Are studio monitors a better buy than passive hifi speakers?

[Bruce Morgen]

Not entirely true. Distortion can be a bit lower on actives, all other things being equal, just because there are no inductors to saturate.

5 figures? LOL. I dare you to find better speakers than Kali IN-8s for $800 a pair, active or passive.

Oh, but if it's passive, you have to include the cost of an amp, too.

IN-8s are up to $1k/pair MSRP -- but your dare still holds. IMO they're still unbeatable for the money, especially given that no amp is needed.

 

[PristineSound]

Not entirely true. Distortion can be a bit lower on actives, all other things being equal, just because there are no inductors to saturate.

Air core inductors don't saturate.

And the distortion from iron core inductors saturation is minor compared to transducer distortions

 

[Sal1950]

Passive or Active, each to their own.
I don't believe either are locked into a superior position sound quality wise.
If equal design expertise is applied to either, SOTA sound can be the expected results.
Yes you can save money with a all-in-one active box.
But if it blows up you can replace one passive for less.

 

[Bleib]

With active speakers, if the amplifier has a problem I unplug it and plug in another of my 15 active speakers around the house, in two mins I’m back to listening whilst my speaker is being repaired or a replacement plate amp is sent to me.

The argument appears valid but who concerns themselves with a 20yr lifespan?, And your comment regarding outdated electronics, especially these days does not hold weight


Hiss is a total non issue with well designed active speakers, the sound of a single bird twittering away outside is far louder than potential hiss.

Hiss is the bogeyman often referred to by passive diehards

This is my hill, and I’m willing to be sacrificed upon it

The Dynaudio example in this topic is clear to me that they put in rather inferior electronics to save a few bucks. And there is nothing a normal consumer can do to get rid of the hiss. To me this is just poor faulty design and all too common.
I can get if cheapo Edifier for 80 bucks has hiss but not supposed pro gear.

 

[Sal1950]

With active speakers, if the amplifier has a problem I unplug it and plug in another of my 15 active speakers around the house, in two mins I’m back to listening whilst my speaker is being repaired or a replacement plate amp is sent to me.

How many have 15 more active speakers just sitting "around the house" ?

 

[kyuu]

5 figures? LOL. I dare you to find better speakers than Kali IN-8s for $800 a pair, active or passive.

Oh, but if it's passive, you have to include the cost of an amp, too.

Amps are included with the AVR that I need anyway for multichannel processing, so I don't have to include that cost right?

Even for stereo, you can get an extremely competent amp that includes streaming, PEQ, room correction, and other functionality for $300. Other options are available for even less that may have less functionality but are still perfectly good amps. The fact that amos are stuffed into the speaker isn't really that huge a flex in active speakers' favor these days.

If someone can point me to an active that can replace my W553Ls for the same or lower price with superior performance, I'd love to see it. And note, I didn't pay MSRP. They were $350/ea.

 

[Ben Jenssen]

My thoughts; I think most small active speakers are meant for nearfield, and sitting very close in the sweet spot to eliminate room sound. Most passive speakers are larger and more meant for filling a room. I feel that most nearfields are a bit bright, very linear, and therefore a bit boring sounding. Bigger passives are often more colured, richer sounding.

My Dynaudio studio monitors, used to be used quite close, now sits on each side of my 60" TV and fills my room nicely, whether I'm watching a movie or mixing a song. I have my mix controllers etc in the middle of the room, so I'm hearing a bit of room resonnance, but the room is quite dampened so it works great. Smaller nearfields would not have been so good, I think.

 

[RexrothPigeon]

everyone has different needs and preferences, but for me, not having to worry about a bunch of boxes is a godsend. Plug in D&D 8Cs, connect to Roon, boom, done. Clean room, clean sound, fewer cables, fewer things to break or go wrong or replace. Some people love the gear upgrade mix/match treadmill, but I'm glad to have stepped off onto solid ground.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

It's another of those "It depends" things. A truth universally acknowledged in engineering and any other discipline that involves solving problems is that there's more than one good solution to almost anything.

 

[theREALdotnet]

Not entirely true. Distortion can be a bit lower on actives, all other things being equal, just because there are no inductors to saturate.

Even on passive crossovers there may be no inductors (cores) to saturate.

 

[JiiPee]

Amps are included with the AVR that I need anyway for multichannel processing, so I don't have to include that cost right?

Even for stereo, you can get an extremely competent amp that includes streaming, PEQ, room correction, and other functionality for $300. Other options are available for even less that may have less functionality but are still perfectly good amps. The fact that amos are stuffed into the speaker isn't really that huge a flex in active speakers' favor these days.

If someone can point me to an active that can replace my W553Ls for the same or lower price with superior performance, I'd love to see it. And note, I didn't pay MSRP. They were $350/ea.

And when that AVR lets the smoke out, You have lost all those amps, and with no spares available.

 

[kyuu]

And when that AVR lets the smoke out, You have lost all those amps, and with no spares available.

