Question What nearfield active studio monitors for £3-400?

clabcon

Novice Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2015
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
United Kingdom
I'm looking for some nearfield active studio monitors to go with my iMac as the internal speakers are poor at best. I have 3.5 mm stereo (TRS) and optical outputs, but I guess analogue will the way to connect them, by converting 1 x male 3.5 mm stereo plug to 2 x male 6.35 mm left and right channels to provide a balanced TRS input. None of the studio monitors I've seen have an integrated DAC and I'm not sure how much better a separate DAC would be compared to the one in my iMac?

My budget is £300-400 for a pair of active studio monitors for use in a 2.0 stereo setup. I would use them exclusively through the iMac, so I am not worried about multiple input sources. They would mostly be used for listening to music of all genres, including bass heavy dance, electro and trance. I have a separate 5.1 setup for films on the main plasma, so movie watching is unlikely to use the iMac. I do not produce any music, but enjoy listening to others work.

I was looking at the Mackie MR6 and MR8 Mk3 speakers and think I could accommodate the MR8 speakers on my desk. However, do you think I would be better off with the smaller MR6 monitors with a 6.5" rather than 8.75" woofer in a medium sized, untreated room? They will be going in the middle of a room that is 14 foot long x 9 foot wide and 8 foot 3 inches high. They would be on my desk, on short stands to bring the tweeter to ear level.

Is there anything else that I should be considering at this price point?
 
My first inclination was to recommend the Mackie MR series.

They are close to £150 each, but frequently if you buy them in pairs you get get both for about £250.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=...products-cc..0.12.1087.uJZmwY8XAtc&gws_rd=ssl

In a very basic compact USB DAC, the Audioquest Dragonfly rates pretty highly, though new DACs are coming out all the time.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=...1.products-cc..2.9.787.WySJUpyHiUc&gws_rd=ssl

You should be able to get both for very close to your stated budget.

I auditioned the Mackie MR5 and was very impressed. They had the clarity of the Yamaha, and the bass of the KRK Rokit 5, but the bass was much clearer with less drone.

The Mackie MR6 go 10hz lower than the MR5, that would be 47hz vs 56hz. I would expect the MR8 to be very large (15.8" H x 10.9" W x 13.2" D), but the bass does go down to 38hz. However, the price also rises considerably -

https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=...products-cc..0.10.1019.c0DS-0Ush-M&gws_rd=ssl

Pushing a pair up to from £350 to +£400 depending on the source.

But that's your choice.

I think if you search the model number on YouTube, you can find some videos that will give you a sense of the actual size.

Steve/bluewizard
 
Have a look at Adam Audio speakers, they have a ribbon tweeter and offer superb value. In terms of DACs given you only need the one input and have a limited budget (and upgrading DACs isn't the best performance to price ratio) I'd suggest having a look at the dinky Fiio DACS, I think the one I'm thinking of is called the D3, it is matchbox size and about £30.
 
Depending on your viewpoint and the quality of your current playback equipment, you may be able to glean something useful from having a listen to the speaker demo's on this website. Several active monitors in your price range here:
Studio Monitoring - Resource Center
If your current internet-connected playback equipment uses the iMac's built-in speakers then my suggestion is probably a waste of time.

IME, an 8" bass/mid ported or ABR speaker in a room your size is a bit too large, even when used away from walls as you intend. I'd go for a 6" - 6.5" in that room unless you would consider room treatments. I'm trying to visualise the 8" Mackies on a desk?!? No, I can't. That said, some will enjoy the bass heavy sound that would likely result.

Very few mid-range active studio monitors have in-built DAC's. Strangely, the cheaper powered passive 'monitors' sometimes have in-built DAC's and some of the more expensive true actives also. I'd second bluedroog's suggestion of the FiiO D3, if you can still find one because they produced a couple of more recent variants. You would use the FiiO's optical input with the iMac. I use the FiiO D3 and it sounds excellent although in the interests of balance, some examples have suffered reliability issues. Alternatively, consider the equally sonically excellent Epiphany (USB only) ODAC at around £90 - also one I use with active monitor speakers. Bluedroog is right about performance vs. price when it comes to DAC's - the reputable cheapies sound so good that you'd need to spend a lot, lot more to significantly improve on their sonic performance, and even then, I suspect no great improvement. Some on this forum are using the really cheap Behringer UCA202 and report very good audio quality.

