suggestions of monitor speakers

S

stevem5000

New member
I've posted a couple times here...so not "quite" a "newbie"....but pretty darn close...

Setting up a workshop to convert old R2R, cassette tapes, LP's etc to digital...
As well as general listening...R2R, LP's etc...

Need speakers to do a good listen...

But I would like dual capability...speakers for what I'm doing on the computer...
And speakers for connecting up to my reciever...

I can use powered speakers for monitoring thru my computer...

BUT can I use powered speakers for my '70'a era Onkyo reciever...???
I can set up a speaker switch to switch between the reciever and the computer...

Should I look for vintage speakers...re-coneing if necessary...???
Might be a little better for listening to the '70's "sound"...

Or should I go for new speakers...???
Take advantage of newer materials, probably better speaker construction etc...

This would be bookshelf speakers...Budget is about $400...
Any suggestions...???
 
Hi Steve,
I would certainly go for new speakers. The question I would raise is, do you want/need "studio monitors"?

If your intended use is for pleasure listening and digitizing tape etc you do not IMHO need anything "razor sharp analytical" unless of course you intend to make some serious changes to the material?

Why pay for actives when you have a decent hi-fi amp in the Onkyo? So long as it kicks out around 50W per channel it should be all you need. This assumes of course that you want modest listening levels and do not intend to take the putty out of the windows with the bass! Deep and Loud costs big time.

Do you have an audio interface at the moment? If not can I suggest a PCI card? None better at the price than the M-Audio 2496. This is handily equipped with RCA conns so will interface readily with the receiver which then forms the monitor control centre for your PC music system...Did you mention vinyl duping? If so the pickup amplifier is right there!

Dave.
 
You're not saying exactly how you would be doing the conversions on your computer. I assume you're using a certain software that is simply going to convert whatever analog signal you feed into it.........to a digital format...........wav......MP3 etc. All in all......if that's all you need to do and you're not looking to alter the original sound in any serious way........then you really don't need "monitors". You're just going to play all your old stuff and convert it as you go. You probably don't even need to hear it as it's being converted. Once the music is in it's final form (mp3...etc) you'll dump it from your pc to the digital device you'll play it on. At that point the only thing you may want to do is to do some gain adjustments (there's free software to do that) to make your files more even volume wise. Then.........if you like the receiver / system you use now.........go ahead and output that device to your system if your digital device has a "line out" on it. If......like many......your digital player has only a headphone output........then your old system may not be able to accommodate that sort of input. So........in the end.........you're really just going to be looking for powered speakers designed for exactly those devices. There's only about a billion of those types of speakers out there. That's where you'll want to make your investment. Just my 2 cents.
 
Since you don't seem to have any speakers for the Onkyo right now - are you sure it's still useable? a 40-year-old receiver may have some components that are past their prime and not give you good sound at all.
 
Wow...Questions I didn't even think of...
One at a time...

arcaxis...
My Onkyo receiver has 2 sets of tape outs...Never thought of trying powered speakers to the tape out...sounds reasonable...
Going thru Guitar Center, I've found a couple of powered speakers that sound real nice to my ears...
Problem is, I don't want to get speakers on line...gotta hear them first so that leaves me pretty much
with what I can find at local stores...Best Buy and a few upscale audio shops...


2.5k Gold Member...
I do have the M-audio 2496...not installed yet...but soon...I'm building a PC just for this task...
I'm an IT proff and I build a LOT of computers and I have a LOT of parts on hand...so this is the easiest part of the project...
Vinyl duping will be happening...I got a "preamp"...I guess you call it...moved up to a high output moving coil cartridge...
I have a soft spot for Klipsch and JBL...back in the late '60's early 70's I had a pair of what were called JBL Studio Monitors...
A 12" and a 3 or 5" I don't recall...and I don't remember the model...but they were F I N E sounding speakers...!!!
Got rid of them in the mid-80's sometime...cabs were in bad shape...I carted them all over the place for one reason or another...
Oh....to be a kid again...!!!

mikster...
Been using Audacity working on a R2R project...worked out fine...did everything in WAV format...

Maybe a little more explanation of what I'm doing will be helpful...

