I need help to setup a room for listening music and waching movies.
what i need is a pair of loud&neutral studio speakers that could be used also for some amateur music production and later be update to a surround system? so i need multi purpose speakers.
how is the best way to have PC and TV connected to the same monitors?
price range is 800€ for pair of monitors and 200€ for some interface. The speakers need to be loud and clear.
Passive or active? I don`t know.
Please help
Loud studio monitors for listening
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- KVRAF
- 3080 posts since 17 Apr, 2005 from S.E. TN
How loud do you define "loud"? Do you happen to have a spl meter? Some spl meters are inexpensive and useful to have around, even though not a lot of accuracy can be expected from the cheap ones. On the other hand, the ones blessed for government work (sound levels compliance in industry) tend to be incredibly expensive.
It can permanently damage hearing to listen to loud for extended periods. The recommended thresholds can be googled. About the loudest I will listen on studio monitors is in the 90 dB ballpark (C full range weighting), and I usually listen quieter than that. Very occasionally maybe I'll crank it past 90 dB. 90 dB is loud enough that you need to raise your voice to carry on a conversation above the music.
When I play loud loud on music gigs, I use etymotics musicians earplugs to protect the ears. And the stage levels are not "insanely loud" or stronger protection would be necessary.
Many of the mid-price powered monitors can peak in the ballpark of 110 dB, measured 1 meter from the speakers. In a small room, that is purt dang loud. Maybe a mid-price powered studio speaker could deliver those levels for extended periods without burning out. Burning out your ears along the way. But if I wanted to guarantee extended 110+ dB levels day in, day out, I'd look for small PA speakers. Some of the modern small PA speakers are advertised to be "near studio monitor quality" (though those models don't come cheap). They would typically deliver 130 dB or better at one meter, and do it for long stretches of time without hazard of burning up.
I would want a set of studio speakers able to peak around 110 dB, even though I don't drive them that hard. Just to make sure they don't clip in lower-level, uncompressed music.
A few weeks ago auditioned JBL LSR 308 and Yamaha HS8 at a Guitar Center, and apparently they crank the monitors on demo. I didn't have a sound level meter handy, but am purt certain he was running them at least 100 dB. Damn loud, and they were not audibly distorting as best I could tell. I like the sound of the LSR 308 a little better than the HS8, but either would do fine, and they sounded more similar than different to my ear.
For loud with lots of bass, I'd add a subwoofer. Some of the 8" monitors can do pretty good on bass, at reasonable sound levels, but 100+ dB music with strong bass content would work an 8" woofer rather hard.
It can permanently damage hearing to listen to loud for extended periods. The recommended thresholds can be googled. About the loudest I will listen on studio monitors is in the 90 dB ballpark (C full range weighting), and I usually listen quieter than that. Very occasionally maybe I'll crank it past 90 dB. 90 dB is loud enough that you need to raise your voice to carry on a conversation above the music.
When I play loud loud on music gigs, I use etymotics musicians earplugs to protect the ears. And the stage levels are not "insanely loud" or stronger protection would be necessary.
Many of the mid-price powered monitors can peak in the ballpark of 110 dB, measured 1 meter from the speakers. In a small room, that is purt dang loud. Maybe a mid-price powered studio speaker could deliver those levels for extended periods without burning out. Burning out your ears along the way. But if I wanted to guarantee extended 110+ dB levels day in, day out, I'd look for small PA speakers. Some of the modern small PA speakers are advertised to be "near studio monitor quality" (though those models don't come cheap). They would typically deliver 130 dB or better at one meter, and do it for long stretches of time without hazard of burning up.
I would want a set of studio speakers able to peak around 110 dB, even though I don't drive them that hard. Just to make sure they don't clip in lower-level, uncompressed music.
A few weeks ago auditioned JBL LSR 308 and Yamaha HS8 at a Guitar Center, and apparently they crank the monitors on demo. I didn't have a sound level meter handy, but am purt certain he was running them at least 100 dB. Damn loud, and they were not audibly distorting as best I could tell. I like the sound of the LSR 308 a little better than the HS8, but either would do fine, and they sounded more similar than different to my ear.
For loud with lots of bass, I'd add a subwoofer. Some of the 8" monitors can do pretty good on bass, at reasonable sound levels, but 100+ dB music with strong bass content would work an 8" woofer rather hard.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 311 posts since 24 Feb, 2008
Thanks for the reply. That is great information. Yeah I own yamaha HS8 but this speakers are in my room - so i am looking for something similar 
those jbl lsr 308 could be great...
for start i think 2x jbl lsr 308 + LSR310S would be nice and then later I could add 3x or 2x jbl LSR305s?
