Cheap Speakers?

Speaker advice for a small, newbie studio? Under a hundred bucks or so, preferably available from Amazon.com?

I've been rather cluelessly building a studio for a while now, and I need advice about speakers. I'd like to have folks over to play music from time to time, and the regular group would include Violin, Ukulele, an Electric Guitar or two, and a Keyboard as well as misc futzing around with Abelton.

Currently I have a single pair of headphones, and an Amazon Gift Card from my very generous boss. (:

I like to spend under a hundred bucks on something that will not sound terrible, and will let the uke player hear the keyboard, if that makes sense. However, I don't know anything, really. For example, what's the practical difference between a "monitor" and an "amp" (or, I guess, an amplifier + speaker)?

Right now it's just a bunch of folks jamming in the attic, so I don't need Earth Trembling Volume, but if we got our act together we might want something that we could bring to an open mic or something.

posted by Squid Voltaire (7 comments total)

What instruments do you want to be heard on the speaker?

Under a hundred bucks is not going to get you very much. For $200 you can get this little PA package which looks quite adaptable.

You can either go the powered or unpowered speaker route. Unpowered speakers are cheaper but need an amp.

You could also look at some studio (reference) monitors like the Rokits or the Yamaha HS50ms or something similar. The dinky little 15w ones are not really going to be loud enough for you but the bigger ones will work just fine and you won't need an amp AND you can use them for mixing, which is what they're really designed for. It's a bit more money but you could get a class package.
posted by unSane at 9:26 AM on December 10, 2010

This is a little over your price range ($159ish), but this looks pretty promising:

http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.php?ProductId=957

I had an earlier version of these (MA-8), and I liked them a lot:

http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.php?ProductId=747
posted by umbú at 9:26 AM on December 10, 2010

I think there's a few questions you're asking here.

Monitors are speakers that you use to listen to, or "monitor," the mixes that you're playing back from whatever you've recorded your tracks on (computer, 4-track portastudio, hard disk multitrack recorder, etc. etc.)

If I understand correctly, you are having informal jams in your attic for which a few instruments need to be amplified. In this case, yes, you'd want an "amp" or amplifier, maybe a couple. For these purposes you'd only need a small amp, nothing more than 5 or 10 watts. There's lots of options under $100 and obviously the price goes up as the amps get better. You should go to a store and play with a few and decide what your needs are and what sound you like (tube vs. transistor, low-watt distorter at lower volume vs. blow-the-roof-off Marshall stack, etc.)
Many amps have more than one input so you could plug more than one guitar in, but I've never known a guitar player who's been into sharing an amp.

However, if you're into recording in this setup, then you're into more than just monitors (speakers.) You can either get a decent mic, or a few, and record the room live as you play. But if the keyboards and guitars aren't amplified, you'd have to get their signal into whatever you're recording on so you'd plug these instruments into your portastudio, or into the multi-channel audio interface that hooks up to your computer, etc. etc. depending on what you're recording on.

But from reading your question again it seems like you're looking for an amplifier. Or two.
posted by chococat at 9:31 AM on December 10, 2010

See, this is how little I know--I'm not even sure how to judge how loud these will be. unSane, you think that 15w would be too quiet for a studio? If that's the case, then those speakers that umbú suggested would be inaudible, right (5w and 14w)? Or is there another measurement of sound output that I should be checking?

The speakers I'm looking for are for various Ableton midi noises (i.e., keyboard, percussion, &c.) and electric guitar. Oh, and I guess it might make sense to mic the ukulele, as well, as it isn't the loudest instrument out there.

On preview, thanks chococat, that makes a lot of sense. You think something like this (Fender Frontman 15G) would suit my modest needs?

My current setup is to plug my microphone and electric guitar into a small mixer, output that into my computer and thus into Ableton, and then send the resulting noise out into my headphones (and, ultimately, an amp). Sometimes also my electric violin, but that generally sounds pretty awful (and I've been meaning to ask for help on that subject, as well).

Thanks again.
posted by Squid Voltaire at 9:53 AM on December 10, 2010

15w monitors are fine for mixing but if you are competing with acoustic instruments it gets into overload territory very quickly unless everyone is playing real quiet.

When you are looking at guitar amps, tube watts are a HELL of a lot louder than solid state watts. So a 10w tube amp like a Fender Champ is bloody loud, much much louder than a pair of 15w desk monitors.

Guitar amps do not generally sound awesome with keyboards or other computery noises going through them although they will do in a pinch.

I would head down to your local music store and see what they have.

Electric guitar/violin really needs to go thru an amp or an amp sim before it sounds halfway decent.
posted by unSane at 10:15 AM on December 10, 2010

It's entirely up to what you intend to use it for, and it sounds like practice, not recording.

In that case, you're almost certain not to be able to get what you want under $100, but the simple PA kit linked by unSane could be just what you're looking for.
posted by chimaera at 7:25 PM on December 11, 2010

Doesn't the Electric Guitarist already have an AMP?
posted by mary8nne at 9:10 AM on December 15, 2010