Living room speaker options for Nord Stage 3 (mostly acoustic piano) for private playing

[MrVegas]

I decided to put my NS3 in my smallish living room.  I'm looking for an intimate, lush and beautiful sound in stereo, just to enjoy music with my wife and a few friends.  Most of my playing will be atmospheric, worship type music.

 

Several years ago I had a Yamaha Clavinova piano/keyboard that had built in amps and speakers and it sounded really good to my ears.  It occurred to me that something similar to that might  sound better than really nice studio monitors.  When Googling around, I came across the Vintage Vibe site that sells and builds speaker consoles for their gear.  Guessing it sounds pretty good.   Anyone know of a similar product out there that might compare to the Vintage Vibe cabinet?

 

Something like the Genelec 8341A would probably sound great but they're expensive and I just wanted to get some feedback on the speaker console approach?

 

[KuruPrionz]

26 minutes ago, MrVegas said:

I decided to put my NS3 in my smallish living room.  I'm looking for an intimate, lush and beautiful sound in stereo, just to enjoy music with my wife and a few friends.  Most of my playing will be atmospheric, worship type music.

 

Several years ago I had a Yamaha Clavinova piano/keyboard that had built in amps and speakers and it sounded really good to my ears.  It occurred to me that something similar to that might  sound better than really nice studio monitors.  When Googling around, I came across the Vintage Vibe site that sells and builds speaker consoles for their gear.  Guessing it sounds pretty good.   Anyone know of a similar product out there that might compare to the Vintage Vibe cabinet?

 

Something like the Genelec 8341A would probably sound great but they're expensive and I just wanted to get some feedback on the speaker console approach?

 

I recently found 3 of these speakers on craigslist for $100 total, the seller had a studio and just bought some Genelecs. The Yamahas are well used and look it but they all sound excellent. 

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MSP5stu--yamaha-msp5-studio-5-inch-powered-studio-monitor

 

I thought it would be nice to have a smaller set of monitors, already have a pair of Mackie HR824 that I also bought used. 

It turns out I prefer the Yamahas, they are really clear in the midrange and there is still plenty of bass at lower volumes. Should sound great for an electric piano at reasonable volumes. 

 

If you are buying an external speaker system for your Nord, remember that you will need amplifiers. Having everything in a pair great sounding small boxes is not a bad way to go. 

[cassdad]

4 hours ago, MrVegas said:

I decided to put my NS3 in my smallish living room.  I'm looking for an intimate, lush and beautiful sound in stereo, just to enjoy music with my wife and a few friends.  Most of my playing will be atmospheric, worship type music.

 

Several years ago I had a Yamaha Clavinova piano/keyboard that had built in amps and speakers and it sounded really good to my ears.  It occurred to me that something similar to that might  sound better than really nice studio monitors.  When Googling around, I came across the Vintage Vibe site that sells and builds speaker consoles for their gear.  Guessing it sounds pretty good.   Anyone know of a similar product out there that might compare to the Vintage Vibe cabinet?

, 

Something like the Genelec 8341A would probably sound great but they're expensive and I just wanted to get some feedback on the speaker console approach?

 

I also had a Clavinova, grand piano configuration - I agree, it sounded GREAT in a room.  I always attributed the acoustic success to the way that the speakers were firing / arranged.  Several internally firing up at different locations reflecting off the piano lid, and the lower ones firing down, producing the simulated resonance of a traditional piano sounding board, reflecting off the floor, just as would happen with a real acoustic piano.

 

I raise this observation in contrast to the idea of two traditional “forward firing” speakers.  IMO, they might be very good, but still would not accomplish what Yamaha did with having speakers firing in different directions, and some of them there to simply produce sounding board resonance.

 

Perhaps further interesting, I have attempted to achieve some of the “sound distribution” effect in my current home setup for my Yamaha MOXF8 digital piano - I’m running it externally through a very clean mixer (Midas MR18) out to 2 Bose L1 Model II with B2 bass cabs, which each have approximately a 180 degree horizontal sound dispersion.  I have them 16 feet apart - really fills the room with quite a large “stereo sweet spot”.  I’m pretty happy with it, FWIW.  YMMV.

