Audiophiles - need some recommendations

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: Bozo Galora

Originally posted by: Muadib

Originally posted by: LadyBuggy

Originally posted by: Bozo Galora

Originally posted by: Muadib
Stop playing with my emotions!! I would love to hear what they sound like.

http://www.wilsonaudio.com/dealers/index.html

(literally a steal at $175,000, but you will need to rent a forklift as they do weigh over a ton in the crates)

Only $82,900 used

Have either of you heard them? Are they really worth that kind of dough, or are the more like Bang & Olufsen?

Yeah, Ive heard them, watched the movie Titanic with them as HT speakers.
Truly awesome - like the shuddeing sound when the ship hit the iceberg. These speakers are actually superior to what you would hear in a top end theater.
I'm not realy into big conventional speakers ( I prefer some nice Martin Logans), but I make an exception for the Wilsons - they convinced me.
But $175 Grand is just the opening shot.
You need something like the big Krell amps and maybe the Audio Research reference tube preamp etc. etc. Thats another $200,000 easy.
B&O is consumer crap, sold for its design primarily.
If you ever heard REAL bleeding edge hi-fi, your jaw would drop.
But less than .01% of market can afford this stuff.
Suprisingly, much of the market is in Asia - like Hong Kong, or it used to be before China took over.

Martin Logans & Magnepan are the best I've heard. Both were using Krell amps & preamps. I'd kill to hear the Wilsons now.

I agree with you on B&O. I'll never understand how they became popular.

 

[Adul]

I would recomend these. Swans M200

The are by far the best PC speaker I have heard. Just pure.

But since you are only listening to 128kpbs audio, it would sound like a$$ as you can pic out all the distortions in the music. I have nothing below 192 Vorbis audio files now.

 

[0roo0roo]

http://www.cambridgesoundworks.com/stor...category=spk_multimedia&item=k1pkm22zz

 

[0roo0roo]

and no, aac 128 isn't as bad as mp3 128. its probably closer to 160-192 mp3. mp3 shines at 192+ or lame alt preset inane or extreme vbr settings

 

[Ghouler]

this should be very decent $150 set for your source:
http://www.behringer.com/MS20/index.cfm?lang=ENG

 

[MacVista]

Well... I'm a Bose fan and have a Bose Companion 2 system... and love it.

The sound quality on my Logitech Z-640s don't even come close.... although they're 5.1 instead of 2.0 and are like half the price and much louder

 

[doanster]

Originally posted by: lytalbayre
There are audio review forums out there, I suggest you drop by one for some recommendations. As others said, for the downloaded music, a nice set-up is surely overkill, however, if you listen to CDs or DVD audio, then you could take advantage of a nice system.

My first inclination is to tell you to shop around for a stereo amp and use your soundcard for analog out (just buy a minijack to RCA adapter). But, it might be more user friendly to just buy a decently rated stereo receiver and use your sound cards digital out to hook-up to the receiver.

As far as speakers go, Some nice bookshelves would do the trick for most music. I wouldn't worry about a sub since nice ones are way out of your budget. I've heard good things about Athena bookshelves (AS-B2) frequency from 50hz up and their very efficient and sound excellent for the price ($150-$200).

Good luck.

I have the Athena bookshelves (and a centre for my 5.1 setup), and they sound very good. Don't let the price fool you!

 

[alcoholbob]

Athenas and Infinity Primus 150s are really good deals at $100-150 range. I wouldn't pay retail (~$180) for the B2s, but for under 150 it would be a decent deal. If you pay retail you are going into the range of some very accurate speakers (AV123 X-LS, SVS SBS-01) which would be a better deal at the ~$200 range.

 

[Madwand1]

I had some PSB Alpha's in my office some time ago, the remark that I made at the time were that they sounded far better than they had any right to sound (for somewhere around $200). Bass was adequate for what they are.

There are many good "bookshelf" speakers, and many "fine" ones too at higher prices. This one deserved its success IMO, and its subsequent expansion to broader product line.

I just noticed that Stereophile happened to come to a similar conclusion, and even used similar words.

http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeakerreviews/241/

There are different incarnations. I hope and expect that PSB didn't manage to screw it up in later ones.

