Active Or Passive Monitors?!

[crypticsounds]

First of all I wanna say that I am happy to have found this website as it has answered me a lot of questions I had about my start-up home studio (I won't call it a studio yet!)

My question is what should I buy....Active or Passive monitors??

The reason I ask is because I dont wanna spend more than 200 bucks and I already have a Yamaha 8 channel mixer which I use to hook up my keyboard, Visualiser Pro effector and my Best Buy microphone (effector to Mixer)! Currently I am using my home stereo system as output.

I am wanting to get by using my mixer as a pre amp to power a pair of passive monitors!

Can somebody help me out....will appreciate it!

 

[Imaduck]

Well, yes, preamping with your board is probably a very good idea, that way you can emulate the sound closest to what is being recorded. So really, what you're asking is how to amplify it. If you have home stereo equipment, you could use that, but if your stereo has it's own preamp (ie it's not just a power amp) then it's going to give it's own slight bias to your sound. Now, ignoring the audiophiles, the truth is that pretty much the least amount of tone is generated during amplification, so if you do have a power amp directly connecting into it should be fine. If you have a receiver or similar stereo piece, like I said, it will slighty change your signal. How much depends on the type of equipment and quality. Tube will obviously give you a very different signal than solid state, and even many solid states will give slightly different tone.

Having said all that though, chances are if your home stereo is of decent quality, then it probably won't be too noticable, however, it's best if your receiver has a tone defeat on it, and make sure to keep your EQ flat (tone defeat should nullify this anyway) and to turn of all filters you you hear as close to the exact record sound as possible. Also, if you have more than one home stereo and set of speakers, it's always important to test it out with many, many systems.

Anyway, all of what I just said applies if you go with the passive, obviously. If you wish to go with active speakers, you will pay significantly more, but, you're monitor will be more accurate. How much more? Eh, to tell you the truth, looking at your price range, I'd say you'll end up with much better quality using passives on your stereo, but it'd be nice to know what kind of stereo you have.