Speaker Upgrade choice
 

Well, it's that time, to upgrade my speakers for monitoring. I currently have my speakers coming out of my soundcard via regular 1/8 inch plug. So I was flipping through my 5lbs BH catalog and saw something like this http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation
I was trying to find the ones that are better quality but still connect usb. I am not sure what the difference is. I do however need to connect a new pair of speakers.

So my options;

Connect USB.

Connect normally, out of my sound card.

Connect off of my JVC production monitor

I have a pretty good ear, I just need that clean anadulterated sound.


Steven

What role will these speakers play in your setup? Are they to be used as your serious working monitors for editing and mastering your sound mix or just as preview monitors, say during field recording on your laptop or some such?

I don't mean to sound negative, but typical computer 'multimedia' speakers such as these are very unlikely to be suitable for any serious work beyond confirming that indeed you have sound. Sometimes that's all you need, but for real monitors you need to set your sights (and budget) quite a bit higher.

Thanks Steve. These will be my editing monitors. I'll use these on my desk to edit with. I doubt they would travel with me much.

Yeah, that link above is a cheapo pair, but it was the only example I could find of a usb connector. I am looking to upgrade my speakers. I currently deal with that delay to my monitor via firewire, so I was exploring my speaker connection options.

What soundcard do you have? Does it have digital SP/DIF outputs? Will you replacing it in the foreseeable future? Any special reason you want USB speakers in particular?

Hmm, the sound card I have doesn't have SP/DIF outputs, But my mother board does.

Not really interested in USB, I just noticed them.

Your motherboard has S/PDIF?!?!?! I asked because there are a number of quality monitors that have digital audio as well as analog inputs but I'm not aware of any with USB connections. That's not to say they don't exist, just I can't think of any off the top of my head. Those that I do know about all fall into the category of 'computer speakers,' okay for entertainment but not a substitute for real monitors.

I asked about your soundcard because if you're trying to upgrade your system to higher quality sound in general you might want to consider your audio interface at the same time you think about the monitors. With the exception of a couple of top of the line cards, most conventional PC soundcards aren't really up to par for professional work and even the best would be considered only marginally adequate. Since you mentioned you were interested in USB connectivity, an external USB audio interface to drive the monitors and also to provide inputs for recording rather than looking for monitors that have USB connections themselves might be something to consider.

Thanks Steve, my motherboard listed here http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/...M800PMD-775-RH
lists one 1 x SPDIF IN/OUT so I'm assuming that I can use it for my new speakers. I like your idea of having both analog and digital.

Now to find a good pair.

I'd be very very cautious using the integrated soundcard on the motherboard, they are rarely (if ever!) really suitable. What sort of productions are you planning - serious work or home movies/hobby sorts of things?

I have an maudio audiophile card in my machine. While its converters don't sound as good as much more expensive interfaces, and not as good as my pioneer universal player (I use this as my defacto cd player), this card definitely sounds better than any integrated audio from a motherboard and kicks my friends expensive soundblaster card.

I think it would be around $100 upgrade and would be well worth the money.

As for the speakers that you suggested, I would look a little higher up on the food chain. Even if you were willing to invest an extra $100, the edirol monitors at that price would be much much better. Editing on cheap computer speakers sucks no matter how you cut it.

Greg,

Yeah, I don't mind getting another sound card and speakers. I'm just trying to find a good combination.

I was trying to confirm what the best type of out put will be, spdif analog etc. Greg do you have a link for your sound card?

I'm very happy with my Echo Audiofire firewire interface ... www.echoaudio.com

Thanks Steve, I was reading some of your other posts on audio stuff. It's good information.

Speakers
 

Steve, I just bought this set to hook up USB to my MBPro. http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/pr...ontentid=12263

They are not bad. They sound great for everyday listening and short of getting reference monitors to do serious work, I think you'll like these. They're heavy duty.

Jeff

If your budget is limited, give the M-Audio line of speakers a try. You might be pleasantly surprised.
I got them for my home theater, cause they sound really good and honest.

In my studio, I use reference monitors by ATC and Focal, but these are rather expensive.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
Arthur

Thanks, I'm still looking around. I definatly need to consider a card/speaker combo. These are great suggestions.

you can go to m audios website: http://www.m-audio.com/

There are any number of retailers that would be happy to sell you one, so I would shop around and see if you could get a deal.

Echo, the company that Steve House mentioned makes a similar card (Mia midi) that offers the same basic capabilities. A little bit more expensive, but offers 1/4" jacks instead of rca.

