Looking for speakers or studio monitors

[Yorus]

Hello!, I am thinking about changing my Logitech X-140:

They have given me good results for a bunch of years, but I want to improve a little and relocate these to another more modest PC. It will be connected to an X-Fi Xtreme Music, and my requirements are:

• I don't want a subwoofer, just a 2.0.
• Maximum 100€.
• Moderate size, I know that the bigger the diameter of the woofer the lower it will go in bass, but I want them to fit on the table.
• Auxiliary audio input to be able to connect another PC or a mobile without disconnecting it from the PC where they will normally be.
• I listen mostly to music (varied, from relaxation music to soundtracks, trance, metal, classical music…), and occasionally some games, but not much.
• The room is small, but sometimes I go to the next one and I like it to be heard, although this is not a priority.

What do you recommend?, I had thought about a pair of active studio monitors, because I want above all clarity, to be able to differentiate each sound at a volume not very high except on rare occasions.

Regards!

[Sylver]

Hello,

If you want something modest, forget about studio monitors, because although it is the best option for the quality you are looking for, the size is their weak point, even in the lower range ones. My 8-inch ones, for example, take up a lot of space.

Moreover, even if you made room, you won't find decent studio monitors for less than €100. If you see any, they will be of such low quality that it won't be worth investing in them.

Given your budget, your limited space and seeing what kind of speakers you come from, I would recommend these: Creative Gigaworks T20

I hope to help you, even so, Mr. Obione is also a musician, he will surely come by soon to comment on other options :troll:

Best regards!

[JuezDred]

On vibbo. There are self-amplified studio monitors that work very well. And for that price. Too bad you don't live here. Since I know several for sale. I suppose there is more market in the peninsula. If you see something, post the model and we'll take a look to see if it's worth it.

[JuezDred]

I made my own speakers. Starting with two wooden columns, some keff speakers and some jbl filters. The amp is a nikkon from the 80s restored by me. Jejeje

[Kernel1.0]

Sorry Yorus for bringing up another topic.
I had a JVC mini-hifi system from the year of the chestnut and I had it connected to the computer because the speakers sounded great, the thing is that it stopped working and an amplifier for those speakers costs me more than some self-amplified speakers. Now your comments have made me remember those speakers and I miss them, does anyone know how I could make them work without it costing me a fortune?

[Yorus]

Let's go step by step (long live the multiquote!)

@Sylver:

Good afternoon,

If you want something moderate, forget about studio monitors, because although it's the best option for the quality you're looking for, the size is their weak point, even in the lower range ones. For example, mine are 8 inches and they take up a lot of space.

Moreover, even if you could make room, you won't find decent studio monitors for less than €100. If you see any, it will be of such low quality that it won't be worth investing in it.

Given your budget, your limited space, and seeing what type of speakers you come from, I would recommend these: Creative Gigaworks T20

I hope I've helped you, even so, Mr. Obione is also a musician, so he will surely pass by soon to comment on other options :troll:

Best regards!

Now that I'm at home, I've been able to take measurements. On my desk, there's room for pretty big speakers, but at the cost of removing things and taking up a lot of space. The speakers I had looked at are these, some of which are just over 14cm wide and that I can afford in terms of space:

Woxter Dynamic Line DL-420 - https://www.amazon.es/Woxter-Dynamic-Line-DL–410/dp/B00GO1M458/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1470151710&sr=8-1&keywords=woxter+dl-410
These have a very good reputation because they say they are Trevi rebranded but at half the price. They say they have good sound and poor finish, but unbeatable for their price. They are moderate in size, because Amazon's data is wrong, because they put the packaging's measurements, the real measurements are 23x18x13 (rounded).

Hercules XPS 60 DJ Set - https://www.amazon.es/Hercules-4780691-Monitores-estudio-altavoces/dp/B0086E1394/ref=sr_1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1470152128&sr=1-1&keywords=hercules+xps+60
These catch my attention and have what I ask for but I don't know how good they will be. They are well-sized. Before the Logitech, I had some cheap Hercules wooden ones that surprised me in terms of sound definition, although not in terms of bass, but this is another superior range. Mine died :nono:

Alesis Elevate 3 - https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B009ELKA6U/ref=s9_simh_gw_g23_i1_r?pf_rd_m=A1AT7YVPFBWXBL&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=KHVRY9YFBN97N8Y3857X&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=6d8f0343-6251-45c8-9899-ea554850c331&pf_rd_i=desktop
Looking at websites, they seem to be pretty good within their range. They are at the limit in size and they lack an input for a second audio source.

