Recommend me some terrible speakers

[Will_m]

Hi everyone, I've been doing an increasing amount of work (both music and sound) intended for online use. I've noticed my mixes aren't translating too well onto smaller set-ups, laptops, tablets etc. I thought I'd get myself some cheap speakers for the studio so I can A/B them with my proper monitors.

I'm looking for something that will be close to laptop quality/response which seems to be 1-2 watts and around 200Hz to supposedly 20Khz. Is there anything else I should look for when buying my terrible speakers? Is there anyone who has speakers for this purpose and can recommend a particular model?

[alexis]

Hi everyone, I've been doing an increasing amount of work (both music and sound) intended for online use. I've noticed my mixes aren't translating too well onto smaller set-ups, laptops, tablets etc. I thought I'd get myself some cheap speakers for the studio so I can A/B them with my proper monitors.

I'm looking for something that will be close to laptop quality/response which seems to be 1-2 watts and around 200Hz to supposedly 20Khz. Is there anything else I should look for when buying my terrible speakers? Is there anyone who has speakers for this purpose and can recommend a particular model?

How dumb would it be to route to the items in question to A/B with - a tablet, a laptop, etc.?

Respectfully,

[Will_m]

I don't have my laptop in the studio very often, otherwise this would be what I'd likely do but as small laptop speakers can be had for about £10 it might just be easier to buy some.

[Richie Royale]

I built my own Auratone type ones, but I see Argos have some really cheap stuff from £6.99 including some 2.1 system for £12.99. Can't go right at those prices

[SafeandSound Mastering]

Hiya, if you are looking for a single driver type speaker search ebay for :

"Communications speaker"

You might have to fiddle with that exact description a little to get what you want.

Quite a few varieties of small single speaker there, I would try to find one with a 4-5 inch driver other wise you find the upper mid is a bit forward and low mid not so well repped.

Or of course just buy Avantones or similar.

cheers

[Jack Ruston]

A lot of the 'sound' of those devices, latops, iPhones, radios etc is to do with the enclosure itself. You can't really accurately simulate it by just mounting the speakers they use in another enclosure. Avantones are extremely useful as a mixing tool, but they don't really simulate the sound of a cheap radio, let alone a laptop. They're much more solid sounding than that. People experiment with all sorts of small computer speakers and things. But ultimately all those small devices are quite different sounding.

J

[SafeandSound Mastering]

That makes a lot of sense Jack, because of the wide variability, from something that literally sounds like a piezo tweeter with a bandwidth from 1kHz - 16kHz (PC laptop) through to an in-store 6 inch speaker or LCD TV (with the notorious space limitation and lack of anything below 200Hz). I think this is why unless you are going to own every device to check which is time consuming and largely pointless you need something that approximates them all.

If you need to get specific you have to have the exact device that most people will listen on.

[Martin Walker]

I see Argos have some really cheap stuff from £6.99 including some 2.1 system for £12.99. Can't go right at those prices

Link please!

Martin

[Richie Royale]

Here you go: Much cheapness

[Richie Royale]

Just spotted the £13 2.1 system is USB powered.

[Will_m]

Thanks for the replies guys, I'm thinking something like the Avantones etc are going to be too big and too expensive really. I'm using the Focal CMS 65's for my main monitors so I'm really trying to go for something way smaller like a laptop equivalent. I take the point though that there is a lot of different factors at play here.

Some of these small speakers claim a frequency response down to about 70Hz but I did find these for £6.99 that go down to 150Hz which I thought might be closer laptop territory. They look suitably rubbish methinks.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/pc-access ... 9-pdt.html

[Chaconne]

I recently bought a jambox to go with my ipod and laptop. I did quite a lot of auditioning and realised that portable speakers vary greatly from cheap any old speakers in a plastic 'i' case, to 'hi end' things made by bose etc - so you really need to hear something that suites your tastes.

Anyhow there was a logitech competitor that I nearly went for for best small but big speaker and this was impressive also for its size.

Without planning this i found myself using the jambox to monitor through and testing mixes - since a lot of my casual listening and surfing was done through this. Turns out no be no bad thing. The thing is hyped towards modern pop, and has some surround algorithms in its processing - but I found that it was a great insight into what a lot of people use from day to day. I was behind the times still sticking to separates in the main room - but as we all know finding the time and place is tricky.

TL:DR - a usable 'flattering' speaker set is useful as well as a cheap one.