| Hi Andrew,
I was wondering what other people were using or what they would recommend?
Have you checked out passive studio monitors? If you want flat frequency response then they are probably the way to go. Also most manufacturers provide a frequency response plot. Things like ATC SCM12 Pro seem like a good deal if that’s your budget. If you want cheap, perhaps look into the JBP Control series. Since this is actual studio equipment, there is no extra ‘audiophile tax’ involved.
Is using a digital amplifier a bad idea? I can imagine the repeated quantisation would lead to increase in distortion.
I don’t think this is an issue as long as sampling rates are high and AD/DA converters are high quality (most modern converters are). I’ve sent audio through a lot of digital equipment connected with analog cables with minimal/no audible distortion. That said, if the DAC is bad, you’ll have bad quality.
Another thing you can consider with digital amplifiers is using a digital connection such as SPDIF/optical, if your interface supports it. That way you stay digital throughout your signal path and have only one DA converter in front of the PA to worry about.
Hope this helps, Chris
Dear List
I’m looking for some advice, I’m trying to spec a passive loud speaker and an amplifier for running free field EEG experiments - the stimuli are all speech.
I would love to get a pair of Rogers LS5/9 that I used in my previous lab, but alas my budget doesn’t stretch that far. The problem with trying to evaluate speakers is that the published data sheets don’t ever seem to give a plot of the frequency responses. I was wondering what other people were using or what they would recommend?
My next conundrum is about power amplifiers. The old Yamaha P series amps were really great because they had step graduated dB attenuators which made calibration easy and you didn’t need to worry about taping down, glueing or sawing off the volume knob as much. The replacement PX series is digital. Is using a digital amplifier a bad idea? I can imagine the repeated quantisation would lead to increase in distortion.
Again, does anybody have any amplifier recommendations?
Many thanks,
Andrew
Andrew A Clark
LiRI Lab Manager
University of Zurich
Linguistic Research Infrastructure
Andreasstrasse 15
CH-8050, Zurich
Switzerland
Room: AND 2.76
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