Hello everyone!

This is my first post in this forum. I hope not the last one.
I am not a musician nor DJ and have very little to do with music apart from
learning to play piano and listening to mp3 from my desktop + internet radios.
I don't think I will be recording anything in near future either.

What I do struggle with is a question of equipment and connectivity.

Maybe an explanation of what I have will help explaining my problem:

I have
Laptop (audio out)
Desktop (audio out)
Home micro audio system (audio out to passive speakers + aux in (my both PC's)
Stage piano RD-700NX (audio out)
Roland Quad-capture audio interface (audio in + audio out)
4 way signal switch (to switch)

Laptop's audio out is connected to IN #1 of signal switch
Audio interface (OUT) is connected to IN #2 of signal switch
Audio interface is connected to PC via USB
Stage piano is connected to Audio interface
Signal switch (out) is connected to home micro audio systems AUX IN
and audio system is connected up to its speakers.

If I want to hear audio from laptop I switch the switch to IN 1 and select
AUX on my audio system and I listen to it. If I want sound from my desktop
I switch to IN 2 and I can hear sound from PC as well as stage piano (if I play it)
'couse both of them go through my audio interface.

Now the new comer in my life is the stage piano, and for that I have thought I
want to buy decent studio monitors. And this is where it all goes tits up for me.

I am stuck with the variety of choice-

there are active and passive monitors.
there are amps for the passive ones.
so far the choice is quite simple - choose either active ones and that's it or
an amp and passive speakers.

But then how do I connect all my devices to these speakers?
I want to stop using my micro audio system's speakers and use only studio monitors for everything.

Do I need a mixer desk to connect it all up? if so, do I need one with built in amp or one without?

Where to start?

Can anyone suggest anything?

Thank you in advance!

Janis

Are we talking about a good quality micro system or a cheap one? If you have a decent quality micro system then you could simply replace the speakers with better ones. Our kitchen music system used to be a JVC micro system feeding a pair of Yamaha NS10's which worked fine.

If you don't have a decent micro system then you could replace it with a decent hifi amp and a pair of passive monitors which will give you something similar to your current setup. If you want active monitors then you will need a mixer or monitor controller and these can be almost as expensive as a hifi amp but a mixer will give you more versatility. If you want to go the mixer route then take a look at the Allen and Heath Zed range which are well built, reasonably priced mixers which can also be used as an interface to your computer via USB.

The choice between active and passive is a personal one - choose the monitors that you like the sound of (although don't be fooled by monitors that are voiced to sound impressive in the showroom but which turn out to be useless in the long run).

James.

--------------------
JRP Music - Audio Mastering and Restoration.
http://www.jrpmusic.net

James,

Thank you for replying.
As for mini audio system - current one is not the best - it is a
Philips Streamium MCi730/12
which comes with 2 speakers and sounds ... well... ok but there is much to be desired.

I will be buying another one soon, which is
Marantz Melody Media MCR603
and is not supplied with speakers.

As for studio monitors I was thinking of two KRK R6 passive studio monitors + KRK 12sHO
sub. I was thinking initially of Yamaha HS80 active studio monitors, but then changed my mind
in favour of passive as I rather prefer having amp as a separate device.

Decent HiFi amp? Well this is where you lost me. I would not know the difference between studio amp, hifi amp, preamp etc.
I was thinking of getting a Behringer A500 or Marantz MM7025 amp.

Why is it that I need mixer with active monitors and don't with passive?
Truth be told I was thinking that I will get mixer and it will serve a purpose of my current signal switch. Plus I will be able to add a mic.

What is a difference between digital and analog mixers? why do some of them are USB? Why do I need to connect my mixer to PC?

Im sorry about the load of questions.

Kind regards,
Janis

Hi Janis,
I will just deal with the speaker/monitor question at the moment if you don't mind!

Normally I would suggest active monitors for a home recording setup but yours is a differnt requirement and therefore passives and a good hi fi amp would, IMO, be the best way to go.

The reason is simply that you would be able to connect certain items directly to that amplifier and use them without firing up the computer. You could however still route such sources through the computer interface via the tape outs found on all hi fi amps.
Speaker suggestions? I have Tannoy 5a actives, I have no doubt the passive range is just as good.
Amps? Anything from the major players. Denon, Pioneer, Marantz, Sony, and others. Power output will be determined by the speaker's ratings but I would not go below about 80watts per channel.

But! A wee mixer is still a very handy thing to have around!

Dave.

Quote Ramzess:

---

I will be buying another one soon, which is
Marantz Melody Media MCR603
and is not supplied with speakers.

---

That looks like a decent system to me. If you are happy to continue listening to your gear through the hifi then I would simply add a pair of monitors to it.