[cphollis]

Maybe head over to the Nord User Forum and ask about the Nord Monitors?   The people who are using them in their living room seem to love them in every way.  I occasionally take a hard look at them, simply because the mounting brackets are brilliant.

[Motif88]

Did you look at these?

 

https://www.nordkeyboards.com/products/nord-piano-monitor

 

I use Yamaha HS8’s and have been happy for the price/performance.

[Delaware Dave]

I posted a similar answer in another thread, i recently played my gemini steinway D sample through my Mirage speakers, omnipolar design, similar to the old Bose 901's from a reflection point of view. Sound was bouncing off the walls, it sounded absolutely incredible.  Audiophile speakers at an incredible price.

 

Link

[AnotherScott]

12 hours ago, MrVegas said:

I'm looking for an intimate, lush and beautiful sound in stereo, just to enjoy music with my wife and a few friends.

...

Something like the Genelec 8341A would probably sound great but they're expensive

1 hour ago, Delaware Dave said:

I posted a similar answer in another thread, i recently played my gemini steinway D sample through my Mirage speakers, omnipolar design, similar to the old Bose 901's from a reflection point of view. Sound was bouncing off the walls, it sounded absolutely incredible. 

 

I think Dave is on to something here. Near-field monitors are designed to minimize room reflections. They don't fill the room with a lush sound for an audience as much as present a neutral sound optimized for a small listening position. If you want to hear the raw sound of the instrument, like the sound of a sampled piano as it exists only with whatever processing you may have applied, near-field monitors make sense. If you want to recreate the effect of that sampled piano playing in the room you are actually occupying, you want to make use of the room reflections, not minimize them.

 

But also, that approach won't necessarily always going to give you great results, either. An actual acoustic piano can sound better or worse depending on what room you're playing it in, and that will be true here as well... making use of the reflections in your room will make the instrument sound more like it is actually in your room, but how desirable that is also depends on the characteristics of the room. If it's a terrible sounding room, where even a real piano would not sound good, then this approach could also be counter-productive!

[Mighty Motif Max]

Something to consider would be multiple sets of speakers, placed around the room. I have had a setup like that at different times, with a "main" set of monitors but also sending an aux out from my mixer to various small stereo systems (i.e. you don't need all high-end equipment to get this effect) that are placed around the room in different areas. It's awesome for pianos, anything with stereo effects, and also with auto-pan on EP's and such. It just fills the room and gives almost any keyboard a more "organic" sound, even though I'm not using high-end components by any means.

[Lou_NC]

For playing at "living room" volumes, it always made perfect sense to me to play through my "living room" stereo system.  (I either run the keyboard L/R outs direct to a stereo "AUX" input or "Tape" input (remember those?), or if I'm sending several keyboards at once, I'll send the mixer line out to the AUX/Tape input of the stereo receiver/amp. 

 

After all, I use that system to listen to every kind of recorded music, and I expect it's response to be fairly flat and accurate (assuming I have a decent quality system).  That's exactly what I'm looking for from my keyboards. 🙂

 

I don't know if people today still have stereo systems in their living rooms or family rooms, but I do, and that's the route I would go.

 

Lou

[Mills Dude]

19 minutes ago, Lou_NC said:

For playing at "living room" volumes, it always made perfect sense to me to play through my "living room" stereo system.  (I either run the keyboard L/R outs direct to a stereo "AUX" input or "Tape" input (remember those?), or if I'm sending several keyboards at once, I'll send the mixer line out to the AUX/Tape input of the stereo receiver/amp. 

 

After all, I use that system to listen to every kind of recorded music, and I expect it's response to be fairly flat and accurate (assuming I have a decent quality system).  That's exactly what I'm looking for from my keyboards. 🙂

 

I don't know if people today still have stereo systems in their living rooms or family rooms, but I do, and that's the route I would go.

