I'm in the market for some powerful 2.0 bookshelf speakers, with some good solid deep base, with plenty of clarity for multimedia and gaming. So I'm unsure whether to go for a set of Actives or Separate speakers. Looking at amplifiers from Richer sounds, they have a deal on a Cambridge audio Amp for £70, but it's only 20W per channel. Where I could grab a second hand AV receiver with 100w per channel, and pair it with a set of JBL Control 1 speakers. Minimal is definitely better, and best bang per buck. Budget: £200.
JBL Control 1 don't have a lot of bass, they're tiny. 20w per channel is fine with high sensitivity speakers, the massive numbers you get with AV receivers isn't comparing apples with apples.
I see, then I'll skip the JBL's. Been a long time out of the A/V game, where I used to run a AV receiver with a couple of pairs of floorstanders, and center speaker. I don't want massive speakers, so ideally no taller than 20-25cm, but with a min of a 4" woofer. So what would you recommend, M-Audio BX5 D3 monitors any good?
Studio monitors are not necessarily meant to sound "good", rather "correct", and can even be quite fatiguing. That doesn't necessarily mean that they are universally inappropriate for non-critical listening - I have some Tannoy active studio monitors and they sound great to my ears for instance - but it's something to watch for and would put me off buying unheard.
I gathered that. Not sure where I would get to listen to a set. My mind isn't made up, so I'm open to suggestions. Just anything is better than the cheap Logitech 2.1's that have no mid base at all. Also, they don't need to be loud, as I respect my neighbors, so something that's going to sound good with some good bass, at a medium to low volume.
M-audio BX8A as a pair with the SBX10 sub sound superb. Being monitors you can change the audio characteristics to suit which makes them very versatile. I’d certainly have a look at those if you have a reasonable budget!
I have these - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tannoy-R...468181?hash=item25f105a215:g:5SMAAOSwJQtaslco (there's another pair on ebay for cheaper, but they look a bit battered) I've had them for the best part of 15 years, and they still sound great to my ears, even with some fairly high reference points set from some of my other audio setups. The bass is acceptable - they may initially sound weak compared to any PC kits with a sub you may have heard, but that's more because the bass is clean rather than it being not up to much. They're not going to rattle your windows or turn your stomach at the infrasonic level clearly, but they do a great job at l across a sensible frequency range at volumes well in excess of what you would ever use near-field. Note that as a pro monitor I don't think they're up to much - many reviews of them criticised them for being imprecise and colouring the sound - this is exactly why I tested them out to start with (and subsequently bought them). They're far better as a near-field hi-fi speaker than a monitor. I'd so so far as to giving them an uncaveated recommendation apart from one little thing, which you may have noticed. They're a really weird shade of greeny blue. I like it... I'm not sure if this is because they've been sitting on my desks for the last 15 years and they're just there now, or if I actually like it, but they're probably not for everyone.
It all depends on how you define bass. If you mean real deep low end grunt? then no, not really. However, at their size class they certainly pack a wallop and they are capable of ear splitting volume too.
Yeah, they're a bit too big for my needs. That's why I mentioned the BX5 D3 a couple of posts up. Trying to keep to a compact size, with good solid room filling sound, and a nice deep bass. £200 max really, as the misses is treating me for my birthday. see, now that's worth the investment if they last that long, and still sound as good. To be honest, I've gone from a Z5500 which is setup in the living room now, as it was just too much for my PC needs, to a "quick fix at the time" set of Z313, which are a bag of crap... that picks up a horrible continuous buzzing sound. So, I do like the look of the Tannoy's you posted. I think Actives are the way forward. I'm not bothered about it being an earth shaking 33Hz type of bass, as I will get that when I install a Buttkicker to my cockpit. But I would like to be able to feel it as well as hear it from the Mids.
Control 1s are incredibly punchy. If you position them close enough they will give you more than enough sound.