Quote Ramzess:

---

As for studio monitors I was thinking of two KRK R6 passive studio monitors + KRK 12sHO
sub. I was thinking initially of Yamaha HS80 active studio monitors, but then changed my mind
in favour of passive as I rather prefer having amp as a separate device.

---

Like Dave, I'm a bit of a Tannoy fan - just about every speaker of theirs that I've heard has been good (apart from maybe those odd light blue ones that you used to hang from the beams at railway stations).

Quote Ramzess:

---

I was thinking of getting a Behringer A500 or Marantz MM7025 amp.

Why is it that I need mixer with active monitors and don't with passive?

---

Marantz have a better reputation but I've not used a Behringer monitor amp. I was suggesting that you need a mixer with active speakers because they only have one input whereas a typical hifi amp will have a number of inputs that you can select from the front panel.

Quote Ramzess:

---

Truth be told I was thinking that I will get mixer and it will serve a purpose of my current signal switch. Plus I will be able to add a mic.

What is a difference between digital and analog mixers? why do some of them are USB? Why do I need to connect my mixer to PC?

---

A mixer is always useful but the difference between digital and analogue is a huge discussion which I won't go into here... Suffice to say that I would recommend a small analogue mixer for what you want.

You mentioned that you use your computer with the keyboard but you didn't mention that you used any kind of audio interface so I guessed that you were probably using the built-in sound from the headphone jack on the computer. The headphone jack on most computers is pretty poor and so you will benefit from adding a better audio interface. The great thing is that many mixers now incorporate a basic audio interface which will allow you to get better quality audio in and out of the computer.

I hope that makes sense,

James.

--------------------
JRP Music - Audio Mastering and Restoration.
http://www.jrpmusic.net

Yes James, Tannoy have been making speakers since before Adam was a lad and that's pretty much all they do, not every other gimcrack electronical gizzmo to boot!

And Janis does have an AI.The Roland UA-55 Quad Capture. Roland own Edriol I think and they always had a good rep' The UA-55 has sort of sneaked under the radar, I read some very good things about it elsewhere. Basic format, two in two out analogue plus S/PDIF* and MIDI.Bundled with Sonar E x1 (got it, don't like it, can't get on but I know others love it!)

Janis, as James said you would almost certainly be better off to forget about the laptops audio ins and outs and just use the Roland (can be best to turn off the computer's soundcard but in any event see if you or someone else can kill Windows' sounds, those infernal bleeps and bloops!).Do not be worried about plugging audio kit together, you can do no harm (but amp outs ONLY to speakers!). Connect only with everything switched off and all volume controls at zero then switch on and advance them slowly.

*You might find such an output on the digtal piano? Also if it has a MIDI output that can be fun!

Dave.

James and Dave, both of you have been most helpful indeed.
I bet the doors to thousands of new questions have just been opened,
but I would have never thought that it will be a question of just a few
posts for me to understand the direction of where to go.

P.s. Windows sounds are amongst the first things I kill after a
fresh install of Windows and before I install anything else.

And yes, I had an internal PCI sound card (rather good in my opinion)
a Creative soundblaster X-Fi Fatality (with the front panel for SPDIF in/out,
AUX in, MIDI in/out and Line in)

But I stopped using it after I got UA-55 (or Quad capture).
An obviously on-board sound is the first thing I disable in BIOS. Never liked on-board
sound.

Thank you both of you!

Janis

Woah!

Obviously Janis you are more computer savvy than I gave you credit for! James and I will have to watch what we assume! Have you checked out Martin Walkers articles on computer audio optimizations?

Since we have only just become aquainted and I do not want us to fall out, perhaps the best thing I can say about that Creative card is that it is gorn! But keep asking. I am more your BOF and not so hot with computers, valve amps are more my stamp but there is a huge sink of talent here about studio work, PA and audio in general.

Dave.

Thank you.
Yes, I do have a 15 year background of PC software and hardware assembly/maintenance. But now it is abandoned and I am not following the topic anymore. I'm more of a potographer nowadays than a PC geek.
But my wish to re-start learning piano play has set me on an extra course now, that's why I'm
asking all these questions. I know I can live with the sound of Philips speakers (done that for last 6 years I guess). After all as I mentioned before it is mainly for listening to music (and mainly internet-radio streams), to watch some movie and that's it. And signal switch came in handy as I had two sources of sound - laptop and desktop and got fed up swapping cables. But now I can hear that piano does not sound as good as it should on Philips mini audio system. Hence looking into better options.

No I haven't checked any articles yet, but thanks for advice - will look into them.

Sorry, I guess my english language skills stopped at this point: gorn! Not sure what you meant.

