Active Studio Monitors

AsSiMiLaTeD

I’ll chime in and say I’m using mine under my LS50W on my desk and they made a big improvement

erniejade

Cool on a desk makes total sense. I guess I should have re-worded it and asked if you guys were using it on a desk to speaker stands.

Conradicles

Desk for me too.

They also help get the tweeter's to ear level and tilt them if desired.

erniejade

I have mine on the KEF stands. Had the ls50w over a year now. I am still digging them.

AsSiMiLaTeD

I also bought a pair of stands forth KEF, I. Switch them between desktop duty and stand duty here in the office

Conradicles

One thing that always kind of irks me when I read reviews is that some folks say Focal speakers are bright. I just disagree.

The inverted dome they make is superb.

erniejade

Some of the older focal series are bright. In the past few years, i feel they have tamed town the top end to sound very natural and fast.

Conradicles

The Focal Alpha are off the charts.

Clipdat

So they're sounding even better as you get some more hours on them? Sweet.

Conradicles wrote: »

The Focal Alpha are off the charts.

seabeerob213

Sorry to drag up am old thread, but figured it better than making a new one. I've seen a couple suggestions for krk rokits. Since those are some of the only ones available locally where I'm at, I'm looking at picking up a set to use for my PC speakers. Will be getting signal from a shoot modi 2 Uber fed by a pangea USB cord, and some ICs @zingo whipped up for 5-6 years ago. I already picked up one, as the local store only had one in stock, next weekend I plan to do some more exploring and find a match 🤣. Went with the rokit5 g3, got it on sale, but now finding the other may be a challenge. If I can't find one, a different set will have to do, and this will get relegated to duty places like hanging out in the yard or working one the car. So anyone use these? Have any suggestions on set up for best Implementation in my use scenario? Hell, I may even need someone to mail me one cause I can't find any inline that ship FPO/APO, and if I can't find one here I may have to go that route. Thanks for all the help everyone.

VR3

Krk was purchased by Gibson about four or five years ago, I'm not sure how the current stuff compares to the older stuff

msg

I've had really pleasing experience with Audioengine HD3s. They have a DAC onboard, which I'm told is similar to their D1. It's decent and provides a pleasing experience, but I found that I prefer to use the HD3s with a Schiit Modi 3 DAC (or better) and a Magni3 as a preamp, since I also use headphones at this work space as well.

Also a small, affordable sub, like the Sunfire SDS-10, makes the system. I think there's an SDS-8 as well? Definitely need a sub with these. Just looked up some prices. I got mind used, and not sure I'd pay current pricing for one of these; find used, or go another route.

Other than that, the Klipsch Sixes are the only other powered monitors I've had experience with, but they'd be a bit big for a desktop.

Found this - https://www.musicradar.com/news/the-best-studio-monitor-speakers-in-the-world-today

Whichever you go with, do yourself a favor and also pick up some high density acoustic foam pads for the monitors. There are several manufacturers out there, but I like these Sound Addicted ones on Amazon. Affordable and nice performers for isolating the monitors from the desktop. For HD3s, I used two sets for height and angle. I like these better than Audioengine's speaker mounts, which are harder and don't work as well for isolation.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BRPM8K8/

These kinds of setups are one of my favorite systems. Very immersive, and using a Magni 3 makes it easy to bring in a DAC and also make it easy to switch to headphones easily.

seabeerob213

msg wrote: »

I've had really pleasing experience with Audioengine HD3s. They have a DAC onboard, which I'm told is similar to their D1. It's decent and provides a pleasing experience, but I found that I prefer to use the HD3s with a Schiit Modi 3 DAC (or better) and a Magni3 as a preamp, since I also use headphones at this work space as well.

Also a small, affordable sub, like the Sunfire SDS-10, makes the system. I think there's an SDS-8 as well? Definitely need a sub with these. Just looked up some prices. I got mind used, and not sure I'd pay current pricing for one of these; find used, or go another route.

Other than that, the Klipsch Sixes are the only other powered monitors I've had experience with, but they'd be a bit big for a desktop.

