what are your home monitors / speakers?

[hollywood_steve]

My KLH model 102s have died again and its just not worth repairing them anymore. I bought them new in 1974 for $200 for the pair and I've spent about that much having the foam surrounds replaced after they disintegrated and other little repairs. Now one of the woofahs is shot and I'd rather put the money towards something new. (if these things had any redeeming features, like a solid wood cabinet, I'd stick with them, but these were one of the first "decent" models to have pressboard and woodgrain covering instead of real wood).

I'm not into the home theatre scene and I'm not a rich audiophile; I just want a pair of speakers. My big question is whether to grab another pair of small studio monitors, so I can do productive listening at home, or go for a pair of "makes everything sound good" home hifi speakers? What do you guys do at home, particularly the ones who do not have monster theatre setups or megabucks audiphile rigs?

Thanks.

[Gideon]

I'm not sure what your budget is, but I love the B&W 805's. I bought them a few years ago and don't remember exactly how much they were, but I think somewhere around sixteen-hundred USD for the pair.

B&W Nautilus 805

I'm not into the audiophile thing either (I'd rather put the money into recording music) but bought these when I needed to check a project on my home system and only had studio monitors. I took a CD of the project I was working on, as well as Dark Side of the Moon and a recording of Rastrapovich and Richter to the stereo store, listened to several pairs of speakers and liked these the best.

If you are looking for small monitors, I like the ADAMs P-11's.

[joeq]

Steve-

I am in the same boat as you. In fact , the speakers I want to replace are also ancient KLH's (model 6 with no-name replacement tweeters)

I have been leaning towards some kind of "real world" speaker in the sense of going to Circuit City or Best Buy and buying whatever the hell everybody else is buying. Then I could use it as a reference in the way I go and sit in the car to listen as a reference.


I really would like to find something that bridges the gap. That is, a home stereo speaker that doesn't cost a huge amount and also doesn't suck.

[2leod]

My home system is a pair of old Celestion DL8's I've had for years running through an NAD amp. I'm always bugged by those home systems with the hyped bottom end like the Technics towers my folks have, but they're old and don't hear so good anymore (my folks that is) - so I smile and tell my Dad they sound good when he asks. I guess what I'm getting at is how much will you expect of your home setup? If you're not quite happy with how they sound are you the kind of guy who will always be trying to tweak and EQ, never getting there or will you be just casually listening to them?. I'm happy with what I got but when I check a mix on them I am mostly hearing the room, more overall impressions than critical listening.

[Oldone]

Well at $1200 I would pop for the Event Precision 8s. At around $800 the Event Precision 6s. The Events are the Electronic Musician Mag Editors pick of 2005.

The recent monitor shootout in EQ or SOS, can't remember now, gave it to the Yamaha and MAudio BX5 monitors for detail and clarity and the KRKs for doing rock and rool. These are in the under $500 range.

[hollywood_steve]

I'm moving away from any serious investment as the rest of the system doesn't warrant serious speakers. (sansui integrated amp, kenwood tuner, AR XB turntable, sony CD) Instead I'm leaning towards a used pair of the least expensive Tannoy monitors (System 8, Reveals, ?). The only more expensive alternative that I'm giving semi-serious consideration would be a pair of Altec 604s, one of the least collective variations, like a "G" or "H" model. Although they would be overkill for my listening room, I've always wanted a pair and I'd be buying for the future.

Coming home to the Tannoys would be very familiar after a long day at the studio. But the Altecs might finally get me off my ass and busy building that low power tube amp that I've been threatening to build for a dozen years. Decisions....

[audiothings]

when at home i try to detatch myself from recording quality and focus on the music. for this reason, i'd prefer a pair of "forgiving" hi-fi speakers.

please consider the kef q1, a really good speaker for the money. also the epos els-3 is a highly rated hi-fi speaker for pocket change. i've also seen some great deals on ebay, people get rid of some really fine old speakers for criminally low $.

you might also want to consider crossoverless speakers like these by omega. very interesting.

i find big speakers and loud volumes to be very stressful to listen to at home. love my tiny klh/garrand suitcase turntable+speakers combo. instant retro and a very peaceful sound (prolly a 5 Khz bandwidth, but suits me fine omega

[chetatkinsdiet]

I'm sort of in a spot like this. Even in my studio, I'm sort of an old school guy. I've got UREI amps powering JBL 4310s and a little pair of the 4408s.
My current home system is McIntosh 2205 amp/ C26 pre powering a pair of Yamaha NS1000 speakers.

I'm about to move into a new house and I just don't have the room for these HUGE boxes anymore. They are GREAT speakers but I just can't keep them. The new house is wired for small, bracket mounted speakers in a about 4-5 locations. I'm not really sure what to even look at. I've seen the Orb speakers that don't look too bad, but unfortunately, I can't sample them since they're not sold anywhere near. I also hear good things about the Gallo Micros. But, for the room with the system, I'm hoping I'll have a bit more room as I'd love to get a pair of the little Maggies. MPM I believe is the name....someone?....
If you go to the Magnepan website, you can see them. They only are sold there for $550 a pair. I'd imagine a pair of those and a decent sub and you'd have a great, great, setup.

