Cheap speakers needed for music production ..

[marsay001]

My little sister (14) has started music production at high school following in my foot steps, bless her.

I want to spend at the limit no more than £60. I need some speakers that will give her as close to "real" sound as possible. They don't need to be loud.

I have looked at the m audio av 30, any other suggestions ?

Thank you

 

[ssddx]

thats about $96usd

what are your thoughts about studio headphones instead of speakers?

the ath-m50s can be had for just a little over that budget (i've seen them as cheap as $99 open box but still brand new free shipping) and provide good sound.

 

[marsay001]

Iv considered it but a lot of people said that they cant match "true sound" as they have one speaker working all the frequencies which makes sense.

 

[ien2222]

Hmm...I assume those people mean one driver, and for regular loud speakers I'd agree it wouldn't be good. But with headphones and especially in-ear-montiors you have the driver right at your ear instead of feet away. This allows you to use only one driver for the entire frequency range because you no longer need to carry sound that distance.

With loud speakers the problem comes from the fact that drivers that can produce bass need to be rather larger to pressurize a room, 6.5-8 inch cones on up. The larger the room, the bigger your cone needs to be, the more powerful it needs to be, or the more subs you need. Unfortunately you can't move those cones fast enough to produce high frequencies. So either you have smaller drivers that can play highs without the bass, or you have larger drivers that can play bass but not the high end.

But, with headphones, the distance from driver to eardrum is anywhere from 3/4's of an inch to about 2 inches and the volume of air that needs to be pressurized for bass is virtually nonexistent as compared to a room. This means that a small driver is can produce effective bass and since it's so small, it won't have any problems producing high frequencies.

So one driver can play the entire frequency range. On top of that, you will have a more cohesive sound up and down that range since it's only one driver. One big draw back is that you can't really eq it to a flat response as the shape of the ear plays a significant part now.

Given your budget, headphones would be a better option for the purpose of music production. For instance, the speakers you listed only play down to 90Hz before dropping off. For reference piano's can play down to 27hz, tuba and double bass down to low 40's, cello 60's, bass guitar usually starts in the 30's or 40's.

 

[ssddx]

you do realize that they use headphones in the recording industry right? they are more than capable of producing true sounding acoustics.

for $100 you can pick up an open box but new audiotechnica ath-m50s on ebay.

worth a look at (i own a pair myself and they are great) provided you are okay with headphones.

edit: listing is in the usa... but you may be able to find one in uk/europe.