Powered speakers for a Tascam DP03-SD (thank you, Sweetwater!)

[ButchA]

I talked to my sales guy at Sweetwater, about my Tascam DP03-SD, and how I would like a pair of small powered speakers for it. Using headphones is okay, but can be a pain at times.

So, he talked me into ordering Mackie CR3-X desktop speakers. They have excellent reviews all across the internet, and not only have RCA inputs, but TRS inputs as well. They should arrive this coming Wednesday.

Mackie CR3-X 3 inch Multimedia Monitors | Sweetwater

 

[shredd]

Looks pretty kewl - lots of good feedback...clearly a good small-room/moderate volume mon'r. TRS is good - a few people griped about hiss/signal noise.

All Hail New Gear Day!!!

PS - before the mod's say so - this probably was s'posta go in the "Non-Tascam Gear" category...

 

[Brody]

@ButchA how are they?

I ordered a refurbished pair awhile back but they came with the left speaker blown and I had to send them back. (Not from Sweetwater.) so I never really got to mix on them. I ended up getting a pair of M-Audio Studiophile ones instead which have done a good job.

 

[ButchA]

@Brody
The Mackie speakers are incredible for such a small package! The sound is perfectly balanced, highs, mids, lows, (but some have suggested a little more bottom end, like a powered subwoofer to augement the overall sound -- based on reviews).

 

[shredd]

A small speaker like that isn't going to have balanced bass output, period. BUT they can serve very well as a near-field, reference-type monitor!

 

[BazzBass]

you Americans with your SW personal assistant lol

Generally, half an hour on the net gives me way more knowledge than any big store salesman ever has. No matter the object, 4k tv, new instrument, fridge....anything. A heads up, nearly all monitors have trs and xlr connectors. Just don't have things plugged into both of them....

 

[-mjk-]

The one time I made a purchase from SW I bought a keyboard. I told the guy to "pick a case for it" and he did a good job.

 

[shredd]

I'm on the "S/Water bandwagon". Been a customer there for 10+ years; have had two "guys" (they call them "sales engineers") there in that time, and both were incredibly knowledgable and helpful in answering questions and selecting gear. They're typically experienced musicians/studio pros themselves. My guy even gives me "deals" here n there - he REALLY "fixed me up" on the Roland's I wanted, when I updated my KB/synth setup.
I'm a fan. Sweetwater is to online shopping what Rick Beato is to YouTube. Sweetwater is what Amazon WISHES it was!!!

 

[-mjk-]

Since Sweetwater is literally in the title of this thread perhaps it's not so off topic. I buy from Thomann now because SW cannot export certain things to me in Taiwan. Weird. The only downside is that Thomann supplies the EU so every power cable I get doesn't work here because the Taiwan power grid is a duplicate of the US. In most cases of the things I have bought, the Thomann price was lower anyway and the shipping was even cheaper.

 

[ButchA]

I bought my Tascam DP-03SD from Sweetwater. I remember talking to Steve (my "sales engineer") about MTR's vs DAW's, and that I'm hopelessly "old school" when it comes to recording.

I demo'd Presonus (trial version). All I could do was gaze at my computer screen and say "Huh?"
I demo'd Reaper (free version). I struggled with getting a grasp on it, and soon gave up.
My sales guy (Steve) started chuckling over the phone, but it was all in good fun. We talked about the Tascam DP-24 (do I really need 24 tracks?) So, I told him I wanted something small scale, but packed with features, like a modern day version of the Tascam 424mkii, that we all fondly remember. He talked me into buying the DP-03SD, and the rest is history.

(1) Me, on drums (Alesis Nitro Mesh e-drum kit) --or-- A looping drum track I composed in Finale.
(2) Me, on rhythm guitar
(3) Me, on keyboards
(4) Me, on bass
(5) Me, on lead guitar
(6) Me, on vocals
(7) Me, on harmony vocals
(8) SPARE (mixdown? bouncing tracks to? etc... etc...)

As a 70's style singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, a small Tascam is all I need. The powered speakers I mentioned earlier are fantastic and work well with the DP-03SD, but the bass isn't as pronounced as it should sound. Then again, that's to be expected from 3" stereo speakers, 1" tweeters, and NO subwoofer.

 

[BazzBass]

sales engineer doesn't make sense. Sales are not engineered. Americans are strange......

 

[-mjk-]

Solutions are engineered, @bazzass. Sales people sell. As yourself how many clueless sales people you've talked with and you'll see the benefit of having a "sales engineer."