So what about connectivity? I want to connect these speakers to: PC, TV and other devices but how I do not own any other components. The tv is a samsung smart tv and I am streaming movies on there so I don`t know how to setup surround?
I found this device:
http://www.jblpro.com/www/products/vint ... OsIXPnF9AU
would this be an option or someone has a different solution?
those jbl lsr 308 could be great...for start i think 2x jbl lsr 308 + LSR310S would be nice and then later I could add 3x or 2x jbl LSR305s?
So what about connectivity? I want to connect these speakers to: PC, TV and other devices but how I do not own any other components. The tv is a samsung smart tv and I am streaming movies on there so I don`t know how to setup surround?
I found this device:
http://www.jblpro.com/www/products/vint ... OsIXPnF9AU
would this be an option or someone has a different solution?
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- KVRAF
- 3080 posts since 17 Apr, 2005 from S.E. TN
The published specs on the lsr 305 show max peak spl = 108 dB c-weighted. lsr 308 max peak spl =112 dB c-weighted. Total power of 305 = 82 watts, 308 = 112 watts. That shows the 308 amplification 1.35 dB hotter than the 305. 10 * log10(112/82) = 1.35 dB
So the bigger woofer and cab in the 308 seems to account for a couple of dB more gain than mere difference in amp power. But that lsr 305 max peak of 108 dB is still pretty dern loud in a small room. If you had em side-by-side, cranked up to the edge of distortion, it is iffy whether a fella could, by ear, reliably pick one speaker as louder than the other, except that the 308 would have more bass.
Re that MSC1 -- Monitor System Controller with Room Mode Correction-- I don't know the unit, but think I recall reading threads with multiple owner complaints about that unit. If recalling correctly, the complaints mostly were about troubles getting it to do the room mode correction correctly.
But JBL and other companies under the Harmon umbrella make a lot of nice products. I do room mode correction and crossover and limiting in my home office with a DBX DriveRack, another Harmon product, and love it. Haven't had a lick of trouble from it in the year since I got it, and it works great for my uses.
I'm entirely ignorant of surround, never had much interest in it. Source switching for surround might be trickier.
I do source switching with patchbays and a small 16 channel stereo mixer. I don't have "real ambitious" mixer needs nowadays, and this old Carvin mixer works great. It is quiet and clean enough for me on line level signals. The main thing I like about it, is that it is small. Smaller than most current-crop 16 channel mixers. Which allows me to get more gear within arms reach, because the mixer doesn't hog much workspace.
I could sketch out how I have it wired up to give you some ideas if you are interested, but a stereo mixer wouldn't do much good for routing surround. You would need a much fancier multi-bus mixer to use a mixer for source routing of surround signals. As far as I understand it, anyway.
So the bigger woofer and cab in the 308 seems to account for a couple of dB more gain than mere difference in amp power. But that lsr 305 max peak of 108 dB is still pretty dern loud in a small room. If you had em side-by-side, cranked up to the edge of distortion, it is iffy whether a fella could, by ear, reliably pick one speaker as louder than the other, except that the 308 would have more bass.
Re that MSC1 -- Monitor System Controller with Room Mode Correction-- I don't know the unit, but think I recall reading threads with multiple owner complaints about that unit. If recalling correctly, the complaints mostly were about troubles getting it to do the room mode correction correctly.
But JBL and other companies under the Harmon umbrella make a lot of nice products. I do room mode correction and crossover and limiting in my home office with a DBX DriveRack, another Harmon product, and love it. Haven't had a lick of trouble from it in the year since I got it, and it works great for my uses.
I'm entirely ignorant of surround, never had much interest in it. Source switching for surround might be trickier.
I do source switching with patchbays and a small 16 channel stereo mixer. I don't have "real ambitious" mixer needs nowadays, and this old Carvin mixer works great. It is quiet and clean enough for me on line level signals. The main thing I like about it, is that it is small. Smaller than most current-crop 16 channel mixers. Which allows me to get more gear within arms reach, because the mixer doesn't hog much workspace.
I could sketch out how I have it wired up to give you some ideas if you are interested, but a stereo mixer wouldn't do much good for routing surround. You would need a much fancier multi-bus mixer to use a mixer for source routing of surround signals. As far as I understand it, anyway.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 311 posts since 24 Feb, 2008
hey you are really friendly! thankssss! 
I have chosen to go stereo... because mainly this setup will be used for music listening/maybe some studio work.
