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I have $300 to spend on speakers for my gaming rig

D

davidober

Member
Right now, I'm considering the following:

Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 ($150 at newegg)

Logitech Z5450 ($210 at newegg)

Logitech Z5500 ($270 at newegg)

What else should I be considering? I really don't want wired surround (it just doesn't work well with my computer room set up) so I'm probably not going to go with the Z5500's. If I go with the Klipsch Pro-Media's, though, I'll be left wondering if I could have purchased a better sounding system with the additional $150 I allocated myself, since my budget is $300. I don't just want to throw money away, though, so if the Klipsch are the best option for $300 or under, then I'll go with them.

The speakers will be used for some gaming (FPS's mostly), but I usually use headphones for gaming. I think the main thing I want them to excel at is playing iTunes music with a secondary use for gaming.

 
For a mostly music system, if you listen to stereo as-is (without fake surround modes), then a 2.1 set would be the way to go vs. a lower quality surround set.

Just an FYI: the 5450 "wireless" speakers need to be plugged into outlets to power their built-in amps.

Before you get a surround setup, make sure that you'll actually be able to set it up decently. From your concerns it seems that you are going to try to get them in good positions behind you so :thumbsup:. I've seen too many pictures of people's setups with all 5 speakers lined up right in front of them to not mention it 😛

As an alternative to those listed, you could get something like

The Klipsch iFi set that can be had for ~$200 sometimes. This would be a step up from the promedias. The iFi set uses some speakers from the Klipsch reference line and adds a sub with built-in amp. It's marketed towards iPod use, but there's no reason it cannot be used as a regular speaker system.

For about $300 you could also put together your own 2.1 system.

Example:
Swan M200 (this is a bit higher than they once were)
+
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=300-633

(sorry, went a bit over)

Something that's nice though is you could build up a system over time. No need to buy the whole thing at once.

You could also do budget receiver + pair of bookshelf speakers for now and add a sub later.
 
Thanks for the recommendations, YoYo. My sound card is the X-Fi Platinum (I didn't mention it in the original post). Does that change anything?

If I went up to $500 (which I definitely could), how would that change your recs?

Thanks much, man.

David
 
Originally posted by: Tegeril
Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 Ultra if you go up to $500 =)
Click to expand...

How would they differ from, say, the Logitech Z5450's in terms of performance in games/movies/music? Are they just BETTER, plain and simple, or are there specific things they're better at?

Thanks for the help. 🙂

David

 
THe promedias would be considerably less reliable, with fewer features and debatable aesthetics (I like them, but know many others who don't). However, the sound quality will be much better for music, and movies (less so for games) and the bass will be much cleaner and tighter. They don't have digital input, which is unfortunate (the logis do), but they do win hands down in musical performance.

However, you switch it up to 500$, different story all together.

If you want nice two channel, with more of a music orientation, go with receiver + bookshelves or even floorstanders.

Two Channel Receiver (the best in the price range) - 250$
http://www.amazon.com/Harman-Kardon-HK3...-3956999-7975043?ie=UTF8&s=electronics

Speakers:

Get Wharfedale 8.1 (150$ pair on amazon, which is really quite amazing)
or for a little more 8.2 (200$ pair) which will give you much better bass extension.
Other options include Mirage Omnisats (150$ pair, but you will require a sub for even music)
Also consider the two athena offerings at this pricepoint (Athena AS-B1.2 (130$ pair) or Athena AS-B2.2 (250$ pair)

However, at this pricepoint, the wharfedales are the best bet for sheer sound quality.
Remember, flabby, distorted bass at 30 hz is nothing in comparison to good, clear, musical bass at 40 hz or even 45 or 50 hz. You really don't need much below 40 hz for most music applications. (It's nice to have, but at this price, quantity < quality).

STAY FAR AWAY FROM:
Bose, JBL, Sony, BIC

If you want floorstanders
Wharfedale 8.3 is great. It's basically the 8.2 mounted on an integrated stand, with a few modifications so that it has deeper (but slightly less tight) bass. It's also 200$ pair for reasons unknown to any save amazon.
The wharfedale 8.2 can also be found in an active version (ie, no reciever) for about 350$ a pair, but I'm not sure on availability in the US ( I haven't been able to find a pair. )

If you step up a little
The Wharfedale 9.1 (bookshelf 350$ pair) or Wharfedale 8.4 (floorstander 400-500$ pair ) will sound outrageously good, as will the Athena AS-FS2 (floorstander 400-600$ pair, best bass extension of the lot)

If you want 5.1, stick to computer speakers unless you are willing to up the price considerably, or get an integrated Onkyo package (great value, decent quality)

Hope this helps,

~Paul
 
First of all, the generosity of Internet message board denizens never ceases to amaze me. Thanks very much for the detailed recs, my friend.