 

[shredd]

Americans are strange......

You CERTAINLY won't get any argument from me on that one. And I AM one.

But I will point out that a salesperson being called a "Sales Engineer" is a VERY typical "American-ism" - it would just be too rational to call a guy who drives around in a big truck picking up bags of trash to haul to the dump a "garbageman"...that's why we have "Sanitation Engineers".
I KNOW...I can hear the eyes rolling all over the world...

ANYway...the S/Water people, in a way, ARE engineers - in the way the guy that runs the mixing desk in the studio is an Engineer. They have to undertake what they do with a certain amount of expertise, either by their own life experience, or via education (a great many of them have degrees in various musical fields; most are experienced musicians themselves; and S/Water's training programs are literally university-level).

And, like most everything they do, S/Water spells it out in great detail why their salespeople are called "sales engineers"! Trust me - these people put the bland concept of "salesperson" to absolute shame. These people are EXPERTS.

 

[BazzBass]

they need to come down under hehe

seriously, sales people here don't even know the specs that are written on the box lol.

I wanted a bluetooth speaker with an aux input.

Salesman 'yes it has an aux input'

Me 'you sure? doesn't say so on the box and your display item is locked so I can't see all of it'

Salesman ' I'm positive.'

yep, it had no aux input lol

 

[shredd]

seriously, sales people here don't even know the specs that are written on the box lol

To quote another profound "American-ism":
"You Can't Fix STUPID". (Ron White, American comedian)

I used to buy gear at such places: Guitar Center, etc...even small music shops...until I started getting those sorts of results.
I was once at a small guitar shop and asked the salesman (who claimed to be a guitarist himself) to help me pick out strings for my semi-hollow electric that had wound third strings.
He looked at me like I'd asked him to explain the astrophysics behind black holes.

Now - it's S/Water or bust.

 

[Arjan P]

I buy from Thomann now because SW cannot export certain things to me in Taiwan. Weird.

Wow, I knew Thomann was big, but didn't realize they deliver worldwide, interesting! No Sweetwater here, but we also have a big store (Bax) who are very competitive with Thomann and deliver next day - and have stores with knowledgeable sales people. In Dutch, an engineer is an engineer - putting words in front of it would be very silly..

 

[shredd]

In Dutch, an engineer is an engineer - putting words in front of it would be very silly

What? Americans doing things that are silly, not-sensible, or just plain stoopid? YOU DON'T SAY!!!

 

[ButchA]

Not to drift off to "off topic" but I can agree with @shredd

America (i.e. the USA) is what it is.... An amalgam of every race, color, creed, etc... and we can still find ways to work together. People from various backgrounds have come together, and musically collaborated on projects, all over YouTube.

Getting back on point, the Tascam units can easily import/export with each other, enabling various international artists to create music together!

 

[-mjk-]

Wow, I knew Thomann was big, but didn't realize they deliver worldwide, interesting! No Sweetwater here, but we also have a big store (Bax) who are very competitive with Thomann and deliver next day - and have stores with knowledgeable sales people. In Dutch, an engineer is an engineer - putting words in front of it would be very silly..

Thomann has done it right, I think. I can even set my currency to New Taiwan Dollars. From what I learned from SW, apparently the manufacturers may specify what stores deliver to what markets. I wanted to buy Adam brand monitors but SW couldn't ship them to me. Thomann had no issues and ended up being cheaper. The difference more than paid for US style power cables.

The only time that I bought from SW, I had to use one of those US address forwarders, and it was an absolute nightmare. Despite being designed for such situations they packaged everything together (ignoring my shipping selections) and gave an ambiguous, one-line description of the contents which did not fly with Taiwan customs. If I didn't have a registered trading company with an import/export license and a broker, I could have lost the whole shipment. It took a couple of weeks and of course, money, to straighten it out. Thomann does proper commercial invoices and I haven't had a single issue with them. When SW told me they couldn't ship to me in Taiwan I was not going to use any forwarding service again.

Does Bax ship outside of the EU? This is good information.

As for the language, yes I often have difficulty explaining "Englishisms" in Chinese because we can just make up words like "bromance" and nobody thinks twice. But try teaching that concept to someone in another language. So I can see that point about having difficulty explaining things like "sales engineer" in Dutch. I can relate to that. It probably sounds like a someone making a joke.

 

[-mjk-]

@ButchA said:

Getting back on point, the Tascam units can easily import/export with each other, enabling various international artists to create music together!

Yeap. The tracks Butch sent me went right into my DAW with zero issues.