This is not a studio, it is more a minimalistic living room (there is a fireplace, TV, computer and nothing else.. i want to keep it clean) so I would need really not a lot of hardware in this room. is there some other device that would be really small and you could switch 3 different sources? how big is this mixer, and.. do i really need one for max four sources only? (TV, PC, PS3, maybe Iphone)
So if I understand the 308s are connected with the subwoofer? I decided to buy 2x 308 and LSR310S.. so yes if you have time I am interested a sketch:) + a became a very good deal. So now I need to know which cables should I buy.. and I never used a sub before.. Is the sub connected to the lsr308 or not? or how do i connect it to the stereo output if already 2 monitors will be connected?
I have chosen to go stereo... because mainly this setup will be used for music listening/maybe some studio work. This is not a studio, it is more a minimalistic living room (there is a fireplace, TV, computer and nothing else.. i want to keep it clean) so I would need really not a lot of hardware in this room. is there some other device that would be really small and you could switch 3 different sources? how big is this mixer, and.. do i really need one for max four sources only? (TV, PC, PS3, maybe Iphone)
So if I understand the 308s are connected with the subwoofer? I decided to buy 2x 308 and LSR310S.. so yes if you have time I am interested a sketch:) + a became a very good deal. So now I need to know which cables should I buy.. and I never used a sub before.. Is the sub connected to the lsr308 or not? or how do i connect it to the stereo output if already 2 monitors will be connected?
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- KVRAF
- 3080 posts since 17 Apr, 2005 from S.E. TN
Hi Kitkonis
Are you pretty sure you don't need to tool up for recording with this rig, even in a year or three? If you don't ever need to account for recording, you could get a small simple mixer with a few more inputs than you need and have a little room to grow without getting stuck shy of inputs again sometime down the line.
This is how most mid-price studio monitors get wired up to their matching subwoofers. The subwoofer crossover is usually in the subwoofer, so the left and right line out from your mixer or speaker controller goes into the sub. Then the sub keeps the low frequencies to itself, and sends the mids and highs to the main speakers.
The boxes labeled patch points are optional. It represents the output of the mixer going thru a patch bay on the way to the speakers. But with a simple system as you describe, a patch bay is probably not needed. There probably won't be enough wiring to make a patch bay useful.
When people are mixing and matching assorted brands of mains and subs, the wiring could vary greatly, just depending on the nature of the gear. But the above seems to be the way the LSR mains and the LSR sub are intended to be connected.
Are you pretty sure you don't need to tool up for recording with this rig, even in a year or three? If you don't ever need to account for recording, you could get a small simple mixer with a few more inputs than you need and have a little room to grow without getting stuck shy of inputs again sometime down the line.
This is how most mid-price studio monitors get wired up to their matching subwoofers. The subwoofer crossover is usually in the subwoofer, so the left and right line out from your mixer or speaker controller goes into the sub. Then the sub keeps the low frequencies to itself, and sends the mids and highs to the main speakers.
The boxes labeled patch points are optional. It represents the output of the mixer going thru a patch bay on the way to the speakers. But with a simple system as you describe, a patch bay is probably not needed. There probably won't be enough wiring to make a patch bay useful.
When people are mixing and matching assorted brands of mains and subs, the wiring could vary greatly, just depending on the nature of the gear. But the above seems to be the way the LSR mains and the LSR sub are intended to be connected.
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- KVRAF
- 3080 posts since 17 Apr, 2005 from S.E. TN
Hi Kitkonis
For routing your four sources to the speakers, a gadget like this is probably the cheapest way. There is a link on that web page to view the pdf manual for the simple box. If audio is the only thing you want to switch, just ignore the video connectors.
http://www.radioshack.com/radioshack-4- ... ch&start=1
Audiophiles would make fun of that approach, but as long as the switches and connectors work good, it might be one of the highest-fidelity options, because it is entirely passive, no added hiss, hum, or distortion. Decades ago I had a couple of earlier generation versions of such switch boxes that worked fine for years, and probably still work. Just haven't tested them for awhile. Might have to open the old things up and spray tuner cleaner in the old switches, dunno.
The "fancy studio" idea of paying hundreds of dollars for a glorified volume knob or headphone amp just strikes me as real weird unless a fella has lots of money to buy that last 1 percent of improvement. That final 1 percent of improvement is most always crazy expensive.
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Re a mixer to use for source switching-- Behringer probably makes something that would do the job for cheep. Some behringer stuff is pretty good, and some is not very good. In the past have used some big behringer mixers that were quite adequate, but dunno anything about the little ones.