Follow-up question (that I've asked before in another thread, but never really got answered completely): Since I'm mostly going to be listening to music that I've downloaded on iTunes, do you still recommend high quality speakers? I mean, at what point do the speakers become "too good" for music downloaded on iTunes? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the music you download from iTunes inferior in quality to playing it directly from a CD? If so, do you see where I'm coming from with my question?

Thanks again,

David
 
At this price point, they will sound better with cd quality, but it's not a tremendous difference (at this level of component quality), and iTunes AAC will still sound much much much better. Think your Senns, except more clarity and bigger soundstage, You won't get the bass extension unless you add in a sub, but really, solid 40-45 hz is all you need.
 
This would be another good forum to look at to get ideas
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/

I put together (badly) a bit of a general audio thread here if you want to take a look.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=30&threadid=1810562&enterthread=y

davidober, I'm wondering about your future plans for your system. Getting a stereo receiver will generally get you higher quality and better amps, but for $250 you could get a pretty decent multichannel receiver as an alternative. If you have the intention of eventually getting a surround sound setup, I would recommend thinking about getting a multichannel receiver rather than stereo to keep your options open. If you know you're going to stick with 2.0 / 2.1, then by all means stick with a stereo receiver.

Before you get too set on any speakers, with your new budget you're going to have a lot more options open to you. It would be a good idea to go out and do some listening to see what kind of sound you like before you get too far into the process.
 
Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
This would be another good forum to look at to get ideas
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/

I put together (badly) a bit of a general audio thread here if you want to take a look.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=30&threadid=1810562&enterthread=y

davidober, I'm wondering about your future plans for your system. Getting a stereo receiver will generally get you higher quality and better amps, but for $250 you could get a pretty decent multichannel receiver as an alternative. If you have the intention of eventually getting a surround sound setup, I would recommend thinking about getting a multichannel receiver rather than stereo to keep your options open. If you know you're going to stick with 2.0 / 2.1, then by all means stick with a stereo receiver.

Before you get too set on any speakers, with your new budget you're going to have a lot more options open to you. It would be a good idea to go out and do some listening to see what kind of sound you like before you get too far into the process.
Click to expand...

Well that's a great question, but it confuses the heck out of me. If I go with a surround set-up, what role would my X-Fi Platinum play? How does a surround receiver fit in? Meaning, how is it connected to everything? Meaning, what connects to what, connects to what, connects to what?

WRT "going out and listening to see what kind of sound I like before I get too far into the process," where would you recommend I go (I live in SoCal). Finally, is there anyone in SoCal who would like to join me for such an excursion? Lunch is on me, anywhere in SoCal...

 
I'm not an audio person but i've seen enough of these threads to answer that X-Fi question. You would use mini plug to rca connections or the HT creative cord set to send analog surround to your receiver (the three main outputs from the x-fi to the receivers rca surround inputs). This is the only way to get games in surround to a HT setup with the X-Fi. However if its only going to be music or movies you would just use one cable from the lineout (aka the digital signal out) port from your X-Fi to the receiver. This would provide you stereo for music and DTS/Dolby for dvds since they are pre-encoded with dts/dolby surround. If you wanted to play music from all the speakers your receiver could probably just upmix it one way or another.
 
You would have the X-Fi as one of the sources plugged into the receiver. You could have the Computer (X-Fi) be the only thing connected, or you could go nuts 😛

With X-Fi, you'd want to connect via analog to the receiver.
Reasons: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=30&threadid=1940133&enterthread=y

Basically with a set of computer speakers, you tend to connect with 3.5mm stereo connections. One for 2.0 / 2.1, Two for 4.1, Three for 5.1. In the case of computer speakers, you usually plug into the sub which has an amp built-in that powers the woofer in the sub and supplies power to the speakers.

