looking to build a 2.1 setup

[Fayd]

alright, so i just graduated college, my parents asked me what i wanted as a graduation + birthday gift. so... i want a speaker setup. reasonable budget of around 500 dollars.

i'm looking at a 2.1 setup, so i can add to it in the future.

I dont really have a home theater setup right now, so it'd be used as PC speakers + xbox360 (when i get it) and so-on for now. till i get my own place.

here's what it looks like right now, (along with proposed speaker spots)

http://www.manwhoring.com/line...fayd/pics/speakers.jpg

i'm gonna be mounting the speakers to the wall there.

i'm thinking right now about a pair of polk audio R-150's for the speakers. i dont know what for a sub, and i dont know what for an amp/reciever. i'm guessing maybe that yamaha 6130 that's avail right now in hot deals for like 140?

the sub, i'm thinking 10" forward firing.

anyone seeing any problems with what i'm looking at thus far? any ideas for where to proceed?

btw, the main display is a HG281DPB. the viewsonic 19" next to it will eventually be mounted to the wall on an articulating mount, and the TV will eventually come off the wall.


i dont know a whole lot about speakers in general, so some pointers would be nice. my father keeps recommending klipsch, that's what he has. (some $2k setup downstairs) but i'm not looking in that area of price.

 

[Excelsior]

Hm, with that budget, I might just forgo the sub and concentrate on the 2.0. Get better mains...a 10" forward firing sub won't be very impressive anyway. Then add a quality sub down the road.

 

[pennylane]

So just to clarify, the $500 includes budget for the amp/receiver?

Either way, I'll echo Excelsior's suggestion about just getting a pair of speakers and postponing the sub for now.

 

[alcoholbob]

Huh well with a $500 budget I'd spend as little on the receiver as possible and as much as you can on the speakers. That will give you the maximum utility. And no sub is necessary from that close. I am in a 13Lx13Wx9.5H room with nothing but a desk and monitor against the far wall and the speakers on the other end 8+ feet away, and I don't ever feel like I need to turn on the sub for music.

If you have a pair of bookshelves that can hit at least 50hz flat, in general a subwoofer is barely audible anyway for music. I've tried 40hz and 60hz crossovers and I have to put my ears to the sub to really hear anything, there's not much down there for music. Even with hip hop its generally the upper bass.

 

[Baked]

Like the other guys said, you don't need a sub for stereo setup. And if you're really serious about a stereo setup, with your budget, get an integrated amplifier instead of a receiver. See if you can get yourself a NAD C325BEE in the low 300 range.

 

[Fayd]

just an update, the range is $500-1000.

and i'm not a music listener, and i'm not an audiophile. i want it for movies, games, etc. so i *do* want a sub.

i'm still thinking the yamaha 6130, but i'm not sure on the speakers right now. i see some offerings from klipsch, but the only ones that are of any decent driver size are really DEEP. i realize that's because you need volume to get good quality sound with large drivers, but my monitor's face is only 6.5" off the wall behind it. i realize i can mount it to some plywood or something, but still......

i want a reciever because i intend to upgrade to a bigger, better system down the road. what will be my fronts now will become my surround or rears later.

 

[alcoholbob]

Huh well $1000 is another ballpark.

A good receiver will still chop that budget in half...really the question is, will the be "the" receiver for the future or just a temporary one. Because we are talking about a 2.1 setup here...

My opinion here is probably get a receiver with a lot of options and connectivity with pre-outs, so later on it'll be a processor if you want to use external amplifiers.

As far as speakers go, whats important to you...what are your size constraints, what kind of appearance are you looking for?

Also, it looks like you've got a lot of stuff in that room, I wouldn't recommend a sub. A sub that reaches deep will sound boomy in your room without equalization and there's no point wasting money on a smaller sub now if this will eventually go into a bigger HT room setup. Unless Master & Commender cannonball firing rumbling isn't *that* important but just being able to hit deep, you could get a ~$300 sub now that will probably do well for you later on. I would recommend the Hsu STF-1 if that's the case...there are comparable options that go as deep in the same price range or deeper...but as far as music performance goes, Ikka's sub tests show that Hsu's hit incredibly fast for ported subs. It's an 8 inch sub but is easily enough to fill a small room with clean, balanced bass.

You say you aren't an audiophile but now your budget just increased ;P

Is your budget inclusive of tax? I'll assume no so you'll have to add about $100 to your budget just to cover that, hah...

