Passive bookshelf speakers for nearfield listening

To repeat what others have already told, You may be better served by Actives. Genelecs seem to be highly recommended. Adam Audio is also an option. Search forums for impressions of FMs about other Activies. Just add Topping/Schiit economy DAC. DAC and Actives would be well within your budget of Amp + DAC.

Also if you are game for pre loved, FMs @vineetrad has JBL 306s and @bhooshaniyer has Edifiers for sale.
 
There are a pair of Genelec 8020 and matching sub on OLX at around 1L if you can stretch your budget a bit. You are already at 70k with the amp and speakers.

I have absolutely no affiliation with the seller and all the usual precautions and risks of buying from OLX apply.

However I can guarantee the Genelecs +sub will completely blow away all options you are currently considering including my JBL actives suggested by Yogesh (they are sold by the way). Plus the Genelecs are incredibly compact and will fit on a desk and are designed specifically for nearfield listening and perfectly matched in built amps and all of the other advantages of active speakers.

All that said, if these are your only pair of speakers for stereo listening and you like to tinker and tweak your amp-speaker pairings constantly as many of us like to do then a passive system might be better. If you want something plug and play ready to work as optimally designed so you can concentrate on enjoying the music instead of mixing and matching components then an active system is perfect. Hope this helps.
 
I don't know if I am right but I have the impression that Studio monitors usually have a neutral midrange and slightly hot treble. All my current speakers are on the bright side of neutral. So I really want to try something that is warm.

I am open to active monitor if there are any that sound warm. Do genelec sound warm?

Good studio monitors are transparent. ATCs (the newer v2 with ATC tweeters) for instance IMO have a very smooth top end - even the passives like the SCM11. Not hot treble at all with decent amps. The SCM40 v2 I have for instance is very full and if anything errs ever so slightly on the warm side (to be fair to ATC this is not part of their studio pro range which is tuned slightly differently - Eg SCM19 vs SCM20 pro).

The cheaper JBL Lsr series are not hot in the treble at all either.

Even the Genelecs, while they certainly have a bit more bite in the treble with the default dip switch positions vs ATC however I still wouldn't call it hot treble. There are three aspects in my experience why people say monitors have hot treble -

1. Good quality monitors are very revealing of any faults in the recording. If you try to play bad quality files and badly mixed music you will hear the faults. That is after all their main purpose. The plus point for casual listening is anything recorded, mixed and mastered well will sound sublime. People sometimes mistake this revealing transparent nature when playing poorly recorded music. Harbeth and Spendor for instance (which I also have) are a bit warm and a lot more forgiving and mask a lot of faults but are less true to the recording. Also really well recorded stuff never scales the peaks of satisfaction a fully transparent system can. I call it photoshop for sound - Harbeth polishes up a mediocre recording and makes it more tolerable lol.

2. Most studios are very absorptive with a lot of acoustic treatment. Most studio monitors come with dip switches to adjust the treble and bass roll off. Most people don't set dip switches correctly in my experience for a reflective home space. Further most such speakers work perfectly well in regular more reflective home environments also after the room has been measured using something like REW and a suitable calibration of the speakers and room correction has been applied. In my experience many audiophiles don't know or else dont care to do this as they are used to coloring sound to their preference by changing things in their chain. In fact room correction (or at least being aware of your room modes, peaks etc) along with a bit of tasteful and minimal acoustic trestment helps equally even with any passive speaker amp etc in most home room setups, especially with bass.

3. As with passive setups, coloration (which can be pleasurable as per personal taste) can be introduced with a dac, cables and a tube preamp (and to some extent EQ) if so desired. For instance from time to time I use a NOS dac and a tube preamp with my Genelecs. It certainly is less accurate but it suits my personal taste for certain poor recordings. This also means there is still some room for tinkering lol. Most people never try this. The advantage of a transparent active speaker is it can be whatever you want based on what you put further up the chain.

Also just FYI, I have all of the above speaker brands, so all of this is from personal experience.
 
