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From: Nil on 20 Apr 2008 21:02
What would be your preference (and why) for small monitors for my
bedroom recording setup, powered monitors (a la Behringer Truths) or
unpowered + a power amp? I've been using an old stereo system for
years, but the speakers are shot. The powered systems seem to have
plenty of watts and cheaper than an equivalent modular system.
From: Kraig Olmstead on 20 Apr 2008 22:23
I'd recommend powered because they're better matched to the speakers.
Neither is is necessarily that much better or worse, in my opinion. I'd
really worry more about the actual speakers themselves. Separates are
nice because you can upgrade each independently of each other and if
something breaks you have more options, but if I were shopping today I'd
be looking more closely at powered monitors. I wouldn't let that be a
disqualifying feature of any of my candidates.

KO

Nil wrote:
> What would be your preference (and why) for small monitors for my
> bedroom recording setup, powered monitors (a la Behringer Truths) or
> unpowered + a power amp? I've been using an old stereo system for
> years, but the speakers are shot. The powered systems seem to have
> plenty of watts and cheaper than an equivalent modular system.
From: WJ on 20 Apr 2008 22:50

"Nil" <rednoise+news(a)REMOVETHIScomcast.net> wrote in message
news:Xns9A86D5F95B788nilch1(a)216.196.97.136...
> What would be your preference (and why) for small monitors for my
> bedroom recording setup, powered monitors (a la Behringer Truths) or
> unpowered + a power amp? I've been using an old stereo system for
> years, but the speakers are shot. The powered systems seem to have
> plenty of watts and cheaper than an equivalent modular system.

I'm on my second set of powered monitors. The first were Truths, and they
were quite good for the price, but I outgrew them and now run a pair of JBL
LSRs. They're really nice.

For a small setup, I see no need for separate amps. The powered monitors
are typically biamped, so you'd need 4 channels of amplification and a good
stereo crossover to do as good, not to mention that the on-board amps are
already mated to the speakers optimally. As you mentioned, you simply can't
match all that in discrete components for anywhere near the same price.

Where and how you place the nearfields will make a huge difference in how
they sound. I've got mine on a pair of the commercially available monitor
stands, and don't regret spending the money at all. Recently I went to a
friends place, and he had a pair of little Yamaha HS50Ms sitting right on
his desk. Their bass response was just all flubbery. I asked for a couple
of water glasses, and balanced each speaker up on a glass, which got them up
off the desk about 8". Instantly much better.

Cheers,
Walt


From: Steve Karl on 21 Apr 2008 03:14
Powered.
Reason 1 - the amp and speakers are mated to create a specific sound
so 1 less link in the chan to deal with.



"Nil" <rednoise+news(a)REMOVETHIScomcast.net> wrote in message news:Xns9A86D5F95B788nilch1(a)216.196.97.136...
> What would be your preference (and why) for small monitors for my
> bedroom recording setup, powered monitors (a la Behringer Truths) or
> unpowered + a power amp? I've been using an old stereo system for
> years, but the speakers are shot. The powered systems seem to have
> plenty of watts and cheaper than an equivalent modular system.


From: Nil on 21 Apr 2008 16:30
On 21 Apr 2008, "Steve Karl" <nospam(a)nospam.com> wrote in
cakewalk.audio:

> Powered.
> Reason 1 - the amp and speakers are mated to create a specific
> sound so 1 less link in the chan to deal with.

OK, I'm sold! A convincing argument was made by Kraig, Gennbo, Steve,
and WJ, and I like that it's the cheaper solution. I've been running
this system off my old Harmon Kardon receiver that I bought in college.
The thing still works fine, but it's time to graduate to something with
more horsepower, and most of the powered speakers have way more, and
it's presumably cleaner.

Now to do some quick research and get something on order - my old
speakers sound worse today than yesterday.
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