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I don't even think a receiver + bookshelf speaker is even that good value anymore. The Mackie MR5 or JBL LSR305 slaughter just about any sound system under $500. Both also have very competent waveguides that make it very suited for desktop use as well.
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Jul 18, 2015 11:32
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I guess I'll ask here, recommend me a Bluetooth speaker. I don't want to spend $200 cause that's ridiculous.
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Aug 3, 2015 16:57
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I'm super happy with my Bose Soundlink Color and I tested out a ton of different units. It's $100.
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Aug 3, 2015 17:04
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powderific posted:I'm super happy with my Bose Soundlink Color and I tested out a ton of different units. It's $100. I was looking at one at the Source the other day, was $129 there. (  ) Would you say its durable?
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Aug 3, 2015 17:21
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I've dropped my ex roommate's Bose from a 8 Foot drop that it survived, it's got a tough outer case and it's sound really belies it's size. It's also really directional, in a good way. We had ours at a family camping trip facing towards us and into the forest, and you could hardly tell it was playing until you were 20 feet away from the back side, but it was powerful sounding on the speaker side
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Aug 3, 2015 18:29
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It feels nice and sturdy but I'm gentle with everything so I can't say definitively.
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Aug 3, 2015 19:45
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I want to buy a decent 2.1 or 2.0 setup for my PC to replace my 10 year old Logitech Z4 2.1 speakers. I'm not up to date with audio equipment, but i noticed these Logitech Z623 200W RMS 2.1 speakers. Does anyone have any experience with those or any suggestions in similar price range?
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Aug 3, 2015 19:47
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My Klipsch Promedia GMX A-2.1 right channel doesn't work anymore... or it's just spotty with the hissing control pod, not sure. That said, can anyone recommend a cheap, bang for the buck 2.1 setup? It doesn't have to be super loud since I tend to have the volume around 60% at best.
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Aug 5, 2015 00:19
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Before I completed my basement system to a 5.1 setup I was using a 3.0 setup for my computer in my room; Paradigm Atoms and a CC190 centre, since then I've only been using the CC190 and now it's time to upgrade. My room is pretty small (10'x10') and I'm wondering what the best setup would be, 2.0, 2.1 or 5.1 and what to buy as I still watch a fair bit of TV & movies in my room. If I went 2.0 or 3.0 I'd likely buy regular speakers instead of PC speakers but if I went with a 2.1 or 5.1 I'd go with the former to cut costs. I haven't decided on a firm budget yet other than no more than $500 CAD after shipping & taxes but if I can get away with spending only $200 for a decent setup then I'd be all over that.
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Aug 11, 2015 15:05
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JBL LSR305's are pretty awesome for the money. If I had room for them that's what I'd use in my computer room. They're $300 USD for a pair.
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Aug 11, 2015 15:50
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I would go for the 308s if you have the room for them. More bass extension = better.
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Aug 11, 2015 16:39
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powderific posted:JBL LSR305's are pretty awesome for the money. If I had room for them that's what I'd use in my computer room. They're $300 USD for a pair. KozmoNaut posted:I would go for the 308s if you have the room for them. More bass extension = better.
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Aug 11, 2015 18:52
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whatupdet posted:I'm confident I can fit any bookshelf speaker on my computer desk as it fit my Atoms with room to spare but the 308s are going to run me almost $900 so that's a definite no. $900? A set would run me ~$520 here, $900 is Adam A5X territory (they're so worth it, though). I assume you live in the US, where presumably JBL products would be cheaper than here in Europe? KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Aug 11, 2015 |
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Aug 11, 2015 19:11
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I only checked Amazon for the 308s which were $395 each plus tax.
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Aug 11, 2015 19:13
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Dang, that sucks. I'm fairly sure you can find them significantly cheaper than that, especially on sale at a specialist music shop. I grabbed the regular non-sale prices from Thomann.de, by far the biggest musician/studio gear shop in Europe, sometimes they can be found for even less.
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Aug 11, 2015 19:16
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I just bought the Creative Inspire T12's and I actually like them very much. Just wanted a set of desk speakers because a subwoofer wouldn't really work for my setup (long story) and the sound quality is actually really great. The lovely $20 Logitech speakers I had before couldn't really even get up to a very good volume on a lot of stuff for listening from halfway across the room (my fiancee and I watch stuff on the huge monitor with netflix etc, we don't have a TV) but these could probably shake the goddamn apartment apart. Awesome budget speakers. ugh they went on sale for four dollars less than I bought them for this is an outrage
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Aug 11, 2015 19:16
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KozmoNaut posted:Dang, that sucks. I'm fairly sure you can find them significantly cheaper than that, especially on sale at a specialist music shop. I grabbed the regular non-sale prices from Thomann.de, by far the biggest musician/studio gear shop in Europe, sometimes they can be found for even less. The Canadian dollar has been hovering around 0.75-0.8 USD for awhile now, buying anything in USD sucks atm here
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Aug 11, 2015 19:38
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KozmoNaut posted:$900 is Adam A5X territory (they're so worth it, though). Adams are so ugly they're almost not worth it.
