looking for a good audio monitor active speaker for my new flex-6700

Nicholas Parry

There appear to be a lot of different suggestions for speakers.  looking to spend around £100 GBP.  Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

Jim Gilliam

That hss been asked many times before and you will get 100 different answers.

Jim, K6QE

Jon_KF2E

https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/speaker-recommendations

https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/recommended-powered-speakers-for-flex-6500

https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/what-speakers-are-recommended-for-the-flex-im-using...

https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/which_speaker_for_6000_series_do_you_use

There are many more threads if you need more opinions.

elan

MA 150 from Roland http://www.roland.co.uk/products/ma-15d/

KD4HSO

Just make sure it takes a line level input as some of the ham radio amplified speakers have 8 Ohm inputs.  I am happy with these on my 6500:

http://www.westmountainradio.com/product_info.php?products_id=COM_spkr

Tim - W4TME

Bose Companion II

Jim Gilliam

Don't forget about speaker systems that are wirelessly connected for broadcasting around the house. It is nice (when my wife is not at home) to flood every room with the dulcet tones originating from a Flex. Speakers that are Apple Airplay compatible or the Sonus systems makes this possible.

elan

Tim right the Bose Companion II is one of the best sound speaker if you looking for good sound 
low price as well 

Nicholas Parry

Many thanks everyone for the recommendations.  I have now made a purchase of the Bose Companion 2 series 3 speakers.  What I like about these is that a utube review did state that they are not just all about base, so many cheap computer speakers push the bass through the floor, OK for modern dance but not good for the 6Khz wide audio bandwidth of the radio!  They also look stylish, thanks again all and 73's de M0NAG

Simon Lewis

ditto

km9r.mike

They are also great for listening to music. 

Duane N9DG

The Mackie CR3's I have seem to be working quite well.

Also have some M-Audio AV30's, the sound quality is good, but they have more AC hum than I'd like.

EA4GLI

I also find the two input invaluable in the Bose. I have the older Companion II series 2 which are a bit more expensive. Being able to get both the sound from the PC as well as the Flex is great.

EA4GLI

They look good too with the Flex

Jay Nation

Duane
A ground loop isolator should fix the AC hum issue.
Heres a good cheap one. ...
http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=6909

Just connect it between the Speakers and the radio and/or the PC.
Which is fairly simple with this 4 channel unit.
You will need to of course provide the adapters between the stereo 3.5mm connectors and the phono connectors, they sell those too. I feed my 6500s audio through one, into the Line in jack on the PC then out to my computer speakers, it gets me around the single input on the speaker problem.
And gives me another set of mixer sliders to play with.

73, Jay - NO5J

Duane N9DG

Actually I ruled out ground loop issues, because that was the first thing I suspected. The hum is still present even with only power connected to them and nothing else.

One of the nice things about both the AV30 and CR3 is that they both have RCA connectors on back and also have a front panel 3.5mm connectors as well which comes in handy when I want to quickly patch another sound source into them.

rfoust

Nice photo.  What is that device above the flex control (to the left of the flex radios)?

km9r.mike

http://www.expertampsusa.com/

Richard - MW0XDT

Just as an aside, I thought I'd tag my audio arrangement on the end here. I adopted a slightly different approach as I wished to channel audio from other non-SDR radios through one set of amplified speakers.

I decided to use use JBL Control 1 Pro monitor speakers after an audition and reading various reviews. These are fairly inexpensive studio monitors, but do require separate amplification. I intended to use a modest hifi audio amplifier to achieve this and indeed route the audio from multiple radios. However while I was looking for a suitable amp, I stumbled across the Yamaha Network CD Receiver CRX-N560D...this not only routes the audio and amplifies for great sound out of the JBL monitors, but also adds Analogue / DAB broadcast radio to my shack and fantastic Net based radio stations too...plus a CD player and the usual USB audio connections for ipod etc!

I love this little receiver, it compliments my shack very well, bringing the best out of my 6500 received audio, whilst also adding more radio to the shack! (and some great music for when i'm working on the bench!)...Picture attached with the white version of the JBL monitors shown (also available in Black) and the Yamaha receiver shown to the left of the Palstar AT2K.