And? The notion that people in general are keeping spare amps or active speakers around in case of a failure is quite silly. In the unlikely event of a premature failure (I've never had an AVR fail entirely, nor had the amp section fail; failure of the board that handles video is more common IME), I'll purchase another.

Edit: The AVR I had previous to my current one is still handling audio duties just fine in my father-in-law's garage.

 

[JiiPee]

And? The notion that people in general are keeping spare amps or active speakers around in case of a failure is quite silly. In the unlikely event of a premature failure (I've never had an AVR fail entirely, nor had the amp section fail; failure of the board that handles video is more common IME), I'll purchase another.

Edit: The AVR I had previous to my current one is still handling audio duties just fine in my father-in-law's garage.

I agree with You on this. My response was due to some posts on this thread stating that having spare amplifiers in case of a failure was a meaningful argument against active speakers.

 

[Waxx]

If hi fi "audiophile" speakers were better I assume the professionals would have used them in the studio instead of the pro studio monitors
Actually Abbey Road Studios use the B&Ws but I don't know of many other studios that do the same View attachment 479009View attachment 479010View attachment 479011

Those are heavy modified (on the crossover) B&W's that are tuned to neutral, not the standard that is sold in shops who tend to be queit bright tuned.

 

[Behrelec 37]

Is it really the case that B&W sells the same product to two different markets, colorful, distorted speakers for consumers to enjoy without knowing any better, and colorless models for studios?

If so, the market is indeed interestingly divided. Huh huh...

 

[Waxx]

Is it really the case that B&W sells the same product to two different markets, colorful, distorted speakers for consumers to enjoy without knowing any better, and colorless models for studios?

If so, the market is indeed interestingly divided. Huh huh...

No, they "customised" them for big studio's to their wishes. It happens a lot for big studio's.

 

[manisandher]

Bruno Putzeys sure thinks so:

Active Speakers—The Second Wave, by Bruno Putzeys, Part 1 of 2

What can active speakers do that passive ones can’t? Impulse response, impulse response, impulse response, says Bruno Putzeys. That, and their sheer practicality, makes them the wave of the future.

pmamagazine.org

Active Speakers—The Second Wave, by Bruno Putzeys, Part 2 of 2

Bruno Putzeys concludes his two-part series that explains why active speakers are inherently better than passive ones.

pmamagazine.org

Great reads.

I converted all my passive speakers to work actively a few years ago. Have never looked back.

'Setting up an active crossover using Roon'

Jan 12, 2022

Recently, quite a few people have asked me how I've gone about setting up active crossovers just using Roon alone. I thought I'd start a thread to discuss the process. I'm just going to dump a number of screenshots, which are hopefully fairly self-explanatory (if you know Roon, at least). We can then go into more details should people have further questions.

Process to follow shortly.

Mani.

• manisandher
• active crossover roon
• Replies: 23
• Forum: General Audio Discussions

• 

Mani.

 

[Behrelec 37]

Waxx.

Can this work if the loudspeakers are already colored?

Studios should never use hi-fi products marketed for their image, but rather hard-core quality expertise, i.e., hard-core studio equipment. This is because the final recording result is considered to be the merit of the neutral speaker, and not the result of some cheap package tuning gimmicks that spoil the recording result with a product that is fundamentally unsuitable. I wouldn't trust B&W's expertise in this area, because when I've listened to them in hi-fi use, I've always found them to be very colored speakers every single year I've heard them.

 

[Nopiano]

Two reasons:
There is a marketing agreement between B&W and Abbey Road.
The speakers in the monitoring rooms have custom crossovers to deliver a more linear response. When I was at the studios about 4 years ago the sound in AR1’s monitoring room was overly bright for my taste but I’m sure they did the job for the engineers.

That figures. A few months ago B&W ran some ads on Facebook about their speakers being chosen for many years by Abbey Road. I asked if they were chosen in a commercially competitive way focussing on the sound, or if they were provided gratis. They ducked that question twice, so it figures that John Bowers saw a marketing opportunity and they’ve provided numerous models ever since. They were certainly there back in 1993 when I was lucky enough to be invited to spend a day sitting in on a Decca recording in studio no. 1.

The speakers sounded OK to me back then, but the biggest disappointment was how much better the live feed through the speakers was compared to the off tape replay. It was relatively early Decca digital for a classical album of Mozart Horn Concertos.

 

[Somafunk]

How many have 15 more active speakers just sitting "around the house" ?

My comment was an complete and utter piss-take against talisman's comment regarding his 15 amplifiers he has has lying around that he swaps over if a fault appears in one, take it literally if you like though

With passive speakers, if the amplifier has a problem, I unplug it and plug in another of my 15 amplifiers around the house. In four minutes, I'm back to listening to music while my amp is being repaired.

"With active speakers, if the amplifier has a problem I unplug it and plug in another of my 15 active speakers around the house, in two mins I’m back to listening whilst my speaker is being repaired or a replacement plate amp is sent to me."