Monitor Speakers for Instrument

[Hudson1984]

Hi all,

so I've just bought a digital piano as my acoustic is directly under my sons nursery - and I want him to sleep!

the digital piano is in the garage (insulated) and it's the other side of the house so I can crank the volume a bit when I want to.

sadly, the onboard speakers are a bit pants so I'm thinking of adding a studio monitor or two.

My question is how to wire it/them in?

My piano is a roland FP-30, it only has audio out for headphones so that's where I'd need to come out from, but can I connect two speakers into this? do I need an amp/mixer??

I'm not looking for absolute studio quality, just a bit more depth of sound than the on board speakers provide.

[Pothole]

What does the manual say? If the output is quite low, maybe active speakers are a better solution than passive via a mixer/preamp...

[Hudson1984]

It says active speakers - it’s more a cabling query really.

I mean I can get one speaker (Yamaha ms5 or soemthing) Olof it in the headphone slot and sorted

But a pair? How would I connect two? Daisy between speakers?

[Mr Pointy]

Is it a stereo output? I'm slightly confused how a single piano can output a stereo signal but leaving that aside what you need is a stereo jack to dual mono splitter cable:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=stereo+jack+to+mono+j...

Note this is a generic search to show you the sort of thing you need: the exact cable will depend on your speaker & headphone connections. If you post what they are then maybe we can find the right cable.

[Pothole]

Mr Pointy said:

Is it a stereo output? I'm slightly confused how a single piano can output a stereo signal but leaving that aside what you need is a stereo jack to dual mono splitter cable:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=stereo+jack+to+mono+j...

Note this is a generic search to show you the sort of thing you need: the exact cable will depend on your speaker & headphone connections. If you post what they are then maybe we can find the right cable.

It'll likely have stereo effects, but also a piano is quite a wide instrument and wouldn't usually be miced up with a single mic, would it?

[Mr Pointy]

Pothole said:

It'll likely have stereo effects, but also a piano is quite a wide instrument and wouldn't usually be miced up with a single mic, would it?

This is an electronic piano, not a concert grand. You might use a coincident pair or one over the bass & one over the treble strings but that hardly applies in this case.

Anyway, a simple cable is all that is required.

[Hudson1984]

that's the manual.

oh it's probably not stereo or anything like it - I just prefer a pair of speakers rather than a single one is all.

seems the Yamaha pair is cabled together, whereas the single is …. single, so couldn't add a second one at a later date

[Mr Pointy]

Hudson1984 said:

that's the manual.

oh it's probably not stereo or anything like it - I just prefer a pair of speakers rather than a single one is all.

seems the Yamaha pair is cabled together, whereas the single is …. single, so couldn't add a second one at a later date

It's quite easy - you just need a splitter cable as I have said. The problem is knowing what connectors are needed at the speaker end. If you were using the Yamaha MSP 5 speakers then you would need a mono 1/4" jack at the speaker end:



However, some cheaper speakers have one just amp in one of the speakers & then they supply a link cable to the second. In this case you'd need a different lead.

When you've decided which speakers to use we can then suggest the right cable to buy.

[Miserablegit]

Here is a picture of the back panel ( I think!)
I’ve had a quick look at the manual - seems the keyboard can be split to play multiple sounds so two speakers might be useful.
Looks like the standard output - left port if using one speaker only and right port for when using two.

As others have said decide what speakers you want and someone can help

[Mr Pointy]

Miserablegit said:

Here is a picture of the back panel ( I think!)
I’ve had a quick look at the manual - seems the keyboard can be split to play multiple sounds so two speakers might be useful.
Looks like the standard output - left port if using one speaker only and right port for when using two.

As others have said decide what speakers you want and someone can help

I suspect those connections are fixed level outputs that are meant to go off to a mixer. The speakers would be better plugged into the headphones output(s) which means you can control the volume.

[Miserablegit]

Powered speakers will have a line-level input and a volume control - better to send a line level to them and avoid the distortion that happens when turning a headphone output too high. These outputs might also be volume controlled from the piano.

[timmymagic73]

I've got a Roland stage piano with no speakers at all, so I'm using the line out to a soundbar bolted/zip tied to the cross member of the stand - works well, I even get remote control volume without having to reach down between my knees!