Recommend Speakers?

[didymos]

I recently purchased Pianoteq software, which emulates the Steinway concert D (and a bunch of others). It sounds superb on headphones connected to the computer, but I'd like to use speakers without losing all the quality I hear through the phones. Is there a reasonably priced powered speaker for the purpose?

[hfmadopter]

Well not enough information in your question. Do you have line out ports or just headphone jacks and more so, what do you consider to be reasonably priced ? I ask  because to someone who might spend $10000 on a sound system then a set of 8" speakers for $500 would sound very reasonable. But if you want $69 computer speakers then the $500 figure may sound exorbitant.

[didymos]

Headphone jack is the outlet. I can manage that in different ways. Mostly I'd like to know if you or anyone else has already found speakers for this purpose they're happy with. I don't mean to be coy about price. Ideally I'd like to get a good reproduction of the sound for, say, $200-400. Powered speakers are supposed to be better at this, so I assume I would get more fidelity for less price than I would pay for "passive" speakers.

Any suggestions?

[hfmadopter]

Here in he US a pair of KRK Rokit 6 Gen 3 fit your budget. There are others too but these have some high and low frequency adjustment on them. You are going to need something to tone down the boost that headphone jacks generally have. Without some controls at the speakers then you will need some form of equalizer if your piano has none.

Also powering from the headphone jack you could use a set designed for computer use, again powered. A good set should be well detailed in sound though likely to be more pre colored in tone than reference monitors. But you will have less boost issues to deal with. Just bass tones may be more muddy. Reference monitors like the Rokits offer clarity and you hear details you maybe would rather not hear but need to hear so as to able you to dial out the unwanted.

Edit: Also leave room for cables in your budget. The better cables cost a little money and cheap ones are not as good. you also may need either an adapter from your headphone jack or split cables because you need to feed two speakers/monitors in the case of the studio monitors. Granted all that is probably more important when using line out jack from a keyboard with line out jacks vs just a headphone jack. You can go TRS cable or adapt to XLR cables.

[iansinclair]

It is true that powered speakers, particularly in the mid price ranges, can sometimes give better sound quality than passive ones -- for a very simple reason: they contain equalization circuitry in their amplifiers to compensate for the drivers used, which are usually relatively small and horribly inefficient.  Henry Kloss -- the "K" in KLH -- pioneered this concept successfully years ago, with both the various KLH speakers and the AR (Acoustic Research) speakers -- both from the 1960s (you guys are all too young to remember them!).  One does, however, want to take a look at them pretty carefully, as at the low frequency end, when they quit they quit rather abruptly -- and some of them don't go low enough to handle the low end of a piano, and just won't sound good.  Any low frequency spec. higher than about 50 hertz is not likely to be satisfactory, and even that is marginal -- the lowest C on a piano is about 32 hertz.

[hfmadopter]

It is true that powered speakers, particularly in the mid price ranges, can sometimes give better sound quality than passive ones -- for a very simple reason: they contain equalization circuitry in their amplifiers to compensate for the drivers used, which are usually relatively small and horribly inefficient.  Henry Kloss -- the "K" in KLH -- pioneered this concept successfully years ago, with both the various KLH speakers and the AR (Acoustic Research) speakers -- both from the 1960s (you guys are all too young to remember them!).  One does, however, want to take a look at them pretty carefully, as at the low frequency end, when they quit they quit rather abruptly -- and some of them don't go low enough to handle the low end of a piano, and just won't sound good.  Any low frequency spec. higher than about 50 hertz is not likely to be satisfactory, and even that is marginal -- the lowest C on a piano is about 32 hertz.

I was in my teens in the 1960s. A lot of my friends formed rock bands, I couldn't really join them since I played accordion back then.

Yes the Rokits I mentioned will get down into the 50s naturally and obviously will be taxed a bit below that, one can always add a sub later on as I did with my Maudio BX5s. My sub runs between the mid 50hz and 32 I believe but really it stretches a bit above the 50s. But using it totally frees up the main speakers from having to stretch below about 55 hz at least so with any real power involved. The effectiveness of that brings in realism throughout the entire keyboard till you hit tweeter frequencies which has to live more on it's own merits.