 

[A5]

Like a few people mentioned before, you may not want to go overboard if they'll mostly be used to playback a lossy format - for what you need, the top-end 2.1 PC sets from Logitech or Klipsch would be more than enough. The Z-4s aren't exactly the top end, but they match up better with a Mac (looks-wise) than these two:

Klipsch

Logitech

I don't know who has the lowest price, but this should give you some models to choose from - some of these suggestions are going a little overboard

(And use some of the money you save to put more RAM in the iMac! OSX seems to love more RAM as much as XP )

 

[alcoholbob]

Madwand1 -

While I am sure the PSB Alpha's are excellent speakers, Stereophile reviews tend to be all identical -- aka the usual vague "sounds like they could be as good as speakers twice the cost or more." The problem with this statement is this could be true of any product, and they know it. Part of speaker reviews is treading the fine line between appeasing the advertisers and making an objective reviews.

Oftentimes the "real" review are the minor statements like "slightly laid back mids while listening to X..." or "a tad bump in the highs", which translates to what you really need to know, in very polite words.

 

[alcoholbob]

Originally posted by: LadyBuggy

Originally posted by: Bozo Galora

Originally posted by: Muadib
Stop playing with my emotions!! I would love to hear what they sound like.

http://www.wilsonaudio.com/dealers/index.html

(literally a steal at $175,000, but you will need to rent a forklift as they do weigh over a ton in the crates)

Only $82,900 used

I think higher end B&Ws and various JMLab products are considered good runner ups to Wilsons.

Also, the Wilsons measure like a mess. Upper bass boost and 2-4KHz suckout (where human hearing is the most sensitive), a major boost around 20KHz, then a massive dive. For this kind of money, you think they'd not reserve to psychoacoustical gimmicks to make an "exciting" speaker, but like Ferrari-owners, there is pride and pedigree to the ownership, even if you can't beat a Honda NSX with < 300hp on the track. For example in the review of the MAXX2s, Stereophile editor John Atkinson mentions how "concerning" the upper bass boosts, the "prescence region suckouts" and anything else measureable; spectral decay, off-axis response, but he also manged to say they were "enjoyable." Well he also finishes every review with how "enjoyable" the speakers he reviewed were. When *don't* you enjoy listening to full-range speakers?--minus "X" and "Y".

Anyway, don't take anything I say personally. I'm just the utilitarian type. I'm more likely to own a BMW than a Ferrari if I was rich, that's all. Speakers, like cars, you can get your money's worth with something cheaper, but for "name brand", "decor", and "exclusivity" you have to pay more--and sometimes exclusivity is all you are paying for, like high end speaker cables (compared to competently designed, but cheaper products).

 

[Madwand1]

Stereophile was never my bible, and I based my remarks on not what I might have read from them (as I said, I saw the review recently), but on my own experiences with it. In that, one reason that this speaker comes to mind is the typical failing of many bookshelf speakers -- bass -- and that was referred to in this thread regarding the Atom, and is also dealt with in that brief linked review.

Whether or not readers find that review to be helpful is up to them.

I'd like to draw some attention to this particular product that I do think was well done at essentially the very bottom price IMO, and though trite, often out-performed higher-priced siblings in end-user satisfaction. This is not a review; it's a statement of appreciation and subjectively percieved value. Take it as you will, nor not. Cheers.

 

[alcoholbob]

I know what you mean. Everything I've had before I bought my Ascend 170SEs (flat to 40hz in room) felt bass-anemic.

 

[seanp789]

To answer the original post:

You will hear a very significant difference on a $600 setup even with 128kbps mp3 compared to the logitechs. The problem is that the mp3 will still be a very limiting factor with a nice amp and speakers. You could get away with something much cheaper for wifey. Perhaps some swan M200 or T200 powered monitors?





btw the MBL Radialshizer mbl 101 E looks like a portable street lamp interesting concept though, makes u wonder why it wasnt done sooner.

 

[0roo0roo]

you want tower speakers, for the better sound stage.

 

[alcoholbob]

I dunno if that's necessarily true; if you have stands for your bookshelves that put the tweeter and drive units close to ear level the effect will be the same.

 

[hemiram]

Why look at PC speakers at all?

I was at Best Buy looking at subwoofers and found a Sony 12" 150W active sub for 99 bucks closeout. I makes this whole end of the house shake.

I found a Sony surround sound receiver (5.1) at Best Buy a few months later on closeout, mispriced for $149.95, instead of 199.95, and they gave me it for the mismarked price.

I already had two of these, very nice, dont be afraid of the Radio Shack name. They were also sold under the RCA name and now Genxxa. They are very nice for the price.

If I bought all four speakers it would have cost about 450 bucks, but since I already had two speakers I was only out 350.
I bought two more as they were being closed out for 99 bucks I think it was.

http://cgi.ebay.com/LINAEUM-tweeter-SPE...61QQcategoryZ94907QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

People are amazed at how great this set up sounds, both on games and on music. A friend is currently buying the stuff to duplicate it for his den/PC room, with a different (Onkyo) receiver that is better than mine, but cost 100 bucks more. He found the same sub for 79 bucks, new, on Ebay.