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If you can stretch to another 30K, KEF LSX (active speaker, though) is worth considering for nearfield listening. Go to ProFX and audition them; you won't be disappointed.
 
Thank you so much all for your valuable suggestions and insights. There is lot to take in and process. I will read up some reviews on all the products suggested here. One thing that comes out clearly is my bias against studio monitors. I think I need to check out some of the Active monitors mentioned in this thread. I do see the benefit of having a small but capable active speaker that is designed for nearfield.

But my mind is still set on Amp + Passive. I have two DACs that are lying unused - iFi micro Black Label and a Chord Qutest. I plan to employ one of them for my desk setup. I think Amp + Passive can scale up really well with a good DAC like Qutest and a good source like Tidal/Qobuz but I also get the point that these won't work optimum for nearfield.

So currently looking at my desk arrangement and see if I can put them on a dedicated stand few feet away from my desk. I have the space but then the 50 inch TV that I use as monitor would come in the way. It is like a wall in front of me and I am worried that sound field would get blocked if speakers get pushed behind the TV. I may have to switch to a smaller monitor screen for it to work. That would be a tough choice.

I am confused, looks like I have to make a tradeoff.
 

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Some useful info can be found about choosing and placement of nearfield speakers from the Genelec site -



This is just a reference for you and others interested in this topic. Not pushing you for actives again :). I think you understood the situation well.

I would not put the speakers behind the TV/Monitor even for a much smaller screen.
 
Thank you so much all for your valuable suggestions and insights. There is lot to take in and process. I will read up some reviews on all the products suggested here. One thing that comes out clearly is my bias against studio monitors. I think I need to check out some of the Active monitors mentioned in this thread. I do see the benefit of having a small but capable active speaker that is designed for nearfield.

But my mind is still set on Amp + Passive. I have two DACs that are lying unused - iFi micro Black Label and a Chord Qutest. I plan to employ one of them for my desk setup. I think Amp + Passive can scale up really well with a good DAC like Qutest and a good source like Tidal/Qobuz but I also get the point that these won't work optimum for nearfield.

So currently looking at my desk arrangement and see if I can put them on a dedicated stand few feet away from my desk. I have the space but then the 50 inch TV that I use as monitor would come in the way. It is like a wall in front of me and I am worried that sound field would get blocked if speakers get pushed behind the TV. I may have to switch to a smaller monitor screen for it to work. That would be a tough choice.

I am confused, looks like I have to make a tradeoff.
In my desktop I have creative sound blaster ae7 with edifier s350 db and for the price they sound really nice. I have pioneer vsx lx 304 plus taga 607 package for movies. I took the taga and my old yamaha stereo amp and connected to pc with my sound card as preamp/ Dac and the sound did beat my pioneer avr for depth and detailing. Now I am in search of good passive speakers. I have found one person who does custom toroidal amp assembled for stereo set ups. Having second thoughts on speakers as I have heard edifier airpulse a200 and also s3000 pro and both are excellent but they don't have sub woofer. For speakers I have auditioned mission lx 6 mkii , elac debut f6.2 and kef 550....haven't decided yet on what to do....
 
Good studio monitors are transparent. ATCs (the newer v2 with ATC tweeters) for instance IMO have a very smooth top end - even the passives like the SCM11. Not hot treble at all with decent amps. The SCM40 v2 I have for instance is very full and if anything errs ever so slightly on the warm side (to be fair to ATC this is not part of their studio pro range which is tuned slightly differently - Eg SCM19 vs SCM20 pro).

The cheaper JBL Lsr series are not hot in the treble at all either.

Even the Genelecs, while they certainly have a bit more bite in the treble with the default dip switch positions vs ATC however I still wouldn't call it hot treble. There are three aspects in my experience why people say monitors have hot treble -

1. Good quality monitors are very revealing of any faults in the recording. If you try to play bad quality files and badly mixed music you will hear the faults. That is after all their main purpose. The plus point for casual listening is anything recorded, mixed and mastered well will sound sublime. People sometimes mistake this revealing transparent nature when playing poorly recorded music. Harbeth and Spendor for instance (which I also have) are a bit warm and a lot more forgiving and mask a lot of faults but are less true to the recording. Also really well recorded stuff never scales the peaks of satisfaction a fully transparent system can. I call it photoshop for sound - Harbeth polishes up a mediocre recording and makes it more tolerable lol.