If you got a receiver, you would plug the X-Fi into the receiver feeding it 5.1 analog and then it would use its amps to drive the speakers an would send out a subwoofer signal so a subwoofer could then take that signal and use its own amp to power itself.

(There are exceptions to this, but that's usually how it works)

So you'd have your X-Fi plugged into your receiver with 6 analog cables for 5.1 or 2 analog cables if you went with 2.0/2.1 speakers. Your receiver would connect to your speakers with speaker wire. If you got a powered sub, you would connect that with a cable to your receiver.



As for going out, A good place to start might be to find a local dealer that sells Paradigm. In SoCal you should have no problem finding some dealers in the area. I say Paradigm because it's quite widespread and the performance line would be at about your pricepoint. They would also likely have some other options in the general pricerange for you to try out. If you bring in your own source material (a CD or something), then you should be able to get a rough idea of the differences between them and get an idea what kind of sound you like. (Bright / Warm / whatever)

I've been won over by a couple online brands actually and would recommend considering that as well. I got some speakers from these guys and would not hesitate to recommend them as a possibility. Their X-series would be right around your pricerange.

Some of these online brands have forums where among other things, you can try to meet up with some current owners and see if someone can give you a demo.
http://av123forum.com/

I listened to the model of speakers I ended up getting at a guy's house and fell in love with them vs. the retail competition at the pricepoint I was considering.

Axiom, SVS, and Ascend Acoustics are a few other possibilities for online options to consider.

I'm not sure if would be worth it as this pricepoint, but something you could try (if going out to stores seems like too big of a project) is to order a pair of bookshelf speakers from 2-3 of these online companies and take advantage of their 30 day trial period. Keep the set you like the best and send the "losers" back. You'll lose shipping costs though, which is why it might not be cost effective at this level.
 
Okay, I've decided to rename this thread, but I don't think I can change the title. Here's the new one: I have $700 to spend on sound for my computer home theater. What do you recommend?

I already have headphones (HD555's) and a sound card (X-Fi Platinum). The $700 is including tax and shipping!!

Damn, I just went from my original budget of $300 to my new, revised estimate of $700 in one day. If I keep hanging around here, I'll end up spening $2000 on sound alone!!! LOL!!!

BTW, super thanks to you YoYo. You're awesome. 🙂

Oh yeah: My wife is gonna kill me.

David
 
Maybe I shouldn't have linked you to AVSforum :laugh:

Audio budgets have a way of expanding. Honestly though if you're up from $300 to $700 in one evening, maybe you should really think about what you want to do. The sky is the limit with this stuff. I've really gotten carried away. I've gone from Logitech z-560s to way more than I had originally planned on spending and I have no intention of stopping anytime soon 😛

My ears are happy by my wallet isn't too excited about the situation. I don't want to be responsible for having you spend more than you want to 😉 (EDIT: or get you in trouble is seems :laugh: )

So anyway, I would still recommend checking out some retail options initially to just get an idea of what some different stuff sounds like. Maybe you'll go and decide that it's not worth it to spend more than your original budget. This stuff isn't for everyone.

On that $700 budget are you thinking still a 2.1 system or surround sound?

EDIT: Oh, and how big is the room going to be that this is in? (I don't remember if you mentioned that already) Are you trying to just get it sounding good for a single location within the room, or for multiple seats / whole room? How loud to you tend to listen to stuff? If this turns into a big thing, is this still going to be mainly music, or do you expect games/movies to be important too?
 
Originally posted by: Molinjir
If you want nice two channel, with more of a music orientation, go with receiver + bookshelves or even floorstanders.

Two Channel Receiver (the best in the price range) - 250$
http://www.amazon.com/Harman-Kardon-HK3...-3956999-7975043?ie=UTF8&s=electronics
Click to expand...

I highly and most strongly recommend this receiver. Until I went headphones only as I am in share accomodation, and bought a tube amp and AKG K-501, this did a terrific job of my computer audio. I was only using very cheap bookshelf speakers and it still sounded great. I did hook it up to some nice floorstanders for a while, and it was sweet!

 
Originally posted by: PorscheMaD911
Originally posted by: Molinjir
If you want nice two channel, with more of a music orientation, go with receiver + bookshelves or even floorstanders.

