speakers

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: dsj

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: dsj
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/prodde...FABEB9&sku_id=0665000FS10034139&catid=

If you look at this one for inputs it says no. Does that mean it can recieve 0 channels?

It's just a typo. It's a 2.1 set so you feed it 2 channels.

The lowest input for a speaker would be 1 for mono.

2 channels? what about the subwoffer? And I went to future shop to hear their speakers out and only 3 of them works because the other ones aren't properly connected to their pc. the 3 that worked are the altec vs4121, vs2221 and a logitech surround sound set that costs 300 dollars. The 4121 sounded better than the 2221 with clear and more elegant sounds. the logitech one sounded like if the sound was coming from inside a closed room and I'm listening on the other side of the walls. So so far I like the 4121 the best. And there's this one that's 80 dollars by cyber acustics that wasn't powered and plugged. So should I just go for the 4121 and the warranty for 25 dollars?

2.1 computer speakers have internal crossovers, so you'll send them two full range signals and the speakers will send everything below a certain frequency to the sub.

The warranty is up to you. I don't know if it would be worth 1/4 the cost of the speakers to get the warranty.

 

[dsj]

How loud is loud? How well does sound travel through the walls? How do I know if the neighbours will hear the subwoofer? Does the subwoofer shake my floor which is the ceiling of people who live downstairs?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: dsj
There's also this 2.1 set that's made by bose but didn't have a price tag on it. but It looked like of ugly and the satellite speakers are very very small.

Don't get bose.

See the link in my sig for more info.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: dsj
and does my soundcard have all of the features like multi channels? I'm getting a new motherboard and cpu early next month.

What are you asking? A new motherboard will certainly have multichannel output.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: dsj
and I noticed that the netting on the 4121 is made of metal. some of the other ones are made of cloth. Does that matter? And the subwoffer on the 4121 is metal instead of wood.

As long as it's acoustically transparent, it wont matter.

I'm not sure how well any of these computer speakers are for the grilles.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: dsj
I got the 4121 and it says subwoofer not megnitically shielded and I placed it beside my modem and router. Is it still ok? And the subwoofer always shakes so loud, is it supposed to be that way? And there's a knob for the bass and one for the treble, how do I know what that origional piece of music was supposed to sound like when turning those knobs? I don't know how much bass was intended by the composer or orchestra.

Alright then.

Placing subs next to electonics is fine. Ribbon13 has a huge 1000watt 15" sub next to his computer with no problems.

If you're really serious about getting the levels set right, you can get an SPL meter and set the outputs at given frequencies and get the response curve as flat as you can. I have one, but it cost about $30... probably not worth it.

Just set it how it sounds good to you.

 

[dsj]

what is treble anyways? what happens when you turn the knob?

 

[SirBrass]

Trebel adjusts the volume level for frequencies in the trebel range (look on a sheet of piano music), and bass adjusts the volume level for frequencies in the bass range (once again, look on a sheet of piano music).

as for speakers, if you plan to do anything more than listen to music, get a 5.1 or better system. I got a set of Logitech z5300e's (they were on sale at buy.com) for a good price, and they are EXCELLENT. I was playing KotOR once, and a droid twittered behind my character. I turned around and looked at the other guy in the room working on his computer and wondered if he was playing the same game as well, simply b/c the sound channeled made me really feel like the sound originated behind me. Excellent speakers, good control over master volume, subwoofer output, center speaker output, and fader output (rear speakers). Also, the Z5300's can be wall mounted, so you don't HAVE to have the desk space for them.

and don't get a set of cheap speakers. you're paying good money for a solid sound card, so get a set of speakers that can do that sound card justice 😉.

 

[dsj]

So what would be a reasonable setting for the trebel and bass? should I leave them all at the center or should I turn the bass down? what does the real world sound like? or what settings would be the closest to the real world?

 

[dsj]

I turned the bass all the way down. Was the origional movies supposed to have a base sound that shakes the whole room? Did the directors want the bases to be so loud? If you watch it in a theatre what would it sound like? I have never been to a movie theatre.

 

[eXx08]

Forget about any of the MHz stuff and sattalites and what ever all you need is new speakers with good sound right? If you have $350 get the Ultras if not either get the x-530's or the x-230's.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: dsj
I turned the bass all the way down. Was the origional movies supposed to have a base sound that shakes the whole room? Did the directors want the bases to be so loud? If you watch it in a theatre what would it sound like? I have never been to a movie theatre.

Maybe you should go out and see a movie 😉

The sound in theaters depends a lot on what kind of equipment the theater has.

There really isn't a "right" or "wrong" setting for all this stuff. If you have the bass set too low or too high, it's not like the speaker police are going to come and tell you to adjust them.

I think leaving them at the centered position would be a good starting point.

Fool around with it until you find something that sounds good to you.

So is this your first set of speakers ever or something?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: dsj
How loud is loud? How well does sound travel through the walls? How do I know if the neighbours will hear the subwoofer? Does the subwoofer shake my floor which is the ceiling of people who live downstairs?

Reference level in a movie = very loud. If you calibrate your HT speakers to 85dB, then setting the receiver to 0dB would be listening at reference.

