monitors

[682]

was looking for a pair of powered small monitors for DAW work but also for guitar practice thru an fx box.
Small and reasonable...is there anything like that for 500$ a pair or less??

 

[TalismanRich]

How small do you want, and how loud do you want to go?

JBL 305s, KRK RP5 or RP7 will all run you less that $400.


JBL 308 will be $500 a pair, and give you a bit more volume and low end. Adam TV7s, Tannoy 802 Reveals, M-Audio BX8s will be similar prices. You won't be getting very loud for your guitar practicing, but they work fine for DAW work. Your guitar may or may not sound realistic depending on your Fx box (Strymon Iridium, Line 6, AxeFx or Kemper?)

 

[682]

Zoom G1. it sounds very good DI... would I have to add amp watts for that??that's why I wanted powered speakers..
the Adams are interesting from reviews...

 

[TalismanRich]

All of the above are considered nearfield monitors, that is, they are designed to be used in a close-in situation, often a triangular setup with the speakers about 3 to 6 feet from the listener. They are all powered monitors, so you can't "add amp watts" like you would with normal home stereo speakers. The power level is somewhat determined by the SPL you want at the normal distance.

Compare this to the typical home stereo setup where the speakers will be 10=12 ft from the listener and usually something like 6-8 ft apart.

Usually the smaller the driver, the closer you tend to be to the monitor. For a 4 or 5" driver, 3-4' would be typical. For 8" drivers, 6' would be more typical. THis might be an issue if you try to sit 3ft from your monitors and play your guitar.

I don't know if I would try plugging the G1 into the monitors to practice your guitar. Too much of a temptation to "crank things" and damage something. Remember, having 50 or 75 watts into a monitor won't be the same as using a guitar amp. Even a lowly 15 watt Princeton Reverb will get really loud because they tend to have speakers that will put out 95-100 dB with a single watt of power. A JBL 305 has a maximum peak of 108dB with a 40watt amp.

 

[ecc83]

"I don't know if I would try plugging the G1 into the monitors to practice your guitar. Too much of a temptation to "crank things" and damage something. Remember, having 50 or 75 watts into a monitor won't be the same as using a guitar amp. Even a lowly 15 watt Princeton Reverb will get really loud because they tend to have speakers that will put out 95-100 dB with a single watt of power. A JBL 305 has a maximum peak of 108dB with a 40watt amp."

Whilst that is all true Rich, it raises a 'moral' marketing question to me? IF a speaker manufacturer is going to call a set of drivers and a pair of amplifiers in a box "monitors" then had better, to my mind have the protection circuits in them such that people DON'T bugger them with guitar or worse bass signals.

It is a fact that even at $5000 a pair monitors would not be able to reproduce the sound level of an AC30 at full chat but they must be capable of survival if someone tries!

Of course, at sub $300 prices we cannot expect very sophisticated protection but if they are being called monitors there should be some.

All this actually ties in with something ALL home recordists should do. Calibrate your speakers. A 'C' weighted sound level meter can be had for $20 and will be fine for the job. Or use a phone app, you can calibrate that such that a very quiet room where you can barely hear anything will run about 30dBC.

Dave.