Active Studio Monitors for HIFI ?

[r100]

Hi all,

does anyone have any experience with so called "Studio Monitors" in their HiFi system ? I stumbled across the KRK ROKIT 5 G3 series and others in the same price / spec range. They all seem to be quite cheap considering there are two amps built in to each speaker... From what I understand, they are tuned for relatively close range auditioning which may limit their use in larger spaces...

What do they sound like compared to a "HiFi" speaker of about the same size ?

Thank's

g3-5-front.jpg

[Mika K]

In short, lot of dynamics and impressive sound pressure but not so good in terms of quality.. Of course there is also good active monitors available but then the pricing will go up just like with other solutions also. I would much prefer Behringer models over KRK any given day in this price range.

Here is on vid you can compare KRK, Yamaha and JBL monitors, that might interest you..

[r100]

Thank's will check it out

[agk]

Interesting topic. I quite fancy some dirty great wedges in place of my Tannoys, no great logic at work here, I want something big and LOUD.

[r100]

the ROKIT seem to do just that ..

[PaulStewart]

KRKs are OK, the current Yamahas are not up to the classic NS10s but they are good value for money. We re-equipped both edit suites late last year and as Genelecs, which are now the de-facto industry standard for nearfields in pro applications, were out of our budget after a lot of listening we went for the active Tannoy 501 Reveals. It's a great sounding little monitor, very accurate over it's range. However theyvare all nearfields, designed to resolve when the listener is about 1 to 1.5 metres away, not in a "HiFi" listening position. When you put the on stands and try that, they get a little flaky and the imaging and tonal balance can suffer. Well designed ones are not meant to have a major interaction with room acoustics.

Best of luck

Paul S

[nat8808]

It's a funny kind of area, especially at the cheaper end.

At the cheaper end they're aimed at a combo of people just wanting an all in one way of getting sounds out of their DJ mixer for practicing at home, or perhaps for cheap and chearful events and people making music at home a on a budget.

As people making music at home get more serious they begin looking for better quality and so prices go up and you have to do research into which are the good ones and which are just over-priced me too prodcuts..

I would go secondhand though. Tannoy Reveals are probably a little better than the cheaper KRKs and they sold so many that they can be picked up very cheaply. Active speakers can't really be abused either because they've probable got clip protection, so don't have to worry so much as long as they are all in on piece.

Sound on Sound magazine is good for checking secondhand gear reviews as they have their archive online (well issues older than 6 months are viewable for free).

Here's a search for "active" in their review section: Sound on Sound search

[nat8808]

the ROKIT seem to do just that ..

Here's a review of the original generation of these: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug0...s/krkrokit.htm

Good for the price but their small size limits the bass response is the general conclusion.

The Rokit 5 has just 15W driving the tweeter and 30W powering the mid-range/bass

Any amp and speaker set can go loud.. these won't be any louder than any other amp/speaker (of course, taking into account sensitivity matching etc).

If you want loud then you want portable PA speakers with sensitive compression drivers, not budget studio monitors..

[nat8808]

Hi all,

does anyone have any experience with so called "Studio Monitors" in their HiFi system ?

I use studio monitors in my system, Acoustic Energy AE2 Pros. They are great!

Sometimes I feel they are a little darker than some other speakers but then the top end seems to be there when you'd expect it - so I wonder if some hifi speakers are given a little extra top end to add more "air" for the listener.

The differences betwen hifi speakers and studio monitors is mostly down to marketting to the particular consumer and there are probably just as many hifi consumer types to market to as there are studio user types.

Remember for example that the most famous studio monitor, the Yamaha NS10 was a hifi speaker first and black studio models were made in response to the poorly selling hifi speaker being used in the odd studio. And Acoustic Energy's AE1 was designed as a studio monitor but became popular in hifi circles and so now Acoustic Energy are known as a hifi manufacturer...

[Mark Grant]

Also consider Adam http://www.adam-audio.com/ All price ranges from a few hundred up to many tens of thousands.