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Hi folks,

I'm assembling hardware (laptop, interface, speakers, ...) for a small demo setup which is meant be easily portable, so as to be able to pack it into a flightcase and quickly put it together for demoing purposes (e.g. in front of a customer, at a convention etc.)

I'm quite unsure which way to go regarding speakers... do you know of any small-sized monitors or monitors which are not low-quality HiFi/PC speakers but on the other hand aren't too heavy to be carried in a flight case and offer a reasonable frequency response?

Should I give Bose and the likes a try? Any suggestions?

Thanks,

best, Julian

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It depends what kind of material will you be needing to broadcast? When you start talking about active monitors weight does become an issue. You will find that even compact active monitors will be considerably heavy. Passive monitors will generally weigh less but will need an amplifier. From my days of working as an AV technician, I would recomend the Fostex 6301. They are compact in size, weigh 3KG, which isn't too much, and are pretty good in terms of audio quality and amplification (they have built-in 10W RMS amps). I've used these in similar situations to those that you describe, but as I first mentioned, it really depends on what you will be broadcasting and the acoustics of where you will use them...

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  • We use Fostex monitors at my work -- not audio related, but Fostex was the cheapest bidder when we were purchasing hundreds of monitors -- and I'm pleasantly surprised by their quality.
    – Dave Matney
    Sep 29, 2010 at 16:01
  • @Dave I've engineered conferences with 200+ people in an auditorium and ran various audio clips using a pair of those Fostex and they've been really efficient. Plus they're pretty solid when being transported around a lot. I've also seen them used for ambient music playback to a large tv audience during a Canal Plus tv shoot. Again, they did an efficient job...
    – Colin Hunter
    Sep 29, 2010 at 16:27
  • Thanks a lot! Obviously, it depends on content and location, but I'm fully aware of that. It's not that I want to produce the highest quality ever, I'm just looking for the best trade-off concerning sound quality, size and weight. It also sometimes helps if they look a bit more professional than those PC speakers - in front of customers...
    – Julian
    Sep 30, 2010 at 9:21
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If you're talking about at a convention, you may want to consider a headphone distribution amp and a bunch of headphones (i.e. Sony MDR-7506). It's just an alternative idea that may be more effective.

As Colin mentioned, it really depends on the situation you're planning to use them in. I can vouch for those Fostex speakers as well. They're not bad, but if it's a really noisy environment no speaker with the dimensions/weight you're looking for are going to be all that helpful to you (including those Fostex). With speakers you're going to have to carry some weight, either in the unit themselves or in a power amplifier. Those power supplies aren't feathers. ;)

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  • thanks for the tip... of course, headphones will also be part of the setup, I will have a try with the Sony's...
    – Julian
    Sep 30, 2010 at 9:24

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