Question Help with choice of used speakers (for studio) And suggestions for old and good speakers

[cirjakvoja]

I need a pair of speakers. The used market of speakers is huge, but at the same time not so huge where I live.
I have concluded that I am more than certainly better off with a used pair of speakers than a new set. The quality for price was way better in the "old days" I believe, today the quality isn't bad, and the technology improved. But.. the quality for price, and price efficiency isn't quite ideal nowadays.
Even the DIY market showed that you can build a low budget speaker which will absolutely smash some higher end speakers on the normal market.
But DIY requires experience and it's time consuming.

So I am planning to make music with my speakers. I believe that ideally I need a natural monitor pair of speakers which are made for studio's and making music in the first place. But I also wonder how essential this is. I will make music for myself (of course my goal is to have an audience), by this I mean that I will not be a mixing or mastering engineer. I believe that the speakers should be pleasant to listen to, and that's why I'm questioning whether a pair of monitors is essential, and how far can I go before I buy a speaker which will actually affect my music making negatively.

Going for a brand new set of monitors will cost me quite a pretty penny. 500 euro range is the minimum I believe (for a high quality pair of active monitors)

I browsed the whole online used market in my country and had a hard time picking out some good options. I am not experienced and thus I cannot identify what is actually good and what is not. But here are some options which caught my attention (I linked each one to the used marketplace, I hope you can use google translate if you are interested in the details and descriptions, I did this mainly for the reason of the pictures of speakers, some of them cannot be found online):

Jean Marie Reynaud Twin Mk III - €300 (its true cost/value was around $1300)

Dynaudio Scriptum 2 MkIII- €350

Jamo CBR 1302 and 1304- €250 and €390

Backes& Muller Audio BM-Delta- €480 (true cost/value €1400)

ADAM ANF 10- €350 (for a pair)

JBL 4301 Professional- €350 (a lot of time was invested, the surrouding was changed, on the crossovers- all the electrolytes were changed, ICEL polypropylene capacitors were used, and cable connectors were also changed)

On some of these the surround was changed and repaired, from the top of my head, I know for a fact that on the CBR 1304 the surround was changed, the same for the Dynaudio Scriptum 2.

Besides these models there are a lot of B&W speakers, Wharfedale, and a lot of multiple driver vintage speakers (Groudnig Box 20, Pioneer Cs 605 etc.) And idk if any of that stuff is good for what I am looking for in particular.. that's why I didn't mention it. It would just make more clutter in an already long post.

-The ones which caught my attention the most are the Jean Marie Reynaud Twin MK III because of the value of 1000-1300 USD, but idk if they would exactly suit what I am looking for. Also nothing was changed on these.

-The Backes&Muller Audio BM-Delta, these are active speakers. I actually don't know whether they are hi-fi or monitor (by hifi I mean that they are tuned and colored for audiophile listeners). But these look pretty impressive to me. They are tri-amp and have active crossover. I don't know what either of these are, and whether the tri-amp would need me to have better cables or something. I am not familiar with the technical and hardware side of speakers, but I mentioned it just in case it's something which might be a good/special feature.

-And the speaker which caught my attention the most... Jamo CBR 1302 and 1304. I got tricked into liking these by my eyes and solely based on their look. I mean they seem to have some interesting "technology" going on, and what is appealing to me is the size. I don't know what their purpose is (hi-fi, disco, or something else). The person selling them said they go as low as ~25Hz and that you could feel it. I also didn't see a big difference between the 1302 and 1304, actually no difference to be honest. The person selling the CBR 1304 invested some money and time into them, making a a stand our of "solid wood" out of walnut tree, and also he changed the terminals for "high end" ones. But the price of €390 is more than insane.
And the price of the Adam ANF 10 is appealing and it's a nearfield monitor. But I'd need a sub for them. And that means more money shrug


Jbl 4301's are also insane, the person was truly dedicated to this speaker, but the speakers themselves haven't received any spectacular attention or light on the internet.

There are more speakers of course, some Tannoys like the Precision 8D (€500) Reveal 6D (€400) both of these are active. The 8D's value was like $2500.
Then there are classics like the Tannoy M2 and Heybrook H1... but they are above 100 euros, so it's also insane.
Some are floorstanders and those are way too big for a small-medium room. Way too many speakers, and the post is long enough, I just truly need a hand. I had a ton of previous threads from some years ago when I was searching for a bookshelf speaker, now I am considering a speaker intended for making music (mixing mastering etc.) A subwoofer isn't something which I would like to buy currently, and to be honest I haven't checked the used market for them either. There might be some good deals.. but I just haven't checked. If there is a good combo of a speaker and a sub which I can pull of under 400-500 euros. Then I might consider it, otherwise I always had the idea to build a sub (sounds simpler than building a speaker.. but ofc I might be wrong)


Hope somebody helps me out, and either way thanks for taking your time to read this long ass post. I appreciate it as always!

