Earlier this year, I picked up a Sherwood RX-4109 Stereo Receiver to power my turntable. My old Technics receiver was being weird, so this replaced it.
http://www.sherwoodusa.com/product/view.asp
Right now, I have a pair of 80's Mirage bookshelf speakers hooked up to them, and it sounds ok, but they are getting older now.
Recently, I was given a pair of KRK Rockit 5 powered studio monitors. These things are heavy duty, and are supposed to sound killer.
Can these things play nice with each other? I've never really messed with studio monitors before, other than using them with PC's with dedicated music production gear. What say ye GRM Hive?
Sort of, you will need to use the AUX OUT or TAPE OUT from the Sherwood to the RCA on the KRKs, which will leave you using the individual volume controls on the KRKs and hoping to match. Or you could use a splitter from the headphone jack to the RCA so you could use the Sherwood volume control. But you have to be careful there, it could be easy to overload the inputs. Or you could take the Sherwood out and go directly from the turntable (or through a preamp, depending on your TT) to the KRKs.
I'd say it's not going to be ideal.
codrus
SuperDork
12/16/16 4:01 p.m.
It looks like the speakers just take line-level inputs and have an amplifier built-in, so that means you need a line-level out from the receiver. The "tape" and "aux" out ports are line-level (they're RCA connectors, rather than speaker wires), but they are probably just straight pass-throughs meaning that the volume knob on the receiver isn't going to do anything. What you need are "pre-out" connections, intended for use with an external amplifier.
Hmm... ok. Maybe I'll stick it out with the Mirage speakers then.
What about hooking them up to a TV? I could use some better sound for retrogaming sessions.
I have no experience those particular monitors but in general studio monitors are a poor choice for a home stereo system. There are two reasons for that. One is that the sweet spot (the zone in which they sound the best) is too small for most rooms. The other is that they're designed to accurately and cleanly represent the signal whereas home stereo speakers are designed to enhance the sound. As a result, in a living room studio monitors tend to sound thin.
However, if your stereo, or TV has a line level out there's nothing to loose by plugging them in and trying them.
In reply to APEowner:
That is what I was going to say but far more eloquent than I could have said it.
After spending days in front of studio monitors mixing tracks i would describe them as "fatiguing"
Those KRKs would make nice "B" speakers for another room. They are not the greatest amps inside there, but with 106 db sensitivity, they'll use it wisely.
Good score.
I'm currently shopping for some speakers for the theater. I just picked up some Peaveys but I could use some studio monitors for the booth. Let me know what you think of them.
Answer to your question: yeah, they'll work fine, just run line level into them and not speaker level (tape/aux out).
Real answer: Studio monitors are basically awesome headphones that don't go on your head. Unless you intend to put them within a few feet of your ears, it's not really what they're for.
Those are nice ones, though. And the independent amps are nice. If you decide to part with them, lemme know.
I'd echo most of what's said above, but if you're looking to replace the 80s bookshelves...
DIY - build overnight sensations for cheap awesomeness or lots of other options for less cheap awesomeness
Purchase - Pioneer Andrew Jones for cheap awesomeness or Elac Audios for slightly less cheap awesomeness
Ok, so I've talked myself out of using them on the stereo receiver. I've tweaked some settings on the receiver and the 80's speakers sound pretty good now. I may try them with the TV.
FYI, the room they will be in is very small. We had crappier monitors in my old band's studio with double the space in the room, and they sounded fine.
Also, another challenger has appeared for TV sound in the form of one of these things:
It's a Beats Beatbox Portable. Same friend gave me this thing, but I had to order a charger for it, which should be at my house right now. It has a 3.5mm input so I can hook it straight to the TV. We'll see how that works. Only problem with it is that the magnets are big enough to disrupt the CRT signal (yes, CRT, for vintage gaming!), so I will have to move it around accordingly.
Update: that Beatbox thing is PERFECT for what I wanted to do. I plugged it in via the headphone port on the TV and played some NES and Sega Genesis games, and umm...
HOLY CRAP. 
I never thought those old games had good sound, until now. Yowza.
Now, I need to figure out what to do with these monitors. I may try them out out of the aux out on the receiver and see what happens. If not, maybe save them for an eventual home studio build?