Two Channel Receiver (the best in the price range) - 250$
http://www.amazon.com/Harman-Kardon-HK3...-3956999-7975043?ie=UTF8&s=electronics
Click to expand...

I highly and most strongly recommend this receiver. Until I went headphones only as I am in share accomodation, and bought a tube amp and AKG K-501, this did a terrific job of my computer audio. I was only using very cheap bookshelf speakers and it still sounded great. I did hook it up to some nice floorstanders for a while, and it was sweet!
Click to expand...

david, if you do end up going with an HK, http://stores.ebay.com/Harman-Audio and http://www.harmanaudio.com/ are two additional places to check out Harman Kardon's refurb units. They come with a new 2 year warranty on them. My first receiver was an HK-325 I got through them and although I've moved onto other things, it's still in use with my gf's parents 😀
 
If you are going stereo, at that budget, the HK is probably your best bet, considering the power ratings (even if they are exaggerated a bit, 100 watts X2 is suitable for nearly everything at that pricerange except the magnepan MMG)

If you are spending 700$, your options do open up considerably. You could consider used B&W, or Magnepan MMGs, or even new DM601 (B&W).
I would second checking out the AVS forum, but you should consider certain questions even before you begin looking, in addition to the ones YOyo gave.
What music do you listen to? This can be extremely important, especially at this pricepoint. Are you a basshead? Do you listen to classical music?
What is the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor)? Can two big 30-50 lb floorstanding speakers make sense?
You should also check out the budget components reviews in stereophile. http://www.stereophile.com/budgetcomponents/ Most of these will still be far too expensive, but a few are certainly within your pricerange, and the quality of the reviews will certainly give you some interesting ideas.


 
Originally posted by: Molinjir
<snip>If you are spending 700$, your options do open up considerably. You could consider used B&W, or Magnepan MMGs, or even new DM601 (B&W).
I would second checking out the AVS forum, but you should consider certain questions even before you begin looking, in addition to the ones YOyo gave.
What music do you listen to? This can be extremely important, especially at this pricepoint. Are you a basshead? Do you listen to classical music?
What is the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor)? Can two big 30-50 lb floorstanding speakers make sense?<snip>
Click to expand...

I've decided that I want to make this a "music only" system. I'm going to get separate speakers for gaming, but I do want my iTunes music to sound as good as possible. I mostly listen to alternative/indie, and prefer songs with more of a pop feel and less of a metal feel, though I certainly cross over to harsher stuff on occasion.

Some bands: Squeeze, Camera Obscura, New Pornographers, Arcade Fire, XTC, Guster, Arctic Monkeys, Interpol, Morphine, Pinback, The (English) Beat, The Pogues, Oingo Boingo, Madness, etc.

So, for now, here's what I'm thinking I need:

1) A good, quality receiver (am certainly open to going with used equipment)

2) 2 Floor speakers (the room I'm putting these in will be a combination family room/kitchen. It's a rectangle, approximately 10' x 30' with 9 foot ceilings. There are door-width openings into the room, one from the dining room and one from the hallway.
I will be placing the speakers on either side o the fireplace, approximately 9 feet apart.

3) A good, tight, controlled sub (I do not like a lot of earth-shaking bass).

Is that about it? My absolute budget is $700. I'm thinking $250 - $300 for the receiver, which leaves me only $400 for $450 fo rmy speakers and sub.

Thoughts?

 
You've got 4 PMs from last night btw after I got done with our little "chat", I looked around a bit for you for some examples.
 
1) If you are doing 'Music Only" then the HK3480 is almost certainly your best bet for a reciever. You can get it new for 250$ on amazon, or used for perhaps 150-200$. It's got power to burn, and great sound for the price.
Your other option would be to find a higher end reciever used, which can be a risky business. I'd try for the Outlaw low-end (forgot the product name) stereo reciever, which retails for 700$, but can be bought used for a great deal less.
However, you should consider carefully, because playing mostly AAC files, the difference in quality will decrease as you move up. Thinking logically, from that perspective, the HK is almost certainly your best bet.

2) Your options are either floorstanders or bookshelves on stands (think extra 80-100$ for stands) and a dedicated sub.

I've already mentioned wharfedales, but I will do so again.
Pair the 8.2s with the smallest hsu sub (200$ and 200$) respectively, for an excellent combo.
Other options are viable, but this is what I'd personally choose.
 
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