are detailed. They have a very good stereo image and depth. Due to the proximity of the wall, I covered the rear bass opening. The loudspeakers power the Tascam Us-2x2 DAC

 

I enjoy my active studio monitors for home listening very much. I do understand (most of) the negatives, and using pro audio gear is definitely not for everyone.

They aren't great looking, just black boxes. On a metal stand, with wires hanging out of the back. Each with a separate power cord and "On/Off" switch. No designer options. No grilles to protect the cones or tweeters at all.

And there's no upgrade path, really. My whole system is Turntable -> RIAA enabled mixer -> 8" powered monitors, no sub. I could try various phono stages that might improve things, but the sound is already so crisp and clear and undistorted, I'm not sure what exactly I'd be trying to improve. And it would be adding an extra component, more wires, another power supply.... for an undetermined effect. So I don't have much to fiddle with. I've got sound absorption panels at the first reflection points, so the room sound doesn't really compete with the speakers. I like the flat response, and there's no such thing as too revealing for me. I have a record where I can clearly hear a different snare drum used in parts of a song, and I hadn't noticed that different snare in 20+ years of listening to the same material though more consumer-oriented systems. Just popped out at me one day at home and wasn't that subtle, either.

I'd already been used to live and studio pro audio gear for many years, though, and totally understand why it would be off-putting to many. On the other hand, there's probably a lot of folks who would like active studio monitors at home. The learning curve is really small.

 

Is the near in near field meant literally? Or is just being at the point of an equilateral triangle fine, whatever distance (to a point, of course).

 

Yes, literally near.

 

I owned them for a few months and was pretty happy with those. I wanted to upgrade though as some "specialist" suggested they were good but would never be HiFi good and were just speakers meant to be played "loud". So I took the plunge and bought some fancy LS50W active speakers which are like almost ten times more expensive and sold my LSR305s. And you know what, after using my LS50Ws for almost a year now, although I really like them for the look, the better soundstage and imaging, and especially the All-In-One-ness, I kind of regretted selling my LSR305s as I didn't had so much of a wow effect with the LS50Ws in terms of SQ and they were definitely not 10 times better than the JBLs to my ears.

TL;DR: Yes the JBL LSR305s are good and great value.

 

Following my previous post, I was missing my LSR305s so I considered buying them again to put it on my room desktop while living the LS50W on the living room. I stumbled upon Z reviews about the Mackie 624 being better than my beloved LSR305s so I bought them last week to try it out.
Well first impressions comparing to the JBLs, I love their look, they are very well built and are less heavy than I thought. Sound wise I'm not sure yet as they haven't totally burned in but I can say those are definitely near field speakers with straight forward sound. It's been a while now that I haven't heard the JBLs but in my memory they sounded warmer than the Mackies with "rounder" bass and played louder. The mackies are good though and I like that they sound great in low volume too. I would say they sound clearer and are more precise than the JBLs especially for vocals. Worth noting also that the Mackies don't have volume control so they need a preamp. Overall they are both good speakers but I still think the JBLs remains better in terms of bang for bucks value. My 2 cents.

 

Shiwo, I am very interested in what you think of the JBL and Mackie compared to the Kefs. These are all on my list of contenders!

 

All I want are ATC SCM150's.

 

Genelecs.....

If they are designed that way. Many are designed for the same versatility of good home hifi speakers.