Active monitors for classic rock, blues and soul.

[Elmutcho]

Hi all, newbie to these forums
Looking at new monitors for my 4x6x2.5h room. Listening mostly at a desk, near to mid field, but can place speakers on stands behind desk, plenty of options of placement as it’s a dedicated music room.
I listen to guitar music, classic rock, soul, blues, bluegrass etc and a lot of the monitor comparisons are always referencing EDM and very bass heavy stuff and therefore monitors bass extension.
I’d like to know which monitors are really great for classic guitar based music, for reproducing the punch and sense of clarity I get from my Friedman Dirty Shirley amp.
Looking at Genelec 8340, Maybe stretching up to 8350 or 8341, Neumann kh150 or kh310. All desktop streaming, and some basic guitar recording. Open to other options, HEDD, PSI etc

However I am in favour of easy to use, inbuilt room correction if possible.

Thank you

 

[Elitzur–Vaidman]

Looking at Genelec 8340, Maybe stretching up to 8350 or 8341, Neumann kh150 or kh310. All desktop streaming, and some basic guitar recording. Open to other options, HEDD, PSI etc

I say go for the 8340s and don't look back. I was visiting the MoMA a few weeks back and they had an auditory simulation of a train platform that used 4 8350s (I think, not 100% sure if it was 83xx vs 80x0), and the sound was stunningly immersive. The room was much bigger than your listening room, so I don't think you'll be missing much, if anything, vs 8350s for your use case.

I’d like to know which monitors are really great for classic guitar based music, for reproducing the punch and sense of clarity I get from my Friedman Dirty Shirley amp.

I think you'll want to get some DSP plugins to add selective distortion regardless of what monitors you pick out. The Dirty Shirley is chock full of tubes, so it almost certainly sprays out harmonic distortion (which anecdotally can contribute to a sense of bass punch).

 

[Elmutcho]

Thank you, I think what I mean instead of distortion from the tubes is the sense of scale and headroom from a high wattage head with a quality open cab with high power handling. I don’t get that from my small 5 inch speakers in my living room.

 

[Elitzur–Vaidman]

What are your current speakers? Obviously bigger is better when it comes to bass, but I think you'd be better off financially and more appropriate spl-wise with 8x40s and a small subwoofer than 8050s. There's also a very good chance that you won't feel the need for a subwoofer regardless given your current setup/listening preferences.

 

[Elmutcho]

Living room has triangle Titus ez stand mount driven by Cambridge audio cxa60 and blue sound node 2. Small system from our previous small apartment, too small for current room but toddler preventing an upgrade in this area. Great for lots of music and surprisingly excellent for TV, very clear dialogue, just no bass in that regard.

 

[bodhi]

If subwoofer is not an option then the 8350 is "safer" choice although it's a close call and largely depends on how easily you can spend the extra money. I hope you can demo both somewhere: the (somewhat subtle) differences should be evident and then it's easy to decide if it's worth it.

I have 8350 with 7360 in my desktop and felt these were worth it compared to smaller ones. I upgraded bit by bit from stereo 8330s (which I wouldn't recommend even for desktop).

 

[Elmutcho]

Sub is potentially an option, but I’m inclined for a bigger woofer to close emulate a guitar speaker in that frequency range

 

[AnalogSteph]

The Triangle Titus EZ is a passive 5.25" bookshelf described as "lively" and "efficient". Hoffmann's Iron Law suggests that they are not likely to be bass-heavy, and the specified response down to 55 Hz +/-3 dB may be thoroughly optimistic. If surrounding walls happen to be of lightweight construction on top of that (are they?), bass levels go down even further.

Now that being said, you're more likely to be interested in oomph in the 100-300 Hz area than anything much below 60 Hz, so you rather want some good mains than a sub. Minimum I'd say would be some Kali IN-8 v2s.

I would add some ADAM A8Hs to the stack of candidates, solid 8" 3-way right in your price range with Sonarworks integration.

How were you planning on feeding them?

 

[Elmutcho]

Source will be MacBook Pro

 

[Elmutcho]

To resurrect, more and more I’m thinking of having a f**k it moment and going with a pair of “the ones”, will the 8341a be a good fit for my room (6x4x2.5h m - 20x13x8ft)?

 

[Elitzur–Vaidman]

To resurrect, more and more I’m thinking of having a f**k it moment and going with a pair of “the ones”, will the 8341a be a good fit for my room (6x4x2.5h m - 20x13x8ft)?

It looks like the 8341As would be the absolute best option for your use case (assuming primarily desktop usage like previously stated).

 

[HQY]

Neumann KH150 with 2 KH750 subs and MA1.

 

[Elmutcho]

I heard some Wharfedale Linton’s the other day and really enjoyed them. Thinking of moving things around to fit them in behind the desk. Any recommendations for an integrated amp or pre/power combo to drive them? Preferably small to fit on a desk.