DH2ID

$15 logitech speaker. Good enough for audio, as I have very good headphones ;-)

EA4GLI

Exactly, the SPE Expert 1k-fa Solid State amplifier.

EA4GLI

That is a great looking radio shack.

Richard - MW0XDT

Many thanks!...I love your shack...the Expert Amplifiers are very clever...I hope your 1.3K is in with you soon!

EA4GLI

Thanks Richard! Can't wait to be back in Spain and set up a large 4k monitor.
How does the yamaha receiver deal with RF? Any issues?

Richard - MW0XDT

No problems at all with RF, even with headphones listening through the Yamaha, there is no hint of interference....which to be honest, was something I feared if I had gone down the route of 'active' self amplified speakers (I have suffered with poorly shield active speakers in the past!) I haven't had to install ferrites on inter connecting leads. The only precaution I have employed is mains power filtering and surge protection provided by a 6 way 230v distribution block. I look forward to seeing how you get on with the 4K screen!...I stuck with a large 2K as I was a little worried how SmartSDR would resolve on such high resolution displays....and nobody had posted comments at that time! Cost is coming down now, so I may well jump to 4K if all goes well with your install ;-) 73, safe journey back to Spain! Rich

Andrew Holman2

I use the Polk Hampden speakers and they are pretty nice, I also have a set of Klipsch which are better for music, so I keep the Polks hooked up to the radio, great sounding speakers.

Duane_AC5AA

After some of the discussion here, I bought a pair of Bose Companion 2 Series III speakers, and while they sound OK for SSB, they are horrible on CW. Case resonances and just ugly sounding single tone output. So, I'm going back to my pair of Creative Labs A50's which are no great shakes, but at least they can render a pure CW tone. A while back I heard Bob Heil recommend a set of studio monitors (JBL Control 2p) but I wasn't ready to lay out $200 for them and then try to find space in the shack - hi! I'd like to improve on the Creative's for SSB, but not sure what to look for at this point. Guess I'll check out more of the other recommendations in this thread.

km9r.mike

Bose noise cancelling headphones for cw. Nothing else for me. Great sound, quiet and very comfortable for a full weekend of cw contesting.

Norm - W7CK

I have to agree with Alex.  I have tried lots of different speakers and separate sound systems into non-amplified speakers.  In the end, I've simply come full circle and here on the desk sits an inexpensive set of Altec speakers.  I also have an old set of Logitech that do quite well.  I use a pair of wireless headphones when I want to work cw.   I can't stand being tethered by a wire to anything.  I paid a bunch of money for better speakers and I just couldn't hear much difference, but I'm not listening to music in my ham shack.  If your going to listen to music, get a good set.

My station is run off of 12v solar so having speakers that run off of 12v dc was also important to me.

Barry N1EU

Jay, have you checked the frequency response of that Monoprice isolation xfmr package?  It looks like a really convenient package but many cheap isolation xfmrs have a pronounced roll-off in the bass.

73, Barry N1EU

Jay Nation

Barry

I haven't checked the Frequency response except by ear. I don't notice any roll-off.

When radio shack closed their doors I needed a new source, and google pointed these out, Since these cost half of what the RS isolators cost and are actually 4 channels, instead of 2, I figured they were worth experimenting with.

They get the job done.
Are they affecting the audio? Probably, but not audibly.

I use them on any audio inputs I've got 3 PCs, 3 Flexes, 2 mixers, 1 cable box and both PC speakers and an external stereo receiver amp all interconnected. Basically to be able to push audio in and out of any device and listen to it either on pc speakers , or large 12" 3 way room speakers. I never hear any ground hum from anything.

For the price they are handy little things to have.

Monoprice's premium/heavy duty 3.5mm audio adapter cables which you might also consider are very well made but the plug insulators are too **** to fit the standard sound card jack spacing though, so look for their visibly skinnier, cheaper, non-premium adapters and cables. 

73, Jay - NO5J