Powered or unpowered monitors?

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nathancipher

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 12, 2008
Messages
322
I am trying to decide if I want to go with active or passive monitors for an audio studio setup.

Are there any inherent advantages/disadvantages of powered v unpowered?

The deciding factors for me will come down to the cost:quality ratio.

I also already have a Crown D-45 1u amp I could power passive monitors with, used to power some Alesis monitors that I sold but no one wanted to pay what the amp is worth so i still have it.

Price range is around $300 since is this is a purely hobbyist studio setup and I will be paying to have material mastered properly anyway.
 
Powered: You don't need to buy an amp.
Unpowered: You aren't stuck with the amp it comes with.

Also for shielding/noise purposes etc, it helps if the amplifier isn't actually inside the speaker cabinet...but it's not a huge factor compared to other things.
 
ashmedai said:
Powered: You don't need to buy an amp.
Unpowered: You aren't stuck with the amp it comes with.

Also for shielding/noise purposes etc, it helps if the amplifier isn't actually inside the speaker cabinet...but it's not a huge factor compared to other things.
Click to expand...

excuse my poor wording in the OP.

I guess my real question is should I stick with the Crown D-45 (which is a pretty sweet amp) and go for passive monitors, or just get some powered ones and call it a day. i.e. which route would allow me to maximize my $300 budget.
 
well, i do like the amp a lot, however if i can manage to find a buyer i could sell it and cover the cost of powered monitors (actually nevermind, they can be had new for ~$300 nowadays or so google tells me)

further the D-45 is 25w per channel, which is a bit on the weak side...don't get me wrong it sounds great, but it's still weak

i think i'm leaning towards selling the D-45 for like $125 and putting the cash towards some powered monitors

also worth noting that as the signal is coming from a studio mixer, i will only be using analog inputs

that in mind anyone have a recommendations for good powered monitors? i've been looking pretty hard at the KRK rokit 8's
 
Could always get this, try it with the amp it's bundled with and the one you have, and sell off the one you don't like as much.
 
wow that amp looks badass

that's a really tempting deal

frequency response is also flat enough for my hobbyist studio

can't imagine getting anything flatter in that price range
 
Those speakers sound all kinds of awesome too. Plus they look pretty.
 
tweak city audio shut down, av123 is having serious employee sickness issues atm. You might not get the deal or at least it will not ship for a long time.

As far as selling your 25 wpc amp, why? Powered monitors are 7-25 watts in your price range.

There is a pair of X-LS modded classics on the av123 forum for $230 + shipping which would DOMINATE. I owned that exact pair for a bit and can say they are the hardest hitting bookshelves I have ever heard.

http://av123forum.com/showthread.php?t=34061
 
The X-LS would be a great deal if you can get it in time. For the amp combo, if there's concern about getting it - call 'em, then you can be sure. If it's dead, you still already have an amp which should work fine.

BTW pretty much everything is something laminated over something. But often it's vinyl laminate (most of those low-end black bookshelf speakers, for example). This is (I believe) wood laminate over MDF, which looks good and provides effective acoustics.
 
i'm new here, finally was able to get ahold of an email for myself that i could use to register, but enough of that nonsense, which alesis monitors did you have? have you tried their m1 actives? i have a pair and i like them and it seems like alot of other people do too but their complaint is within the built in amplifier itself, their power board capacitors tend to go out.
 
i had a pair of alesis monitor1 mkII i believe...this is just from photo reference the model could be different

anyway i ended up going with a pair of m-audio av30's since i found a pretty sweet clearance at GC for a "studio in a box" that came with the av30's, a fast track USB sound card, and a pretty decent mic for around $140 USD
 
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