I just watched Pirates of the Carribean @-15dB on my receiver and it was pretty loud.

Again, if you're worried about it being too loud or damaging your hearing or something, get an SPL meter and you'll be able to tell how loud it is. I don't think you'll have anything to worry about from the Altec Lansings though.

Bass travels a lot more through walls. High frequency sounds are a lot more directional. You might even be able to experience this with your speakers. Sit with the speakers pointed towards you and then move a couple feet to the side. The high frequency sounds will probably change a lot while the midrange and bass should stay about the same.

You can tell if you're bothering your neighbors by asking them 😛.

I was shaking display cases through an 8" concrete wall with my sub during the school year. Depending on the construction of your place and dampening material like carpet, if you play it loud you could be bothering them.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: thekillerjks
Forget about any of the MHz stuff and sattalites and what ever all you need is new speakers with good sound right? If you have $350 get the Ultras if not either get the x-530's or the x-230's.

MHz would be pretty high up there 😉

He already bought a set.

 

[dsj]

when I turn up the treble for my speakers a lot of distorsion came out. the sound is very scrachy like that of a poor radio.

 

[dsj]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

So is this your first set of speakers ever or something?

I used headphones and my old speakers only have a volume knob.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: dsj
when I turn up the treble for my speakers a lot of distorsion came out. the sound is very scrachy like that of a poor radio.

Well then don't turn it up 😉

(Treble control is controlling the amount of high notes your speakers are playing if you didn't catch that already playing with the knobs)

 

[dsj]

is the speaker defective?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Well, turning the treble up a lot would make the sound more bright and I guess scratchy.

Why don't you try plugging them into something else (like a CD player) and messing with the knobs. See if the same thing happens.

I don't own these and have never heard them with the knobs being changed, so I don't know what it sounds like when you change them around.

If you're concerned, you can also go back to the store where you demo-ed them and turn up the treble on the set that's out there to see if it does the same thing.

 

[dsj]

I remember hearing rock and roll on the store's speakers while playing around with the knobs and I didn't hear any scrachy sound. but the dvd movie was from the 60s so I guess the recordings were bad then.

 

[dsj]

Logically, shouldn't the base and trebel be at the same level? or else in a piece of music that every instrumets was supposed to be the same loud if you turn the base down the music is no longer the same as when the orchestra played it. It's like adjusting the speed of the parts of the music getting through the boring parts quickly and playing normally on the good parts. Then the beats aren't at the same speed.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: dsj
Logically, shouldn't the base and trebel be at the same level? or else in a piece of music that every instrumets was supposed to be the same loud if you turn the base down the music is no longer the same as when the orchestra played it. It's like adjusting the speed of the parts of the music getting through the boring parts quickly and playing normally on the good parts. Then the beats aren't at the same speed.

Well yeah, ideally you'd want bass midrange and highs to be at the same output level. Adjusting the bass and treble may actually get you closer to this flat response though. If a speaker has highs that are a little weak, turning up the treble a bit could help them sound better.

If you've ever heard of an equilizer, that's like a more sophisticated device that does pretty much the same thing. It allows you to adjust the levels of different frequency ranges to get a desired response curve.

 

[dsj]

what is flat response? And I don't know what a response curve look like. And is an queilizer a feature that comes with the sound card?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Flat response is having equal volumes at all frequencies.

In order to find your response curve and try to equalize it out, you'd need to get an SPL meter and graph it yourself using test tones or you could get an professional mic and a program to do it.

I wouldn't bother with inexpensive speakers like these. I didn't even mess with anything like that. I just used my SPL meter to calibrate my speakers to the same volume at the listening position and set the gain on my sub so it integrates well with the speakers.

As for the equalizer, not all cards will have that. My Santa Cruz had one and my HDA X-Mystique has one, but my Chaintech AV-710 didn't.

I think most music players on your computer would have one that you can mess around with.

If you're really serious about getting everything calibrated right, a software equalizer could help you out a bit. You'll still need a mic and program or SPL meter to check the volume at different tones. It's very hard to tell by ear the relative volume of tones at different frequencies and our ears are not as sensitive through the whole range.

 

[Tiamat]

Jello, basically has the floor so ill just add that:

Congrats on finally getting some speakers!

For Bass and Treble adjustments, usually you only turn the knobs a little bit. These knobs are strictly for fine tuning the sound from your speakers. Typically, keeping them at the middle position is sufficient for 90% of use. Sometimes, if you are listening to techno, dance music, rap, movies, videogames, you might be inclined to turn the bass knob to a slightly higher setting. Usually, the treble know isnt touched.

You can think of the Bass and Treble knobs to be similar to volume knob except that the volume know increases/decreases the loudness of everything while the bass knob increases/decreases the loudness of only the lower frequencies and the treble, the loudness of only the higher frequencies.

Bose sucks. They are overpriced and if you actually look inside the speakers, made outta the cheapest, lamest material. They are just marketed a lot.

You cannot believe any of the ratings that manufacturers give their speakers. For instance, my speakers do "50hz-20khz" and yet I get better bass and better audio quality from these than my former Klipsch Ultra 5.1 which supposedly did "25hz-20khz". But, this is what you expect from speakers that cost over double the price 😀