 

[americanaudiophile]

Speakers that are designed for music making are different than home stereo speakers. They designed for near field placement and regular speakers for far field placement so most home speakers won't work to their full advantage near field.
Home speakers usually have a tonal balance that tends toward being forgiving of content. Studio monitors are designed to magnify the character of the content making it easier to hear changes to each track and how the overall mix works. Often they are brighter and able to play louder. You have to compensate for the monitors characteristics in your mix so it would be checked on home speakers to see how it works in the real world.
Passive speakers will require you to get an amp to drive them which would add to the cost. That amp would affect the quality of the sound, how loud the speaker can play, and whether the speaker might be damaged by extended high volume use.
Most vintage speakers are not suitable for monitoring and won't perform as well as a modern design if the object of the company is better sound rather than better profit.
You might consider these

Home

TRANSPARENT ZERO PLUSOrder NowLearn MoreLearn MoreOrder NowTRANSPARENT ONE ENCORE PLUSSTEREO SYSTEMWITHOUT THE NEED FOR A GIANTVANATOO SPEAKERS MAKE YOUR MUSIC BIGWITH MUSICFILL YOUR HOMESHOP NOWAND SHIMMERING HIGHSWITH FULL DEEP BASS, CLEAR ARTICULATE MIDS,ENJOY MUSIC THE WAY IT WAS MEANT TO...

vanatoo.com

https://www.edifier.com/us/en/speakers
if you can get them.
Focal makes both home and studio monitors so perhaps one of their consumer models would work for you.
Building a sub is easier but a bad sub is useless for both mixing and listening. It will need it's own amp as well.

 

[cirjakvoja]

Speakers that are designed for music making are different than home stereo speakers. They designed for near field placement and regular speakers for far field placement so most home speakers won't work to their full advantage near field.
Home speakers usually have a tonal balance that tends toward being forgiving of content. Studio monitors are designed to magnify the character of the content making it easier to hear changes to each track and how the overall mix works. Often they are brighter and able to play louder. You have to compensate for the monitors characteristics in your mix so it would be checked on home speakers to see how it works in the real world.
Passive speakers will require you to get an amp to drive them which would add to the cost. That amp would affect the quality of the sound, how loud the speaker can play, and whether the speaker might be damaged by extended high volume use.
Most vintage speakers are not suitable for monitoring and won't perform as well as a modern design if the object of the company is better sound rather than better profit.
You might consider these

Home

TRANSPARENT ZERO PLUSOrder NowLearn MoreLearn MoreOrder NowTRANSPARENT ONE ENCORE PLUSSTEREO SYSTEMWITHOUT THE NEED FOR A GIANTVANATOO SPEAKERS MAKE YOUR MUSIC BIGWITH MUSICFILL YOUR HOMESHOP NOWAND SHIMMERING HIGHSWITH FULL DEEP BASS, CLEAR ARTICULATE MIDS,ENJOY MUSIC THE WAY IT WAS MEANT TO...

vanatoo.com

https://www.edifier.com/us/en/speakers
if you can get them.
Focal makes both home and studio monitors so perhaps one of their consumer models would work for you.
Building a sub is easier but a bad sub is useless for both mixing and listening. It will need it's own amp as well.

I think not all of the speakers I mentioned are home speakers.
Adam ANF10 are passive, but they are made for studio purposes.
Tannoys are active and also for studio purposes.
Turns out that Backes&Muller (B&M) are pretty high quality and are natural and could definitely act as studio monitors, but ofc I'd need to set them up for mid/far field. And interesting thing about them is that their cost was 3600DM (Deutsche Mark) in 1984 (when they were released) so today they are worth well beyond the 1400 euros which I wrote. Apparently they can go as low as ~35HZ which is pretty nice to hear. B&M is a German brand which is known for making really high end speakers, so I'm sure they wouldn't disappoint, but it's an almost 40 year old speaker.. and to get that thing repaired, it would cost well beyond 400 euros.
When I asked B&M for more info about the BM-Delta model, I got sent some pictures from magazines, but they were in German. However inside of these speakers.. it looks like there is a mini computer

https://imgur.com/ve6a2rn

Vanatoo looks quite interesting. I'm not sure how it'd compete to tha above mentioned speakers and brands, but I like how there is a full-wood speaker. I always appreciate that!
Edifier on the other hand, I just have the assumption that Edifier is not a serious brand, now it is more than possible that I am wrong, but I always saw them as this budged non-serious brand. But after a quick visit to their site, I found the 700-1000 studio monitors to be too expensive.

I am not sure which brands are profit focused, but I would consider KRK speakers to be one of them. Yamaha could probably also fall in there, but they have been in the audio game for awhile. And Mackie as well.
Focus are a good option I believe, same goes for Genelec and Neumman. But these two are pretty high priced brands which aren't exactly something I am considering (due to their price).
I am not sure how the Tannoys copmare to any of the speakers, but I know Tannoy as a very high quality and good sounding brand, one which is highly respected.