Yamaha HS5 Monitors with my Macbook Pro?

[MacOSphere]

I'm currently in the market for a pair of speakers for use with my MacBook Pro. We recently moved to a new home and we have an extra bedroom that I'm making into an office, of sorts. I have a nice solid oak rolltop desk that I do most of my computing and media consumption at. I primarily have listened to music over headphones (Sony MDR-7506s) for years and years in our old home. Now that I have a little more room to stretch out and don't have to be so quiet, I would love to have some equally satisfying speakers. I have always been very pleased with the (relatively) flat response of my headphones. I would like to get some speaker monitors now for non-headphone listening that present the same sound profile.

I have been looking hard at these and I'm really in love with them. They are just about at the top of my price range (around $400 for two) but I don't know of an easy way to hook them up to my MacBook. So, I would like some advice on some sort of connector that would allow me to plug these speakers in, via USB, to my MacBook.

Has anyone used these studio monitors (or their brethren HS7 or HS8) with your Apple laptop? Are you happy with the results?

Suggestions welcome.

http://data.yamaha.jp/sdb/local/products/images/41601/12075/41601_12075_1.jpg

HS5 - HS Series - Studio Monitors - Music Production Tools - Products - Yamaha United States »

 

[xb2003]

You need a DAC of some sort. You are looking at Studio Monitors, and so an audio interface geared towards recording would probably be your best bet. They also tend to be cheaper, and the DACs geared towards home use tend to be over priced and don't feature balanced outputs. Without getting too involved in discriptions of all this, let me just recommend something like a PreSonus AudioBox or a Focusrite Scarlett. Both come in smaller variants and can be easily had for under $100.

Also, you might look at the JBL LSR 305s or 308s. While the Yammahas are more accurate, the JBLs flatter music a little more, and for general listening they sound better. Just my opinion though.

 

[MacOSphere]

Thanks for the response. I might end up going up one level to the HS7's to get a little more low-end as I understand the HS5's have a sharp roll-off on the bottom end.

The JBLs are appealing but I'm just in love with the aura of the Yamaha's (not to mention the accuracy). I appreciate the audio interface suggestions, that should put me on the right track.

 

[Fabian90]

well rather spend that money on a good audio interface. Great speakers sound garbage with a bad audio interface. A chain is only as good as its weakest link. I love my Apogee Duet, but there's also a cheaper option by Apogee, the Apogee One. It sounds great, it just depends on how many in/outputs you need.

 

[MacOSphere]

What about the Teac UD-301 as a DAC for these?

 

[Codeseven]

I just went through selecting studio monitors, mainly for playing/practicing guitar using amp modelers but also for the TV and music. Yammi HS 8's or JBL 308's were what I wanted. After using Guitar Centers Recording Room to A/B all they're studio monitors I found the smaller 5" monitors more than capable plus I didn't like the seemingly much larger size of the 8" speaker cabinets for my smaller ppractice room. Of the 5", to my ears, the Yammi HS5's were by far the best.