Hi-Fi Speakers and Amp vs. Active Nearfield Monitors
Hi-Fi Speakers and Amp vs. Active Nearfield Monitors Posted on: 14.05.2013 by Brunilda Kora I'm in the market for some new speakers for DJ'ing at home with.What do you guys believe? Active nearfields, or Hi-Fi speakers plus a hi-fi amp? I don't need anything too loud, I'm just playing at home for fun. I've been looking at these at Thomann: http://www.thomann.de/gb/fostex_pm03_black.htm http://www.thomann.de/gb/samson_media_one_4a.htm http://www.thomann.de/gb/esi_aktiv_05.htm http://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_m...utsprecher.htm http://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_m...utsprecher.htm I'm edging towards the Esi Aktive 05's or Behringer MS40's. | |
| nayit ruiz jaramillo 03.07.2013 |
Originally Posted by makar1
downstairs (for parties and BBQ's) I have my fathers 30 year old Wharfedales and a Kenwood (yes Kenwood) hi-fi amp and it sound amazing. My mates love my BBQ' system I have the garden cabled up so I can put the speakers outside and it rocks the neighbours. Also consider that I have a canal at the back of the house so the sound travels all over the place. If I were buying just for DJ purposes I would not even consider monitors. For a fraction of the price you can get an old setup sounding perfect and not have the worry that you mates will HAMMER your pretty, delicate monitors. |
| Dannie Dimora 19.05.2013 |
Originally Posted by makar1
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| Doreen Schurle 19.05.2013 |
Originally Posted by Patch
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| Manuel Schleuter 19.05.2013 |
Originally Posted by Patch
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| nayit ruiz jaramillo 03.07.2013 |
Originally Posted by makar1
downstairs (for parties and BBQ's) I have my fathers 30 year old Wharfedales and a Kenwood (yes Kenwood) hi-fi amp and it sound amazing. My mates love my BBQ' system I have the garden cabled up so I can put the speakers outside and it rocks the neighbours. Also consider that I have a canal at the back of the house so the sound travels all over the place. If I were buying just for DJ purposes I would not even consider monitors. For a fraction of the price you can get an old setup sounding perfect and not have the worry that you mates will HAMMER your pretty, delicate monitors. |
| Brunilda Kora 03.07.2013 | Got the speakers. Still haven't got an amp... |
| Doreen Schurle 20.05.2013 | He's already bought himself a pair of Celestion DL6's now (everyone say "congrats!") so just needs to match an amp to them. One thing it might be worth doing at some point as well is replacing the capacitors on the crossover. It's not a particularly big job; the speaker terminal plate on the back just unscrews and there'll be a few capacitors on there which act as HPF and LPFs for each driver... sometimes these lose their capacitance with age and the crossover point gets a bit screwy... replacing these often has the effect of making the speakers sound MUCH better. |
| Dannie Dimora 19.05.2013 |
Originally Posted by makar1
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| Alphonso Deitchman 19.05.2013 | My Wharfedales sound fine close up. 1.5m is more than enough distance to hear the lows properly. |
| Dannie Dimora 19.05.2013 | Patch, thought about some used passive monitors instead of hifi speakers? Something like some old genelecs or krks? My main concern with hifi oriented speakers here is , as Bejier stated, imaging, when used in a nearfield position. |
| Dannie Dimora 19.05.2013 | I used 2 ta2020-based amps (biamping) on a pair of diy floorstanders i built for a friend. They had plenty of headroom. |
| Doreen Schurle 19.05.2013 |
Originally Posted by Patch
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| Lauretta Ehrhorn 19.05.2013 | I use a pair of 12" Ohm rwII's in my converted garage with a matrix amp. Overkill perhaps but the neighbours don't seem to mind and I need it loud these days. I'd always opt for the amp and speaker option. Easier to sort if anything goes wrong and you get a better setup for less cash in my experience. |
| Brunilda Kora 19.05.2013 | Okay - I'm gonna try and score a Teac amp, then. Either a H300 or a H500... Failing that, maybe one of these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2810486591...84.m1423.l2649 |
| Doreen Schurle 19.05.2013 | Personally I'd go for something a little bit more powerful; the TA2020s are 20W RMS into 4 ohms, and the DL6s are 8 ohm speakers, so you'll be running VERY close to the minimum power required to drive them (10W RMS). The speakers can handle up to 100W RMS, so you want to be aiming for at least a third of that. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/S-M-S-L-SA...item3cd119c891 This one would probably suit you perfectly; no tone controls, but if you were planning on getting monitor speakers anyway, you'd have ended up with a VERY flat sound in the first place. You could always add a separate preamp later, maybe even something valvey |
| Manuel Schleuter 19.05.2013 |
Originally Posted by Patch
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| Brunilda Kora 19.05.2013 | What do you believe of this amp: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lepai-Trip...item2327c5ead8 2x20W. I like that it has a treble + bass controls... |
| Doreen Schurle 19.05.2013 | No problem mate Contrary to popular belief, I DO actually help people sometimes haha |
| Brunilda Kora 19.05.2013 | Nice. Thanks mdcdesign - really appreciate all of your input into this thread! |
| Doreen Schurle 19.05.2013 | Not at all; a class T amp - even the cheapest ones out there - will give you FANTASTIC quality; the only thing they're limited in is tone control (EQing), as most don't have a preamp circuit built in. The reason for this, like makar said before, is to shorten the signal path and maximize quality |
