PA speakers for home stereo ?

[Hear Here]

SO what it comes down to, I am on a strict budget. Can i use a PA system as my home stereo. Will i be pleasantly surprized or horribly disappointed ?

Yes, very likely you'll be disappointed if you use PA speakers for listening to music.

Think about - PA stands for Public Address. These speakers are designed for speach to sound clear and distriont and are not designed for music reproduction.

If by PA you mean Professional Speakers aka Studio Monitors, again you may well be disappointed as they are designed for the studio engineer to identify the problems with original recordings and to do his best to correct / mitigate them to create a master recording that can be released to the streaming and pressing houses. They are not designed to deliver music that will excite your senses as domestic speakers "should". Often they won't but the best of them should excite the senses. You just have to find speakers (matched with a suitable amp and properly set up in your home) to deliver the musical excitement we are looking for

SO what it comes down to, I am on a strict budget. Can i use a PA system as my home stereo. Will i be pleasantly surprized or horribly disappointed ?

Yes, very likely you'll be disappointed if you use PA speakers for listening to music.

Think about - PA stands for Public Address. These speakers are designed for speech to sound clear and distinct and are not designed for music reproduction. You’ll find them at outdoor events, rail stations, etc

If by PA you mean Professional Speakers aka Studio Monitors, again you may well be disappointed as they are designed for the studio engineer to identify the problems with original recordings so he can do his best to correct / mitigate these nasties to create a master recording that can be released to the streaming and pressing houses. He wants them to sound bad where there are imperfections. They are not designed to deliver music that will excite your senses as domestic speakers "should". Often they won't, but the best of them should excite the senses. You just have to find speakers (matched with a suitable amp and properly set up in your home) to deliver the musical excitement you are looking for.

An interesting article written by a professional audio engineer may explain better. Read the first 2 paragraphs –

Studio Monitors Vs Speakers, What’s the Difference? - Andertons Blog

Studio monitors, regular speakers – what’s the difference? Find out what’s best for you and why studio monitors are perfect for mixing.

blog.andertons.co.uk

 

[DanielT]

Yes, very likely you'll be disappointed if you use PA speakers for listening to music.

Think about - PA stands for Public Address. These speakers are designed for speach to sound clear and distriont and are not designed for music reproduction.

If by PA you mean Professional Speakers aka Studio Monitors, again you may well be disappointed as they are designed for the studio engineer to identify the problems with original recordings and to do his best to correct / mitigate them to create a master recording that can be released to the streaming and pressing houses. They are not designed to deliver music that will excite your senses as domestic speakers "should". Often they won't but the best of them should excite the senses. You just have to find speakers (matched with a suitable amp and properly set up in your home) to deliver the musical excitement we are looking for


Yes, very likely you'll be disappointed if you use PA speakers for listening to music.

Think about - PA stands for Public Address. These speakers are designed for speech to sound clear and distinct and are not designed for music reproduction. You’ll find them at outdoor events, rail stations, etc

If by PA you mean Professional Speakers aka Studio Monitors, again you may well be disappointed as they are designed for the studio engineer to identify the problems with original recordings so he can do his best to correct / mitigate these nasties to create a master recording that can be released to the streaming and pressing houses. He wants them to sound bad where there are imperfections. They are not designed to deliver music that will excite your senses as domestic speakers "should". Often they won't, but the best of them should excite the senses. You just have to find speakers (matched with a suitable amp and properly set up in your home) to deliver the musical excitement you are looking for.

An interesting article written by a professional audio engineer may explain better. Read the first 2 paragraphs –

Studio Monitors Vs Speakers, What’s the Difference? - Andertons Blog

Studio monitors, regular speakers – what’s the difference? Find out what’s best for you and why studio monitors are perfect for mixing.

blog.andertons.co.uk

But you can build it yourself with PA drivers and get both high SPL and nice FR (good Hifi sound). For example these,
Troels Graveson Faital-3WC-15:

With these PA drivers:

15PR400 (8Ω) by FaitalPRO

FaitalPRO combined the latest R&D methods and technologies with the most advanced industrial automation techniques and all FaitalPRO drivers are made in Italy with the highest level of quality, consistency and durability.

faitalpro.com

Eighteen Sound - Professional loudspeakers

www.eighteensound.it

@Mart68 is happy with them and he cares about good (home hifi) sound. So now he has that plus power if he wants to push the pedal to the metal sometimes.
Nice speakers I must say.