 

Lou

I did this for years with my home studio setup.  The goal wasn't to mix recordings, so using near field monitors wasn't necessary.  I wanted to be able to practice with full sound enveloping the room.  Using full range speakers made sense. I coopted my early 90s stereo, rather cheap Pioneer receiver and a set of Bose 201 bookshelf speakers.  Tape outs from the mixer to the receiver, it sounded great and plenty of headroom to crank when I needed it.  I'd have other musicians come in sometimes to jam, it worked well.  Playing with an acoustic drummer was a problem at times but isn't it always.

 

I get that many disregard this kind of setup as not being "pro" enough.  A few years back, one of the 201s died.  I replaced the whole thing with a set of Presonus Eris 4.5 speakers which I'm not as happy with.

[MrVegas]

6 hours ago, Delaware Dave said:

I posted a similar answer in another thread, i recently played my gemini steinway D sample through my Mirage speakers, omnipolar design, similar to the old Bose 901's from a reflection point of view. Sound was bouncing off the walls, it sounded absolutely incredible.  Audiophile speakers at an incredible price.

 

Link

 

This seems like a cool idea.  I don't really have an extra mixer or amp.  If I find a clean pair of the Mirages and a simple integrated amp, can I just get a 1/4" adaptor to rca jacks to plug into an amp?

 

[Delaware Dave]

2 hours ago, MrVegas said:

 

This seems like a cool idea.  I don't really have an extra mixer or amp.  If I find a clean pair of the Mirages and a simple integrated amp, can I just get a 1/4" adaptor to rca jacks to plug into an amp?

 

Yes.  If you use TS (Tip/sleeve) to RCA into an integrated amp that will work.  You'll probably have to cutback the master level on your keyboard to half but that's ok.  I'm not sure why but the older Mirage Speakers, like the OM10's, are not that expensive at all and sound absolutely fantastic.  

 

One warning about omnipolar or the old Bose reflective technology, because of the reflective behaviour, sound maximization sometimes is a result of odd speaker placement, meaning distance from back walls, side walls and how they are positioned (turned in, turned out). I use to constantly battle with my wife over speaker positioning, aesthetically she wanted them against the wall with straight positioning. I was looking for sound maximization, which is away from the walls so that the reflections are effective, and slightly towed in.  So the compromise was that I setup the speakers for listening to music (I have small markings for optimal positioning) and when i'm done listening I put them back to her aesthetic arrangement (win/win).

[D. Gauss]

somebody mention yammy msp5's...they're very nice for this type of thing on a small scale (ages ago, sam ash used to have them hooked up for all their showroom demos)...even better if you can find yammy msp10's.  giant, heavy beasts that sound great. much better than the yammy hs7/8 or whatever they're called. absolutely hate those.  if you can swing the money (they're pricey) or find 'em cheap on craigslist, the presonus spectre 6 or 8s are crazy fantastic speakers.  loud as all get out, full range and a whole diff league than the presonus eris things (which i hate). ymmv.

[MrVegas]

many interesting ideas here, thanks everybody

 

well I just made the mistake of googling "omnidirectional speakers" and landed on these things.  They look wireless so probably no way to make them work.  I've seen them before and wondered what they sound like?

 

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-WOpJFX8XXJx/p_285P298OP/Devialet-Phantom-II-98db-Op-ra-de-Paris.html?XVINQ=GZ0&XVVer=1BJG&awcr=628258311108&awdv=c&awnw=g&awug=9007725&awkw=pla-1158105769627&awmt=&awat=pla&gclid=CjwKCAiAv9ucBhBXEiwA6N8nYKDWuXV1JqCZ0nO8H0fWFLDRMQJ-kqlZHVwPpe9HTJ6wmaFvOklfehoC8tsQAvD_BwE

 

By the way, any other suggestions for omni-directional besides the Mirage OM-10 mentioned earlier?