By the way....anyone here looking for an amazing set of big studio monitors or home speakers....Yamaha NS-1000?????

Later,
m

[Phil Cibley]

Tannoy PBM 6.5s powered by a
Scott 299B here. Nice sounding combination to my ears. For the times I'm too lazy to turn the rack with the 299 on, I run a Scott LT-110 tuner into an Ampex 622 powered monitor.
Phil

[Pohaku]

I just put in a pair of powered NHTPro A-10 monitors in my daughter's room as her first "stereo" (her Christmas present). I run them with an Adcom GTP-500 pre/tuner and a Symetrix 303 unbalanced to balanced converter (they will take an unbalanced in also). CD player is her Sony Discman (soon to be replaced by a fixed unit of some sort). Everything picked up off of E-bay (except the discman) or used off the internet for @$650 or so. I have the same monitors in my home studio, but with a NHT S-00 sub. While these are discontinued monitors, they are reasonably available and IMHO a bargain for the price. Owner's manual is vailable here:

http://www.nhthifi.com/scripts/nhtte...ted=1061846664



Sounds quite nice in smaller rooms.

[adam_w]

KEF Q5's and a myriad amp for home use. Sounds lovely !

I used to have some b&w home speakers ( 60somethings), and they were really nice - and affordable, too. I even mixed an album on them once ! There are some good second hand bargains about

[fifthcircle]

I have the Paradigm Reference series speakers for my home (actually surround) setup. I've been quite happy with them and they were pretty inexpensive- I think I paid about $700 for the pair of Reference 20's. The Studio series is also quite good and about half the price.

When I was shopping a few years back, I tested systems with acoustic music and found that these were by far the best bang for the buck. Since it sounds good with the full orchestra, it sounds good for the rock stuff, too...

--Ben

[Pohaku]

I like the Paradigms also. I have a pair of the Active Reference 40s in my living room and am quite please with them. I also notice that they apparently can be found at a substantial markdown for discontinued or demo models. I bought mine new for about half off through my local retailer which had a pair that were originally shipped to a stereo shop in Des Moines (I'm in Minneapolis). I think the non-powered Reference series is quite nice too.

[toolskid]

ns10s....

[adam_w]

yeah, we've got some NS10's in the bedroom. Under the bloody bed, as the closet is full ! ;-)
Surely you wouldn't want to listen to music on those white coned devils, toolskid ?!!

[toolskid]

home monitors= home studio monitors no?

if you are talking for my hi-fi, I got a single auratone stuffed behind the potplants for that ambient cafe vibe

[Dave Martin]

I'm a bit embarrassed to say that my home stereo consists of Sony components and a pair of ancient Radio Shack Minimus 7's. I usd to have Tannoy 6.5's, but those needed to be used elsewhere. But the Minimus 7's are suprisingly good...

[JTR]

Originally posted by Dave Martin
But the Minimus 7's are suprisingly good...

The choice of quality restaurants worldwide

wish I still had mine hooked up to the 4B

[slo19xxl]

I have 3 pairs of speakers in my combination of "listening room" and MIDI pre-production studio:
Yamaha NS 10M "studio" (anybody without?)
BEHRINGER B2031 "TRUTH" (some tendency to sound "BIG" but not true)
and my beloved TANNOY NFM8, powered by SONY TA-N 80 power amp, my favourite, but sometimes hard to work on a mix for long time, because you can hear many "mistakes" too hard to correct, but soon (when I collect the money) will be replaced with ADAM 3A, which for me are the BEST speakers in this category...(Kinoshita's not included, for obvious reasons).
I think that room is MUCH BIGGER problem than ANY speakers, mine have 110hz resonating, don't know how to correct it (540X470X320cms, don't know in "feets") but "overloaded" with equipment such as keyboards, samplers, synths, modules, and 48 ch SOUNDCRAFT...
Any Suggestion? - thanks...

[paterno]

Originally posted by hollywood_steve


I'm not into the home theatre scene and I'm not a rich audiophile; I just want a pair of speakers. My big question is whether to grab another pair of small studio monitors, so I can do productive listening at home, or go for a pair of "makes everything sound good" home hifi speakers? What do you guys do at home, particularly the ones who do not have monster theatre setups or megabucks audiphile rigs?

Thanks.

I happened to put up my Dynaudio Bm6's a few years ago because I was not happy with my 'fancy speakers' and wanted to check out something else. I was not finding much use for the Dyn's in the studio so I threw them up on some stands. Low and behold, they sound great for home listening [I have had them in two different living rooms so far], and I get a lot of my music friends commenting on how good my stereo sounds. I don't have anything fancy component-wise either. i spend too much on the audio gear...

If I were to look at something new, I would definitely look at the NHT stuff. I have been happy with their pro stuff, and a friend has a set of the consumer speakers and they sound great. NHT hifi

Happy hunting...

-john

[Black Seal]

Hey all,
I use a pair of Paradigm studio 40's v3 for final listening to my mixes. If my mix sounds good on these then usually it translates well to others. I power these with an old NAD monitor series pre/power amp with a newer NAD cd player. Works well.
Black Seal