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Aug 12, 2015 19:00
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Electric Bugaloo posted:Adams are so ugly they're almost not worth it. Monitor speakers as a whole are pretty drat ugly. Even Genelecs, which are probably the lest offensive-looking monitors around. I like how the Adams look, that kinda industrial style they've got. And I mostly listen to my speakers rather than look at them 
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Aug 12, 2015 19:44
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M-Audio makes some decent looking ones. http://www.m-audio.com/products/view/m3-8#.VcujxPlVhBc And of course, Audioengine is pretty much the gold standard for clean looking powered speakers (albeit, not really studio monitors). http://audioengineusa.com/ Then again, you probably won't find either in a real studio. Edit: A lot of Behringer monitors look decent, if you can swallow your pride. Especially the Nekkst series. http://www.behringer.com/EN/Category/Loudspeaker-Systems.aspx?s=K200 Double edit: Oh hey, these are new: https://www.aperionaudio.com/speakers/speakers-by-series/allaire/allaire-bluetooth The sub out is nice, and they even have a remote control. No USB DAC (bluetooth, optical, or analog only); but other than that, they would probably make good desktop speakers. KillHour fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Aug 12, 2015 |
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Aug 12, 2015 20:53
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Anyone have an opinion on the maudio 42s vs the 40s?
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Aug 13, 2015 07:31
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To confirm, studio monitors are ideal for listening to music but not so much for other media (tv, gaming, etc.)? I get that the "flat" response is ideal for music engineers mixing music (or whatever they do), but are they "ideal" for the typical home listener? I mentioned to my wife that I wanted to purchase some nice speakers to listen to my vinyl collection. We moved across the country some time ago and I gave up my previous audio system and my current fix has been to connect my turntable to my PC which then outputs the sound via an HDTV. Not the best system as it requires I have three distinct devices turned on (and the sound isn't that great). As my birthday is coming up my wife surprised me with a pair of Mackies MR5mk3 (http://www.amazon.com/Mackie-Series-MR5mk3-Powered-Monitor/dp/B00EA1U1X6). The sound on these were great BUT they were just too much for our current living space: only one fit in our current media cabinet and my wife didn't like having the second sitting outside of it; they are simply way too powerful (for fear of disturbing our neighbors, I only had the volume turned up about 10%); and I had a little difficulty with the $300 price tag. After a week with the Mackies I returned them and picked up a pair of Bose Companion 2 Series III's for $100 (http://www.amazon.com/Bose-Companion-Series-Multimedia-Speakers/dp/B00CD1PTF0/ref=dp_ob_title_ce). Much smaller footprint, one-third the cost, and they are definitely powerful enough to fill our living space. However, they don't sound nearly as nice as the Mackies. As a compromise (between monitor vs. multimedia speakers) I'm thinking of picking up the Mackie CR-3's: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...TCPKK6M0Q5BMX5R Much smaller footprint than the MR5's, same price as the Bose, and hopefully a better sound? Any advice as to which way to go (Bose vs. CR-3s) would be appreciated.
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Aug 13, 2015 12:09
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Tortilla Maker posted:To confirm, studio monitors are ideal for listening to music but not so much for other media (tv, gaming, etc.)? I get that the "flat" response is ideal for music engineers mixing music (or whatever they do), but are they "ideal" for the typical home listener? If they sound good, they sound good period. I use my Adams for music, movies, games and everything else. IMHO, flat response and correctness towards the recorded music (not just in frequency response, but also phase etc.) is the ideal which all speakers should aspire to. The reason being that it's much easier to introduce pleasant coloration to neutral speakers via EQ, than it is to remove coloration from speakers with a significant built-in sound signature. quote:Any advice as to which way to go (Bose vs. CR-3s) would be appreciated. As a rule of thumb, avoid Bose at all costs.
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Aug 13, 2015 13:46
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KozmoNaut posted:If they sound good, they sound good period. I use my Adams for music, movies, games and everything else. IMHO, flat response and correctness towards the recorded music (not just in frequency response, but also phase etc.) is the ideal which all speakers should aspire to. The reason being that it's much easier to introduce pleasant coloration to neutral speakers via EQ, than it is to remove coloration from speakers with a significant built-in sound signature. Assuming there's consensus on avoiding Bose, thoughts on the Mackie CR3 (or CR4) vs. M-Audio Studiophile AV 40? Mackie: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00KVEIY4E/ref=psd_mlt_nbc_B000MUXJCO_pr M-Audio: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0051WAM64/ref=psd_mlt_nbc_B000MUXJCO_prb
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Aug 13, 2015 16:59
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I would go for the Mackie CR4s. They seem to get rave reviews everywhere.
