Listening to music

[popeyespappy]

In that price range you should look at a pair of JBL Professional 306P MKII monitors. They only take balanced inputs so you would probably need to a unbalanced to balanced cable somewhere between your source and the monitors, but that won't be an issue.

I'm reading that the amplifiers in the JBL 3 series have a low but audible hiss at idle.  One user complains that at 3' it's just loud enough to be annoying.  Given that these will sit close and idle a lot, that doesn't sound ideal.

We have a pair at work that we use to monitor the audio on our digitization projects. I haven't noticed any appreciable hiss, but most of what we are playing back are old cassettes that hiss anyway so...

Look at some Mackie monitors. They use AB versus the class D amps in the JBLs which should help, but they will probably run hotter.

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1. That doesn't surprise me, many venues has crap acoustics and often they set up their systems for volume.  I guess I'm saying a good venue with a good system produces far better sound than a recording, which of course is just a sample of reality anyway.  You could argue that studio recordings are more precise and they are because the performers can record all day and pick the best tracks, do multitrack, tinker with the mix.  I just find that to be a manufactured sound.  Live music feels alive.  I attended a performance of the Brian Setzer Orchestra a few years ago and couldn't believe my ears.  That guy is a guitar god.  I've listened to his music on all sorts of systems for 30 years and it doesn't do him justice.  Also, I attended a live chamber music performance in a small venue and it put me in a dream state.  I rushed home to listen to recordings of the same music and it just felt dead, like flat cardboard.
2. I had a neighbor years ago who had a studio R2R and it was amazing.  But when you convert to digital, if you do it right, it's indistinguishable from analog to almost all humans.  Even if it was 20% better, I would not notice it.  I just don't focus on music unless its live.  I'm listening to Helloween's newest album on Youtube on USB speakers and it sounds pretty good.  I just like the mood it puts me in.

I'd go as far as to say most venues have shitty acoustics. The good news is we are about to get an 8000 set amphitheater that is being billed as a world-class music venue. I guess time will tell.