Troels Graveson Faital-3WC-15

I thinking of commissioning a build of this TG loudspeaker http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Faital-3WC-15.htm Cost will be around £5K GBP What does the panel think? Are there alternatives I should consider? For various reasons I'm only looking at passive not active speakers. Any input is...

audiosciencereview.com

 

[Mart68]

But you can build it yourself with PA drivers and get both high SPL and nice FR (good Hifi sound). For example these,
Troels Graveson Faital-3WC-15:
View attachment 465377
With these PA drivers:

15PR400 (8Ω) by FaitalPRO

FaitalPRO combined the latest R&D methods and technologies with the most advanced industrial automation techniques and all FaitalPRO drivers are made in Italy with the highest level of quality, consistency and durability.

faitalpro.com

Eighteen Sound - Professional loudspeakers

www.eighteensound.it

@Mart68 is happy with them and he cares about good (home hifi) sound. So now he has that plus power if he wants to push the pedal to the metal sometimes.
Nice speakers I must say.

Troels Graveson Faital-3WC-15

I thinking of commissioning a build of this TG loudspeaker http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Faital-3WC-15.htm Cost will be around £5K GBP What does the panel think? Are there alternatives I should consider? For various reasons I'm only looking at passive not active speakers. Any input is...

audiosciencereview.com

The tweeters are not P.A units so that does limit overall power handling. But they will go very loud, very clean even so.

 

[kevinsonic]

At the risk of being a Smart Alexei, would it be practical to hire a pair of PA speakers of the type in your budget for a few days in your location?
We have several PA hire companies in Aus. It’s an outlay but might give you an insight, in your listening area, about whether they deliver what you’re after.

Good suggestion thanks, i am on a budget so renting it though probably the best advice, i need to use all the extra i have to buy speakers. Thanks

 

[kevinsonic]

@kevinsonic Have you ever tried one or more subwoofers in your listening room? If not, then who knows, you might like it and be happy with that?
If you are in a fairly well-populated area, there should be quite a lot of used Hifi for sale. Buy speakers + sub, some well-known brand/model, that you can figure out a reasonable used price for. With the hifi stuff you can test. If you are happy keep the stuff, if not then sell it for about the same price.

By the way if you are unhappy with the bass in your listening room, if you previously thought it didn't sound good, it doesn't have to be the speakers. It could be the room's design, size that could be the cause, or a combo of specific speakers - room acoustics.

The room's influence on the lower frequencies is enormous. The effect referred to as: The Schroeder frequency
View attachment 465367

Room acoustics - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Edit:
Speakers that already have a real roller coaster in the bass frequency range can affect more (with bad luck for the worse with luck, but then you really have to be lucky, for the better) than neutral speakers.


So it's not just a question of the room's influence on the bass frequency/bass sound.
Super tiny satellite speakers for example, the room acoustics have no significance at around let's say around 20Hz -60 Hz because there is nothing there. Maybe an obvious thing to point out but still.

Good bass response, bass frequency/sound is solved via EQ. Make sure you have enough power in both speakers (or subwoofer) and amp when performing EQ operations. It is good to have headroom power to pick off so to speak.

Makes perfect sense thanks, i finally came to the conclusion that, if i find speakers thats just somewhat better than my as255's ito clarity/punchy mid range bass and clear mids and highs, i'll be more than happy

 

[kevinsonic]

But you can build it yourself with PA drivers and get both high SPL and nice FR (good Hifi sound). For example these,
Troels Graveson Faital-3WC-15:
View attachment 465377
With these PA drivers:

15PR400 (8Ω) by FaitalPRO

FaitalPRO combined the latest R&D methods and technologies with the most advanced industrial automation techniques and all FaitalPRO drivers are made in Italy with the highest level of quality, consistency and durability.

faitalpro.com

Eighteen Sound - Professional loudspeakers

www.eighteensound.it

@Mart68 is happy with them and he cares about good (home hifi) sound. So now he has that plus power if he wants to push the pedal to the metal sometimes.
Nice speakers I must say.

Troels Graveson Faital-3WC-15

I thinking of commissioning a build of this TG loudspeaker http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Faital-3WC-15.htm Cost will be around £5K GBP What does the panel think? Are there alternatives I should consider? For various reasons I'm only looking at passive not active speakers. Any input is...

audiosciencereview.com

Nice if i could find some excellent quality loose speakers on the classifieds this would be interesting to try ( if i can get the crossover right or get one ready made)

 

[kevinsonic]

Yes, very likely you'll be disappointed if you use PA speakers for listening to music.

Think about - PA stands for Public Address. These speakers are designed for speach to sound clear and distriont and are not designed for music reproduction.

If by PA you mean Professional Speakers aka Studio Monitors, again you may well be disappointed as they are designed for the studio engineer to identify the problems with original recordings and to do his best to correct / mitigate them to create a master recording that can be released to the streaming and pressing houses. They are not designed to deliver music that will excite your senses as domestic speakers "should". Often they won't but the best of them should excite the senses. You just have to find speakers (matched with a suitable amp and properly set up in your home) to deliver the musical excitement we are looking for


Yes, very likely you'll be disappointed if you use PA speakers for listening to music.

Think about - PA stands for Public Address. These speakers are designed for speech to sound clear and distinct and are not designed for music reproduction. You’ll find them at outdoor events, rail stations, etc

If by PA you mean Professional Speakers aka Studio Monitors, again you may well be disappointed as they are designed for the studio engineer to identify the problems with original recordings so he can do his best to correct / mitigate these nasties to create a master recording that can be released to the streaming and pressing houses. He wants them to sound bad where there are imperfections. They are not designed to deliver music that will excite your senses as domestic speakers "should". Often they won't, but the best of them should excite the senses. You just have to find speakers (matched with a suitable amp and properly set up in your home) to deliver the musical excitement you are looking for.

An interesting article written by a professional audio engineer may explain better. Read the first 2 paragraphs –

Studio Monitors Vs Speakers, What’s the Difference? - Andertons Blog

Studio monitors, regular speakers – what’s the difference? Find out what’s best for you and why studio monitors are perfect for mixing.

blog.andertons.co.uk

i feel you are spot on with your opinion here, i have decided to go the hifi route. those big omega xl07 looks impressive i've seen the dxon variant this morning close up and personal the sheer presence of them makes you want to buy them,
if i had money to burn i'd buy them just to look at them haha....

However my assumption is that i will be disappointed in their sound based on what i listened to this morning (in my other post) thanks

 

[Chr1]

I would suggest that you do some research on what is available second hand in your area. I am in the UK and have picked up some very good deals on the Tannoy V12s that I like.
Got four locally for £80 a few months ago. They had various faults but I got a nice working pair plus spare parts out of them.
Given that they originally cost appx. £800 each, 25 years ago, that's a pretty good deal. Gave the tweeters new ferrofluid, the boxes a quick lick of paint and they now look and sound like new. All for the cost of a cloth grille for some boutique home hifi speakers.

I'd suggest spending some time online researching what objective folks like us here on ASR recommend, but in your particular location. Also, look at the slightly lower powered pro options. I very much doubt that you will find that you need kilowatts, or over 120db personally. Cost aside, there are inevitably inherent compromises with huge power.
Also, you generally can't ship heavy speakers cheaply, so if budget is an issue, then the ability to collect locally is definitely advantageous.
Pro gear, just like home hifi is extremely diverse, so it's a case of being knowledgeable enough to sort the wheat from the chaff.
My 2c. Hope this helps and good luck!

 

[Hear Here]

But you can build it yourself with PA drivers and get both high SPL and nice FR (good Hifi sound). For example these,
Troels Graveson Faital-3WC-15:
View attachment 465377
With these PA drivers:

15PR400 (8Ω) by FaitalPRO

FaitalPRO combined the latest R&D methods and technologies with the most advanced industrial automation techniques and all FaitalPRO drivers are made in Italy with the highest level of quality, consistency and durability.

faitalpro.com

Eighteen Sound - Professional loudspeakers

www.eighteensound.it

@Mart68 is happy with them and he cares about good (home hifi) sound. So now he has that plus power if he wants to push the pedal to the metal sometimes.
Nice speakers I must say.

Troels Graveson Faital-3WC-15

I thinking of commissioning a build of this TG loudspeaker http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Faital-3WC-15.htm Cost will be around £5K GBP What does the panel think? Are there alternatives I should consider? For various reasons I'm only looking at passive not active speakers. Any input is...

audiosciencereview.com

Why would you include those Troels Graveson Faital-3WC-15 speakers as PA (Public Address) ones? They surely are not intended for that purpose. I'd describe them as 1970s style DIY hi-fi speakkers. I built something rather similar around that time - home-built versions of the early 6-sided Wharfedate Airedale speakers with 15", 8" and 3" drivers.

 

[DanielT]

Why would you include those Troels Graveson Faital-3WC-15 speakers as PA (Public Address) ones? They surely are not intended for that purpose. I'd describe them as 1970s style DIY hi-fi speakkers. I built something rather similar around that time - home-built versions of the early 6-sided Wharfedate Airedale speakers with 15", 8" and 3" drivers.

It was just to show that you can use PA stuff to make good home Hifi.

If TS has the opportunity to make his own speakers, there are a lot of good PA bass drivers to choose from. Why not combine PA with active studio monitors for example? Two DIY bass boxes, with the size and quality/performance of the bass driver that TS wants and has the wallet for, that operate up to around 300Hz-500 Hz. On top of them place some active studio monitors.
Crossover, bass boxes - monitors, can be solved via some active crossover filter, or via the digital world.
(Unless TS wants to tinker with passive crossovers)

Edit
If you can't, don't want to or don't have time to build something. A budget solution with used Wharfedale speakers plus subwoofer can be something. If you don't have super high SPL requirements.

For example:

Wharfedale Diamond 12.1 Review (Speaker)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Wharfedale Diamond 12.1 bookshelf speaker. It was kindly purchased by a member and drop shipped to me. It costs US $399 for a pair. The look and feel of the 12.1 is definitely above the budget category: The back is rather pedestrian but...

audiosciencereview.com

Or:

Wharfedale Diamond 220 Budget Speaker Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Diamond 220 from the British speaker company, Wharfedale. I purchased the set for this review from Amazon for US $199 including free shipping. The 220 comes with inset covers for each driver, giving it a classy look despite its low cost. Here...

audiosciencereview.com

By the way in the summer cottage I use a pair of Wharfedale Diamond 220 plus two Yamaha subwoofers with 12 inch bass drivers in them. Personally, I think the SPL level it gives is enough. Even to push the volume pedal quite a bit sometimes.
(HP-LP filter sub speaker set to 80 Hz)


The biggest, best difference is using PEQ in my case. For good sound that is. Not super precise EQ setting, just to file down the worst bass peak at 80 Hz. Plus the EQ settings Amir made for Wharfedale Diamond 220:

 

[popthere]

Hi @kevinsonic! Welcome to ASR.


Sure you can.


Compared to traditional speakers, PA speakers go all in on headroom and sensitivity, sacrificing bass extension and frequency response smoothness in the process.

If you're considering an Active PA system, then lots of hiss will await you in a domestic environment. Ditto for passive PA speakers paired with old-school Amps.

The tonal imbalance and lack of bass could perhaps be addressed with a DSP (and the PA speakers happen to have a lot of headroom).