Edifier Studio R1280T - https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B00GBN50SC/ref=s9_simh_gw_g23_i2_r?pf_rd_m=A1AT7YVPFBWXBL&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=KHVRY9YFBN97N8Y3857X&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=6d8f0343-6251-45c8-9899-ea554850c331&pf_rd_i=desktop
Others that are at the limit in size and price, but I see them recommended everywhere, even by Obione in N3D ;D.

And the truth is that seeing how the different speakers would look in terms of size, I'm increasingly convinced by the Creative ones you put, of which I've also heard good things, but I don't know how they compare to the others. I imagine that the box will limit them in terms of bass, but in all the opinions I read, no one says that it's weak in that.

@JuezDred:

On vibbo. There are self-amplified studio monitors that work very well. And for that price. It's a shame you don't live here. Because I know several for sale. I suppose there's more market in the peninsula. If you see something, post the model and we'll take a look to see if it's worth it.

I'll take a look at second-hand websites, although I already looked a bit before the summer and you can't find bargains there.

@JuezDred:

I made my own speakers. Starting from two wooden columns, some Keff speakers, and JBL filters. The amp is a restored Nikon from the 80s by me. Hehe

Uffff, too much trouble for me ;D

@Kernel1.0:

Sorry Yorus for bringing up another topic.
I had a JVC mini-system from the year of the chestnut and I had it connected to the computer because the speakers sounded great, the thing is that it stopped working and an amplifier for those speakers costs me more than self-amplified speakers. Now your comments have made me remember those speakers and I miss them, does anyone know how I could make them work without costing me a fortune?

No problem, more things I can learn in this thread :sisi:

[JuezDred]

Get a class d amplifier on ebay. For less than 100€ you have a bbb amplifier. 100w per channel and of high quality.

[Kernel1.0]

The truth is that I'm itching for nostalgia, I'll look to see if I can find something second-hand, because for 100 euros I can copy the speakers to Yorus xD. Thanks, I won't bother you anymore so as not to step on the topic.

[Sylver]

@Kernel1.0:

Perdón Yorus por sacar otro tema.
Yo tenia una minicadena JVC del año de la castaña y la tenia conectada al ordenador por que los altavoces se oían de lujo, el tema es que dejo de funcionar y un amplificador para esos altavoces me cuesta mas que unos altavoces auto amplificados. Ahora vuestros comentarios me han hecho recordar esos altavoces y los añoro, ¿alguien sabe como los podría hacer funcionar sin que me cueste una pasta?

Hombre, si era una minicadena poco potente, con cualquier amplificadorucho baratero de pocos vatios te valdrá, con mirar qué potencia tenía la minicadena y ajustarse a eso te valdría. Si no, con una simple minicadena de segunda mano (hay muchísimas tiradas de precio, o equipos de música antiguos de los 90) se los conectas, le metes el conector del PC por auxiliar y a correr.

Yo hace poco estuve a nada de pillar un equipito de música viejuno de los 90 por milanuncios, desde 20€ los hay, y todos tienen una potencia decente en el amplificador que incorporan. La única pega es que viene todo en una pieza normalmente. Los buenos son los que venían por secciones, donde podías separar el ampli del lector de discos y demás, pero eran normalmente más caros (y de mayor calidad, obviamente).

@Yorus:

Vamos a ir parte por parte (viva el multiquote!)

Ya en casa he podido tomar medidas. En mi mesa caben altavoces bien grandotes, pero a costa de quitar cosas y comerme mucha mesa. Los altavoces que había mirado son estos, que algunos superan poco poco los 14cm de ancho y eso me lo puedo permitir en cuanto a espacio:

Woxter Dynamic Line DL-420 - https://www.amazon.es/Woxter-Dynamic-Line-DL–410/dp/B00GO1M458/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1470151710&sr=8-1&keywords=woxter+dl-410
Estos tienen muy buena fama porque dicen que son unos Trevi remarcados pero a mitad de precio. Dicen que tienen buen sonido y mal acabado, pero insuperables por su precio. Son comedidos de tamaño, porque los datos de Amazon están mal, porque ponen los del embalaje, las medidas reales son 23x18x13 (redondeando).

