Loudspeakers Small Monitors for orchestra loft

[BobHealey]

I'm looking to get some spot monitors for use in an orchestra "pit" at a community theater. I've been given a requirement of no active/powered cabinets, so I'm looking at small passive stuff. What I've been finding has been mostly spring terminal connectors, which I don't think will hold up to repeated connections/disconnections/moves. I was wondering if anyone knew of anything that used NL4, 1/4", etc and was down in the small (5" or so, mountable on a mic stand) form factor.

Thanks

 

[BobHealey]

Since I couldn't get an image to upload when I posted originally, here's an image showing the sort of speaker I'm looking for in the foreground.

View attachment 11096

 

[JohnD]

I posted an answer to this on your other thread, but you also might want to do a search for "near field sound monitor".

 

[StradivariusBone]

We use two of these (albeit older models) at the church I tech for- http://www.fullcompass.com/product/390365.html

They have attentuators built in which is nice for the musicians and they are quite durable, but sit well on a standard mic stand. Our's only have the TR input, but it seems like the newer ones have TR/Speakon inputs.

 

[NickVon]

+1 for the galaxy Hotspots. We have 2 in our space as well. I also have 2 small Roland CUBE CM30, that i usually set up as the MD monitors, because I can send it a feed of Musicians, and Actors that the MD can balance as they choose. the Cubes are powered but they are only 40w near field speakers and have a nice sound to them. I'd reccomend the roland speaker stands for them. or equivalent becaues they are a little on the top heavy side for a standard weighted base mic stand. For small compact Floor Wedges, i've used Senseries 8, on a couple of occiasions. they are American Audio branded of which the Cheapo "american DJ" is a sub brand, but i've been quite pleased with there price/power/performance/quality. They are built rugged and are a quality product from my brief use of them. the 8" versions are niceconly compact and would bit under band chairs, keyboards, etc.

 

[StradivariusBone]

I know you said no powered, but for the good of the thread I have to plug this little box from Behringer- http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/B205D.aspx

My wife's an elementary music teacher who does annual musicals and we set her up with a pair of these for monitors, but they are versatile enough for her to use as playback for other areas of her teaching stuff too. I really dig them for that reason.

 

[themuzicman]

I have rarely used passive monitors in the pit, the exceptions have been Meyer MM4's because of how tiny they are and the L'Acoustics MTD108a because again of how tiny they were and how loud they can get for a rock bands monitors. My go-to for tiny band pit monitoring is almost always active and almost always consists of Galaxy and Anchor AN-1000X hotspots on the low end and baby Genelec's on the high end of the quality scale. All active, I like to let the musicians control the volume of their sound, something passive speakers don't usually offer.

 

[AlexDonkle]

I have rarely used passive monitors in the pit, the exceptions have been Meyer MM4's because of how tiny they are and the L'Acoustics MTD108a because again of how tiny they were and how loud they can get for a rock bands monitors. My go-to for tiny band pit monitoring is almost always active and almost always consists of Galaxy and Anchor AN-1000X hotspots on the low end and baby Genelec's on the high end of the quality scale. All active, I like to let the musicians control the volume of their sound, something passive speakers don't usually offer.

Muzicman, using that may small speakers in the pit, how do you mount the monitors close enough to each musician to limit spill between other members? (Assuming leaving them on the floor wouldn't work very well)

 

[themuzicman]

Muzicman, using that may small speakers in the pit, how do you mount the monitors close enough to each musician to limit spill between other members? (Assuming leaving them on the floor wouldn't work very well)

There is no way to fully limit spill, but the best thing to do is get it as close as possible to the musician. I typically mount them to mic stands and put them right next to the musician at ear height. For a keys player, I put it right on the keys or piano. MM4's are awesome because I control the volume, but Anchor/Genelec's have an attenuator so you just put the max volume you want the musicians to have in the system and you settle for that. The biggest deal is trying to limit bleed into mics which can get hard when a pit is tiny and you have dozens of open mics everywhere, phase and feedback issues are every present if you don't think logically.