"Pro" Active Monitors

The type of music you listen to may have a large impact. Most studio near-field monitors are meant to be very revealing (so recording engineers can hear what is being done to the signal as they lay down a mix). I have a home project studio in which I use Tannoy NFM 8s (with 8" dual concentric drivers) run by solid state electronics. My listening room however uses tubes and speakers with a rolled-off high end, which I prefer when I'm listening to classical music. For jazz and rock the monitors may be just the thing. You can get a pair of Tannoy Reveal active monitors from www.musiciansfriend.com for $799 with a 45 day money back satisfaction guarantee. Hard to beat.

i personally use ATC active 50's and highly recommend that you take a listen to them as well. the active 10's and 20's are wonderful bookshelf-style speakers and i prefer them to the tannoy line.

listen to both, though, and decide form there. you may prefer the tannoys.

good luck.

For around $800-900, I'd go for "real" Tannoy studio monitors, i.e., dual concentrics. The Reveals are fine as far as they go, but don't hold a candle to the coaxials that Tannoy has designed for the past 55 years. I picked up DMT 12s for around US$700 and DMT 12 IIs for closer to $900 (used). Even with a single modest amp, they'll blow the Reveals (and most hifi speakers) away. Plus you can enjoy them while saving up for some Bryston Power Packs to bolt to the back to make them into bona fide active monitors.

Active is the definitely the way to go, for it gets rid of the speaker cable (or 99% of it) and allows you to use an electronic crossover which can be made to much tighter tolerances than a passive one. Tannoy makes an active model based on the DMT 12, but a pair is very expensive, list price around $6500, though I did once see a used pair for rather less.

By all means audition ATC and Genelec and Tannoys, but compare models at similar price points. Reveals are Tannoy's compromise, because dual concentrics are much more expensive to manufacture than two physical separate drivers.

Happy listening/monitoring!

Joel Tatelman.

My favorite speakers are the ATC SCM50 SL actives. They are my 2nd pair of ATC. In a month's time, I will be able to tell everyone the latest upgrade new tweeters on the SCM50 (Seas Excel, like the SCM70), hope they are worth the cost and effort.

The strong reason to go with ATC is that the amps they integrated are of very high quality. For example, the small Active 10 comes with 200W each side. The Paradigm only has 80W. Also, ATC amps operate nearly in Class A (note how hot the sink gets) only till the very loud passage. The mid/high channels remain Class A all the time.

For other ATC owners, try putting Blue Tak in between the speakers and stands, and try a pair of Totem Beak. < $100 but major improvement in finesse and air.

www.extremephono.com

totem beak? i've got the tak, but what's the totem beak?