Sacrilegious: smallest FRFR or just a relatively flat battery-powered speaker?

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jimmywaleseswhale

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Decided to get an Iridium, mostly for headphone practice and noodling. I was planning to use a USB powerbank thing to make it portable.

I have some interest in also playing it through a speaker. Ideally small (smaller than the 8 inch headrush) and even better if battery powered. It really doesn't need to be loud or even perfectly flat just adequate.

Any advice or experience with something like that?
 
S

SUJ5

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jimmywaleseswhale said:
Decided to get an Iridium, mostly for headphone practice and noodling. I was planning to use a USB powerbank thing to make it portable.

I have some interest in also playing it through a speaker. Ideally small (smaller than the 8 inch headrush) and even better if battery powered. It really doesn't need to be loud or even perfectly flat just adequate.

Any advice or experience with something like that?
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There are small PA speakers from Beringer. You can get batteries that have an inverter built in so you can plug an AC power cord into them. The main point of these speakers, though, is to surprisingly loud for size. Not sure how much flatter they'd be than a small speaker with in-built battery.

Studio monitors are flatter but not great for portability because they don't have grills.

Small in-built battery powered speaker should be fine, just make sure it has a line/aux input, which many don't. Don't think abouth Bluetoothing it - latency is huge.
 
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e-string

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IK ILoud, the original one piece unit. Good sound, little better than good really, battery powered if you like, about the size and shape of a hardcover novel (remember books??).

Oops, seems to be out of production. Well if you can find NOS or lightly used, still not aware of anything comparable.
 
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PLysander

PLysander

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randombastage said:
If you want to get a small solution that does a lot more find a used, original, Yamaha THR10 as it would be a great addition.
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Was just going to suggest the THR 10II WL (Wireless). Not as cheap, but it sounds pretty amazing and can run for hours from its internal rechargeable battery.
 
Lele

Lele

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Behringer B207MP3 (but it's not that small)
Behringer B205D
TC Helicon Voicesolo FX150
(if you mean portable, if not there are tons of studio monitors and among them the JBL LSR305 are still a very good quality/price solution)
 
J

jimmywaleseswhale

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e-string said:
IK ILoud, the original one piece unit. Good sound, little better than good really, battery powered if you like, about the size and shape of a hardcover novel (remember books??).

Oops, seems to be out of production. Well if you can find NOS or lightly used, still not aware of anything comparable.
Click to expand...
Didn't know about this one, seems like the right thing – will have a look.

randombastage said:
If you want to get a small solution that does a lot more find a used, original, Yamaha THR10 as it would be a great addition.
Click to expand...

I have a Spark Mini and had the Yamaha's before – fantastic amps but hoping that the Iridum's modelling is a bit nicer. Might regret it but at least I got to try it, right?
 
Quad4

Quad4

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MiniRig-3 is worth checking out. 40 watts, big battery (and can also provide power out via USB), compact, flat response, low latency aux in, sounds great, and you can add additional speakers/sub.
 
Ejay

Ejay

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Acus makes battery powered amp..that actually sounds fantastic…not cheap though
 
Quad4

Quad4

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Rocco Crocco said:
The OP wants a small speaker. He said it's better if it's battery powered but he didn't rule out corded.
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In that case, if you can get past the name, the iLoud Micro Monitors are a good, rugged (w/ grills) near field studio monitor that's fairly portable and very small. (PSA: GC has a special this weekend that adds a free travel bag).

It can fill a moderate sized room with great sound at a pretty good volume, but you're not going to want to be off axis if you're mixing or want the perfect sound (neither will the THR and most of the options). Bass extension is great (if not amazing), but if you're really bass heavy/loud you'll want more. The detachable cable/sockets between the two units strikes me as a weak link over time if you're packing/unpacking them frequently (but I've yet to hear this as an actual issue). You can likely run just one in mono if that's a concern. As much as I like stereo, it's overrated and not required for a great sound.

The prices do seem to be edging up a bit. Unless you intend to mix, at that price I'd go with two MiniRig-3's or a MiniRig-3 plus a Sub; more than flat enough for a modeler FRFR. If you didn't need portability/size, other studio monitors can do better for price/performance.
 
J

jimmywaleseswhale

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116
THR10 as a speaker is an interesting idea. Will try plugging into my Spark Mini's AUX.

Never heard of Minirig but think I understand the appeal. I might try with my UE Boom but would need to EQ it first.

Studio monitors are considered too but a battery would be a killer feature
 
J

jimmywaleseswhale

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116
If I have a single budget monitor speaker (e.g., Yamaha HS5), keep it close to my ear level and play at lower volumes – will I have a good time? I could probably afford a headrush just seems silly building a low-volume setup around an Iridium and then immediately run to buy a very loud (yet relatively compact) FRFR
 
Mr. Brady

Mr. Brady

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I have a THR10x, it works great as a monitor. I've plugged my Atomic into it and set the speaker setting to flat and it sounds great and doesn't color the sound any more than my other larger frfr options. Plus you can use it as a stand alone amp and it sound great that way too.
 
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