How should I set these speakers up for monitoring?

[moody07747]

I have a pair of fairly new but unused Polk audio bookshelf speakers that I want to get hooked up by the desktop for recording playback.

They are unpowered and have a pair of binding posts on the back.
I need a power amp for these and will be switching out the posts for some 1/4 or 1/8" phone mono jacks


Here's my audio layout.

-audio goes into the inputs on the mixer.
-The output for the control room monitor goes to my KX1200 which is only mono.
-The main stereo out goes though a stereo cable to the mic port on the sound card of my computer.


anyone have any tips, tricks or products for this project?
btw, im trying to get all the products for this build from one online source...parts express seems good but they dont have any smaller amps


Thanks

[Meanderthal]

 If ya have a 2-track out bus, use that to the line in of your soundcard, and use the main outs to your power amp & monitors. If those speakers have a fairly flat response, I'd eliminate that mono thing and just use the monitors, nothing else. When recording, remember to mute the channels coming out from your soundcard. I'd also keep the banana jacks, allows for quick phase reversal, possibly stacking if you really have to...
Really, it's hard to go much further without knowing what exactly your mixing desk can do...

[Elektrojänis]

I need a power amp for these and will be switching out the posts for some 1/4 or 1/8" phone mono jacks

I'd say those screw terminals (or whatever they are called) should be just fine if used correctly with good quality cables.

Also: Remember that guitar cables or other cables that are meant for mic or line level signals are no good for speaker cables.

Here's my audio layout.

-The main stereo out goes though a stereo cable to the mic port on the sound card of my computer.

Use line-in instead of mic in if your computer has one. Mic inputs have a mic preamp. In most computers and most consumer level add-on soundcards that mic-pre is just horrible (very noisy etc.). It is also usually meant for cheap electret microphones, so it's "optimized" for those. Your mixer probably has mic preamps, so you don't need the pre-amp in the soundcard anyway, and it would be in the wrong position in the signal chain anyway.

The mic in is also monophonic. With line in you can record in stereo or if you use the stereo channels separately you can record two mono signals at once (for example one mic in front of guitar cab and one ambience mic further away or guitar on one track and bass on the other). It depends on the software you use how you can mix them though.

anyone have any tips, tricks or products for this project?

When setting up hifi/monitoring, the placement of the speakers makes a lot of difference. The goal is to have the monitoring equipment sound as neutral as possible. Usually it would be good for the sound to place the speakers as far from any large surfaces (walls, tables etc.) as possible. If the room is used for other things than recording/music as well it might be difficult. Some speakers have their responce tailored for placement near the walls though.

Hmmm... Acoustics is a large topic and I will not go deeper into it now, but when recording/monitoring/mixing/etc. it matters a lot.

[moody07747]

the only reason im using the sound cards mic input is because the line in port is a stereo port but its only getting mono signal in recording...im not sure why....may be the old sound card i have.

The mic port was giving me stereo input...strange but yea its noisy.

I just got done rigging up these speakers to the headphone jack of the old powered computer speakers to see how they sounded...its good but the output is not high enough to drive these larger speakers so i had to turn it up which distorted the bass allot.

I need a smaller amp to boost the signal from these speakers.

FYI The mixer I'm using is a Yamaha MG 10.2



I don't do much recording with mics, only when i do my gear demos which i have to finish up...other than that its all line in to the computer with headphones or an amp for monitoring

[moody07747]

ok i just found out my line in on my sound blaster card is mono...but theres only one so i cant do stereo.


i was thinking of getting  new desktop soon and when i do i want to get the delta 44 card for it
http://www.zzounds.com/item--THKMIMD442

that will allow 4 mono ins and 4 mono outs allowing me to record 2 stereo inputs

[Elektrojänis]

Hmmm... I have not seen a soundcard without stereo Line-in in years... Hmmm... Last one like that was in my 33MHz 486 that is like 10 years old. That card cannot even be used with much newer computers than that as the bus is different and the card was really all monophonic. (And I see a lot of computer related stuff on daily basis as I work as a computer tech support.)

Are you sure you are using correct type of cable and feeding it two separate channels?

The mic in usually is mono, but the same signal is fed to the both channels. If panning from the mixer doesn't work correctly in the recordings it's probably like that in your card too.  If not, you have one weird soundcard.

Delta 44 is fine. I have one too. There are probably better ones, but especially for the price they are asking for it now, I'd say it's very nice. It's probably no good for games and stuff like that, but for recording it's good.

I had some problems with it when I installed it to my current computer, but it turned out that SATA-hardrive controller on my motherboard was causing the trouble (clicks in the recordings). After changing the hardrive to an older parallel ATA -model everything started working fine.

[moody07747]

yea im using the right cables.  This is an older sound card.  my stock dell didnt have one with a port for the midi addapter so my brother who does work on computer got an old one for free and installed it.

as I said, my computer is starting to go and im planning on a new one soon so the M-Audio Delta 44 will be going int that as well

[tcobretti]

Sound cards are cheap, so you might think about upgrading (or maybe not if it doesn't matter).

If you google "chip amps" you'll find a ton of DIY info about building your own power amp, and they are supposed to be near audiophile quality.

Or you could just buy a Sonic Impact 5066 on Amazon for $35, which is a chip amp ready for use.

[moody07747]

Sound cards are cheap, so you might think about upgrading (or maybe not if it doesn't matter).

If you google "chip amps" you'll find a ton of DIY info about building your own power amp, and they are supposed to be near audiophile quality.

Or you could just buy a Sonic Impact 5066 on Amazon for $35, which is a chip amp ready for use.

thanks, ill check out that Sonic Impact 5066

[Meanderthal]

 Thanks for the mixer pic, that helped alot!

Ok, the best output to interface with the line in on a generic sb type soundcard would be the -10db outs. The rec out is ideal. All you need is a 1/8" stereo to dual rca cord- rat shack has them. You're much less likely to saturate the soundcard that way, and it's damn convenient. It really is strange that your soundcard would have only mono line in... but that one you're eyeing up should work just fine.

[moody07747]

yea I was planning on rewiring that to the RCA jacks...ive been using the ST outs

ive been looking up the reviews on the Sonic Impact 5066 and also saw that it runs on 8 AA batteries...but the power supply is about $20 more plus shipping.

if anyone knows a similar product like the Sonic Impact 5066 that runs on 120V AC and will drive these 4ohm speakers without a problem let me know.

I normally keep my speakers on all day and night and use them all day so batteries are a no go...

thanks once again.

[fixr1984]

My set up isnt the greatest but it works. my mixer goes to the "line in" on the sound card.
Its a Sound Blaster live 5.1 surround card. My desktop speakers are plugged into the "front" ouput
and I take the "rear" output and send that to my stereo reciever and that goes to my regular stereo
speakers. That way I have 4 speakers for playback and have them spread thruout the room to give it
a fuller sound.

[moody07747]

well it looks like this is the only fairly good amp for my price range

im going to get this sonic 5066 and change a few things on it so i can use a different power supply i have available as well as put some better output terminals on there (good binding posts)

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

im going to get this sonic 5066 and change a few things on it so i can use a different power supply i have available as well as put some better output terminals on there (good binding posts)

I'd never head of this amp, but apparently there is a whole modding scene going on, eg http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=50870

If you are trying to save every $, I guess you could DIY or find a 12v DC source. But if you are driving it hard, then that had better be a pretty heavy 12v supply..... like 2.5 amp.