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Aug 13, 2015 18:23
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Hey, found this thread through the search.. my 13+ year old Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers died out with a horrendous noise/smell when I flipped on the power when I came back from vacation last week (might also be a fault of this lovely APC power strip I'm looking to replace as well).. looking around for a new set of speakers for my desktop. Those JBL LSR305's look good to me.. I listen to mostly metal/rock so I don't really think I need a sub, even though it feels super weird to not be resting my feet on one right now. I'm a total newbie when it comes to this, but I imagine to get the most out of this I would want to get a DAC and hook up to the S/PDIF output on my motherboard? Would someone be able to point me in the direction of what I should be looking at to get all set up with that?
Varg fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Sep 7, 2015 |
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Sep 7, 2015 23:45
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Varg posted:Hey, found this thread through the search.. my 13+ year old Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers died out with a horrendous noise/smell when I flipped on the power when I came back from vacation last week (might also be a fault of this lovely APC power strip I'm looking to replace as well).. looking around for a new set of speakers for my desktop. Those JBL LSR305's look good to me.. I listen to mostly metal/rock so I don't really think I need a sub, even though it feels super weird to not be resting my feet on one right now. I'm a total newbie when it comes to this, but I imagine to get the most out of this I would want to get a DAC and hook up to the S/PDIF output on my motherboard? Would someone be able to point me in the direction of what I should be looking at to get all set up with that? http://www.amazon.com/D3-Digital-Converter-Optical-Toslink/dp/B005K2TXMO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1441671507&sr=8-2&keywords=fiio+d03k Alternatively, here's one to consider if you'd rather go with USB, but S/PDIF might actually be less of a pain if you're on a Windows machine: http://schiit.com/products/modi-2 Yes, I'm aware of the $70 price difference. Unless somebody knows of a better, cheaper USB DAC, that's the one I'm suggesting. If you're cool with S/PDIF (no reason why you shouldn't be), I'd go with the FiiO.
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Sep 8, 2015 02:03
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So I'm an idiot, how does that fiio fit in with a computer setup? Trying to fix my current setup which has a Sennheiser PC 350 and Swan M10's hooked up to my computer through dual female to a single male connected to my computer. Trying to replace the M10's with something else since the mid woofer is a giant pain in the rear end and doesn't fit symmetrically on my desk anywhere. I am currently trying to decide between the Audioengine A2+, MAudio A40s, or the JBL LSR305s. Anyone can give some input? Ideally I would like to spend less since I just splurged on a nice monitor.
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Sep 8, 2015 03:45
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PC optical out (or SPDIF coax out, but that's a lot less common) -> FiiO D3 optical/coax in -> D3 RCA out -> Speakers.
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Sep 8, 2015 04:31
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Electric Bugaloo posted:http://www.amazon.com/D3-Digital-Converter-Optical-Toslink/dp/B005K2TXMO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1441671507&sr=8-2&keywords=fiio+d03k You don't actually NEED a DAC to use those speakers. The only reason I can think of why you might want one is because those speakers only have balanced inputs. But then again, neither of those DACs have balanced outputs. You'd want something like this to go balanced all the way: http://www.amazon.com/Focusrite-2i2-USB-Recording-Interface/dp/B005OZE9SA Unlike those other DACs, this also gives you a convenient volume knob and a pair of inputs for whatever. But again, it's totally unnecessary. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000068OEO/ref=twister_B00CJ3ABVO?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
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Sep 8, 2015 04:46
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Etrips posted:Trying to fix my current setup which has a Sennheiser PC 350 and Swan M10's hooked up to my computer through dual female to a single male connected to my computer. Trying to replace the M10's with something else since the mid woofer is a giant pain in the rear end and doesn't fit symmetrically on my desk anywhere. I am currently trying to decide between the Audioengine A2+, MAudio A40s, or the JBL LSR305s. Anyone can give some input? Ideally I would like to spend less since I just splurged on a nice monitor. You're looking at three wildly different products. First of all: the LSRs are monitors. The only way to play music through them is via an audio connector/interface/mixer like the FocusRite that KillHour linked to. On the back of each individually-powered speaker, you will notice only an XLR input and 6mm jack. Given that you're cross-shopping them with Audioengines, I recommend that you eliminate them unless you have an actual interest in mixing music, because that's what they're for. With that said the A2+ are going to be far and away the prettiest of the remaining two- particularly in white (although there's apparently a glossy red version now too, if that's to your taste). They have a built-in USB DAC along with two analog inputs while the AV-40s have two regular analog ins and 6mm jack ins. The AV-40 are also much bigger than the A2+ and are aimed more at a "bedroom producer who wants good sounding speakers" market (and are way uglier for it, I guess?), as opposed to the Audioengines which I suppose aspire more toward "PC hi-fi". I think they both sound really good, but the AV-40s are just butt ugly in my opinion, and that bright blue LED knob is pretty garish. A possible alternative to the M-Audio worth considering are the Mackie CR4, as Kozmonaut mentioned earlier in thread. They definitely look better, although they may not have enough low end for you.
