I have a small 2.6m x 2.6m room and am looking for a smaller pair of speakers to use in there.

They will be used to produce techno and tech house music as well as to connect some Pioneer XDJ decks to for practise/pleasure DJing.

I'm think 5" speakers is probably best when comparing size vs performance, but happy to listen to any recommendations, or even smaller speaker. I am also looking for front ported speakers too as they will be placed up against a wall probably due to the size of the room. I do use Audio Technica ATH-M50X and Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro 250 Ohm headphones too when needed, which I anticipate needing to use for low end and sub work.

As its a small room in a basement without natural light, I am also trying to keep the content light and uncluttered, so looking for white cased speakers too ideally.

Also, for budget, the cheaper the better, but willing to pay for reasonable quality, but not looking for recommendations from the costlier tiers of the market.

Any recommendations?

To visual it, here is the room currently bare before being floored, decorated, and set up with my KRK Rokit 8" speakers on stands that I was using as my DJing speakers in a previous bigger room. The phone taking the picture is flat up against the back wall for context, and on the left edge you can see the edge of a window sill for a small window in the back left corner of the room:

 

Last edited: Aug 20, 2024

IK Multimedia iLoud Micro White Edition would be my budget pick based on that.

Wouldn't mind white smaller Neumann's or Genelec's tho.

 

Last edited: Aug 17, 2024

Presonus Eris range are decent for budget

 

Looks like you'll need some acoustic treatment no matter the speakers!

 

Kali IN5 white should meet all criteria.

 

kali lp-unf

 

The ESI speakers are excellent for this circumstances. IMHO. ESI nEar05 probably. Set them up so that you have them both together with your head in a equal-sided triangle.

 

Neumann KH 80

https://www.thomann.co.uk/neumann_k...LCJjdXJyZW5jeSI6NCwibGFuZ3VhZ2UiOjJ9&reload=1

 

12'' cones I'd say is the samllest you want to go.

Techno and tech house music is meant to be played in clubs so only club standard speakers will give you the sound that the rest of the world will hear when they hear the music played.

most the clubs round me have badly positioned 15'' and 12'' speakers, you can't replicate that sound with perfectly placed 5''. No sane person would want to but you'd want the frequency respone to be close.

Go bigger, like portable wedding DJ size and just place them where you can, with the volume right down.
This'll be cheeper and give a more useful sound then expensive perfectly placed studio speakers.

Also don't srew any speker cones direcly to the ceiling.

 

I do like the Neumann KH80. It has 3 cons:
1. It costs 950/pair which takes it probably out of the OP's list.
2. You 'd want to crank it all the way because it's so pleasant in low and medium volume, but oh shit you can't as distortion becomes very apparent.
3. And a minor one, due to the dsp applying a constant linear phase filtering it has a 2ms latency.

So, to me and my budget consciousness, the IK Multimedia iLoud Micro is probably the best pair up to 300.
Cheers

 

Take a look at the Kali LP6 v2's. Inexpensive, pretty "true" with good imaging, and I agree with the other comments regarding 5"'s vs something 'slightly' larger, they have settings for being placed against walls if you have to, and they come in white as you desire....

 

I do like the look and reviews of the iLoud Micro speakers. My only issue is that it only have 3.5mm stereo or stereo RCA inputs.

I would therefore need to connect my Audient ID14 MkII from the TRS per channel into a 3. 5mm stereo, and then use an RCA to RCA for the DJ decks I presume.

Any issues with the 3.5mm or RCA audio quality?

Also, I seen a few people report some hiss/creaking in the case when there is a lot of bass present too.

 

it's not terribly small room to work at, I'd probably go with Kali Audio IN-5, its coaxial 3-way design is unmatched, rivaled only by Genelec 8331 at much higher cost

 

I do like the Kali Audio stuff, but am also wanting to keep the room quite clean and decluttered, so like the idea of small as possible speakers. Decluttered space = decluttered mind and all that!

I have also seen locally a pair of very cheaply priced Pioneer DM-50D speakers too, but don't hear much of them. They have a DJ and Production switch on the back which seems to switch between bass hyped DJ mode for DJing/media consumption and the flatter Production mode using inbuilt DSP.

Based on price, size, colour, I have local options of the Pioneer DM-50D for £75 a pair or IK Multimedia iLoud Micro for £100 a pair that I'm trying to decide between.

I like the iLoud Micro, and seem good, but is it good enough for DJing on as well as production? Do they have enough bass/hype?

 

Last edited: Aug 20, 2024

of course not, you cannot defy laws of physics
I suggested Kali IN-5 because it's the bare minimum,
I personally have bigger Kali IN-8 and I still use huge WS-12 subwoofer (room is roughly 3x8m though),

your best bet for bass/lows are probably headphones, but then it makes no sense to bother with speakers completely,
heck you could get any fancy portable consumer speaker(s) like JBL Extreme 4, JBL Charge 5 or JBL Flip 6 (from biggest to smallest) as they are likely to be target listening device for your audience, so you'll want to know how your music translates

 

I tested the Ilouds, the Kali, the KRK RP5, Genelec 8010 and 8020, finaly the Focal Shape 40 and the Eve Audio SC203.
I´m a bigtime Genelc fan but I found the Eve Audio SC203 amazing (The low range is unbelievable) for the price and equaly the Focal Shape 40 very apealing.

 

Maybe Tannoy Reveals 502 or even 802? They are a but underrated in my opinion. I always liked Tannoy speakers as they are usually nice to listen to compared to some other pro monitors. I do prefer Dynaudio sound, though and I have BM12A, but Reveal 502 and 802 are really nice budget speakers.

https://www.creatorbeat.com/audio/tannoy-reveal-502-studio-monitors-review/
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/tannoy-reveal-502-402

Also, have you considered Yamaha HS7s?

 

illcsecond ESI nEAR5's had them for years (had the 8s too but way to loud for my space. fyi ESI makes M-Audio( what im running now)
M-Audio BX5 Graphite

 

Yamaha HS are rear ported so will just create a bass mess in the small room

Same goes for the M-Audio. I actually used to own the M-Audio BX5a monitors but sold them about 2 years ago.

 

I do actually currently own the KRK Rokit 8 (used for DJ setup previously) and Behringer Truth B2031 (Genelec 1031 clones). However, as both are 8" speakers, they are physically and audibly too big for my new room now, hence the search for smaller speakers, and why I'm not considering rhw 6", 7" and 8" options, and in some cases some of the 5" options that are in bulkier housing.

I do also use Audio Technica ATH-M50X when producing and recording and Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro 250 Ohm when mixing and mastering, so do have quality headphones.

Therefore, the speakers aren't necessarily for pristine clarity and flatness. They are needed for DJ practise and to simply use ad an alternative/reference outside of solely using headphones.