Last year I went to a music gig of a local band...been around for 35 years...very will known...BUT it was the first time I heard them...
Concert's done...I'm looking around for CD's to buy....nada...so I'm talking with my buddy and he tells me that he recorded them live
back in 1980...What...????....I didn't know you were tapehead...???....
So I started thinking if I could digitize this tape...

Next week he brought his R2R deck over, nice Panasonic 10"...I hooked it up to my audio card...downloaded Audacity and started in...
My buddy happened to know the folks in the band...he introduced me to the 2 guys that head up the band...told them what I was doing...
And in a few weeks I had a full CD with liner notes that I created ....Geyer Street Sheiks LIVE at Mike & Min's...
They guys were blown away...Then I found out that they had produce a couple CD's over the years that never sold...I found one used
at a Salvation Army store...and I found the files for the other one on a file server in Cyprus....I googled everywhere and after a couple
weeks I found the CD art for the 2ed CD...at a resolution high enough so that Photoshop got it back to the original look...

They didn't have any copies of those CD's any more and thought they were gone...for good...In essence I "brought them back to life"...
Then they found another single CD they had made...not in very good shape...and I copied and did orginal art work etc...
So now the band has 4 CD's when before they had none...

So then they got a concert coming up...they asked me to produce a couple hundred...so I set up a PC, installed 4 DVD burners and found software to
burn 4 CD's at the same time...I bought 2 Canon printers that print directly to CD's...and I sat in my office for hours and hours making CD's and
printing on them...The sold out every single CD I made for them...It was GREAT...!!!

So now...I'm getting calls from musicians that have cassette's, DAT, LP's, R2R...stuff they recorded some time ago with the notion of putting out
an album nor a CD...but it never happened...

So...I am setting up a "analog to CD" workshop...and I have 2 old LP's to convert and 3 - 10" R2R tapes...and about 50 cassette's that they want me to go
thru and digitize...

I had NO idea what I was getting into...

Any way...that is the background for my questions...

mjbphotos...
Yep... Onkyo works perfect...picked it up a couple months ago...I have 2 sets of Klipsch in the wall speakers in kitchen and living room...and another set on the patio...
I'm not sure yet how I'm going to hook everything up yet...I want to be able to monitor thru my PC when I'm converting in Audacity...and run audio thru the Onkyo in the workroom
when I finish setting it up...

I'm just not sure exactly what I want to do or how to do it...so I'm reaching out hoping to gather enough info to make this work...


BTW...I'm also looking for some software to take clicks etc out of LP's when I'm digitizing...
Any thoughts appreciated...

Sorry for the length...hope it helps...
Steve
 
Morning Steve,
There are several ways to skin this particular moggy but first to take some of you points in order...

Tape out from the Onlkyo to drive active monitors. Yes, will work (with caveats) but surely you will need to drive monitors from the 2496 sound card?

You say you have a phono pre amp for a moving COIL pickup? If so I would guess that is on a pretty nice t/table arm assembly and you might consider another phone deck of more "agricultural" quality for the playing of really damaged discs? You might even get into duping old 78s? The Onkyo will surely have its own RIAA phono inputs. The pre amp could fees an AUX input.

Audacity, especially since you are now familiar with it, will serve you very well. It even has a de-clicker in it! Open a file then go> Effects and a drop down menu gives you vast choice including noise and click removal. You might like to download the trials of the two Sony Soundforge programs. Both have a vinyl restorer but the Pro version is naturally better. It is pricey but if you are making money at this? ???*

Is the receiver sited quite close to the PC? If so it might make sense to use it with passive monitors, you just need a DPDT switch to isolate the speaker outs from the rest of the house while you work.

You will need some form of monitor control on the 2496 outs and a tidy means of collecting up and routing the various sources. This means a small mixer to me. The Behringer Xenyx 802 has served me very well for 4 years (it is still doing sterling duty amping up the birds in my garden!) I now use an Allen &Heath ZED10. There are shedloads of other brands, Yamaha, Mackie, Phonic. These circa $100 mixers tend to be frowned upon by the audio cognoscenti but in truth they are very good and miles/klicks better than the specc' of your intended sources! You can of course go upmarket...Soundcraft, A&H.

Ok, enough from me on just one cup of coffee! Can do diagrams if needed Steve.

*Err? Jus fort. Of course you are not! THAT would get you mired in all sorts of copyright legalities!

Dave.
 
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