Ableton Forum

My understanding has been that a Studio Monitor is recognized as such because it is a flat-response range speaker-- a specialty item for use in a music studio when one wants to get an accurate, flat range, response over the full range of frequencies. An example of this kind of speaker (that has been repeatedly cited and is easy to recognize because of its yellow cone) are the KRK Model series--for example the KRK Classic 5 - Monitor speaker - 50 Watt - 2-way speaker system.

So…in search of such a speaker system I googled “flat range response speaker”. Google returned a bevy of FRFR, Flat Range Flat Response speakers: very expensive, can be very high power, speaker sets advertised for anyone (not mentioned is a person who might mix or compose music) who wants a great speaker system. Interestingly, not listed in this category of speakers are any KRK model speakers.

Which leads to the question:
- Is there a difference between a Studio Monitor and a FRFR Speaker? (What is/are it/they?)
- Are there elements of a Studio Monitor not available on a FRFR Speaker (like say being “active” or ‘self powered’?
- Why is being ‘self powered’ (active) important at all in a Studio Monitor??

Thanks

I usually see FRFR systems used by guitarists and live acts. People who want to control all the tone and character of their audio earlier in the signal chain, and not have the amp and speaker ideally add anything to the signal. To me it was always something more for live use, than studio. Maybe people are doing that too, I honestly don't know.