I'd second your suggestion, and BlueWizard's, of Mackie active monitors and also consider the new JBL and Yamaha speakers in the same price range. The new, budget Adam F5 is within budget and the F7 just over - both seem to be getting good reviews. Focal also have a budget 'Alpha' range and the Alpha 65 is only a touch over budget - haven't heard anything about the Alpha range though.
 
M-Audio BX8 just sound stunning and huge! They are a physically large speakers with excellent response and a degree of tuning via basic eq on the back of the speaker. Easy connection via a phono input as well.

I use a pair at work and find the end results excellent and translating well into domestic listening post mix.
 
M-Audio BX8 just sound stunning and huge! They are a physically large speakers with excellent response and a degree of tuning via basic eq on the back of the speaker. Easy connection via a phono input as well.

I use a pair at work and find the end results excellent and translating well into domestic listening post mix.

Is that the 'D2' or the new 'Carbon' version? Not many D2's for sale in the UK now but they were being sold off a few months ago at really low prices (end of line, I guess, to make way for the 'Carbon'?) and looked like exceptional value.
 
Thank you for the all of the replies so far, they have been very helpful.

What's the difference between ribbon and silk dome tweeters? I've looked at the frequency response on the Adam F7 compared to the Mackie MR6 and it suggests the ribbon tweeter can go up to 50 kHz, compared to 20 kHz with the silk dome tweeter. I can't hear 21/22 - 50 kHz.

I agree that although the desk is just about large enough to accommodate Mackie MR8's, the untreated room is probably not. I'm tempted to go 2.1 with a pair of Mackie MR6 studio monitors on the desk and an MR10 sub under, where Mackie recommends a 46 Hz crossover. I an 8" woofer won't be best at reproducing mids?

Also, are there any ODACs with balanced TRS outs for each channel instead of RCA?
 
'I've looked at the frequency response on the Adam F7 compared to the Mackie MR6 and it suggests the ribbon tweeter can go up to 50 kHz, compared to 20 kHz with the silk dome tweeter. I can't hear 21/22 - 50 kHz.'

Quite right. Hearing loss sets in much earlier than most of us realise and usually affects midrange as well as higher frequencies - but I guess, to a large extent, the brain compensates so it's not particularly noticeable for the individual. I should have suffered considerable hearing loss by now but it really isn't obvious and I can still fully enjoy playback of recorded audio. I think this 'brain compensation' effect explains why many old folk with poor hearing refuse to believe it - things still sound the same to them (it's others than tend to notice).
http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~hill/papers/conc/images/presbycusis.jpg

There are some folk who believe objective measurement completely defines/explains the sound we hear from playback equipment but I suspect most of us are a little sceptical of that view. I've heard different tweeters that have had, more or less, the same frequency response and they've sounded different to my old and not particularly refined ears so frequency response alone doesn't tell the full story, IME. Much more important is how they sound (subjectively) to you, even though there are occasions when our ears aren't the most consistent 'instrument'. The ribbon tweeter as used in most (all?) Adam speakers is acknowledged to be a detailed, accurate performer - one of the very best - but other tweeter types can sound great too.

Lot's of info on the physical and audible differences between tweeter types on the Internet so I won't go there. You'll read lots of stuff about how one type has certain audible properties the others lack but it's far safer to take things on a case-by-case basis, eg. blindfolded, I bet many would think the Focal inverted dome tweeter was a ribbon.

'...an 8" woofer won't be best at reproducing mids?'
Often true but not always so, particularly where active speakers are concerned because steep crossover slopes can (and often are) used whereas in passive speakers, slopes above 18dB/octave are uncommon for several reasons. Steeper crossover slopes means the tweeter can be crossed over at a lower than normal frequency thus preventing a larger bass/mid driver from working into the unruly part of it's upper range. These two examples of two-way systems with 8" bass/mid drivers are considered to have excellent midrange:
Acoustic Energy AE22
Event Opal

I'm sure there are many more examples too.

'Also, are there any ODACs with balanced TRS outs for each channel instead of RCA?'
Yes, there are DAC's with balanced outputs (usually XLR connections rather than TRS) but they're considerably more expensive than the cheapies.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom