Which monitors fo home listening?

[Pauper]

Looking through the various active monitor reviews it becomes obvious that compared to their passive cousins they represent excellent vfm.
However, I realise that the majority are intended for nearfield studio listening, hence my question; Which models/ brands are suitable for hifi use?
By the way I own Equator D5’s but find that they work best as near field.

 

[dfuller]

Which models/ brands are suitable for hifi use?

Any of them that you like the sound of. There's no real difference other than monitors tending to be active with XLR inputs.

What distance are you planning on listening at and how loud do you need them to be? What's your budget?

 

[More Dynamics Please]

As with passive speakers plus amp power, active speakers need to be able to produce adequate clean SPL at your listening position at your typical volume level with consideration for your room size. The larger your room, the further distance from the speakers and the louder you typically listen the more capable active speakers you need to be considering. Another factor is whether or not you intend to use a subwoofer and if not how much deep bass are you willing to give up?

 

[Pauper]

About 2 metres. Some say that typical near field monitors loose their composure at such distances

 

[Pauper]

As with passive speakers plus amp power, active speakers need to be able to produce adequate clean SPL at your listening position at your typical volume level with consideration for your room size. The larger your room, the further distance from the speakers and the louder you typically listen the more capable active speakers you need to be considering. Another factor is whether or not you intend to use a subwoofer and if not how much deep bass are you willing to give up?

I’ve not ruled subs out but would probably also be looking at room correction

 

[dfuller]

About 2 metres. Some say that typical near field monitors loose their composure at such distances

That's dependent on the speakers themselves. How much money are you willing to spend on this?

 

[Pauper]

That's dependent on the speakers themselves. How much money are you willing to spend on this?

Up to £1000 - but as little as possible ideally

 

[More Dynamics Please]

Your Equator D5 has gotten some good reviews but it's rated at a max SPL of 103 dB which is on the low side for all the active monitors that have been reviewed here on ASR. If you're looking for more clean volume than you can get out of your Equator D5 then you may want to limit your search to monitors rated at >110 dB max SPL.

 

[Pauper]

You’re right, they’re not the loudest out there. But they’ve been good speakers all told. I believe I probably bought the first pair in the U.K. one side has always had a strange white noise zap on switch on but has always worked ok

 

[dfuller]

Up to £1000 - but as little as possible ideally

I'm inclined to recommend the Neuman KH120 over pretty much anything else in that area; maybe the Genelec 8030C would work here too.

 

[More Dynamics Please]

Just to give you an idea of SPL and distance, Kali Audio rates its LP-8 and IN-8 at a max SPL of 114 dB and at a maximum listening distance of 2.8 meters (~9 feet) they are rated to produce SPL of 85 dB sustained with 20 dB headroom to handle 105 dB peaks. So if that's close to your listening distance and you want to be able to reach roughly THX home theater listening levels you would want speakers with approximately those SPL ratings.

 

[Pauper]

I'm inclined to recommend the Neuman KH120 over pretty much anything else in that area; maybe the Genelec 8030C would work here too.

Yes, they’re on the radar

 

[Pauper]

Just to give you an idea of SPL and distance, Kali Audio rates its LP-8 and IN-8 at a max SPL of 114 dB and at a maximum listening distance of 2.8 meters (~9 feet) they are rated to produce SPL of 85 dB sustained with 20 dB headroom to handle 105 dB peaks. So if that's close to your listening distance and you want to be able to reach roughly THX home theater listening levels you would want speakers with approximately those SPL ratings.

The Kali stuff looks like incredible value. The latest IN5 looks interesting too

 

[Pauper]

Just to give you an idea of SPL and distance, Kali Audio rates its LP-8 and IN-8 at a max SPL of 114 dB and at a maximum listening distance of 2.8 meters (~9 feet) they are rated to produce SPL of 85 dB sustained with 20 dB headroom to handle 105 dB peaks. So if that's close to your listening distance and you want to be able to reach roughly THX home theater listening levels you would want speakers with approximately those SPL ratings.

The Kali stuff looks like incredible value. The latest IN5 looks interesting too

 

[Lifer]

I too was looking for active speakers for my leaving room at 2.5m listening distance.
I looked at Neumann KH120 and Genelec 8030 but I think they won't have enough SPL.
Since one week my choice is pretty much set on the KALI LP-8 which I think indeed offers tremendous value (Kali IN-8 as well).

 

[Pauper]

Yes, they’re on the radar

Neuman

I too was looking for active speakers for my leaving room at 2.5m listening distance.
I looked at Neumann KH120 and Genelec 8030 but I think they won't have enough SPL.
Since one week my choice is pretty much set on the KALI LP-8 which I think indeed offers tremendous value (Kali IN-8 as well).

yes, they do seem very good value. The hiss that people report will probably be less of a problem at 2-3 metres .

 

[Frank Dernie]

About 2 metres. Some say that typical near field monitors loose their composure at such distances

IMO the problem of speakers intended for near field monitoring is more to do with maximum SPL and "loss of composure" is likely to be running out of puff for music listening in a domestic room.
There is no need for a manufacturer of near field monitor to make them more expensive than necessary for their intended use by giving them the power and maybe even drive unit capability for medium or far field listening.

 

[Pauper]

IMO the problem of speakers intended for near field monitoring is more to do with maximum SPL and "loss of composure" is likely to be running out of puff for music listening in a domestic room.
There is no need for a manufacturer of near field monitor to make them more expensive than necessary for their intended use by giving them the power and maybe even drive unit capability for medium or far field listening.

That makes sense.Thanks

 

[Freeway]

Neumann's website has their studio monitors subdivided with 'Filters' i.e. categories of usage.
One is domestic and another for listening distances.
Also SPL and tuning emphasis is supplied in some of the speaker descriptions.
https://en-de.neumann.com/studio-monitors

 

[More Dynamics Please]

It's interesting that Neumann cites Max. short term SPL with music material at 2.3 m in typical listening conditions for both (pair / full range) and (pair with subwoofer). The specs of all the models I checked showed that with subwoofer the max short term SPL was increased by 6 or 7 dB over the full range rating. It might not apply equally to all brands of studio monitors but at least it gives a general idea of the potential max SPL to be gained by using a subwoofer to relieve them of low bass responsibility. This is a missing piece of data from all the manufacturer specs and tests of studio monitors and other speakers that only cite full range max SPL.