 

[alcoholbob]

I wonder if Kaido has already made a choice on his replacement system...

 

[ribbon13]

He should give her his BR-1s and get a pair of these for himself, and get one of these to power it.

 

[blueness]

Its humorous to see people spending 500 for a videocard criticizing 600 for speakers.

My perspective is that this is not the place to get a good answer on your audio question. I would try other forums. I really like the value for the brand of the speakers and the quality of the audio discussion forum at this site: www.av123.com (I now own some of their nicer speakers). Another site, not brand-specific, to get good audio feedback is www.avsforum.com (also a good home theater video site).

If you have a stereo system in the same room as the PC, you may consider a streaming solution such as the Squeezebox (www.slimdevices.com), a very nice piece of equipment.

Lastly... one thing that I have not seen mentioned above, if you are going to use an amp and 2 speakers, you will want to get a special sound card. Below is a snippet I've clipped from a thread on www.av123.com's forums....


There's two separate issues in Windows, to my understanding. The first is that most consumer-grade cards, and ALL consumer-grade Creative cards, do a 48khz resample in hardware. On Creative hardware, at least, you cannot avoid this by any method. You'll never hear it on the typical crummy computer speakers, but it sounds very bad on decent audio gear.

The second is that Windows' kmixer, the thing that lets you hear multiple sounds at once, doesn't support unity (1.0) gain, so that you're losing the least significant bit or two on playback. This probably isn't enough to hear by itself, but it damages DTS files so that they won't play anymore.

You can only avoid the first issue by using a soundcard that has a hardware path for 44.1Khz. You can avoid the second by using either ASIO or kernel streaming. (both are ways for programs to talk to the hardware with a minimum of interference.) Or, for whatever weird reason, you can use a (very few) USB soundcards, like the Sonica Theater. There's something about the sound path for USB that can allow lossless output, even from standard programs like iTunes and Windows Media Player.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: blueness
Its humorous to see people spending 500 for a videocard criticizing 600 for speakers.

My perspective is that this is not the place to get a good answer on your audio question. I would try other forums. I really like the value for the brand of the speakers and the quality of the audio discussion forum at this site: www.av123.com (I now own some of their nicer speakers). Another site, not brand-specific, to get good audio feedback is www.avsforum.com (also a good home theater video site).

If you have a stereo system in the same room as the PC, you may consider a streaming solution such as the Squeezebox (www.slimdevices.com), a very nice piece of equipment.

Lastly... one thing that I have not seen mentioned above, if you are going to use an amp and 2 speakers, you will want to get a special sound card. Below is a snippet I've clipped from a thread on www.av123.com's forums....


There's two separate issues in Windows, to my understanding. The first is that most consumer-grade cards, and ALL consumer-grade Creative cards, do a 48khz resample in hardware. On Creative hardware, at least, you cannot avoid this by any method. You'll never hear it on the typical crummy computer speakers, but it sounds very bad on decent audio gear.

The second is that Windows' kmixer, the thing that lets you hear multiple sounds at once, doesn't support unity (1.0) gain, so that you're losing the least significant bit or two on playback. This probably isn't enough to hear by itself, but it damages DTS files so that they won't play anymore.

You can only avoid the first issue by using a soundcard that has a hardware path for 44.1Khz. You can avoid the second by using either ASIO or kernel streaming. (both are ways for programs to talk to the hardware with a minimum of interference.) Or, for whatever weird reason, you can use a (very few) USB soundcards, like the Sonica Theater. There's something about the sound path for USB that can allow lossless output, even from standard programs like iTunes and Windows Media Player.

yeah but he's using a iMac CoreDuo which has no PCI expansion options for a sound card. As far as the Mac market goes there is not many options outside the ProAudio gear from a recording studio.

 

[alpha88]

I really like my M-Audio Studiophile speakers.

 

[adwilk]

A lot depends on wether or not you will be sitting in front of the computer when listening or you are going to be moving about the house. This is why i have both nice Boston Acoustics multimedia setup, and a stereo receiver/bookshelf setup. The shear output of good bookshelf rated at around 90db will be too much for sitting right in front your computer... but even good sub/sats of multimedia systems sound like dog poopie at more than a few meters away. The setups are crossed over completely differently for the application. I would not buy anything too accurate for a stereo setup..., if you do, use cheap cables to mask the noise that 128 creates. you will really need a muddy signal to mellow it out and warm it up a bit. Make sure you get sheilded bookshelfs if sitting next to a CRT...