What's happening here is the budget is limiting the selection. The KRK Rokit 6 is a great little monitor set with some high and low frequency adjustment on them. The 8's are more in line yet, either can use the sub but now we are moving away from the budget requirements. The 6s will sound very good and void the cost of something like the Adam Audio line of speakers at $700 a pop..

BX8 D2 is another choice with more bass but no frequency adjustment which is why I didn't mention them. You can find them on sale for $400 a pair. They have a decent bass and smooth center with a decent tweeter. But one would need an equalizer I fear, adding to the cost if one is not built into the Op's keyboard ( my MP6 has a 4 channel EQ on board for instance, as well as four channel tone control and 4 zone selectable layering capability).

Edit: Actually the Rokit 6 Gen 3 goes down to 38hz . My BX 5's to 56hz. I don't know if that  is 38 extended but I  think not.

Also once again I have to correct a the specs I mentioned  on the sbx10 sub I own. It will cross over up to 200 hz and runs down to 20hz.

[indianajo]

You might look at a pair of Peavey KB300 powered speakers. They are designed for keyboards.  The predecessor KB100 brochure I have shows +- 2db frequency response of 30-30khz with 0.2% harmonic distortion.  It is rated at 75 watts.  The 300 has  has equalization controls, I believe.
Honey of Ron Piazza and the Mighty Flyers use one in their stage show.  Quite good sound,I think she uses one in monaural.   For good separation, of course, two set 6' apart produce stereo.  You'd need to make the stereo 1/8" headphone plug to twin 1/4" phone plug or maybe buy one from mcmelectronics.com or somewhere.  
I have a pair of Peavey SP2-XT unpowered speakers which have +-3 db measurements of 54-14500 hz.  They are the best on piano CD source I have ever heard, but my hearing stops at 14000 hz due to Army service.    I got my pair for ~$600 used  with the overhead stands for best sound, but I picked up an CS800s (400 w/ch) amp with them (with maintenance issues) for another $100.  Bar bands breaking up and leaving the road are economical sources of sound equipment.  BTW the amp needed two burnt $.007 resistors replaced on the input card, and new power supply capacitors.  The speakers were built in 1994 and needed only vacuuming to get the tobacco ash off.  

[didymos]

Here in he US a pair of KRK Rokit 6 Gen 3 fit your budget. There are others too but these have some high and low frequency adjustment on them. You are going to need something to tone down the boost that headphone jacks generally have. Without some controls at the speakers then you will need some form of equalizer if your piano has none.

Also powering from the headphone jack you could use a set designed for computer use, again powered. A good set should be well detailed in sound though likely to be more pre colored in tone than reference monitors. But you will have less boost issues to deal with. Just bass tones may be more muddy. Reference monitors like the Rokits offer clarity and you hear details you maybe would rather not hear but need to hear so as to able you to dial out the unwanted.

Edit: Also leave room for cables in your budget. The better cables cost a little money and cheap ones are not as good. you also may need either an adapter from your headphone jack or split cables because you need to feed two speakers/monitors in the case of the studio monitors. Granted all that is probably more important when using line out jack from a keyboard with line out jacks vs just a headphone jack. You can go TRS cable or adapt to XLR cables.

Thanks very much.

[didymos]

It is true that powered speakers, particularly in the mid price ranges, can sometimes give better sound quality than passive ones -- for a very simple reason: they contain equalization circuitry in their amplifiers to compensate for the drivers used, which are usually relatively small and horribly inefficient.  Henry Kloss -- the "K" in KLH -- pioneered this concept successfully years ago, with both the various KLH speakers and the AR (Acoustic Research) speakers -- both from the 1960s (you guys are all too young to remember them!).  One does, however, want to take a look at them pretty carefully, as at the low frequency end, when they quit they quit rather abruptly -- and some of them don't go low enough to handle the low end of a piano, and just won't sound good.  Any low frequency spec. higher than about 50 hertz is not likely to be satisfactory, and even that is marginal -- the lowest C on a piano is about 32 hertz.

