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Active studio monitors anyone?

Due to the unavailability of a full size Man Room and a sub par Living Room area I have started to seriously consider Active Studio Monitors as my listening room will be in a converted Office that are so prevalent in the newer Suburban House Floorplan.  There seems to be MANY benefits in going active monitors set up in the near field to mid field. Active DSP, No passive crossovers, Plenty of room acoustic adjustments, some with onboard DACS, Some full digital domain till it reaches the drivers, Near full range And ruler flat responses. I have narrowed it down to a few that fit my needs and would greatly reduce the boxes and expense. A good streamer, optional DAC and Pre with active monitors would be the whole kit.

One Im looking at are APS Klasik which will be coming out with a HiFi model of the Klasik Studio Monitor differing by a vinyl or wood wrap of your choice, stand by power on/off, and Grill covers. This is highly regarded for Mixing and MAstering it also looks more like a hifi speaker than a monitor.

Nubert Nupro A300 which look great and is fully digital to the drivers so a high end streamer and the speakers would be the whole system. 

A few from Focal and Dynaudio 

Presonus Sceptre s8 has a great DSP and a Coaxial.

These are just the highly regarded less than 2K offerings and many like the EVENT OPAL, Focal Trio, neumans, ATC and Geithain would be something to look at on the high end if it really works out and even those would be bargains considering how much you would be saving in amps, high end cables, ect.
128x128dcfis
erik_squires
16,122 posts
 
Technically, yes, powered carefully matched monitors can have some benefits.

BUT, the devil is int he implementation. And in the room acoustics. :)

Another cost saving is to go with a very good kit or custom speaker maker. You can get outstanding speakers from Selah or Taylor audio fully built, or just the cabinets and make out like a freaking bandit in terms of quality and value.

Taylor's new line of small affordable monitors are a great bargain. I haven't heard them, but he has a great ear, and I have heard a lot of the components hes putting together.

Best,


Erik
dcfis's avatar
dcfis OP
8 posts
 
Agree and the approach I have taken in the past. Still you need Amps, Dacs, cables and the whole stack of boxes plus you still have limited or no control over room acoustics and implementation. 
erik_squires
16,122 posts
 
Oh, so that's a good question. Do you have control over room acoustics or not? That makes a big difference.

No acoustics = limited dispersion speakers.

Well, I don't do the crazy cable thing anymore, what expensive cablesr are in my interconnects. I use pure silver conductors and connectors I make myself.

My amps are tiny ICEPower 250 based monoblocks. A good 125W/CH stereo unit is even smaller.

Best,


Erik
dcfis's avatar
dcfis OP
8 posts
 
some would be total control, some will be focused dispersion, all will have woofer/tweeter control adjustments and shelf filters ect. Remember the specification is for a small converted office. This situation is different than a farfield setup. 
chrisr's avatar
chrisr
543 posts
 
I have done in back 10 years ago, in a 12x11 room acoustically treated.  I chose dynaudio bm5 for monitors preamplified by an adcom 710.  Before I must have had all sorts, martin logan aerius I,  bw cdm9nt, magnepan mg 12 and mmgs, diy 2-way bookshelves and what have u.   I found them good at low volumes, but limited in output and dynamics with demanding material.  I felt they were underpowered to serve as mid-field speakers.  I went back to separates after a year.
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