Since you want to switch 4 stereo sources, and mixer specs typically count mono channels, you would be looking for something with at least 8 channels, and preferably as many stereo channels as possible. It is not onerous to control the level of a stereo feed by moving two level controls on two adjacent mono channels, but would work as good or better to only need to adjust one stereo control rather than two mono controls.
A lot of the current tiny cheap mixers include cheap-ass multi-FX built-in. I haven't heard them but it is difficult to avoid suspecting that the built-in FX on a $100 mixer, probably sux. FX are not necessary for your use. So if you find for instance mixer A is 8 channel with FX, and Mixer B is 8 channel with no FX, and they cost about the same, MAYBE mixer B has higher quality where it matters, because the manufacturer didn't have to make everything else more shabby in order to include an awful-sounding FX feature.
Yamaha and Mackie seem the most "confidence inspiring" brands making tiny mixers that don't cost a fortune. This one would probably get the job done for you, but you might think it too expensive--
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/802VLZ4
Referring to the picture, you could route 5 stereo pairs, plus an additional stereo pair routed to mono channels 1 and 2. Total of 6 stereo pairs.
For your use, stereo channels are more convenient than routing stereo via two mono channels. But either works just fine.
You could connect stereo sources to channels 3, 4 and 5.
Then you could connect a fourth stereo source to ST RETURN jacks, and control its level with the STEREO RETURN knob.
Then you could connect a fifth stereo pair to TAPE IN, push-in the TAPE button in the master section, and control the level with the CR/SUBMIX knob.
And then the final sixth stereo source, connect to channels 1 and 2, pan channel 1 hard left, pan channel 2 hard right, and control the sixth source level by moving both ch 1 and 2 LEVEL knobs to equal positions to preserve the stereo balance.
For routing your four sources to the speakers, a gadget like this is probably the cheapest way. There is a link on that web page to view the pdf manual for the simple box. If audio is the only thing you want to switch, just ignore the video connectors.
http://www.radioshack.com/radioshack-4- ... ch&start=1
Audiophiles would make fun of that approach, but as long as the switches and connectors work good, it might be one of the highest-fidelity options, because it is entirely passive, no added hiss, hum, or distortion. Decades ago I had a couple of earlier generation versions of such switch boxes that worked fine for years, and probably still work. Just haven't tested them for awhile. Might have to open the old things up and spray tuner cleaner in the old switches, dunno.
The "fancy studio" idea of paying hundreds of dollars for a glorified volume knob or headphone amp just strikes me as real weird unless a fella has lots of money to buy that last 1 percent of improvement. That final 1 percent of improvement is most always crazy expensive.
====
Re a mixer to use for source switching-- Behringer probably makes something that would do the job for cheep. Some behringer stuff is pretty good, and some is not very good. In the past have used some big behringer mixers that were quite adequate, but dunno anything about the little ones.
Since you want to switch 4 stereo sources, and mixer specs typically count mono channels, you would be looking for something with at least 8 channels, and preferably as many stereo channels as possible. It is not onerous to control the level of a stereo feed by moving two level controls on two adjacent mono channels, but would work as good or better to only need to adjust one stereo control rather than two mono controls.
A lot of the current tiny cheap mixers include cheap-ass multi-FX built-in. I haven't heard them but it is difficult to avoid suspecting that the built-in FX on a $100 mixer, probably sux. FX are not necessary for your use. So if you find for instance mixer A is 8 channel with FX, and Mixer B is 8 channel with no FX, and they cost about the same, MAYBE mixer B has higher quality where it matters, because the manufacturer didn't have to make everything else more shabby in order to include an awful-sounding FX feature.
Yamaha and Mackie seem the most "confidence inspiring" brands making tiny mixers that don't cost a fortune. This one would probably get the job done for you, but you might think it too expensive--
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/802VLZ4
Referring to the picture, you could route 5 stereo pairs, plus an additional stereo pair routed to mono channels 1 and 2. Total of 6 stereo pairs.
For your use, stereo channels are more convenient than routing stereo via two mono channels. But either works just fine.
You could connect stereo sources to channels 3, 4 and 5.
Then you could connect a fourth stereo source to ST RETURN jacks, and control its level with the STEREO RETURN knob.
Then you could connect a fifth stereo pair to TAPE IN, push-in the TAPE button in the master section, and control the level with the CR/SUBMIX knob.
And then the final sixth stereo source, connect to channels 1 and 2, pan channel 1 hard left, pan channel 2 hard right, and control the sixth source level by moving both ch 1 and 2 LEVEL knobs to equal positions to preserve the stereo balance.