2. Most studios are very absorptive with a lot of acoustic treatment. Most studio monitors come with dip switches to adjust the treble and bass roll off. Most people don't set dip switches correctly in my experience for a reflective home space. Further most such speakers work perfectly well in regular more reflective home environments also after the room has been measured using something like REW and a suitable calibration of the speakers and room correction has been applied. In my experience many audiophiles don't know or else dont care to do this as they are used to coloring sound to their preference by changing things in their chain. In fact room correction (or at least being aware of your room modes, peaks etc) along with a bit of tasteful and minimal acoustic trestment helps equally even with any passive speaker amp etc in most home room setups, especially with bass.

3. As with passive setups, coloration (which can be pleasurable as per personal taste) can be introduced with a dac, cables and a tube preamp (and to some extent EQ) if so desired. For instance from time to time I use a NOS dac and a tube preamp with my Genelecs. It certainly is less accurate but it suits my personal taste for certain poor recordings. This also means there is still some room for tinkering lol. Most people never try this. The advantage of a transparent active speaker is it can be whatever you want based on what you put further up the chain.

Also just FYI, I have all of the above speaker brands, so all of this is from personal experience.
"The advantage of a transparent active speaker is it can be whatever you want based on what you put further up the chain."

Did you mispeak there? Active/passive?
 
I was reading up a lot about Active studio monitors over the past week. I almost hit the buy button on Presonus Eris E8 XT but then I saw many users complaining about loud hiss/hum noise from speakers even when there is nothing connected to them. Some say the hiss is present only when unbalanced RCA inputs are used. I would be using RCA inputs. All Presonus models seem to suffer from this.

Further reading seem to show that hiss with unbalanced RCA is not limited to just Presonus; many budget monitors seem susceptible too. After clinging to the idea of passive speakers for near-field I finally convinced myself that active monitors are the way to go. But reports of this white noise preventing me from taking the plunge as I am quite sensitive to noise (i.e. anything that is out of ordinary attracts my attention).

Anyone experienced this? Is this something I should be concerned about or it is just some nitpicking from Studio guys?
 
I currently use Eris 4.5s as pc speakers. Had E8s a few years back. Never had a hiss problem with either. Both used with rca inputs
 
+1 to that. I am using Eris E5's and no hiss either with RCA/Balanced
Thank you @jai1611 and @jsmithe for confirming. Thank you all for providing your valuable insights and suggestions. It opened my eyes to a whole new class of product.

I have placed order for Eris E8 XT, will be receiving tomorrow. I hope my units would be hiss free.

 
Thank you @jai1611 and @jsmithe for confirming. Thank you all for providing your valuable insights and suggestions. It opened my eyes to a whole new class of product.

I have placed order for Eris E8 XT, will be receiving tomorrow. I hope my units would be hiss free.

Do get isolation foam pads (I use YGM from Amazon) to isolate them from your desk. Makes a lot of difference if the desk resonates from coupling with the speakers.
 
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Received the speakers, I didn't realize how massive they are until I unpacked them and didn't realize how powerful they are until I played the first song. I saw the dimensions before buying but didn't visualize the size. They are overkill both in terms of size and power for a desktop setup.

But I am quite impressed with the sound quality. Bass is super clean despite being kept directly on the table, there is no boominess under normal listening volumes. The way instruments sound on tracks like Antiphone Blues is too good. Overall presentation is super clean but neutral sounding when coming from consumer grade speakers. They sound completely neutral but too loud when paired with Qutest. I could barely go past 20% mark on speaker's gain knob.