Janis

Sorry Janis "gorn" rubbish word for "gone" and I only HAVE English and do that badly!

Internet radio? Well Radio3 sounds very nice over my Tannoys as I type this (not sure what is is though!)

Dave.

Yes, I missed the mention of the Quad Capture so there's no need for a mixer with USB. I'd still suggest looking at the A&H Zed range of mixers though.

James.

--------------------
JRP Music - Audio Mastering and Restoration.
http://www.jrpmusic.net

I see. Well it is not a pro orientated sound card. It does serve the purpose. As soon as it gets to music production - it is out of question.

Tell me - you keep saying that Tannoy sounds nice.
Obviously I will have to go to local stores and hear them in live, but maybe you can give me some insight prior to that ...

for piano I also need a nice, deep and rich bass that is not distorted.
I am wondering how deep is the bass on these Tennoy's? Or to get that I will still have to go for a sub?

"for piano I also need a nice, deep and rich bass that is not distorted.
I am wondering how deep is the bass on these Tennoy's?"

I do not think Tannoy inc' would be upset if I said the 5As do not go that low or that loud but that is not why I bought them. I have a very small room and the monitors were primarily bought for mixing at modest levels but they do have a suprising amount of "heft" for a 140mm driver, clean and un "hyped" as well. My son finds them fine for his main interest which is jazz.
I would think the larger 200mm speakers would be ok but to reproduce the full frequency and dynamic range of a concert grand is beyond all but a few (expensive!) speakers.

I think most of the experts here would agree that unless you can afford a really good integrated speaker/sub system do not go there and in any case the not insignificant amount of money would still be better spent on a better two cabinet setup.

Dave.

Well my room is not big, it is just 12 square meters,
but nevertheless a full dynamic range of piano is important.

I have heard the sound of KRK's, havent heard Tannoy yet.
I love the sound of Yamaha HS80 but those are active monitors.

Seems I will invest some more time in searching for monitors,
but in overall it looks like I will be going for

Yamaha A-S700 Amp, and either Tannoy or KRK R6.
Will get Allen&Heath ZED 10FX and Marantz MCR603.

Janis

I was just thinking now...

If for example I buy Marantz MCR603 mini audio system (that HAS built-in amplifier),
I buy stand-alone Yamaha A-S700 amplifier and active monitors (like Yamaha HS80M)

will that all work together - I mean 3 amps in a chain? Sorry it maight sound as a rather stupid question but I have no idea - can it work or not?

audio system to mixer, mixer to ampifier, amplifier to active monitors?

Janis

Quote Ramzess:

---

I was just thinking now...

If for example I buy Marantz MCR603 mini audio system (that HAS built-in amplifier),
I buy stand-alone Yamaha A-S700 amplifier and active monitors (like Yamaha HS80M)

will that all work together - I mean 3 amps in a chain? Sorry it maight sound as a rather stupid question but I have no idea - can it work or not?

audio system to mixer, mixer to ampifier, amplifier to active monitors?

Janis

---

Heh! I was actually wondering what you wanted the Marantz for?! But then I did not want to be rude!
Yes, the speaker outputs on the Marantz would be redundant and in any case at 60W per channel I would have said a little underpowered at least for the KRKs that are rated at 100W and you have said how you like you piano deep and phat!

I know nothing of that unit but I would have thought that you could get all the signal sources you need for a lot less money? A good many of them via the computer and with a good audio interface the quality will be superb (well, as good as MP3 gets!).

Dave.

well probably the only reason I want that Marantz (or any other similar device - like the cheap Philips MCi730) is for the internet radio to be on a stand-alone device - so I don't have to turn my pc on to get internet radios. Because all this is in my studio flat, my bedroom is also my living room and that is where all my equipment is. When I go to bed I don't want noisy PC running (or at any other time when I don't need PC but want music). That's where this device kicks in.

I know that Marantz is dear but my existing Philips is software wise a rubbish. It freezes, it is slow on controll and buffering, user interface is poor.

If not my affection for internet radios (mainly of Balkan countries) and not wanting the extra noise of PC, I would not need this device at all.

Janis

Does this...http://cpc.farnell.com/sony/smpn100b-cek/network-media-player-w=
ifi-sony/dp/AV21016 look at all suitable?

Then, the Marntz is £488 for that you could buy a really nice QUIET laptop
. This HP i3 1170G6 is virtually silent and cost less than £400. In a few
hours when things quieten down I will put a sound level meter on it!

http://cpc.farnell.com/sony/smpn100b-cek/network-media-player-wifi-sony/dp /AV21016 Ooops!(Told you I was just an amp man!)

Dave.

Edited by ef37a (11/08/12 04:49 PM)