Hey everyone,

I am looking to purchase some nice speakers that will site on stands on either side of my piano. This is for personal use and playing for friends and family. The room where my equipment is setup (aka the studio, but not a sound proof room and anything) is not big, approx. 12' x 9.5'

I have nice vst sounds and want to get the most out of them.

what size speakers should i be looking at? Brands? Models? Looking for some recommendations for powered speakers, I don't have a set price point as I am pretty open to just about anything.

Thanks in advance!

 

Neumann KH120s. Not cheap, but top-notch imho in the small (5.25") speaker class:

https://en-de.neumann.com/kh-120-a-g

 

If it matter I live in Canada, so I am not sure what is exactly available here.

 

Would 5" be what I should go for? is a 6" or 7" or 8" still worth looking into? or are those simple getting too big?

 

With your room size I'd advise you to not to go above 6" driver monitors.

For your purpose I'd recommend you to get either one of these: JBL 306P or ADAM AUDIO T5V. I have had both of them. You can't go wrong with either one as they are the absolute bang for the buck.

 

thanks for the advice. I tend to agree that going to big is probably not a smart move with my small room. I like the idea of 6"

I am reading about how the monitors should be on stands and pointed to your head and kept close. How will these sounds for another person in the room? are they only good are a very specific range? I mean the room imo is tiny and I would think that 2 speakers should have no problem filling out the room with great sound. Since I have never had anything like this before I am trying to be smart with my purchase.

Advice on stands?

 

Seriously a bit confused.. Why monitors for (small) PA? Isn't that a different story?

..indeed.

Don't get me wrong. If you have a spare pair of monitors (that you e.g. replaced with new ones), they will do a decent job. I had garden piano impro/DJ parties with my old monitors.. but buying new ones instead of dedicated PA sys..?

Also, what type of 'piano' do you have? Is the aesthetics of your 'setup' a factor? Sorry if these are stupid Q..

 

DEFINITELY get Stands.

To answer your remaining questions, these monitors take care of all your concerns without a doubt. JBL in particular have the best waveguide at this price point. They produce such a soundstage that no matter where you are in the room, it sounds so consistent.

Filling out room you say?? These will fucking bend your room and take it from behind. Blasted my 1st gen jbl lsr305 in a large hall (at a party) and boy did they deliver. So you can imagine what 306p (2nd gen and larger driver) would be capable of?

Also, if money is not a constraint then get an audio interface (just like Stands) to get the best out of your speakers. Cheers!

 

I have a scarlet 2i2 audio interface. I use addictive keys for my cat and FL studio for recording.

I guess I am still a little unsure if studio monitors are really what I am after vs a traditional stereo speakers.

I am also a little worried about this hiss thing I keep reading about ...

 

I should state that I am not interested in engineering sounds in great detail or anything of that sort. I simple use some standard car sounds and tweak them a bit and play/record. I want my music to sound great while playing and listening back.

I am still unsure if the monitors are the right way to go vs some nice speakers.

My piano has built in speakers but I have no way of getting the audio from my daw/computer back to them so I need to output from my audio interface to some kind of nice speakers. That's my goal. I use my cat live as I reduce latency to pretty much nothing.

 

It depends of how loud you want to listen to your music.
Take in account that smaller speakers needs more power to produce bass sounds.
So if you are going to listen at "normal' levels for humans and want hear the lower frequencies, avoid small speakers.
Chose from 8" minimum.

 

depends on how far you want them to stand,
Tannoy Gold coaxial series would be versatile pick,
or even better, Kali Audio IN-8 (which I have) but only if you'll have them about 2m away from you,
and at very high budget, Genelec 8351 will provide great true sound

 

So should I be looking at a hifi setup with passive speakers and amp or powdered studio monitors.

Since I am not mix and just simply looking to listen to my instrument I am tending to lean towards a hifi system.

Thoughts?

 

Just thoughts.. while I can agree with everything stated above (8"+ for good bass on lower volume etc.) sound-wise, do yourself a favor - draw a floor plan (or better a 3D visual) of your situation. You have very limited space to put 8" (~12x12x18) boxes+stands on your sides. And if my unit converter is of any use, no one in the room will be 2 m away from those..

hifi setup - again IMO - brings nothing good to the table (more cables & stuff), I would have a look at 1x sub + 2x satellite systems. I don't have enough experience with these to give any further advice (HK, Bose usual suspects). Just throwing an idea in..

 

That's fairly accurate description. Probably at most 8 feet away from the speaker but myself only being a little more than arm's length.

So are you suggesting speakers similar to that used to tv or computer? Can you like any examples? Could those hook up to my audio interface?

 

I don't want to give you an uninformed opinion, but since no one is really complaining about what I said, I'll point out some issues that I see and speculate on possible solutions (I deal with architectural design in real life, but the final tech should be discussed with an expert)

Try to imagine everything in three dimensions (people tend to forget about height - sound does not..;). The suggested monitors are great (I know the guys above know what they are talking about) OTOH, your space and the way you will use the equipment are super important factors. If you position your piano and 8"+ monitors like you said and the right height (about elbows when standing), you'll have a hard time walking around the instrument without bouncing against those.

Even if we forget about this annoyance, the monitors will be pointing where? Towards the 'public'? In this case your 'monitoring' will be terrible. Will you practice piano in this room? In this case the monitors will be oriented the 'wrong way' 98% of the time.

I don't like the typical TV sound systems, although they may work. I'd rather choose self-powered speakers (like sub+2 sat.). Don't forget you can have the smaller speakers wall mounted or even suspended, thus out of sight. The position of the sub AFAIK doesn't matter.

Here are some examples. I don't have a precise idea about pros or cons among them (we built some Bose systems, but not recently). You should get more info before deciding ..and our experts will surely tell if I am way off..;)

HK Audio Lucas Nano 608i
1x Active 10" subwoofer with 2x 4.5" satellites



Bose L1 Compact PA System

 

For instruments or live sound reinforcement, I have found Mackie products to be the best value. I play my Nord through Mackie Thumps, and they handle everything very well. I have always been a JBL guy, but their products are a little more money.

 

The Bose L1 looks interesting.

Would I just use my headphones jack coming out of my audio interface to hook up? Or will it accept TRS cable for left and right?

How would I hook up to the first system using my audio interface? My AI only has one headphone jack and 2 TRS outputs

 

use the headphone jack. 1/8inch stereo to left and right XLR or 1/4inch TS- https://www.amazon.com/TRS-Dual-Stereo-Audio-Cable/dp/B0795VR79W or two1/4 inch TRS balanced to XLR for the other outputs.

 

Just to be clear - Bose L1 Compact is not a 'stereo thing' (like a piano and most instruments are not). It's an array (cluster of speakers) as in any club, venue, stadium.. it is more similar to something mono (that's why sound engineers look for mono compatibility in every mix), but it disperses the sound around.

It has built in amplifier, so yes - you can just connect your soundcard to it (if you want, from your phono jack as it has a 3.5 mm stereo input). It also features a mixer so you can connect a microphone by means of XLR.

Here are all the specs:
https://www.bose.co.uk/en_gb/products/speakers/portable_pa_speakers/l1-compact-system.html