Studio monitors with vinyl?

[kickinfatbeats]

I'm building a stereo system from the ground up and was looking at some vintage JBL monitors. I know monitors are more sensitive speakers, and was wondering if they are a poor choice because the pops on vinyl could damage them. I'm building my system primarily for playing records so if that's a concern it's back to the drawing board. Perhaps some powered PA speakers instead?

Thanks in advance for any advice

[tape]

I know monitors are more sensitive speakers, and was wondering if they are a poor choice because the pops on vinyl could damage them.

no.

[slinch]

For me a pair of good powered monitors is the best budget option, regardless of source. Stay away from PA stuff.

[wheresoulmeetsbody]

i have two krk rokit 5s and a rokit 10 sub for my speaker set up. sounds incredible. it got tricky connecting the speakers to my receiver, as they don't use regular speaker wire, they use xlr. i had to get an xlr-1/8" adapter and connect to my receiver via headphone output. what's your setup plan?

[slinch]

Why are you using a receiver with them at all? Of course they don't use regular speaker wire, they are active speakers. Take the receiver out of the chain and be blown away by how much better they'll sound.

[kickinfatbeats]

I listened to all the KRKs and didnt care much for them. I liked what I heard from the Tannoys more than anything else they had up at GC.

[wheresoulmeetsbody]

Why are you using a receiver with them at all? Of course they don't use regular speaker wire, they are active speakers. Take the receiver out of the chain and be blown away by how much better they'll sound.

But there's no way to just go from my turntable to the speakers. I've tried to think of a better way to do it, but I'm pretty sure I need something between the turntable and the krks.

[slinch]

But there's no way to just go from my turntable to the speakers. I've tried to think of a better way to do it, but I'm pretty sure I need something between the turntable and the krks.

If the table doesn't have a built in phono preamp, then yes, you need the phono between them. But if you're only using the receiver for it's phono stage, check if the receiver has "pre-out" connectors on the back, if it does, it's definitely a better option than having them hooked up to the headphones output. Though if you're using the receiver exclusively for the phono stage and nothing else, you'd be much better off just selling it and replacing it with a phono preamp. You'd get much better results that way.

So I think what slinch is saying is true, though I'm too new to this to know exactly why. Maybe the preamp -> receiver -> powered speaker chain is just one too many levels of amplification and will cause distortion? What would be your preferred setup with studio monitors, slinch?

The way he has it hooked up isn't really one too many levels of amplification (as the monitors aren't hooked up to the speaker output on the receiver), but it does have a lot of useless "trash" on the signal path, which degrades the signal significantly. I don't know what kind of receiver he's using, but if it's a newer one, the phono stages in those aren't really better than the cheap $20 sand-alone phono preamps. Then the next stage of pre-amplification in those receivers is usually pretty bad as well, and really alters the signal as well. Lastly, running the signal through a headphone output is yet another stage of amplification, albeit with little gain, but still, if the headphone amp isn't of high quality, it will have very negative effects on the signal. When you add it all together, the result is very poor.

With active speakers, the way you have it set up is the best way to go. It's quite simple really, the less "obstacles" on the signal path the better. With a turntable, phono preamp and active speakers you have everything you need.