Topic: speakers for listening & DJing at home without annoying the neighbors

Now that we are city dwellers sharing walls and floors with neighbors, we are in desperate need of some speakers that sound clear and nice at lower volumes. Our current setup is computer, turntables, etc running to an amp which is connected to 2 huuuuuge floor speakers.

The floor speakers sound good at higher volumes but send the bass straight through to our downstairs neighbor's bedroom. She's super cool about calling to ask us to turn it down, but obviously we'd all be happier with a better arrangement... so where to start?

Should I be looking at studio monitors or bookshelf speakers?

thants.

Re: speakers for listening & DJing at home without annoying the neighbors

I wouldn't get studio monitors for listening to music, just get some old vintage fuzzy warm ones

Re: speakers for listening & DJing at home without annoying the neighbors

Yeah I saw Gabe babysitting the mixer last weekend wink ... My downstairs neighbors are ~70.  I'm banking on the fact that they're hard of hearing.

Re: speakers for listening & DJing at home without annoying the neighbors

Dez wrote:

Yeah I saw Gabe babysitting the mixer last weekend wink ... My downstairs neighbors are ~70.  I'm banking on the fact that they're hard of hearing.

Really?! Our neighbor is actually in Beijing all month, I'm surprised he was turning it down! tongue

thants.

Re: speakers for listening & DJing at home without annoying the neighbors

skymob: mayebe get spikes for the floor speakers if you dont have it already.

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Re: speakers for listening & DJing at home without annoying the neighbors

BMX wrote:

skymob: mayebe get spikes for the floor speakers if you dont have it already.

Hmmm don't think that's going to help much - they really just need to be replaced with something smaller, clearer and as far away from the floor as possible.

thants.

Re: speakers for listening & DJing at home without annoying the neighbors

Check out the Dali line of speakers, i like them alot. They got some nice shelf speakers that should fit the bill.

Whatever you do, stay away from BOSE

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8 (edited by disco train 2008-08-15 17:57:31)

Re: speakers for listening & DJing at home without annoying the neighbors

maybe get an eq?

otherwise a pair of good bookshelf speakers

Re: speakers for listening & DJing at home without annoying the neighbors

disco train wrote:

maybe get an eq?

otherwise a pair of good bookshelf speakers

Yes, am hoping someone can recommend a good brand or model of bookshelf speakers! smile

thants.

Re: speakers for listening & DJing at home without annoying the neighbors

BMX wrote:

Check out the Dali line of speakers, i like them alot. They got some nice shelf speakers that should fit the bill.

Whatever you do, stay away from BOSE

Will check out the Dalis - care to expound on your dislike of Bose?

thants.

Re: speakers for listening & DJing at home without annoying the neighbors

Bose and Monster cable are the same type of shit. Just google 'bose sucks' and get a avalanche of hits.

ps. here is the Dali homepage; http://www.dali.dk

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Re: speakers for listening & DJing at home without annoying the neighbors

for listening at home   minimal 15 years old KEF   uni-Q

Re: speakers for listening & DJing at home without annoying the neighbors

Squadra Smackos wrote:

I wouldn't get studio monitors for listening to music, just get some old vintage fuzzy warm ones

Yeah, if it's not for crucial monitoring, not a bad idea.

Wharfdale seem to be OK, I think of the brand as a more HI-FI type of speaker, maybe worth a check. http://www.htfr.com/more-info/MR266129

Klipsch seem decent from what I rememer too: http://www.klipsch.com/products/lists/bookshelf.aspx

Do it your way, because everyone else is just weird.

14 (edited by Poodle 2008-08-20 19:19:44)

Re: speakers for listening & DJing at home without annoying the neighbors

yeah the sound your neighbour hears is mainly structure born. so decouple speakers via good stands with spikes both to speaker and floor, and fill them with sand. this will also improve the sound of the speakers.

my younger brother has the Dynaudio Audience 72SE floor speakers. everything sounds great on them, even bad recordings.. he also uses an A&H Xone 92 mixer, Pioneer A-A6-J amp and the sound is fantastic! the character of the speakers is also very easy on your ears. what stands out is how beautifully they handle stuff like bongos and toms in the mix.

Maybe you could get the small but nice Dynaudio Audience 52SE?

http://www.referenceaudio.se/resources/ProductImages/1/4681/Image1_300_300.jpg

dali make some really nice ones and in some ways maybe better than dynaudio but the word is they aren't as forgiving as dynaudio.

15 (edited by zip 2008-08-20 17:14:52)

Re: speakers for listening & DJing at home without annoying the neighbors

i have a couple of old Mission 760: small speakers with nice, clear sound
but the bass is not too well defined and they suck at high volume level regarding bass
so for the bass i added two big ol' homemade mf's with phat bass
and the nice thing about them is that they work like a treat on both low and high volume, you always here a nice, well defined bass!

here's a pic of the missions

http://www.varuborsen.com/images/Mission-760.JPG