My current setup is running AmpliTube4 on PC and bass/speaker going through my Audio Interface. My current speakers are slowly dying so I am planning on replacing them. I am curious to see if anybody has any opinion or experience on if I should
Go for a pair of monitor or Hi-Fi speaker?
What would be a good monitor/speaker that people would suggest?
I am more interested in just from a bass practice point of view and not the flat response/audio quality issue of monitor vs hi-fi.
And I will consider getting a bass amp in the future but as of right now I like this type of practice setup and don’t want to add an amp.
This is basically my setup and I am very happy with a pair of 5" monitors. Great sound quality, I use them a lot for mixing and mastering stuff so the flat response is good, and they still sound great for bass.
Most of the sub-5" ones have relatively poor bass response, usually bottoming out around 70Hz even for the good ones. 5" is basically the minimum that have what I would consider good bass response from the ones I found. That said, 3" monitors are going to sound a lot better than normal PC speakers - I had some 3" ones for a while and they were pretty good in comparison to normal speakers.
5" is also where you get in to the range where the amps driving them are of decent size. Mine are 80W each, split 40/40 horn/woofer per monitor.
Recommend checking out the Yamaha HS5’s and the JBL 305P. I bought the latter.
MSP5 are popular choices and sound good too, though I am not sure what they really bring for the added money. But definitely a solid choice.
And yeah, the 7" will be even better for bass. A pair of the 7" monitors would be really excellent for bass response, very transparent and quite a bit louder than many bass amps when it came to it.
I have a pair of HS8’s and matching sub-woofer and they sound great to me. Plenty of power and low-end response. They would still probably sound great without the sub-woofer as well.
Hey, I recently found myself in this market and it seems a lot of stores don’t have a good relationship with Yamaha “Speakers” but sell JBL at a discount.
I was looking at JBL 306P (6" monitor) x2 and a JBL LSR301S (10" sub) as a “replacement” for my generic PC speakers I’ve been using. Since GC has them on sale and I have a gift card, it fits my budget and seems reputable?
Wondering if you had any advice to the set up ($700ish budget)
My goal is basically getting something multi purpose but mainly to clearly hear bass through audio. I also have a Micro CL amp but its rarely in my own house lol.
I totally love my 305P-II’s. I have looked at upgrading them several times and always decided against it because there’s not really much gain until you go to a much larger speaker. In particular, they have very similar performance to the Yamaha HS-7 (not the HS-5, the larger HS-7), at a far lower price.
As much as I am a Yamaha fanboy I would go with the JBL’s instead. Great monitors at an excellent price.
I’ve read you need atleast a 5" to hear actual bass frequencies and not “pseudobass,” but I wonder if there is much difference 5" vs 6" if your using a sub as well?
Probably not. Even the 7" bottom out at about 50Hz so I wouldn’t sweat it. Bass sounds great on all of them even if you can’t hear the pure fundamental.
FWIW Bass amp speakers also have similar performance. You’re not hearing the real fundamental on many, many bass amps; especially for 5-string.
Here’s a comparison of three of the Yamahas:
You’re starting to roll off at ~50Hz there on all of them. Other brands are similar. 50Hz is G (3rd fret) on the E string.
In comparison, here’s a Fender Rumble 25:
which performs significantly worse. It’s rolling off at about the 15th fret on the E string, or the fifth fret of the D string.
It’s fine, you mostly hear the harmonics for notes that low anyway.
Thanks for the post you resolved a lot of research for me!
I actually did notice on my Rumble 25 vs my Ampeg that my 5 string low notes sounded different, but I just had blind faith every bass amp was you know, made for every bass?
Yeah and to be clear, it’s not just the Rumble 25 that has this kind of response. In general to get down to good response at ~35Hz you’ll be looking at 12" speakers (or multiple 10"). Here’s an Ampeg 2x12:
which is rolling off around 50 too, but still with good performance down to 30-35.
Pretty easy to google frequency response charts.
But it’s not really super critical. Your ears also mostly hear the higher harmonics of low notes. And in the mix you will probably EQ most of that stuff away anyway. I usually start my EQ rolloff in mixing at around 40-50Hz for bass, and sometimes do kind of a sidechain thing with the kick so it comes through; it’s in the same range.
) better frequency response as my 305P’s, at about the same price too. looks like a winner.