This guy actually does remember ARs. I owned a pair. Superb.

Thanks very much.

[didymos]

I was in my teens in the 1960s. A lot of my friends formed rock bands, I couldn't really join them since I played accordion back then.

Yes the Rokits I mentioned will get down into the 50s naturally and obviously will be taxed a bit below that, one can always add a sub later on as I did with my Maudio BX5s. My sub runs between the mid 50hz and 32 I believe but really it stretches a bit above the 50s. But using it totally frees up the main speakers from having to stretch below about 55 hz at least so with any real power involved. The effectiveness of that brings in realism throughout the entire keyboard till you hit tweeter frequencies which has to live more on it's own merits.

What's happening here is the budget is limiting the selection. The KRK Rokit 6 is a great little monitor set with some high and low frequency adjustment on them. The 8's are more in line yet, either can use the sub but now we are moving away from the budget requirements. The 6s will sound very good and void the cost of something like the Adam Audio line of speakers at $700 a pop..

BX8 D2 is another choice with more bass but no frequency adjustment which is why I didn't mention them. You can find them on sale for $400 a pair. They have a decent bass and smooth center with a decent tweeter. But one would need an equalizer I fear, adding to the cost if one is not built into the Op's keyboard ( my MP6 has a 4 channel EQ on board for instance, as well as four channel tone control and 4 zone selectable layering capability).

Edit: Actually the Rokit 6 Gen 3 goes down to 38hz . My BX 5's to 56hz. I don't know if that  is 38 extended but I  think not.

Also once again I have to correct a the specs I mentioned  on the sbx10 sub I own. It will cross over up to 200 hz and runs down to 20hz.

Thanks very much.

[didymos]

You might look at a pair of Peavey KB300 powered speakers. They are designed for keyboards.  The predecessor KB100 brochure I have shows +- 2db frequency response of 30-30khz with 0.2% harmonic distortion.  It is rated at 75 watts.  The 300 has  has equalization controls, I believe.
Honey of Ron Piazza and the Mighty Flyers use one in their stage show.  Quite good sound,I think she uses one in monaural.   For good separation, of course, two set 6' apart produce stereo.  You'd need to make the stereo 1/8" headphone plug to twin 1/4" phone plug or maybe buy one from mcmelectronics.com or somewhere.  
I have a pair of Peavey SP2-XT unpowered speakers which have +-3 db measurements of 54-14500 hz.  They are the best on piano CD source I have ever heard, but my hearing stops at 14000 hz due to Army service.    I got my pair for ~$600 used  with the overhead stands for best sound, but I picked up an CS800s (400 w/ch) amp with them (with maintenance issues) for another $100.  Bar bands breaking up and leaving the road are economical sources of sound equipment.  BTW the amp needed two burnt $.007 resistors replaced on the input card, and new power supply capacitors.  The speakers were built in 1994 and needed only vacuuming to get the tobacco ash off.  

Thanks very much.

[fleetfingers]

I was in my teens in the 1960s. A lot of my friends formed rock bands, I couldn't really join them since I played accordion back then.

You should have joined anyway! An accordion in a rock band would've been awesome!

The rest of this thread is way over my head...maybe someday I'll be in need and will come back to study it more. 

[hfmadopter]

You should have joined anyway! An accordion in a rock band would've been awesome!

The rest of this thread is way over my head...maybe someday I'll be in need and will come back to study it more. 

Probably so but when in your teens back then, well accordion wasn't happening in 1965. I sold it to register my first car, another stupid move in a sense when you think how long junk cars last in comparison to a decent instrument.

On another note, I ordered my Adam Audio speakers and they are scheduled to arrive tomorrow. I can hardly wait to hear these and anticipate that they are really all they are cracked up to be ( 45 day return policy if not) !