Nearfield monitor (audio) suggestions?

DriveHard

DriveHard

Joined
Nov 24, 2003
Messages
4,554
Location
Middle of Iowa
I'm sick of wearing headphones at my desk. I have a decent 25w/channel tube amp with Aux in, my vinyl player, and records all ready to set up a nearfield arrangement at my desk, but I have never purchased nearfield speakers before. Budget is below $500...and even that seems excessive for what I am looking to use them for. I do like solid bass, but really looking for imaging and clarity. Any suggestions?

I was honestly considering these...
https://www.parts-express.com/Dayto...-Transmission-Line-Tower-Speaker-Pair-300-658

I have them on either side of my bed for late night listening or morning wake up tunes, and they sound decent.
 
I asked the same question a few years ago and ended up purchasing some Boston Acoustics A25's. Nothing super high end, but they do sound pretty good. Silk dome tweeter and 5" woofer. (I have a small sub under the table). The sound is exactly what I was looking for. Clear, smooth, nice on the gaming computer.
 
I own and have performed the simple modifications within this review of the B652 AIR, as well as adding a bit of polyfill to the cabinets. I do not use DSP with mine, and still enjoy their performance nearfield. I agree with his opinion that the stock polarity tweeter is hot in a nearfield application, but the change was super easy to make, and it calms the high frequency down a bit.
In my opinion, it's difficult to achieve the results this kind of tweeter delivers for any less money. Adding some stuffing and fiddling with wiring made it well worth the money spent. That said, I purchased a couple years ago, and the price since then has increased considerably.

If you're curious, I would be willing to ship you my extra (unmodified) set if you want to try them out. Cover shipping and they are yours to test for as long as you like (within reason).

http://noaudiophile.com/Dayton_B652_Air/
 
MacManus99 said:
I own and have performed the simple modifications within this review of the B652 AIR, as well as adding a bit of polyfill to the cabinets. I do not use DSP with mine, and still enjoy their performance nearfield. I agree with his opinion that the stock polarity tweeter is hot in a nearfield application, but the change was super easy to make, and it calms the high frequency down a bit.
In my opinion, it's difficult to achieve the results this kind of tweeter delivers for any less money. Adding some stuffing and fiddling with wiring made it well worth the money spent. That said, I purchased a couple years ago, and the price since then has increased considerably.

If you're curious, I would be willing to ship you my extra (unmodified) set if you want to try them out. Cover shipping and they are yours to test for as long as you like (within reason).

http://noaudiophile.com/Dayton_B652_Air/
Click to expand...

I have always wanted to hear those tweeters, I might have to take you up on that offer. I have often wondered why they have not paired that tweeter with the transmission line design of the mini towers I posted.
 
TheLastWord said:
Tannoy near field monitors. The pros in in this type.

Kudos for even mentioning this specialized speaker. 😇
Click to expand...

Where to get them? I'm thinking the stores that sell their consumer equipment might not have that. But they have pro equipment that's actually quite reasonably priced for sale at places like Guitar Center (at least at one time). It might be powered though.
 
DriveHard said:
I'm sick of wearing headphones at my desk. I have a decent 25w/channel tube amp with Aux in, my vinyl player, and records all ready to set up a nearfield arrangement at my desk, but I have never purchased nearfield speakers before. Budget is below $500...and even that seems excessive for what I am looking to use them for. I do like solid bass, but really looking for imaging and clarity. Any suggestions?

I was honestly considering these...
https://www.parts-express.com/Dayto...-Transmission-Line-Tower-Speaker-Pair-300-658

I have them on either side of my bed for late night listening or morning wake up tunes, and they sound decent.
Click to expand...
Well, I honestly think if you have a good spot for them, they certainly look respectable for the price.
Honestly dont know how you can go wrong after I did a search and quickly read up on them. Very interesting, almost sounds like, for lack of better words, the "Boston Acoustics" of decades ago. Performance vs price. (I had the A40 bookshelf speakers if I remember correctly)
Here is the search I did =
Dayton Audio MK442T
 
alarmguy said:
Well, I honestly think if you have a good spot for them, they certainly look respectable for the price.
Honestly dont know how you can go wrong after I did a search and quickly read up on them. Very interesting, almost sounds like, for lack of better words, the "Boston Acoustics" of decades ago. Performance vs price. (I had the A40 bookshelf speakers if I remember correctly)
Here is the search I did =
Dayton Audio MK442T
Click to expand...


Oh yes, I have done plenty of searching. I really like the pair I already have in my bedroom, but that pair has a lot more power. I realized listening in my office today just how low of a power level I listen to, so I went ahead and ordered a pair today. I doubt I will find a better value right now outside of a fluke sale, or used.
 
MacManus99 said:
Let us know what you think once you get them broken in!
Click to expand...

Only about 10 hours with them so far...

So far, so good. Surprisingly, I have a :-) E-Q curve. I did expect the bass to be up a bit, with such a low listening level. I did not expect the treble to be up so much, especially since I am so close, and they are literally arms length away in direct shot with my ears...and I am still feeling like I am missing a bit of the airy sound I was hoping for. I am listening to only streaming music, and LP's, so I wonder if my source material is what is making me miss this sounds I can get on both my other "good" systems.

I will update again when I get many more hours on it.
 
Parts Express/Dayton changed the bookshelf version of your speakers, the MK402, with a crossover update. This is why the current model is called the MK402X. If I recall correctly, the update to the crossover was to calm down a hot mid/treble frequency range. It might be worth a call to tech support to see if the same can be implemented on your towers. Their tech support is usually pretty helpful.

As far as the bass goes, I would try to give the speakers 50 or so hours before making a judgement. I have tinkered with this woofer in a number of DIY applications, and have found that they need some play time at moderate volume in order to "open up'". That is just my experience.
 
DriveHard said:
... I did expect the bass to be up a bit, with such a low listening level. I did not expect the treble to be up so much, especially since I am so close, and they are literally arms length away in direct shot with my ears...and I am still feeling like I am missing a bit of the airy sound I was hoping for. I am listening to only streaming music,...
Click to expand...
I like "bright" sound, but I cant help wonder that I might expect it to be even more bright being your listening position is so close.
Yeah .. I get the airy sound but as you know, much of this can be simply messing around with them, it will be interesting to hear how you make out being so close to them might take a lot of messing around.
 
alarmguy said:
I like "bright" sound, but I cant help wonder that I might expect it to be even more bright being your listening position is so close.
Yeah .. I get the airy sound but as you know, much of this can be simply messing around with them, it will be interesting to hear how you make out being so close to them might take a lot of messing around.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I'll wait a while, but I am guessing I will dig into upgrading the tweeter to one of these sometime in the future...

https://www.parts-express.com/Dayton-Audio-AMT2-4-Air-Motion-Transformer-Tweeter-275-092
 
Quick update...

About 4-6 hours per day. They are brightening up! I have experienced speakers opening up from a bass perspective as the suspension loosens up, but these seem to be waking up in the high range. Improving by the day...almost reached for the EQ today to turn the high end down a db or two. We will try again tomorrow ;-)
 
DriveHard said:
Quick update...

About 4-6 hours per day. They are brightening up! I have experienced speakers opening up from a bass perspective as the suspension loosens up, but these seem to be waking up in the high range. Improving by the day...almost reached for the EQ today to turn the high end down a db or two. We will try again tomorrow ;-)
Click to expand...
Plenty of tweets get more sizzle and pop when the caps get seasoned.
 
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