[Ham Sandwich]

None of the studio monitor style speakers like the BX5a and similar will come with audio cables.  However they should all come with power cables (each speaker is individually powered so each speaker needs a power cable).
 
MonoPrice has professional style cables (XLR, 1/4 inch TS, 1/4 inch TRS).  Look under "Audio Cables - Professional"
You can also get inexpensive pro-audio cables like Hosa from places like Guitar Center
You can also use a 1/4 TS to RCA adapter and use regular RCA cables
 
XLR is for balanced audio
TRS (Tip Ring Sleeve) is for balanced audio
TS (Tip Sleeve) is for unbalanced audio (normal consumer audio as you'd do with regular RCA audio cables)
 
Most studio monitor speakers can do either balanced or unbalanced audio

 

[Skoobs]

can do either balanced or unbalanced? is there another kind? or do you mean that each individual pair is capable of both setups, depending on the cable used?

 

[RonaldDumsfeld]

 
Quote:

do you mean that each individual pair is capable of both setups, depending on the cable used?

 
He did. Well sort of.
 
It doesn't just depend on the cable. It also depends on the circuitry at both ends. For the circuit to be truly balanced both ends have to be balanced and the cable TRS.
 
So if your source component output is unbalanced (i.e. consumer grade) you might as well use RCA to RCA as RCA to TS.
 

 

[Ham Sandwich]

Quote:

 
 
He did. Well sort of.
 

I was aiming for the Cliff Notes version of an explanation on cables.  A full explanation of balanced and unbalanced cables and connections when mixing consumer and pro-audio gear gets to be a rather more complicated thing to explain.
 
It is neat how gear like studio monitors are able to take either balanced or unbalanced signals based on whether you use a TS or TRS plug.  It's almost magic.
 
The easy way to go for most people is to just use unbalanced all the way through to the monitor speakers.  Most people have DACs and other sources that are unbalanced (regular RCA). So just keep it all unbalanced all the way to the headphone amp and the speakers.  It's much easier that way.

 

[Skoobs]

ah indeed. i wasnt considering that for some reason.

 

[germanium]

I got a chance today to listen to The Mackie MR5's Tannoy Reveal 510A's & the JBL 2325 monitors. All of these are in the price range you were looking at.
 
In a word skip the Mackie MR5's. Bloated muddy bass period. Any positives are overshadowed by this huge flaw.
 
The JBL 2325 are much better in this segard & have strong but very well balance & articulate bass, Where they fall down is in the mids which are quite lifeless, like there is a suckout in the upper mids. Imaging seemed a little flat & 2 dimentional as a result. They do hold good promise for modding but the next speaker on this short list really caught my attention.Overall I prefered the sound of my modded BX5's due to the more open sounding mids & the Yamahas for the same reason butthe lack of bass power on these 2 speaker models is why I'm looking at other speakers. I wanted speakers with bass good enough to work well with or without a subwoofer. I may put whatever speakers I get in the living room or I may just sideline my BX5's. either way they need to do well.
 
 
Here it is the Tannoy Reveal 501A's The only flaw that I found with these speakers was being a little short on the power side, IE. the power amp was probably the lowest power of the lot & it showed by clipping rather early compared to the others. However kept within ther power capability they were by far the best sounding of the lot. They had really solid bass without being overblown or muddy (similar to the JBL in this regard) & a wide open fully fleshed out midband that was lively & articulate like the Yamahas' I also heard there, the Yamahas were lacking on the bass end however putting them out of my cosideration. The  Tannoys also had a highly detailed treble but were smoother sounding to me than the Yamaha's.
 
Overall my pick is the Tannoy Reaveal 501A's. They do just what the name implies & that is reveal your mix good or bad. They are extremely well balanced & detailed without excessive harshness. I just wished they had a little more power however my room is smaller than the room where I heard them so it is probably not an issue. I may get them next week.
 
I also listened to the KRK Rockit 5's & were not impressed at all with them. Very little bass to speak of . Mids & Treble ok but lack of any meaningfull bass killed these from cosideration. Worse than the Yamaha's in this regard & not as lively too boot. Dead on both counts.

 

[AhhHoNG]

Wad if you -1 or 2db for the LF for mackie mr5, would it be better since the bass is its only weakness? i was planning to pair it with a sub so lowering the LF would help i guess? Other than the bass for mackie mr5, anything positive?

 

[matthewh133]

The MR5 was garbage in comparison to both the Yamaha HS50M and the KRK Rokit RP6 when I tested them out. Muddy as anything..

 

[germanium]

Quote:

Wad if you -1 or 2db for the LF for mackie mr5, would it be better since the bass is its only weakness? i was planning to pair it with a sub so lowering the LF would help i guess? Other than the bass for mackie mr5, anything positive?

1-2 db attenuation would not fix the obnoxious bass of the MR5's. Perhaps cutting the bass off at 100 Hz would help. The muddiness of the bass seemed to emminate from the 75 to 150 Hz range. The JBLs that I heard had similar deep bass output without the muddiness of the MR5's indicating the problem was a midbass problem. This muddyness completely overshaowed everything else to the point that I couldn't tell what was going on very well higher up.
 

 

[Souji]

@germanium
 
Definitely pick those Tannoy Reveal 501a's up! I was at the Guitar Center multiple times, listening to various monitors including the Yamaha HS50M, JBL LSR2325P, M-Audio BX5a Deluxe for hours.
 
I love my Tannoy's to death, I am very glad with my purchase.

 

[germanium]

Quote:

@germanium
 
Definitely pick those Tannoy Reveal 501a's up! I was at the Guitar Center multiple times, listening to various monitors including the Yamaha HS50M, JBL LSR2325P, M-Audio BX5a Deluxe for hours.
 
I love my Tannoy's to death, I am very glad with my purchase.

Looked at my finances & determined I wouldn't be able to swing getting a pair of Tannoy reveals in the next month or so so broke out the old soldering iron to see if I could get the sound I wanted from my BX5's IE more bass without compromising the fantastic mids & treble on these.
 
In a word, success!!
 
I disabled the subsonic filter which was definately cutting into the audible bas that these speakers could generate. Before there was a pretty good rolloff below 100 Hz that got pretty steep around 80 Hz & a very sharp rolloff after that. Not much was audible below 70Hz. By diabling the subsonic filter on the EQ board inside the speaker I was able to get pretty solid response down to 50 Hz & some output down into the 40Hz range which makes music all that much more enjoyable. Especially now that I have stereo bass that extends that low instead of mono bass through my subwoofer. I will still be using the sub for frequencies below 50Hz but not above. The best thing is is the the mids & low treble is even better sounding than before.
 

 

[Ham Sandwich]

So you turned your BX5's into BX8's with a soldering iron? 

 
My brother has an older pair of Tannoy monitors (I don't know what model).  He calls them "annoys" as a joke.

 

[prozach1576]

Wow, these Swans are absolutely great. Great soundstage, crisp highs, full midrange, decent enough bass for my purposes. They look incredible too.
 

 

[jjmai]

Do you guys leave your speakers on all the time?
I noticed the back of my BX5a runs a little warm when on.  Since I leave my PC on most of the time, I was hoping to leave Bx5a on as well.
Don't know which is worse - constant high temperature, or frequent power cycles.

 

[prozach1576]

Seems like you would be burning a lot of unnecessary electricity leaving them on all the time. If they're warm it means they're using energy. I can't imagine the electronics in this class of speakers is even remotely delicate enough to make excess power cycles a serious concern.