Studio monitors for home listening

Anyone do this?

Any views.

Adam Audio T7V 2 Way Studio Monitors. XLR connection from Matrix Mini-I Pro 3

Works and sounds great. On nearly 24 hrs a day except for Backup Time and any maintenance time on Roon or my iMac.

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Cheers. I’ve got limited space and a small room so trying to work out if there is any disadvantage to powered monitors compared to powered speakers.

And obviously dog is 10/10. My dog is not very tolerant of my music choices :frowning:

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I use iLoud MTM monitors attached to a Focusrite USB interface for one of my desktop setups, and also used the iLoud Micro Monitors, which are surprisingly good, until I bought the MTMs. For nearfield listening they are very nice and a good size. Been considering Genelecs also, but I am satisfied for now.

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I think the general thinking is that monitors are more clinical and thus better suited for studio applications whereas powered speakers are more “enjoyable”
I don’t think this holds true anymore.
My buddy has some Focal powered monitors and they are glorious.

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Ah yes, as Robert suggests: Near field listening vs. more typical room listening.
But I still don’t feel it’s a hard and fast rule.

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We went through a series of moves that meant that my regular speakers were in storage for a long while. We ended up using a pair of KRK Rokit 5’s as regular bookshelf speakers on some small stands for a long while. This was in a largish room with high ceilings and not as nearfield on a desk. I thought they sounded great although I had to fiddle with the balance dials at the back.

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I always find it interesting regarding the views of studio monitors. These are the monitors used to manage the recording, mix, and master the recordings, but to many they are not HiFi. I’m not talking about the Mixcube type of monitor which is a good quality check, but many high-end monitors can be very good now for general listening near- or midfield, especially the DSP-controlled fully active versions, and the elimination of cables and preamp/amp issues can be very useful in some cases.

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The comment I mostly hear is that monitors can be so neutral that they can come across as dull and flat in a domestic environment. The advantage is that mids and highs will cut through as they are designed that way. My experience with the KRK’s was the opposite so I found myself dialing down the bass 3db. But I guess that is very room dependent. I didn’t try it because I didn’t feel the need but with roon parametric equalization there can be very fine adjustment of the balance even with relatively inexpensive monitors like the KRK’s. My experience has been that if you value clarity you can get surprisingly good results even with inexpensive monitors.

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I think that a lot of people do, especially the active ones. These often have adjustment (tilt or shelving) controls for bass and treble to offer best sound in different room types and placements (ie close to walls).
The one thing I have learnt about this is that many of them have their own signature sound. Some manufacturers claim to have a neutral sound and others claim to make your mixes sound great. I think you can draw your own conclusions from these two contrasting claims. As with anything audio, you pays your money and takes your choice.
In this community I have seen ATC, Dynaudio, JBL, Adam, Dutch & Dutch, Focal, Kii and Genelec used and probably many more.

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Just a heads up for active / studio monitor users (I am one too)

I service hifi gear and the number of always on monitors that I have had to replace powersupply parts (mostly capacitors or complete small switched mode power supplies - SMPS) that have expired is very high. While they might well go into standby for the amplifier side of things the auto on circuitry needs to be powered 24/7 and thus will have issues over time.

I use a small electronic trigger box power point to turn on my Quested VS2205 monitors via Lumin USB control option. I use similar trigger options for my other Active speakers to turn my Amplifiers when needed…and roon happily obliges to turn them all off again after play is stopped for x mins.

if really want some studio monitor beast look at barefoot

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That’s interesting. My Rokit’s were always on and one of them failed. I never knew why but they were so cheap I just bought another pair. I did look for a single speaker for a while but by then they had gone from gen 3 to gen 4 and the styling was subtly different so my wife was having none of it if they didn’t match.

Could you point me in the direction of the sort of thing you mean? Thanks.

Might be a bit of a European premium on these as they are….somewhat out of my price range. Good for daydreaming though :slight_smile:

I DIY’d it myself…I’m that kinda guy…just happened on a pair of Dynaudio BM5A MkII’s one speaker dead…oddly one of the pair I had repaired a few years ago…this time I’m inheriting them as payment for some other work. Another dead cap. Will be replacing them all this time on both speakers

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Thanks. Beyond my skill set I’m afraid but sounds like something to look into.

Do you rate dynaudio? I’ve been looking at their LYD range.

I dont rate commercial speakers and these are 10 years old or thereabouts - most speakers like this I inherit as not worth repair costs (at least for someone else to pay for) but for me its my hobby and time is free to some degree. normally I build my own speakers - linkwitzlab.com is my designer (RIP) of choice - now I’m done with my last build here

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Came across this thread and had to jump on here. I’m a long time Adam monitor owner, have a pair of Artist 3’s at my desktop, a pair of Tensor Epsilons (that are for sale) and a new (to me) pair of Tensor Betas. I have lost the power supplies on 1 each of the Epsilons and the Artist 3’s.

The Betas (MSRP $30k+) I am worried about this happening because shipping them to Adam would be no easy task given the size and weight of them. I’ve been thinking about exactly the setup you speak of to have them trigger on/off with either Roon or my Bricasti DAC, so thank you for illuminating this and confirming it could be done.

Can you elaborate further on your setup? What is the electronic trigger box power point you use? And how exactly does Roon turn them off again? TIA…

An opinion.

This question should go to an audiophile or a sound engineer. Paul is a representation of the status of the high end audio industry. Guessings and no science.

As an audiophile, I guess monitors are more flat in their response and their good ones give less distortion and harmonics. For a casual listeners they might seem bright but for an audiophile they might sound good. A sound engineer would focus on the sound coming out of the speakers but an audiophile should focus on the music. I am not sure if that makes sense. So, audiophiles are used to colored sound with extra bass not flat accurate response.

Conclusion, with any speakers, if you feel yourself attached to what it is giving you. This could be the right speakers for you.

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