Speaker for electronic music making?

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Hello, i am new to this board. I hope to find some answers...

First, my hobby is making electronic music.
Second, i like making things on my own.
So i thought, i could build some speakers for my own listening pleasure.

Right now i use Sennheiser HD 650 Headphones which i really like, but sometimes i find myself going into my brothers room and listening to my stuff on his cheap stereo system.

I dont want monitor speakers with a linear frequenzy response, since i dont need to master the music on them. I dont care about distortion, since the raw oscillators and distortion plugins i use generate so much overtones that a bit of speaker-dirstortion would be unsignificant.

So what i really want is a fast, dry and accurate reproduction. Something that lets the music "be there", a speaker that lets you feel the music. I dont really know, but i think a speaker with a fast amplitude/time-decay is what i seek. When i play a signal over cheap stereos, it just sounds kind of slurred, as if normal speakers couldnt follow those waves fast enough. You can allways tell that there is a speaker in front of you, but i would like to hear the real thing, not the speaker. Low bass would also be great. The one you dont hear but feel.

What kind of speaker enclosure, speaker chassis, etc is right for my demands? I have searched the forum and perhaps some dipole would be great, but then again i dont really know.

And of course i thank you for reading this post till the end... and perhaps even responding 🙂
 
MaVo,

How big is the room you are going to listen in?

What amp will you run these on?

I recommend you consider PA drivers. Then you can use them for live or Memorex, oops I mean recorded.

When you say you don't want monitors, I assume you are speaking of studio monitors? If so I don't blame you. You need a couple of stage monitors. :smash:
 
hello !

i make electronic music myself AND build speakers so i have a very clear insight of what you are talking about

first, defining your needs, what you are asking for is clear, but there are a few things that we need to know :

how loud you listen ? (loud i suppose as you are making electronic music 😉 )

how big is your room ?

are you wanting to follow another guy's steps, or are you willing to go on your own ? (knowing the 2th will be an hundred times more difficult)

on a side note, i agree with volenti, what you need is monitors. monitors aren't necessarly flatter than hifi speakers, they usually have better dynamic range, less power compression effects, and more transient accurate due to active crossover.

they're the small studio monitors one, and the big stage monitors ones, the best adapted depends on your SPL needs.

if you make music in your bedroom (private joke for all electronic music makers 😀 ) and you have an average bedroom you don't need stage monitors at all.

if you go diy, you could go either with hifi drivers, or PA drivers

a good compromise would be the BEYMA studio series drivers
 
Hi folks,

thanks for the quick responses so far.

@ Volenti: With "monitor" i meant a speaker which is designed for flat frequency response and not for good time accuracy. Seems i wasnt accurate enough in my description. I said this because i saw a tendency in hifi to make the frequency response curve as flat as possible and forgetting the time domain about this. Your definition of a monitor speaker is new to me, but i think you are right with this. So i want a monitor 🙂

@ Cal Weldon: My room is an attic. Because of this, the shape is triangular (4,5m at bottom, 30cm at top, about 14m long) with light wooden walls und carpet. I dont listen loud, just enough to hear everything and have no ear fatigue over time. I dont have an amp so its open. Perhaps building a tube amp would be a interesting thing to do.

@ Nemophyle: I love doing my own thing, even if its complicated, there is more of a reward in it if you achieve it. Concerning electronic music, i just startet a few months ago. I consider myself a bedroom musician. Rather a wannabe one. I live in Herne, NRW. I really like the Warp & Rephlex sound, also stuff from Morr Music and Ninja Tune is great. I try to produce some beats, basslines, textures and so on, finding my way into how it all works, just learning.


My thoughts after i spent the last evening surfing the web:

A fullrange driver like Fostex FE108EZ with a rearloaded Horn seems to be a really nice thing. This kind of driver seems to have a good acceleration, the horn provides the low frequency capability and the bit of high frequency fidelity i loose in comparison to a real tweeter doesnt bother me. But its a simplistic approach with no crossover and i think that keping the system simple is a good thing to do. I will research further in this direction. If i get carried away, then i would accompany them with a small sub. Also Surround would be great but thats an option to go after when i have finished a stereo pair.
 
hey mavo

i seriously advise you not to go for a single driver fullrange,for making EM. The music you are gonna do will contain some bass and subbass content acoustic music never have, and these puppies go out of xmax so fast, even with an horn load.
if you add a sub, that's a whole different story, and it might satisfy you very much. Personnaly i would add a super tweeter, but that's my own tastes

this fullrange go low, and is having decent FR, it already has a growing reputation Hemp Accoustics FR8
 
MaVo said:
But its a simplistic approach with no crossover and i think that keping the system simple is a good thing to do.


If you are using the Reaktor a crossover plugin is a matter of a few clicks. With a 6dB crossover you get the best phase response, but you`ll need some frequency response correction. "ralf" has developed a software-based 6dB crossover for an Eminence coaxial, however this is a commercial product.


greets, Oliver
 
I would be very wary of using domestic type full range drivers for this job. You would be much better off with something like this, or if money is short, pick up a pair of JBL Eon PA speakers, I've seen them going for as little as £100 each S/H.
 
I bought 2 Fostex FE208EZ and got 2 Eminence Kappa Pro LF 15 from friend (which i put into a closed 300l monosubwoofer). I am experimenting with different enclosures for the Fostex. Right now they are in a closed one, later i will try frontloaded horn and dipole and stick with the best one.

I am very happy with the Fostex. Ive never heard something like this fullrange drivers. So much details and crisp sound, everything sounds close to real especially human voices and acoustic instruments. And the electronic ones... 🙂

Future plans include an activation with Behringer Ultradrive digital crossover and going stereo with the low frequencies, perhaps dipole bass (no good for the Eminece, since they make noise without an enclosure - so i will need new ones - perhaps something like the Tumult?).


So as a closing note. I thank you all for helping me with your thoughts. I will keep it up to date.
 
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