Find me a compact, good quality speaker?
Hi everyone, a quick bit of background:
Some years ago, I spotted a classifieds ad on my work marketplace for a Yamaha speaker. They were only asking a tenner for it, so I rapidly got in touch, and ended up being rather delighted to pick up an MS101 (II, iirc) for next to nothing. It's being doing stirling duty as a general purpose portable speaker around the house with occasional forays out for live monitor duty, but recently its developed some very noticeable transformer hum.
It probably won't be noticeable for gigs but it's really distracting in the living, so we've decided to get something new. Ideally, it needs to be a single unit, no bigger than the outgoing Yamaha (so roughly 9" x 6" face - depth isn't really an issue), with a stereo wired input (not particularly fussed what kind - I've got plenty of cables and adapters ;) ). The 10W output of the Yamaha was plenty so I can't see volume being an issue with any potential solution. Bluetooth and other wireless connectivity I also don't care about. But I don't want excellent sound quality.
I've had a poke round the obvious suspects - I could go for a replacement studio monitor but active ones tend to have a single mono input, I could go for a generic portable speaker but they tend to be blingy and have extraneous functionality. I'd really like something nice and simple.
Any thoughts? Or am I asking for something that doesn't exist?
EDIT: budget is ~ £100. Don't want to cheap out really, unless it's for kit that's got a brilliant reputation. Can flex upwards from that a bit for the right thing.
Re: Find me a compact, good quality speaker?
I have a pair of KEF Coda 7 spare at the moment, maybe a bit bigger than your specs, add a 50 watt Class D amp and yer off...
ahhh single speaker.... OK, I may have just the thing, let me dig it out tomorrow...
Re: Find me a compact, good quality speaker?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
g8ina
... ahhh single speaker....
Yep, it's mostly used in one room, but it does get shifted about as needed, and I'd prefer to keep everything as simple as possible ;)
Re: Find me a compact, good quality speaker?
So I assume this needs to be an active monitor?? WRT to the recommendations,ideally you would want to listen to some units beforehand.
The MS101 are still being made:
https://www.thomann.de/gb/yamaha_ms_101_ii.htm
The dimensions are 14.7 x 19.2 x 21.4CM. It's a shame you need such tiny bookshelf speakers:
https://www.thomann.de/gb/tannoy_gold_5.htm
Specifications here:
https://mediadl.musictribe.com/media...20Document.pdf
11.6 x 7.2 x 9.9" but dual concentric units,and the specs don't look too bad,but I can't find any reviews.
Although I think the website is only selling one for that price,so its double that for a pair.
However,Edifier makes some interesting units and this is bluetooth:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Edifier-R17.../dp/B00MXY21LW
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/edifi...sp-04u-er.html
The dimensions are mentioned here:
https://www.edifier.com/int/en/speak...ooth-bookshelf
6in×9.75in×8in(W×H×D).
These don't get too bad of a write up:
https://www.whathifi.com/edifier/r1700bt/review
But both have a slightly larger frontal surface area than you specified.
There is the R1280 which comes in non-bluetooth and bluetooth versions:
https://www.edifier.com/int/en/speak...ered-bookshelf
https://www.edifier.com/gb/en/speake...shelf-speakers
The non-bluetooth version is the only one available:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Edifier-R12...tronics&sr=1-2
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Edifier-R12.../dp/B00GBN50SC
The reviews seem solid:
https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/edifier-r1280db
https://uk.pcmag.com/speakers/90589/edifier-r1280t
5.75in x 9.5in x 7in (WxHxD),so again a bit larger than your existing unit. Both those Edifier units seem fine,but the size is the problem.
This unit seems closer in size:
https://www.wavemaster.eu/cube-mini-...peaker-system/
Dimensions (WHD): 150 x 209 x 180mm. They are under £100:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/wavemaster-.../dp/B07D736X2Y
I don't know how good the company is,but these reviews looks promising:
https://www.guru3d.com/articles-page...-review,1.html
https://basic-tutorials.de/en/wavema...ormance-ratio/
Re: Find me a compact, good quality speaker?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CAT-THE-FIFTH
So I assume this needs to be an active monitor?? WRT to the recommendations,ideally you would want to listen to some units beforehand.
Active monitor would be ideal, yep. Trekking around audio shops for listen tests would be a good idea, but not exactly practical right now ;)
Yep, great speakers, and definitely on the shortlist.
Both nice speakers, but in common with pretty much all powered stereo bookshelf/monitors, they come as an active driver and passive extension pair, with the extension taking one half of the stereo. Ideally I want a single unit with either mixed down mono output or twin speakers in the one enclosure (Don't ask for much, do I ;) ) since it the does get moved around occasionally and dragging two speakers and a length of wire is a pain.
QUICK EDIT: just to note that I could, of course, just splice myself a cable together to merge a stereo output into a mono one, and get a single active monitor - but then I'd have to use that one cable (or adapter, or whatever) with every device/source I wanted to plug into the speaker - something with native stereo input would be easier...
