Desktop Speakers vs Monitors

Quote:

Originally Posted by jtaylor991 

I could use some computer speakers. I have some $20 Altec Lansing's that work fine but maybe someday I'll want more. I was wondering, why buy desktop speakers over monitors (active monitors and speakers, I don't wanna get into buying amps) or vice versa? I liked the review of the Emotive Pro airmotiv4 speakers, and I was wondering, what's the pros/cons to buying those over a good $400 pair of actual studio monitors like KRK RP5G2s and the like?

It mostly comes down to voicing. Studio monitors are supposed to be uncolored to help you find flaws in your mixes, they're generally not for kicking back and listening to music with, though you can certainly do that with them if you want to. Ideally monitors should be right down the middle, but most aren't, particularly more affordable ones like the KRK Rokit series. Some err a bit to the warm and forgiving side, while others are more cold and sterile.

Aside from that, they are made for different users. Computer speakers typically have the amplifier inside one speaker, and use a cable to send the power to the other. This lets you use a single volume knob for both, and you'll probably also have a bass and treble knob. Monitors are individually powered, usually with separate amps for the bass driver and tweeter. Instead of bass and treble controls, you'll get knobs or switches to boost or cut the output of the individual driver by a dB or two to try to tailor the speaker to your room acoustics, and there may also be controls for boundary compensation. Higher end monitors also eschew RCA jacks for balanced XLR and TRS inputs. If you don't have a mixing board, you'll need some sort of volume control. Monitors have level controls, not volume knobs.

Monitors show up badly mastered recordings and they sound bad, while multimedia speakers colour the sound so all recordings sound good.

I think the behringers http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/B1030A.aspx are slightly better than the krks.

Also the Emotive Pro airmotiv4 uses a Heil air motion transformer , i've never heard it but by reading up on it this tweeter will sound very directional it won't fill a room with sound like a dome but beam the treble at you making it only suitable for a well placed near field set-up, where as the behringers and krks can easily fill a room with sound.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JRG1990 

Also the Emotive Pro airmotiv4 uses a Heil air motion transformer , i've never heard it but by reading up on it this tweeter will sound very directional it won't fill a room with sound like a dome but beam the treble at you making it only suitable for a well placed near field set-up, where as the behringers and krks can easily fill a room with sound.

AMTs and ribbon tweeters are not like lasers. Generally vertical dispersion with them is limited compared to domes, which is actually a good thing with desktop use, you don't want the high frequencies bouncing off the desk at you. Horizontal dispersion is pretty comparable to a dome, but AMTs and ribbons are considerably faster, and the good ones have incredible levels of detail that even tweeters like the Esostar or the Accuton ceramics can't match.

Ribbons are much more directional than domes both vertical and horizontal, it might be a good thing in a near field set-up where you don't want the frequences to bounce round the room but placement of the speakers is much more important, it depends on your requirements.

I'm not sure about the ribbons having more detail or if the extra detail is just disortion, some ribbon tweeters measure up to 2% thd, domes are generally 0.5 - 1% thd.