On second thought, check out their website too: echoaudio.com

That said, you could buy any number of speaker/interface combinations, but beware of professional interfaces. Do your research before you buy. Many NLEs won't support ASIO drivers that some pro interfaces require. I am recomending the m-audio because it has been around for a while, is an inexpensive solution, provides good results and should work with any program that you use it with. For reference, the M-audio card sounds much better than the Soundblaster audigy cards that cost more money.

As for speakers, your best off going to a large retailer and listening to as many speakers as they will let you, then you could pick the best speakers in your price range. As for my recomendations, I would look toward the Yamaha msp3 or 5 and the events seem to be pretty well rated for the low end.

Good recommendations. Echo's MIA MIDI is the rough equivalent of the M-Audio Audiophile 192. Both have 1/4" TRS balanced connectors, which put them a step above the RCA jack class.

My Echo Audiofire 8 has two decent pre's, 8 in's, SP/dif in and out, word clock in and out, and Vegas sees 'em all just fine over firewire. The extra in's give extra flexibility (like different preamps/mics without repatching, and efx send/return using a dedicated fx box), the 8 outputs let me run 5.1 surround AND stereo simultaneously if software allows, the word clock in lets me clock it from MOTU MTP-AV which is in turn locked to black burst, so zero chance of audio drift. The combination also lets me have 9 midi in's and outs (I compose original music for all my training/safety vid's) so this setup works REALLY well for me... Steve

Wow, you have quite the set-up. It's funny that this thread started with steven asking about a $50 pair of prosumer computer speakers and has evolved into your post Steve. This set-up sounds like overkill for most video preditors, most videos hardly get mixed for stereo, let alone for surround sound. What type of work do you do steve? Any other software you use? (your set-up sounds more in line with a high end nuendo set-up, not a vegas suite) Why would you need to run stereo and surround at the same time? I am kind of baffeled by this statement. Do you sync decks with software ever? The midi time piece you mentioned is supposedly a tremendous piece of kit, great for an all around sync box. One more: What's your speaker set-up and what kind of machine are you running? Oops, guess that was two.

I think most of us would be better off buying interfaces without the built-in pres and putting the money we saved on better pres. Or we could use the mixer we use for monitoring our various sources. Just my opinion though.

Hehe yeah Greg, Initially I was wondering about usb speakers, just from a technical perspective. I am looking at a variety of combinations speaker/soundcard.

So this is good stuff. I just want to be able to hear the mix/subtle noises etc.

Steven, sorry if I hijacked your thread - I'll try to keep it short.

Greg, I'm coming to DV from an audio recording background, had about $100k in gear before I started getting back into video. Used to do both in the SF Bay area in the 70's, then in Hawaii, worn a bunch of hats over the years. Started shifting priorities into sound for film/video, then discovered that about a dozen of the previous "hats" fit well with industrial video, and it actually PAYS.

Anyway, just setting up some KRK speakers in 5.1 or stereo for audio side, I use Samplitude/Sonar/Sound Forge/Vegas mainly these days (analog tape is too expensive for most things) - currently editing on a 3.6 gig P4 with 2 gigs ram, 4 drives (one is 10k rpm), dual 19" LCD's and Canopus TwinPact 100 into Sony broadcast trinitron, the echo firewire audio with an Art tube pre, TC multi-fx box, and getting ready to break ground on a new studio this spring so I can incorporate more of my "goodies" into the workflow.

Steven, again sorry if I went over the top on your question; I'm probably NOT the guy to ask about cheap ways of doing things - but if you wanna improve your room so it sounds as good as whatever speakers you get, just ask - been studying acoustics/sound proofing off and on for the last 25 years, think I'm finally getting the hang of it... Steve

No problem, not my thread. But do feel free to come over, we'll go shopping.

Thanks for the reply Steve. No need to apologize.

Shopping??!? Whatcha think got me into this in the first place? :=)

Just checked out your site BTW, nice presentation. Handel, no less - cool. You're definitely ahead of me in the video end, fortunately (for me) the kind of industrial stuff I shoot needs mainly wide angle stuff (can you say "LARGE"?) with tight detail shots sprinkled where necessary for understanding.

I did notice a couple of typos however (I also edit a lot, can't read ANYTHING without going into that mode) - if you want, I can suggest a couple of wording changes so the copy keeps up with the rest of your site - they're minor but if I noticed them, others might.

also, if you have a sketch or pic of your editing room I can make suggestions to improve acoustics, from simple furniture arranging to complete buildings and anything in between.

Not pushing, just trying to give back some of what I've learned on this site; your choice... Steve