I'm thinking if you are really a bass head, this will probably be a good break-down:

$300 sub
$400 receiver (for the pre-outs)--maybe an HK-154?
$200 speakers
$50 for cabling (RCA cable, RCA mono sub cable, a roll of 12 gauge speaker wire)
--------
$1000

or if you want to just pick up front speakers

$450 speakers (that go deep)
$400 receiver
$50 in cabling
--------------------------

There's a big difference between $200 speakers and $450 speakers in terms of quality and bass extension...probably decor too
$850

 

[Fayd]

Originally posted by: Astrallite
Huh well $1000 is another ballpark.

A good receiver will still chop that budget in half...really the question is, will the be "the" receiver for the future or just a temporary one. Because we are talking about a 2.1 setup here...

My opinion here is probably get a receiver with a lot of options and connectivity with pre-outs, so later on it'll be a processor if you want to use external amplifiers.

As far as speakers go, whats important to you...what are your size constraints, what kind of appearance are you looking for?

i'm looking for 5-6" drivers for the woofers in whatever speakers i get. I'm also looking for depth of less than 8" or so. the monitor is 7" from the wall. while i can space it out a little bit more with the aid of a plywood backer, there's limits to what i can do with that and still look reasonable. 12" deep speakers would just look retarded.

I was looking at the Klipsch RB-10, but they only have a 4" driver. i am unsure of how much that would affect sound. like, i'm unsure what that gets me over a B-2 (i guess their lowest end...but it has a bigger driver.)

also, i dont know what difference the material the driver is made from makes. like the RB-10 is ceramometallic (i guess....) and the B2 is not advertised as being anything special. so...

 

[mshan]

If music isn't important, why don't you just get the Logitech Z-5500 and be done with it?

 

[alcoholbob]

Probably because he stated that he wants upgradability in the future.

Fayd, what do you think about the sound of the Klipsch? Is it to your liking? Some people think its a little "hot" in the treble because of the horn tweeters. I think you should probably goto an audio shop, bring an ipod and ask them to test their speakers.

I'm at work, I'll look around for speakers that can fit a 7" footprint.

Be advised you may not be able to keep the same brand throughout your entire setup in the future, since of your size constraints now you might find yourself with better speakers (that this specific brand might not be able to provide performance wise).

Off the top of my head I can't think of anything this small, I know the AV123 ELT525 is about 9" deep and its considered fairly small.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

If he wanted to Ascend, HTM-200s would be under 7" deep.

http://www.ascendacoustics.com...ers/htm200/htm200.html

He can buy your CBM-170 later as a center, Astrallite

 

[vi edit]

Polk RTi A1: $300
http://www.amazon.com/Polk-Aud...qid=1211570094&sr=8-13

Outlaw Audio LFM-2 sub: $200
http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/lfm2.html

Onkyo 506: $200
http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-TX...&qid=1211570683&sr=1-7

I went with the Polk RTI line because they have great upgrade options available. You can move the bookshelfs to surrounds and move up to towers for your mains at some point, and they have easy drop in solutions for center channels if you need one.

The receiver is the one part that can suffer a lot of scope creep. Going from $200 to $350 gets you into full HDMI processing, not just switching/passthrough.

 

[alcoholbob]

Yoyo's recommendation for the Ascend HTM-200SE I can definitely vouch for...i dont want to sound so obvious recommending the brand I own, but they are very accurate speakers which you can find on the ascend acoustics website. These guys go for $300 and frequency response is 70-20KHz +/-3db. Not the deepest bass but you can't expect much from a footprint of 11" x 6.5" x 6.375". Has a 1.06inch tweeter and a pair of 4" woofers. Real ugly things (as Ascends in general are) which is why I am wary of recommending them to first time buyers, although the sound is phenomenal. Interestingly enough Dr Hsu of Hsu Research (well known subwoofer designer) considers these his favorite speakers...

I'm not particularly fond of any of these speakers I found online but they do meet your 7" deep requirement:

Cambridge Soundworks M55 bookshelf
$379.99

10H x 7 W x 7.25D

11.5 lbs each
88db sensitivity
1" aluminum tweeter + 5.25" woofer
70hz - 20KHz (no +/- specified)

comment: neat looking bookshelf, front ported so it can sit close to walls. Really depends on your hearing acuity, but aluminum tweeters do resonate at 20KHz and above, and this is noticeable for some people (like me).

Boston Acoustics E40
$800

10H x 6W x 7.25D

4.5" aluminum woofer and 1" aluminum dome tweeter
5lbs each
89db sensitivity

This would be the extreme high end of your budget...75hz-20KHz +/-3db is the specification listed...as far as driver choice, aluminum for both drivers..

Boston Acoustics CR57
$120

5.25" woofer
3/4" soft dome tweeter
8lbs each
9Hx6Wx6.25D
80-20KHz (no +/- listed)

Well received little things...I think a lot of gamers liked the CR67 although its a little larger than your 7" requirement. Never heard them but the 67s had a lot of praise, hopefully they sound similar.