Found this - https://www.musicradar.com/news/the-best-studio-monitor-speakers-in-the-world-today

Whichever you go with, do yourself a favor and also pick up some high density acoustic foam pads for the monitors. There are several manufacturers out there, but I like these Sound Addicted ones on Amazon. Affordable and nice performers for isolating the monitors from the desktop. For HD3s, I used two sets for height and angle. I like these better than Audioengine's speaker mounts, which are harder and don't work as well for isolation.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BRPM8K8/

These kinds of setups are one of my favorite systems. Very immersive, and using a Magni 3 makes it easy to bring in a DAC and also make it easy to switch to headphones easily.

So would my Magni 2 Uber modi 2 Uber be sufficient? I'm only leaning krk because I haven't found many choices locally, a lot of no name brands, some Yamahas, maybe some pioneer and m audio. The krks are the only I have found of decent quality with rca level inputs so that kind of put a big input on my choice.

msg

I think those pieces'll make a very nice front end.

I'm surprised no one's shipping FPO/APO.

I did some reading back when I got into the Schiit stuff, and can't remember reading about any groundbreaking differences between the 3 series and earlier units. I think the takeaway with the Magni 3 was supposedly able to better drive hard to drive headphones, but the Uber pieces were a step up from the standard gen 2 stuff, if I'm not mistaken.

I say go with what you have and see what you think, and don't obsess over it. Allow for the time to let any new speakers break in, too.

The little Audioengine speakers have a nice sound to me. They don't sound cold or sterile. They were my entry to respect for powered monitors.

I've also tried the mid-size components (Bifrost Uber & Asgard) and for this sort of use, I don't recall any significant differences between them, certainly not on the headphone side at my level (ATH-M50x and Philips). Only had limited use with the HD3s in the early days.

I think the Magni and Modi combos are sweet for desktop systems, and you already own them, so start there and settle in. If you really feel like there's something missing, try to articulate that for yourself so you know what you're looking for, and then read up on head-fi and reddit and see what people think. You've been around long enough to sift through the obvious BS, though.

The biggest curiosity for me was the ds (delta-sigma) vs multibit DACs from Schiit, and finally found an affordable used Modi 3 Multi, and a Vali 2 (tube variant of the Magni). It's been a while since I A-B'd this stuff, but if I remember correctly the differences in the DACs were subtle, with the Multi seeming to offer a little more in the way of "engagement", and a general sense of pleasing listening experience. Maybe a little less edge? smoother?

There wasn't any huge night and day difference in performance or imaging in my experience with these desktop systems. I noticed immediately when I started messing with near field listening even with basic DACs that these systems imaged better than any full size system I've had to date. I don't mean to downplay that "engagement" characteristic I mentioned above with the Multibit DACs, but I don't want to oversell it either. It's that thing where you know it when you hear it, and once you've heard it, you know when you're not feeling it. I can't even say for certain that the DAC is the thing that makes that difference, at least not at my level.

For me, I also found that the experience depends on my mood and the music I'm listening to. For me, I like more background or instrumental/electronic/chillout kind of stuff these days. Even got turned on to some classical stuff, having stumbled across some - don't laugh - ballets. Crazy dynamic, emotive, and engaging. It's like imagining a film, which isn't surprising since these pieces were written as accompaniment for story telling through dance. I think the first one I heard was Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe. Check it out.

I'm only using local .flac or Spotify premium for media.

seabeerob213

No one who has the krk gen3 is shipping fpo. It's a discontinued model I guess. I'm using tidal for my streaming. I don't understand the whole hierarchy of dacs, I know there's bad ones, decent one, great ones and all in between.

Irrenhaus

I have the Kanto YU6 for PC use and I love them. I also order the Kanto 8 Sub to pair them alone.

I read on your previews post that you are in Sicily. Will Amazon Italy ship to you?


https://www.amazon.it/s?k=kanto&__mk_it_IT=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&ref=nb_sb_noss

Check some of the reviews on the YU6 they do get good ones.

Cheers

seabeerob213

I have an fpo address, it takes longer and costs more from Amazon.it

I'm looking at getting a local friend to let me use theirs