Newbie here. My experience with "good" sound is extremely limited. Like most in my generation (I'm 31), I was raised on tiny tiny speakers in terrible earbuds, phones, laptops, integrated flatscreen TV's, etc. Nobody had any decent speakers. Growing up, at my friend's house "good" speakers were a box set surround sound with big subwoofer...
I did acquire a set of EpiCure 10 speakers, and after replacing the completely shot woofers with new ones from HUMAN Speakers, I thought they sounded pretty darn good. Though one has a damaged tweeter that needs to be replaced. Still, integrated TV speakers to EpiCure 10's with one damaged tweeter is in and of itself night and day, so...
Anyway, I am getting back into learning piano, and recently bought a Kawai MP11SE digital piano (keyboard). This generates internal sound, but does not have any internal speakers, at all. I'm working on getting a speaker setup. Below is my temporary setup, which I suspect may make some of you guys cry.
Yes, a pair of random speakers I got from a friend a decade ago, and a $15 Amazon amplifier, plugged into the headphone jack.
For better or worse, I ended up buying a pair of HUMAN Model 61 speakers. I may have purchased something different had I found this site first, but it's too late now. I also couldn't really find any test results here for HUMAN speakers, so it's hard to say how they will compare, though I'm sure experienced people here may have some thoughts. They are relatively small (this is a small living room, and small space). They are two way speakers, with a 6" woofer, and have a rear vent port. The owner of the site claims they are ±2 dB from 38 Hz to 26 kHz, but has no test data to back that up, no test data in general, so none of the directivity/etc I'm slowly learning are important in addition to frequency response. Anyway, they are rated at 150 W, but I will NEVER be going this loud!
So, I'm looking for suggestion on an amplifier. I want something relatively small, to easily integrate somewhere into the stand I will build for the piano. I definately don't want to spend $1000 on an amp. After I found this site I was initially thinking of the TOPPING PA5 amp, because of the glowing review, before I found the threads discussing tons of quality issues. I want an amp that will last for years, obviously.
Primary use will be playing sounds from this piano. Eventually I may set up a computer to generate sound for me (live) instead of the internal piano sound. Secondary usage since this will be in the living room will be playing music if we just want to listen to music or have background music.
It looks like the Hypex stuff rates pretty good on reviews here. Would that be a good choice? A kit it totally cool. I don't mind doing some work myself. Soldering isn't a problem for me. I popped on the Hypex website and looked at the DIY kits, then looked for resellers, and a reseller popped up in my town (Madison, WI), selling the UCD400 Stereo Kit for $550.
One thing I'm not certain on with that amp though is volume control. It appears they do not have volume control, nor perhaps the ability to add it? The audio in is XLR connectors, and my Kawai outputs balanced audio on XLR connectors, but the output on that is fixed. There is also a pair of mono 1/4" audio jacks which output unbalanced audio, and that audio level can be controlled by the master VOLUME fader on the piano. From what I've read, it shouldn't really matter to use unbalanced audio given how short the connection will be, but it may be better to have a volume control on the amp for my secondary purpose of being able to play music when not playing the piano?
Anyway, looking for pretty much any and all feedback here. So much to take in when you find this site, and I don't want to be stuck deciding something for weeks...
I did acquire a set of EpiCure 10 speakers, and after replacing the completely shot woofers with new ones from HUMAN Speakers, I thought they sounded pretty darn good. Though one has a damaged tweeter that needs to be replaced. Still, integrated TV speakers to EpiCure 10's with one damaged tweeter is in and of itself night and day, so...
Anyway, I am getting back into learning piano, and recently bought a Kawai MP11SE digital piano (keyboard). This generates internal sound, but does not have any internal speakers, at all. I'm working on getting a speaker setup. Below is my temporary setup, which I suspect may make some of you guys cry.
Yes, a pair of random speakers I got from a friend a decade ago, and a $15 Amazon amplifier, plugged into the headphone jack.
For better or worse, I ended up buying a pair of HUMAN Model 61 speakers. I may have purchased something different had I found this site first, but it's too late now. I also couldn't really find any test results here for HUMAN speakers, so it's hard to say how they will compare, though I'm sure experienced people here may have some thoughts. They are relatively small (this is a small living room, and small space). They are two way speakers, with a 6" woofer, and have a rear vent port. The owner of the site claims they are ±2 dB from 38 Hz to 26 kHz, but has no test data to back that up, no test data in general, so none of the directivity/etc I'm slowly learning are important in addition to frequency response. Anyway, they are rated at 150 W, but I will NEVER be going this loud!
So, I'm looking for suggestion on an amplifier. I want something relatively small, to easily integrate somewhere into the stand I will build for the piano. I definately don't want to spend $1000 on an amp. After I found this site I was initially thinking of the TOPPING PA5 amp, because of the glowing review, before I found the threads discussing tons of quality issues. I want an amp that will last for years, obviously.
Primary use will be playing sounds from this piano. Eventually I may set up a computer to generate sound for me (live) instead of the internal piano sound. Secondary usage since this will be in the living room will be playing music if we just want to listen to music or have background music.
It looks like the Hypex stuff rates pretty good on reviews here. Would that be a good choice? A kit it totally cool. I don't mind doing some work myself. Soldering isn't a problem for me. I popped on the Hypex website and looked at the DIY kits, then looked for resellers, and a reseller popped up in my town (Madison, WI), selling the UCD400 Stereo Kit for $550.
One thing I'm not certain on with that amp though is volume control. It appears they do not have volume control, nor perhaps the ability to add it? The audio in is XLR connectors, and my Kawai outputs balanced audio on XLR connectors, but the output on that is fixed. There is also a pair of mono 1/4" audio jacks which output unbalanced audio, and that audio level can be controlled by the master VOLUME fader on the piano. From what I've read, it shouldn't really matter to use unbalanced audio given how short the connection will be, but it may be better to have a volume control on the amp for my secondary purpose of being able to play music when not playing the piano?
Anyway, looking for pretty much any and all feedback here. So much to take in when you find this site, and I don't want to be stuck deciding something for weeks...
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