With iFi Micro BL as DAC and preamplifier, midrange seem to sound slightly warmer and sweeter; and the volume level is also more manageable. I especially like the way female vocals (Lana/Adele/Diana) sound with iFi. But I haven't played them enough with Qutest. Even if Qutest sound better I may stick with iFi as it's volume knob is quite handy.

Overall, I am quite happy with the purchase though it is an overkill in terms of size. But I suspect bass may not be as clean with smaller drivers.

Once again thank you all for guiding me to the right speakers for my needs.
 

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Received the speakers, I didn't realize how massive they are until I unpacked them and didn't realize how powerful they are until I played the first song. I saw the dimensions before buying but didn't visualize the size. They are overkill both in terms of size and power for a desktop setup.

But I am quite impressed with the sound quality. Bass is super clean despite being kept directly on the table, there is no boominess under normal listening volumes. Overall presentation is super clean but may be too neutral when coming from consumer grade speakers especially when paired with Qutest. It is also too loud with Qutest, I could barely go past 20% mark on speaker's gain knob. But with iFi Micro BL as DAC and preamplifier, midrange seem to sound slightly warmer and sweeter; and the volume level is also more manageable. I especially like the way female vocals (Lana/Adele/Diana) sound with iFi.

Overall, I am quite happy with the purchase though it is an overkill in terms of size. But I suspect bass may not be as clean with smaller drivers.

Once again thank you all for guiding me to the right speakers for my needs.
Congratulations, don't forget the isolation pads.
 
Received the speakers, I didn't realize how massive they are until I unpacked them and didn't realize how powerful they are until I played the first song. I saw the dimensions before buying but didn't visualize the size. They are overkill both in terms of size and power for a desktop setup.

But I am quite impressed with the sound quality. Bass is super clean despite being kept directly on the table, there is no boominess under normal listening volumes. The way instruments sound on tracks like Antiphone Blues is too good. Overall presentation is super clean but neutral sounding when coming from consumer grade speakers. They sound completely neutral but too loud when paired with Qutest. I could barely go past 20% mark on speaker's gain knob.

With iFi Micro BL as DAC and preamplifier, midrange seem to sound slightly warmer and sweeter; and the volume level is also more manageable. I especially like the way female vocals (Lana/Adele/Diana) sound with iFi. But I haven't played them enough with Qutest. Even if Qutest sound better I may stick with iFi as it's volume knob is quite handy.

Overall, I am quite happy with the purchase though it is an overkill in terms of size. But I suspect bass may not be as clean with smaller drivers.

Once again thank you all for guiding me to the right speakers for my needs.

For a moment I thought you got the E5's instead of the E8's until I realized it was your big ol' monitor that was causing the illusion. :) Enjoy!
 
Forgot to mention,

There is absolutely no his/hum or any sort of white noise audible from listening position 3 to 4 feet away even with cheap unbalanced RCA interconnects. There is faint hiss that I could hear if I keep my ears very close to the tweeter, like few centimeters away. It is similar to any other passive speakers connected to PA/AVR that I own.
 
Congratulations! Try and get the isolation pads - "should" make sound slightly "better" - let your ears be the judge! I have tried near field setups with and without the isolation pads and in my case at least it does make a very pleasant change to the sound. The isolation pads should also lift the tweeter slightly to position it to your ears directly.

Another small thing try a little toe-in, maybe 5 degrees or less (though your setup is pretty compact - in terms of distance between the speakers), but give it a try and see if you like the sound better.
 
Congratulations! Try and get the isolation pads - "should" make sound slightly "better" - let your ears be the judge! I have tried near field setups with and without the isolation pads and in my case at least it does make a very pleasant change to the sound. The isolation pads should also lift the tweeter slightly to position it to your ears directly.

Another small thing try a little toe-in, maybe 5 degrees or less (though your setup is pretty compact - in terms of distance between the speakers), but give it a try and see if you like the sound better.
Yes, I have placed order for isolation pads. I have kept speakers dead straight. Will try with some toe-in. Thanks.
 
A beautiful, well-constructed speaker with class-leading soundstage, imaging and bass that is fast, deep, and precise.
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