EDIT 2: the MS101 lets me get round this problem by having two unbalanced inputs (one RCA and one 6.35mm TS) - so I use an RCA cable and an adapter to plug into both inputs... many active monitors have at most one unbalanced input (and some only have balanced inputs).
Re: Find me a compact, good quality speaker?
Twin stereo speakers in one unit tend to have poor spatial imaging,and usually rely on reflecting sound off the walls to make a stereo image. This is what Yamaha does with it's soundbars.
Re: Find me a compact, good quality speaker?
This probably won't be of any interest, but for a similar purpose I re-purposed an old pair (sort-of) computer desktop speakers. In my case, old (but pretty good) Altec Lansings, which are tiny, better than you'd think, but have a chunky sub. Which means, three units to place, cables between them, line-in only and limited distance between due to cables.
Probably won't suit, but just thought I'd mention it.
Re: Find me a compact, good quality speaker?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CAT-THE-FIFTH
Twin stereo speakers in one unit tend to have poor spatial imaging,and usually rely on reflecting sound off the walls to make a stereo image. This is what Yamaha does with it's soundbars.
Yep, I know - good spatial reproduction isn't what I'm concerned about. I listen to a lot of stuff with melodies and vocal lines split across the stereo (musical theatre in particular) so I need to have either some form of stereo reproduction or a reliable mono mixdown. Using a series of adapters to jury-rig a stereo cable into two dissimilar inputs isn't exactly a reliable method (I had an adapter fail a few months ago and it took ages to work out why I was missing half the music).
Re: Find me a compact, good quality speaker?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Saracen999
... Probably won't suit, but just thought I'd mention it.
I've actually got a nice set of compact 2.1 edifiers that I'll probably use as an interim measure, but yeah, they don't really fit the niche - they're better suited to a permanent location. I used to have a nice little battery-powered bluetooth speaker that also had a 3.5mm line in, but that failed about 6 months ago - and besides, the quality wasn't a scratch on the Yamaha. I might have a slight tendency to a) buy too much sound kit and b) hoard things like crazy ;)
I'm pretty sure I'll end up with a single, decent quality, active monitor and a cable to merge stereo sources to mono - but I figured there's no harm in asking in case anyone could dig out something I hadn't thought of (or had personal experience of some kind of portable speaker that's better than it looks!).
Re: Find me a compact, good quality speaker?
Another left-field thought .... Amaxon Echo. The 3rd gen ones are, I'm told, much better than earlier ones and, IMHO not bad. There is also a third party battery base available, but I've not tried it.
Normal price about £90 but periodically on offer at £65-£70. Battery pack about £40-ish I think.
Re: Find me a compact, good quality speaker?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Saracen999
Another left-field thought .... Amazon Echo. ...
Interesting. Feels a bit like paying for a load of features I'd immediately turn off. OTOH I do already have some investment into the Amazon ecosystem ... will have to give that one some thought.
Re: Find me a compact, good quality speaker?
And you can add a second Echo and pair them. Considering that myself.
Some Echo offers include relatively cheap Phillips Hue dimmable bulbs (not the colour ones). I already has a few dimmable bulbs but they require a little remote control. It is kinda nice to say "Alexa, lights to 20%" when I wake up needing a p... erm, bathroom break.
What I really liked is whisper mode. Once turned on, if you whisper "Alexa, lights to 20%" you get a whispered "OK" back. Thereby not waking other half. That, I do like.
Essentially, 3rd Gen models have a minimalist Zigbee home automation hub built in. It only works for basic things, like lights, but thats's enough for me.
The biggest reservation .... sound quality. It all depends on expectations, which is of course, hugely subjective. My view, not bad. Better than I expected. But certainly not fabulous. You want fabulous, try a Naim Mu-So II. Bring about £1200. No, that ain't a typo.
Re: Find me a compact, good quality speaker?
Morning, OK I have two solutions.
One is a home build active speakert with two full range drive units and a 30watt class D amp, mains powered, aux/line input, the other an old vintage Transmiranda radio, converted to 50wpc stereo amplified system with a SA50 by SMSL, two full range speakers, line or Bluetooth inputs.
Let me grab the smaller one from the loft make sure it still works, and then we'll see how we're doing
Re: Find me a compact, good quality speaker?
Too big, so how about a Yamaha MS20s powered speaker ??
Ive PMd you piccies. I also have the manual.
Re: Find me a compact, good quality speaker?
Thanks for the input everyone. I've ended up going for the Alesis M1 Active 300 USB - I'll mod a cable to push stereo sources into one input for general use, but then I've got the flexibility of adding the second speaker when I want/need full stereo, and it can be used a simple USB interface for computer playback/recording. Would've been nice to find a dedicated solution that met all my needs, but apparently it's not out there!