Sounds oh so similar. I had a Cambridge Soundworks 650D set (the 6.1 version of the Creative GigaWorks 750D, comparable to the Z680 in the day and I assume the Z5500 that replaced it) at the PC - they were actually really good, particularly for the cost and size compared to "real" AV, really no complaints at all. I fancied some surround in the lounge, and fancied less mess in the office, so research ensued and considered 2.1 sets, hifi separates and eventually active 2.0, and ended up with these Tannoys. Bearing in mind my praise for the 650Ds, for stereo, the chasm between the Tannoys and the 650Ds was so vast that it's pointless to even compare. It's only if you want obnoxious/bloated bass the 650Ds would have had the edge, but a lesser amount of clean bass beats a greater amount of sloppy bass every time IMO.
Define feel? If you want that tingle you get from bass then you need to move serious amounts of air (& annoy the neighbours). Best small setup I've used (domestic, not wallet melting studio gear) is from AE Aego's. Tiny boxes but the sub drops nice & low for it's size. How close will you be to these speakers?
Yeah, I saw a YouTube video of a guys arm hairs getting blown around from a good couple of feet away. I'll be sat about 1m away. I've had the Z5500 for years, so I couldn't part with them, and they make a good solid surround sound in the living room. Just a nice solid feel, nothing that's going to shake the walls and have the pictures fall off. (Been there before and upset a neighbor with a 1200w 12" sub). Sounds good. I'll be sat about a 1m away, as it's for my race SIM cockpit, but also watching Netflix from the bed, which will be about 5m away.
I face the same dilemma mate, just now I'm still running with an eight year old Acoustic Energy Aego M setup - to be fair they're great all rounders and I've yet to find anything to surpass them.
That's the thing, if you buy a decent set to begin with, then there will be no reason to replace them for years, unless they die. So that's why I want to buy a decent set to last.
Im happy with my KRK rp6 g2's and my presonus audio box usb audio interface. bass is tight and punchy, has great low end, mids and treble are clear as hell. can pickup a used pair for cheap if you hunt around
So in the end of a long weekend of reading reviews from owners etc, I decided to buy a pair of Behringer MS40 Digital Monitor Speakers.
Thanks! They'll arrive on Wednesday, so lets hope they're as good as everyone is rating them to be... It was a tough choice between these, Mackies CR4, M-Audio AV42 or the M-Audio AV32.1. What made me choose the MS40 in the end was the ultra-wide frequency response from 50 Hz to 25 kHz, from the 4.75" Woofer and 2.5" tweeter, meaning I don't need a separate Subwoofer, as 50Hz can still shake the room. Also having a built in DAC, and also be able to fine tune the bass an treble is a plus.
Well they turned up at midday, and I've been playing around with them up till now. Have to say, I was expecting something bigger, like your 90s type Hifi speakers in size. So I was a little disappointed at first look, thinking they're not going to be powerful enough, how wrong was I! So setting them up, I bought a decent armoured 3.5mm to Phonos lead to prevent any noise getting picked up along the way. Also used an armoured Coaxial lead from the amped speaker to the passive one, as the one supplied was cheap looking. So once setup, I then went to the sounds window, and set it to studio 24bit/192KHz, and selecting full range speakers. Back to the speakers little EQ, I set the volume to half, the bass to 3/4, and the treble about 6/8. So with the speakers volume set at halfway, and purely controlling the volume with Windows, cranking it up to 20 fills the room with solid clear sound with some punchy bass, taking it to 50 in Windows (Speaker volume knob left at half way) the walls start to shake, and you start feeling the bass. Man these are some amazing loud speakers with crystal clear sound with no distortion. (Technically, that is only 1/4 volume) So i'lI let them run in for a few weeks before cranking them, but even at that volume you can't hear yourself think. The pics do the speakers no justice, as they look more plactic looking in the pics than in front of me. Quality seems of a good standard with a nice thick rubber rim around the woofer, so a decent driver. Tweeter has a protector, so no kids fingers will be able to push them in. So overall, very impressed with how good these sound, and how well it fills the room. So I highly recommend them as a budget studio/high quality multimedia speakers. (Destroys any 2.1 setup I've used in the past, and you can't go wrong with German tech). Currently discounted to £133 on Amazon. Which is an absolute bargain.
