budget studio setup for a friend

[thadman]

One of my buddies is majoring in business and music at IU. He wants to go into music production and desperately needs a pair of reference studio monitors.

He'll be using a Digidesign Mbox2 with ProTools. While he was at Sweetwater, he listened to a pair of Yamaha HS80M active monitors and thought they sounded good. However, they currently aren't within his budget ($700/pr + tax). He approached me about the possibility of building a custom system and suggested that he has access to woodworking equipment for the cabinets, but only has ~$400.

I think it should be possible to build a comparable system that's near $400, however he needs amplification, crossover networks, and drivers.

I'd prefer going active so that in the future he may be able to add a pair of stereo subwoofers. A DIY amplification stage with chip amps and an active crossover stage using the miniDSP modules would seem to make the most sense.

What would you do?

[zog666]

Read the thread here titled
"Linkwitz Orions beaten by Behringer.... what!!?" for starters? Behringer may have something fine "off the shelf".

Another option could be an "econowave" type waveguides with a hifimediy class T amp to drive them. I'm biased though.

[dantheman]

I'd actually say the Behringer 1030A and build or buy a Sub with the $200 left over. Read this: ****DanTheMan's blog****: Another Cheap Behringer Monitor

Is he planning on treating the room at all? That would be another place to spend his money and do some DIY stuff. I hate to try and talk you out of DIYing speakers and all, but for near field monitoring it is hard to beat those for that price.

Dan

[Digitalscrap]

You're not going to evangelize him by building a system for him, besides, the journey is the fun part

Just a few comments:

1) the point of the Orion vs. Behringer listening test wasn't to judge overall preference for one or the other, but to test the directivity hypothesis. I haven't heard either the Orions or those Behringer monitors, but it seems many are taking the results of that thread out of context (probably due to the sensationalist thread title)

2) Amplification + active filters + speakers on $700 probably isn't enough to get a satisfying hi-fi system in general. But you could probably do very well with used gear.

3) The characteristics that make a good studio monitor are not necessarily the same characteristics that a person finds enjoyable for a hi-fi system. Maybe headphones are a good option? $700 buys a nice headphone monitor setup.

4) Building a DIY system for a friend can often be an exercise in frustration. Who will provide support if/when things break (especially if they were misused/abused?) Do you charge for your time? Who is to say that your DIY effort will be more valuable to the friend than an off-the-shelf system? (I've found the primary benefit of DIY to be that *I*, the designer, get what *I*, the customer, want. Your friend may not want what you think is good, and that's ok!)

[zog666]

Originally Posted by Digitalscrap

Just a few comments:

1) the point of the Orion vs. Behringer listening test wasn't to judge overall preference for one or the other, but to test the directivity hypothesis. I haven't heard either the Orions or those Behringer monitors, but it seems many are taking the results of that thread out of context (probably due to the sensationalist thread title)

Yes, this is true, but the thread "leads off" to numerous comments and asides about the Behringers that some models, with or without various tweaks, could at least be considered for this purpose.. especially given that's what they are sold as. I have numerous bits of Behringer gear and they are fine, in that they are inexpensive, useful bits of audio gear made to a price that are more than adequate for their intended function.

Originally Posted by Digitalscrap

2) Amplification + active filters + speakers on $700 probably isn't enough to get a satisfying hi-fi system in general. But you could probably do very well with used gear.

+1 here.. I was using 2nd hand Alesis monitors for a long time. Ebay!

[djn]

You might want to look at the Audio Karma Indignia. Here is the link. Total cost about $200.00 and they go down to 38hz so no need for a subwoofer. They are increadable speakers to begin with and for the money they can't be beat. They are so good, Parts Express now offers them as a full kit. They call them the "Karma Indignia"

200 bucks for speakers leaves him 200 more for a better amp.

AK Design Collaborative - Insignia-Class Economy Speakers (a.k.a Indignia) - AudioKarma.org Home Audio Stereo Discussion Forums