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Sep 8, 2015 05:58
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Electric Bugaloo posted:First of all: the LSRs are monitors. The only way to play music through them is via an audio connector/interface/mixer like the FocusRite that KillHour linked to. On the back of each individually-powered speaker, you will notice only an XLR input and 6mm jack. Given that you're cross-shopping them with Audioengines, I recommend that you eliminate them unless you have an actual interest in mixing music, because that's what they're for. What? No, the JBLs will be perfectly suitable for listening to music, and you absolutely don't need an expensive interface like the Focusrite. All you need is a mini-jack cable, an inexpensive volume control like a Fostex PC-1 and two RCA to male XLR cables. You don't even need the volume control if you just get the mini-jack to XLR cable that was linked earlier, but you'll have to control the volume in Windows, which may not be ideal. There's no need for an external DAC unless the on-board sound in your PC is really noisy or something. I like Audioengine's products, but I don't think anything out there can beat the JBLs on a price:performance ratio. KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 06:14 on Sep 8, 2015 |
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Sep 8, 2015 06:11
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KozmoNaut posted:What? Whoops. Totally misread that in the product. My bad.
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Sep 8, 2015 06:44
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I have both and the jbl's are far superior if you have the space. On mine, I use a passive volume attenuator and I really think you should at least have that instead of trying to do software volume control for everything. It's just a lot nicer having an actual knob.
powderific fucked around with this message at 15:51 on Sep 8, 2015 |
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Sep 8, 2015 08:48
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powderific posted:I have both and the jbl's are far superior if you have the space. On mine, I use a passive volume attenuator and I really think you should at least have that instead of trying to do software volume control for everything. It's just a lot nicer having an actually knob. I agree 100%, and luckily the Fostex PC-1 is hella inexpensive, especially considering how drat good the knob feel is. E: Or you can get this, which is apparently the greatest volume knob ever made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RApm5cUMj3E KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 09:32 on Sep 8, 2015 |
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Sep 8, 2015 09:30
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KozmoNaut posted:I agree 100%, and luckily the Fostex PC-1 is hella inexpensive, especially considering how drat good the knob feel is. I'm actually considering picking that up because it's available with XLR connectors, meaning I can stick it after the graphic equalizer but before the crossover in the signal chain without loving around with a million adapter cables (Okay, it's 4 cables. I'm lazy; sue me.)
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Sep 8, 2015 10:17
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thanks for the replies guys, I think for now I may just go with the JBLs and that XLR converter cable that KillHour linked, I already have supposedly some of the best onboard audio on my Asus Maximus VII Hero so I'll see how it works and decide if I really need a DAC.
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Sep 8, 2015 16:50
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I've used one of these for years now, with a variety of high(ish) end sound systems (powered monitors, b&w shits, two sets of magnepans, some Dahlquist DQ-12's, that sort of thing) and it sounds great. Far far far better than my noisy-rear end onboard audio. http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-UCA202-Audio-Interface/dp/B000KW2YEI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1441729948&sr=8-3&keywords=behringer+usb Headphone output seemed fine, but I wouldn't use it for speakers (you won't be getting a volume control with this one)
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Sep 8, 2015 17:33
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Varg posted:thanks for the replies guys, I think for now I may just go with the JBLs and that XLR converter cable that KillHour linked, I already have supposedly some of the best onboard audio on my Asus Maximus VII Hero so I'll see how it works and decide if I really need a DAC. I have a Maximus VII Hero and a Scarlett 2i4 and the difference between the Hero's onboard audio and the Scarlett is night at day, especially with good speakers/headphones. Even with my crappy Logitech computer speakers I had before I got my Mackie MR6s it was a noticeable difference. If you are using garbage computer speakers or gaming headsets than onboard is fine for anyone. But if you get even moderately decent speakers or headphones the difference is really, really worth it.
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Sep 8, 2015 17:39
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If you're using a passive volume attenuator I find that onboard audio noise is less objectionable since you can put the levels up all the way so the noise floor is relatively lower.
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Sep 8, 2015 17:53
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