Hercules XPS 60 DJ Set - https://www.amazon.es/Hercules-4780691-Monitores-estudio-altavoces/dp/B0086E1394/ref=sr_1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1470152128&sr=1-1&keywords=hercules+xps+60
Estos me llaman la atención y tienen lo que pido pero no se que tal serán. De tamaño están bien. Antes de los Logitech tuve unos Hercules baratuchos de madera que me sorprendieron en cuanto a definición de sonido, aunque no en cuanto a graves, pero esto es otra gama superior. Los míos murieron :nono:

Alesis Elevate 3 - https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B009ELKA6U/ref=s9_simh_gw_g23_i1_r?pf_rd_m=A1AT7YVPFBWXBL&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=KHVRY9YFBN97N8Y3857X&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=6d8f0343-6251-45c8-9899-ea554850c331&pf_rd_i=desktop
Mirando por webs parecen ser bastante buenos dentro de su gama. De tamaño andan al límite y les falta entrada para una segunda fuente de audio.

Edifier Studio R1280T - https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B00GBN50SC/ref=s9_simh_gw_g23_i2_r?pf_rd_m=A1AT7YVPFBWXBL&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=KHVRY9YFBN97N8Y3857X&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=6d8f0343-6251-45c8-9899-ea554850c331&pf_rd_i=desktop
Otros que andan al límite de tamaño y de precio, pero los veo recomendados por todos lados, hasta a Obione en N3D ;D.

Y la verdad es que viendo como quedarían los diferentes altavoces por tamaño cada vez me convencen más los Creative que has puesto, de los que también he oído cosas buenas, pero no se como en comparación de los otros. Imagino que la caja le limitará en cuanto a graves, pero en las opiniones que leo en todos lados nadie dice que flojee en eso.

He tenido cerca varios equipos de sonido Creative desde niño, y la verdad puedo decir que responden maravillosamente en entornos de escritorio, incluso sorprenden en gamas de 5.1 ganando a algunos home cinema bien montados.

De esos monitores que has puesto confío en Woxter, porque ya he tenido equipos de sonido de esa marca y me han dejado muy buenas impresiones, son potentes, aunque flaquean en bastantes frecuencias, pero para uso doméstico eso no es muy relevante.

Cierto es que los Edifier tienen buenas críticas y parece ser que suenan decentemente; personalmente no he tenido ningunos, aunque podría apuntar (únicamente en base a opiniones de terceros) que en cuanto a calidad de materiales dejan un poco que desear, porque aunque aparentemente se ven sólidos, el tuiter y el woofer no son distintos a los de unos altavoces de minicadena doméstica cualquiera. Eso sí, tienen un mejor diseño obviamente, que hace que rindan mucho más y mejor.

¡Saludos!

[Yorus]

Well, between your comments, which I value a lot since you are involved in that little world, and the space that studio monitors would take up, I am almost decided on the Creative ones, which you have also tried several models of.

Up until now, I have only had the first Trust ones (they didn't sound bad), the Hercules (clean sound but without bass), these Logitech ones (they are not bad, to be honest, but I want to improve) and a 2.1 Logitech that I sold because the subwoofer could not be adjusted and the bass affected my mood and gave me headaches. In short, I have not had anything above 30€ except for a period with the mini-chain Pioneer, but I have that in the living room for movies and I would not change it for anything.

Of the Creative ones, compared to the Logitech ones, I am more confident that they have a separate tweeter, because the Logitech ones have two speakers but of the same diameter, and the volume of the box is larger, which surely helps with the bass.

Thanks again! ;D

[Sylver]

@Yorus:

Well, between your comments that I value a lot since you are involved in that little world, and the space that studio monitors would take, I am almost decided for the Creative ones, which you have also tried several models.

So far I have only had the first Trust ones (they didn't sound bad), the Hercules (clean sound but without bass), these Logitech ones (they are not bad, to be honest, but I want to improve) and a 2.1 Logitech that I sold because the sub could not be regulated and the bass affected my mood and gave me a headache. That is, I haven't had anything above 30€ except for a period with the mini-chain Pioneer, but I have that in the living room for movies and I wouldn't change it for anything.

Of the Creative ones compared to the Logitech ones, I am more confident that it has a separate tweeter, because the Logitech ones have two speakers but of the same diameter, and that the volume of the box is greater, which surely helps with the bass.

Thanks again! ;D

You're welcome, that's what we are for :sisi:

However, if it's not urgent, wait to see if any other colleague wants to contribute something, you never know if there is a better option on the market, I personally think that those Creative ones will cover your needs perfectly and give you a lot of joy, but I am not up to date with absolutely all the models and their prices, here the offers and the novelties fly!

Best regards!

[Yorus]

I can still wait a little, it's not in a hurry but I have to order some DDR3 and a few other things and that way I can take advantage of the shipping.