 

 

 

 

[AnotherScott]

Definitive Technology bipolars... BP6B, BP10B, BP9020, BP9040, BP9060

[cassdad]

19 minutes ago, AnotherScott said:

Definitive Technology bipolars... BP6B, BP10B, BP9020, BP9040, BP9060

Wow, Prufrock is incredible!

[MrVegas]

A related idea that rumbling around in my brain is the idea of something smaller than the Mirage or Def Tech floor standing "normal looking" speakers.  Something that will throw sound around the room.  Something out of the ordinary.  Even if I had the money for the Devialet line, there's no way to plug a keyboard into something like that. 

[timwat]

Years ago I had an audiophile level stereo system, and was running Magnepan 3.5 quasi ribbon speakers. Each speaker was a six foot tall, 3 foot wide, 1 inch thick panels. Talk about filling a room with sound. Incredible sounding, especially with well-recorded acoustic music, big orchestral stuff, jazz, female vocal music. Just exquisite.

 

Now, picture those same panels rotated so they are perpendicular to the listener - in other words, turned 90 degrees so they are playing to the side walls - not to the listener in front.

 

Believe it or not, this was one of the most natural presentations of music I'd heard. 

 

If you can find some sort of solution that mimics that configuration, I'm guessing you'll be quite happy.

[ElmerJFudd]

2 hours ago, timwat said:

Years ago I had an audiophile level stereo system, and was running Magnepan 3.5 quasi ribbon speakers. Each speaker was a six foot tall, 3 foot wide, 1 inch thick panels. Talk about filling a room with sound. Incredible sounding, especially with well-recorded acoustic music, big orchestral stuff, jazz, female vocal music. Just exquisite.

 

Now, picture those same panels rotated so they are perpendicular to the listener - in other words, turned 90 degrees so they are playing to the side walls - not to the listener in front.

 

Believe it or not, this was one of the most natural presentations of music I'd heard. 

 

If you can find some sort of solution that mimics that configuration, I'm guessing you'll be quite happy.

I literally jumped in here to suggest magnepan and Tim had beaten me to it.  They sound very convincing when reproducing acoustic instruments.  

dealers near you for pricing, https://magnepan.com/pages/dealers

 

Tim, what amplifier did you use to drive your set? 

 

 

[timwat]

1 hour ago, ElmerJFudd said:

 

 

Tim, what amplifier did you use to drive your set? 

 

 

I used a big Plinius amp. While I wanted to buy a pair of VTL monoblocks, they were stupidly expensive.  But they sounded glorious. The big Plinius wasn’t tube driven, but had enough current to make the Maggies happy. Wow were they fast speakers, and I’ve never heard anything at any price point that did what big format Maggie’s do well. 

[KuruPrionz]

On 12/11/2022 at 8:44 PM, D. Gauss said:

somebody mention yammy msp5's...they're very nice for this type of thing on a small scale (ages ago, sam ash used to have them hooked up for all their showroom demos)...even better if you can find yammy msp10's.  giant, heavy beasts that sound great. much better than the yammy hs7/8 or whatever they're called. absolutely hate those.  if you can swing the money (they're pricey) or find 'em cheap on craigslist, the presonus spectre 6 or 8s are crazy fantastic speakers.  loud as all get out, full range and a whole diff league than the presonus eris things (which i hate). ymmv.

That would be me, the MSP5s punch above their weight and the clarity in the midrange is especially nice. Lots of mention of reflected sound on this thread, there is no reason you couldn't set a pair of MSP5s up to bounce off the walls or the ceiling and get your reflections. It really depends on the room. 

 

On the other hand, the JBL 10" 3way stereo speakers I got at Starvation Army for $30 would probably sound great for keyboards if you had a good amp. 

I'm keeping those too. 

[UnderGroundGr]

https://www.roland.com/global/products/cm-30/

 

10 years ago i had bought 2 of them for 300 euros and now you take one almost with the same price...

Very good sounding monitor, i use it for my synths, my turntable and my cd player. 2 stereo inputs, 1 xlr for mic and other inputs.