Behringer Studio 50USB

MajorFubar

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Treated my kids to a pair of these, £126.50 from Amazon, for their studio/bedroom, to replace their trusty Active Diamond 7.1s which are on their last legs.

Kids will be using them as monitor speakers for their music creation, but tell you what, if you've got e.g.: a laptop, not much money, but you want to get into HiFi sound, I reckon you could do FAR worse than go down this route. Excellent balanced sound, bi-amped with proper active crossovers (as opposed to being just powered speakers), easily go plenty loud enough. Strangely they have the air-ports at the back not the front, which is not very desirable for studio monitors because it makes them more position-dependent, but as hifi components, just shuffle them around on some 24" inch stands until you're sorted.

They also have jack inputs, XLR inputs, a switch to boost or cut the treble (not the bass, unusually), and an input trimmer, all of which IMO are best left in their zero positions.

Negative comments: none for the price, other that the fact they don't have grilles so their looks are not the last word in pleasing-aethetics.

Even plugged into e.g. an iPhone headphone jack, no [new] amp and speakers for this combined price will come close, even assuming you can find some. They've even got me looking at my Alesis 520USB speakers in a less than satisfied way, and they set me back nearly £200 some years ago.
 

ID.

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I don't think rear facing ports are such an issue unless they're pressed right up against a wall.

Plenty of Genelecs have them.

If I were going for a cheap monitor I think the LSR305 by JBL would be my first port of call, although I do have a soft spot for the airy presentation of many Fostex speakers, but their cheapies don't have any tone control options.
 

MajorFubar

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ID. said:
If I were going for a cheap monitor I think the LSR305 by JBL would be my first port of call

I did eye those up, and several other models under £200 (though ideally £150 was my upper limit), but these Behringers won the day because of their built-in USB connectivity, so no need for a separate mixer or USB audio interface. Always difficult buying speakers without hearing them first, which is why I went to Amazon so I could take advantage of their excellent returns policy should I have needed it. But they won't be going back.
 

MajorFubar

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Andrewjvt said:
Hope the kids enjoy them Good bargin per sound value also

Yeah they love them. For all my recommendation though, the sad truth is speakers like this (including more expensive models) are just a little too off the beaten track for most hifi enthusiasts to consider. Their loss IMO. Anyone who thinks they can put together a £200 amp and speaker combo to outgun these (even though these are £70 cheaper) is welcome to come round to my place with their chosen weapons so I can thoroughly embarrass them.
 

ID.

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MajorFubar said:
ID. said:
If I were going for a cheap monitor I think the LSR305 by JBL would be my first port of call

I did eye those up, and several other models under £200 (though ideally £150 was my upper limit), but these Behringers won the day because of their built-in USB connectivity, so no need for a separate mixer or USB audio interface. Always difficult buying speakers without hearing them first, which is why I went to Amazon so I could take advantage of their excellent returns policy should I have needed it. But they won't be going back.

Good point. I tend to forget about that seeing as I have some DAC/preamps I use (or even an old headphone amp that I use as a preamp).
 

chebby

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In March last year I listened to KRK Rokit 5 something-or-others vs Yamaha HS5s in our local branch of Musicroom.

Unfortunately* I preferred the KRKs (despite their rather lurid looks). I found the Yamahas too harsh and the Rokits nice and smooth. I forget which DAC/ADC/volume device was being used (Edirol rings a bell) but the same one was used with both speakers.

I was looking for something active (proper active) but relatively cheap to try out in a second system but another round of hospital stays/ops etc. got in the way for a while and I never pursued the matter after I recovered.

* I really wanted to prefer the Yamahas and my preference - from this one demo - didn't go down well with the forum experts alas. (Basically I was wrong.)
 

ID.

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chebby said:
In March last year I listened to KRK Rokit 5 something-or-others vs Yamaha HS5s in our local branch of Musicroom.

Unfortunately* I preferred the KRKs (despite their rather lurid looks). I found the Yamahas too harsh and the Rokits nice and smooth. I forget which DAC/ADC/volume device was being used (Edirol rings a bell) but the same one was used with both speakers.

I was looking for something active (proper active) but relatively cheap to try out in a second system but another round of hospital stays/ops etc. got in the way for a while and I never pursued the matter after I recovered.

* I really wanted to prefer the Yamahas and my preference - from this one demo - didn't go down well with the forum experts alas. (Basically I was wrong.)

interesing. I'd want to prefer the Yamahas too. Not that I've listened to either of them.
 

MajorFubar

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chebby said:
* I really wanted to prefer the Yamahas and my preference - from this one demo - didn't go down well with the forum experts alas. (Basically I was wrong.)

Interesting. I'd heard elsewhere that the Rokit speakers are too bass heavy, the equivalent of a typical pair of Beats in speaker form. But calling you 'wrong' is out of order I'd think, and you know me I'm one to say it like it is. If you prefered the Rokits then you prefered the Rokits.
 

chebby

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MajorFubar said:
chebby said:
* I really wanted to prefer the Yamahas and my preference - from this one demo - didn't go down well with the forum experts alas. (Basically I was wrong.)

Interesting. I'd heard elsewhere that the Rokit speakers are too bass heavy, the equivalent of a typical pair of Beats in speaker form. But calling you 'wrong' is out of order I'd think, and you know me I'm one to say it like it is. If you prefered the Rokits then you prefered the Rokits.

It was almost a year and-a-half ago, both pairs were clamped into the same metal racking (in 'free-space' above us and pointing down at us) in the middle of a busy showroom full of musical intruments (with someone getting a bit of guitar tuition a few metres away).

Someone here did point out that both speakers had a raft of EQ adjustments and I wouldn't have known if any had been applied.
 

drummerman

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I once listened to a whole lot of actives in the largest pro/music retailer in Bournemouth.

Sadly my experience differs as all the cheaper ones, including KRK sounded (to me) distinctly underwhelming and far removed from high fidelity.

The cheapest pair that actually sounded ok were some Adam's with the ribbon tweeter at I think around £600/pair at the time.

Unfortunately they looked like they were designed during the industrial revolution.

That was quite some time ago mind.
 

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