As a curiosity, I tried some Bose Companion 2 Series III at Worten by plugging in my mobile phone and I don't know what would go wrong, but they didn't sound at all clear. At MediaMarkt they have the Woxter DL-410 on display and they wouldn't even turn on :wall:. Maybe it happened to me again, it's not that the outlet where it was wasn't working or they had it disconnected.

Edit: If the Bose are like that I don't understand how they can supposedly give quite good quality. Well, I understand that the ideal thing is to have several cones to reproduce different frequencies as long as they are well filtered:

[Nemo]

I'm going to recommend the speakers that I've been longing for since I first saw them.

They are the Gigaworks T40 series II, the older brothers of the ones that your forum friends have already recommended to you.
The reputation of Creative speakers is true. They really sound good and, although the T20 are very good, these ones are heaven.
The only drawback is that they cost double the price. If you have the opportunity to go to a store where they have them (like Fnac) and listen to them, you'll see how good they sound.

P.D: As the memory of my platonic love has bitten me, I have visited the Creative website and I have seen that they are on offer for just under 100 euros.

[ferelxyx]

@Nemo:

I'm going to recommend the speakers that I've been longing for since I first saw them.

They are the Gigaworks T40 series II, the older brothers of the ones that your forum friends have already recommended to you.
The reputation of Creative speakers is true. They really sound good and, although the T20s are very good, these ones are heaven.
The only drawback is that they cost double. If you have the opportunity to go to a store where they have them (like Fnac) and listen to them, you'll see how good they sound.

P.D: As the memory of my platonic love has bitten me, I have visited the Creative website and I have seen that they are on offer for just under 100 euros.

I think the same, these are great and take up little space, the only bad thing is the price, of course

if you don't want to spend money Woxter Big Bass 95 - 25 euros approx
Creative Gigaworks T20 Series II - Speakers - 64 euros approx

[Yorus]

Thanks guys, I'm getting clearer about the Creative ones, now I'm torn between T20 and T40, hehe. I was surprised by the price on their website for the T40, cheaper than Amazon and with free shipping.

I'm going to take your advice Nemo and I'll go to the nearest Fnac this weekend to see if they have them to try them out. I'll make a selection of music of various types in Flac to analyze them better.

[Yorus]

I just saw a detail of the Creative that I don't like at all, it has an external transformer. With this, the box will gain more volume for the sound, but I hate having transformers all over the place.

[Sylver]

That is becoming more and more common for a reason: if the transformer (or power supply if you want to call it that) fails, the fact that it is separate from the speaker assembly allows for a simple replacement without having to disassemble and gut the speakers themselves, putting the sound system and the precision of the assembly that offers the best possible performance at risk. That, for example, in the self-amplified ones is a disadvantage in the long term, because if one of the sources fails, you have to gut the entire monitor and that seriously jeopardizes its performance, because once opened and tampered with, it is very likely that it will no longer be the same as when it came out of the factory, and that will be noticeable in reverberations, vibrations, definition, etc... That is something to keep in mind, for sure. ¡Greetings!

[Yorus]

To be honest, I've been thinking about it for over an hour, looking through all kinds of forums, and my conclusion is that the T20s are still my first choice. The truth is that my Logitechs look great on my desk, and of all the ones we've put, only the two Creative models would take up more or less the same space, the studio monitors would be real beasts on the table for someone who doesn't work with sound :D.

I have little experience with sound, but I'm a master at organizing and hiding cables and transformers, so I'm sure I'll manage to tidy it up, with the desk clear and with better sound.

The Logitechs still have some life left, they'll go to my parents' house, I have a monitor/TV and I never listen to music because it's 100% lamentable, it's good for podcasts and not much more.

[Yorus]

Today I went to Fnac and then went back to MediaMarkt, the first to see the Creative and the second the Woxter DL-410. Well, at Fnac they didn't even have the Creative in sight, and not a single speaker that could be tested and the ones at MediaMarkt were being renovated, so they had them all grouped together on shelves without plugs.

I think I'm going to wait a couple of weeks, because starting from the weekend that comes up I'm going to be away for 4 days. I'll bring the Amazon app installed with the basket full to place the order for the Creative T20 (if no one convinces me with another option) the day before I return ;D.

[Obione]

I've heard good reviews about the Woxter, but I would only go for the Edifier because of the connections. It has a mini-jack for one source on the 410, against 4 RCA's for 2 sources on the R1280T, and you also get a remote with the 3 magic buttons (+ / - / mute).