Nearfields for audiophile listening?

Discussion in 'Speakers' started by sashafuckinggrey, Feb 27, 2016.

  1. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Wasn't that the same story with Kali and... was it JBL?

    Nah man, go big or go home... :D (might shake the home though)
    https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649668334-danley-th215-dual-15-horn-subwoofer/
     
  2. Paweł Dąbek

    Paweł Dąbek New

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    I have them on my list aswell with Eve SC207/8 and Adam A7x. On gearslutz.com there is one or maybe two topics about Type 07s hiss. Thank you for link, it appears to be a little cheaper than in my country. I will wait few days more, maybe there will be other suggestions too.
     
  3. Pharmaboy

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    BTW, all the powered monitors I've had, had at least a little hiss when you put your ear to the drivers. But with most, you can't hear that hiss at all when 3+ ft away.

    But some powered designs are unfortunately known for too much hiss. I've read many times about his w/the JBL305s, for example. Maybe a problem for nearfield, but probably not for mid/far field listening...
     
  4. robot zombie

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    Bhahah, Those things are on friggin wheels man! That's how you know it's serious :p

    Straight from the pamphlet "compact size, light weight, TRUCK PACK FRIENDLY"

    I want to point an array of them outside of my house and mic them up with a fairly low pass so that when people drive by trying to rattle their plates off, they get flipped off of the road by their own bass. 1400 a pop might get it. Only need maybe 14 of them.
     
  5. robot zombie

    robot zombie Friend

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    The JBLs do have a decent bit of hiss. It's best not to crank them all the way up. No need anyway, they really start breaking up at ~70% with nothing cutting down the input. It's not that nice of a sound, heh. If you're sitting in a close nearfield position that's plenty loud enough to hurt you, and I'm betting enough to cook them one day.

    Most people are gonna use a passive pre-amp anyway. A lot of times you can mitigate this hiss at least a little by simply turning the monitors themselves down. I sit maybe a little under 3ft away and keep my 305's at that 70%. And really, sitting that close in a small room, it's higher than I need to have it. So I figure if you want to sit close and you can really hear that hiss when music is playing, they might be turned up a lot louder than you need. Just leaving volume headroom no sane person could ever use only to bring up the noise and cut down the usable range on the preamp pot.
     
  6. Paweł Dąbek

    Paweł Dąbek New

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    The problem is, this hiss has constant level no matter the gain set on speaker or volume on pre-amp. I have had cheap Edififer R2750 speakers before and they were almost silent. I will probably order one of these three models I mentioned before and compare them to APS. I still have 14 days return window.

    I am only worried that other models will not sound as good as KLASIK 2020, I've read in reviews that they aim higher than their price range in terms of sound quality, but personally I can't tell if this is true as I am not really experienced in studio monitors.
     
  7. robot zombie

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    Now you've got me wondering if mine are picking something up to do that.
     
  8. Pharmaboy

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    I still have my very nice-sounding pair of Swan M200 MKIII's. No hiss at all & the wood sides are oddly attractive. I replaced those in my search for more natural weight in the lower mids/upper bass, the kind that 5.25" mid/woofers aren't able to give (that search ended with the ATC SCM12 Pro's, for sure). If not for that, I'd still use them.

    Judging by pictures I've seen of certain Edifier models, they're either made by the same company, or at least in the same factory in China as the Swans...
     
  9. Paweł Dąbek

    Paweł Dąbek New

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    I have watched interview with Polish representative from Edifier and he indeed said that the factory that Edifier speakers are made in is not exclusive only to them. Like this factory is producing models for more than few different companies.
     