| Brunilda Kora 19.05.2013 | mdcdesign - when looking at these awesome hi-fi speakers, should I worry about the amp that I'l be using? Ideally, I'll get hold of one of those Teac amps like you have, but would sound quality suffer if I used an amp like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3605989383...84.m1423.l2649 $T2eC16d,!)EE9s2uiON!BRJ(8gSZow~~60_12.JPG |
| Doreen Schurle 19.05.2013 | Just throwing another brand into the mix, have a look at the Celestion DL series; apparently the DL6s are some of the best bookshelf speakers ever made. |
| Tamela Batara 19.05.2013 | Personally I'd go for the HiFi route. You are looking at a similar set-up to me speaker wise, although yours are way newer. I am running a pair of 15 year old Wharfedale Diamond 7.1's though an even older NAD amp I picked up on ebay for around |
| Brunilda Kora 19.05.2013 | Thanks for the input, M.Beijer - but your suggestions are just too expensive for me! I'm gonna be stood approx. 1.5 metres away from whatever I buy - so my original question still really stands: Powered nearfield, or hi-fi with separate amp? (I'm struggling to decide between Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 speakers, with a 2x50w T-AMP MINI AMPLIFIER, and some Behringer MS40's) |
| Mimi Mahaffee 15.05.2013 | worth to mention that in my world no digital amps which houses in most active speakers sounds enjoyable to my ear. naim amp is the way to go |
| Mimi Mahaffee 15.05.2013 | you almost answer the question yourself in the title, if your going to be close in distance to the speakers i would not recommend regular hifi speakers since they are designed for the listener to be a few metres away. however there is a couple of speakers that you can use nearfield that is passive and i would go with that way every day, for me it feels stupid to have something that heats up the speaker cones in the same box. also easier to change the amp if it breaks than perhaps repairing the monitors. although you get one box less without amp i dont believe its worth but genelec has built some active speakers thats proven to be good and maintain high quality. |
| Doreen Schurle 15.05.2013 |
Originally Posted by Patch
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| Brunilda Kora 15.05.2013 | You leave yours on? Aren't you worried about how much energy they're using? |
| Doreen Schurle 15.05.2013 |
Originally Posted by Patch
Personally, mine's been "on" 24/7 since I bought it a few months ago, and will continue to stay that way probably for several years to come. |
| Brunilda Kora 15.05.2013 | Here's a question for you - could I leave the Amp switched on permanently, and just switch it off at the wall? That way, I could hide the amp behind my set-up somewher, and just switch it off at the wall when I'm not DJ'ing... Could doing this potentially cause damage to the amp? I'm edging towards one of those shoebox sized Teac amps at the moment. |
| Doreen Schurle 14.05.2013 |
Originally Posted by willisnz
Even the Monitor Audio GX300 - the best "traditional" (non-electrostatic or horn) audiophile speakers produced to date, which retail for |
| Marjorie Fallucca 14.05.2013 |
Originally Posted by Patch
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| Doreen Schurle 14.05.2013 |
Originally Posted by Patch
As you can see from my setup, the Mordaunt Shorts are MUCH bigger than the Celestions, and they have a balance according to that. Mine's essentially a 4-way setup, but with two crossover points between the mids and trebles in both cabinets. Basically, the Celestions exceed the Mordaunts in the the 20-22khz range, and provide tighter response in the upper mids; the Mordaunts go lower down towards the bass (say, 100Hz) and flesh out the sound in the mids. When I need even lower range I toggle the MS5.30s on which takes it down to about 60Hz. I dread to believe what a frequency graph would look like of my setup, but it sounds fantastic to me personally which is what really matters. EDIT: One piece of advice, btw, is if you EVER come across a cheap pair of Wharfedale Zaldek or Valdus speakers, buy them. Even if you're not looking for a set. I used to have a set of Zaldek S1000s (http://www.avx.hu/community /uploads/mont...1284749257.jpg), and they were - for the Trance music that I played primarily at the time, at least - some of the best speakers I've ever owned. The Valdus series is supposed to be even better. Unfortunately, Wharfedale dropped out of the market about 10 years ago, and now all of their stuff is Chinese-made according to outsourced designs. They still make some lovely stuff, but nothing that sounds quite the same as their older ranges. |
| Brunilda Kora 14.05.2013 | Liking the sound of these Wharfdale Diamonds. Plenty of "em on eBay, too.,. |
| Marjorie Fallucca 14.05.2013 |
Originally Posted by makar1
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| Doreen Schurle 14.05.2013 | Good man If it helps, some of the Micro systems out there made by the HIGH END manufacturers (Onkyo, Denon, Teac, etc) are reasonable, power and quality wise; their only downside tends to be a relatively basic power supply (small transformers and caps) with less smoothing, but nothing you'd notice playing MP3 tracks on. Specifically, things like this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Denon-DM38...item4d07d90f61 |
| Brunilda Kora 14.05.2013 | Thanks for all of the great advice, guys. I really appreciate it. I believe I'll be looking for some used passive speakers and a new (small) amp. |
| Doreen Schurle 14.05.2013 |
Originally Posted by makar1
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| Alphonso Deitchman 14.05.2013 | The Topping amp I have is rated at 2x80W at 2 ohm and 2x50W at 8ohm; the extra power does mean it costs a bit more (~ |
| Doreen Schurle 14.05.2013 | That's a Class T amp, they're like |
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