    Last edited: Nov 25, 2020
  10. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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  11. louiscipher

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    Hmm should i opt for an Active speakers then? Considering that i have limited experience on passives and pairing amps with them

    I could go for a Dynaudio BM, Adam or maybe Focal Alpha ( haven't heard the focal ) on the secondhand market if getting passive bookshelf seems too much trouble at this price point
     
  12. Armaegis

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    I have a pair of these: https://yorkville.com/legacy/product/ucs1/
    They don't go as deep as the Danleys, but higher sensitivity and much lighter for what it's worth. Still not something to use in a home though. I did once... literally knocked the plates down in the china cabinet o_O
     
  13. Psalmanazar

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    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
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    Ditch anything with Chinese plate amps. The plate amps all look similar and are all from the same oems. Focal, Adam, and APS make 2000 dollar speakers with good drivers and 10 dollar plate amps that are either defective by design or use bad caps.
     
  14. Priidik

    Priidik MOT: Estelon

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    Preference is what it is, however it would be unwise to disregard better vented designs.
    The key benefit is much-much lower harmonic distortion for same spl with similar woofer size.

    Subjectively good vented sounds more effortless while always slightly farthy, while good closed sounds more precise and coherent in mid-to-high bass, but rubbery (compressed and weak) in sub-to-low bass.

    Both can be somewhat designed to be used against the wall or in the middle of the room.
     
    Last edited: Nov 26, 2020
  15. Paweł Dąbek

    Paweł Dąbek New

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    So which model would you recommend? Do I have to check every model datasheet to see which amp they use?
     
  16. soekris

    soekris MOT - Soekris Engineering

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    I have a set of Focal Alpha 80, they're not too bad, but I want more and found the Neumann KH 310A, which looks perfect, with the 3" dome mid, Class AB amplifers and Switch Mode Power Supply.... Should be good for DAC testing :) And ASR just measured them...
     
  17. Pharmaboy

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    FWIW, my preference for sealed/acoustic suspension designs began in big 2-channel speakers for living room systems. I greatly prefer (subjectively) the sound of bass from sealed/acoustic suspension speakers, though admittedly I haven't chased endgame/megabuck ported speakers.

    I've had ported powered monitors in my desktop system and liked them in many ways, but the bass of these was thoroughly trounced by the sealed/acoustic suspension monitors or speakers tried IMS (bass is tighter, more distinct in timbre and note/pitch definition, and has more "bounce").

    This preference continued into subs. I've heard some ported subs in others' systems. It may simply be that none of them were properly adjusted (no idea). But that bass sounded deep but floppy, boomy, uncontrolled. Not the case at all w/the 3 sealed subs I've had in the office.

    I realize that quality of implementation of the design trumps specific design choices like ported vs sealed. So you may have heard really superb subs that are either larger than I've heard, above my paygrade, or maybe both...
     
  18. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
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    You can just look at the back of the monitor. They all look similar because they come from the same place. You have one of the actives with OEM plate amps that use good drivers. Why not just go passive or save for something active that uses much better plate amps? I know of ATC (their own awesome dual mono power amps are essentially two of their plate amp modules in a hifi rack case) and Quested (used to be owned by MC2... and Harman if you go back far enough). Everything else I've heard is some Chinese plate amp or some crappy gainclone, jokey op amp, or class d thing.
     
  19. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
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    It's all a trade off but there are more bad ported speakers than not in the powered monitor world. Even within the same range, one size can sound fine but okay still have the boom fart portiness, while the other size with a very similar port can have weird parasitics, chuff, and bloom.

    Once you get past low end stuff, most of them are okay but there are a ton of bad active monitors with bad wooly poly woofers crossed over to bad metal tweeters running off wimpy distorted plate amps. The pro audio industry is dead and is based on selling to consumers now for the most part. There are still some manufacturers carrying the flag and a TON of good new boutique stuff but many of the stalwarts and older brands that were publicly traded sold out hard.
     
  20. Paweł Dąbek

    Paweł Dąbek New

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    I think I have to go to the shop and try out every model that I can and maybe I will find something that does not hiss.

    I've read that active are better designed.

    The problem is I have money but I don't feel like spending more than 1400€ for speakers. This is my border that I don't want to cross.

    So there are no studio monitors in this price range that sound good and don't hiss?
     

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