why do good speakers always sound bad to me?

[dpopiz]

I first noticed this when I heard some klipsch promedia 2.1's, and now that I got myself some EV SonicXS's I notice again:
while everthing now sounds like it's a live performance right in front of me, it just doesn't sound as good and "sweet" as my old altec lansing ACS340's.
is it just something I'll have to get used to?
does anybody else know what I'm talking about?

 

[InlineFive]

Maybe you are just spoiled on your old speakers. Otherwise there might be some fine tuning to do with the sound card and this set of speakers.

 

[Viper96720]

Maybe some sound card settings needs tweaking. Anytime you change speakers you should play around with the settings. At least the EQ of the player your using to play the
music should be tweaked. If it has that option to.

 

[Oyeve]

I never bother with PC speakers no matter how good they may be. Give me a 5.1 receiver with Infinity referance 2001.1's any day.

 

[Ionizer86]

I agree, many people like the ATP3 a lot, but I think it's not very bassy and I don't really think its mid and highs are that great.

So I continued using my BA-735 digital speakers

 

[chorner]

My old Altec's were great .. but the sound really "doctored" and not a true sound. Which is why you may think the other speakers just don't sound as good.

With better speakers, you REALLY need 1) a good soundcard with excellent wiring from the soundcard to the speakers and 2) a VERY good recording.

Thats the thing with great speakers ... cruddy quality sound will ... well, sound cruddy on great speakers, as they produce exactly what you're supposed to hear. If you listed to lesser quality recordings, have a cheap soundcard, and/or cheap wiring and a room with poor accoustics, then funny enough cheaper speakers will always sound "better".

Sometimes its best to have your speakers as the weakest link, if the rest of your equipment isn't "pro-quality".

 

[chorner]

My old Altec's were great .. but the sound really "doctored" and not a true sound. Which is why you may think the other speakers just don't sound as good.

With better speakers, you REALLY need 1) a good soundcard with excellent wiring from the soundcard to the speakers and 2) a VERY good recording.

Thats the thing with great speakers ... cruddy quality sound will ... well, sound cruddy on great speakers, as they produce exactly what you're supposed to hear. If you listed to lesser quality recordings, have a cheap soundcard, and/or cheap wiring and a room with poor accoustics, then funny enough cheaper speakers will always sound "better".

Sometimes its best to have your speakers as the weakest link, if the rest of your equipment isn't "pro-quality".

 

[McCarthy]

Lot depends on what you're hearing for demo too.

I was into home stereo stuff in the early 90's, used to go out with friends and bug salesmen for something to do while checking out the new stuff. Never failed to amaze me that the components, especially speakers, that were all the rage with the writers at Stereo Review sounded terrible in the showrooms. Then you'd check it out and find they were wired out of phase, small gauge wire, bass and tremble cranked (which was much easier to check in the days of knobs, darn graphic EQ presets anyway) and almost always nothing but Rap and one leftover 80's hairband CD for demo. Of course the salesgeek would then immediately turn everything to full volume so the panels in the drop ceiling were vibrating...

Personally I don't like a real bright sounding speaker, my tastes in audio are milder and not surprisingly my taste in tone is as well. "The Bose Sound" doesn't appeal to me for some reason even though it tends to be a rounder tone, but something around there is what I prefer. Remember even at a live performance you're listening to someone else's speaker preferences to start with, getting anal about "pure reproduction" is silly imo. So yeah, know what you're talking about, and I agree entirely.

 

[Nebor]

The fact is, just like a good monitor, it's whatever YOU like best. To hell with what the "true" sound or colour is of the song or painting, respectively. I don't care what they meant it to sound like. I want it to sound good to ME. Or look good to ME.

People get too hung up on what's supposedly "totally correct" instead of what they like. I decide what I like. Not some numbers on some spec sheet, written by those trying to sell the product. No matter how perfect those numbers are. Or how farkin' "warm" the sound is.

For the record, I <3 my Altec Lansing 4.1s, but I'm switching to Klipsch 5.1 Ultras because someone told me they're better.

 

[corkyg]

It is sad that we can develop a taste for exaggerated bass and treble that does not occur in nature. A good speaker should reproduce the sound as it was made. However, it's a free country, and taste is personal.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: corky-g
is sad that we can develop a taste for exaggerated bass and treble that does not occur in nature.good speaker should reproduce the sound as it was made. However, it's a free country, and taste is personal.

People develop tastes for cigarettes, whiskey and italian shoes too. Is there a Gucci tree you're not telling me about?

 

[Xionide]

Originally posted by: Nebor
The fact is, just like a good monitor, it's whatever YOU like best. To hell with what the "true" sound or colour is of the song or painting, respectively. I don't care what they meant it to sound like. I want it to sound good to ME. Or look good to ME.

People get too hung up on what's supposedly "totally correct" instead of what they like. I decide what I like. Not some numbers on some spec sheet, written by those trying to sell the product. No matter how perfect those numbers are. Or how farkin' "warm" the sound is.

For the record, I <3 my Altec Lansing 4.1s, but I'm switching to Klipsch 5.1 Ultras because someone told me they're better.

The klipchse 5.1's have never sounded good to me. And for that price you could get a reciever and a 5.1 setup that would probably kick there asses. I have heard those speakers in best buy and at friends houses and still bleh.

-Xionide

 

[NYHoustonman]

Logitech Z-560's kick ass.

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: Xionide

Originally posted by: Nebor
The fact is, just like a good monitor, it's whatever YOU like best. To hell with what the "true" sound or colour is of the song or painting, respectively. I don't care what they meant it to sound like. I want it to sound good to ME. Or look good to ME.

People get too hung up on what's supposedly "totally correct" instead of what they like. I decide what I like. Not some numbers on some spec sheet, written by those trying to sell the product. No matter how perfect those numbers are. Or how farkin' "warm" the sound is.

For the record, I <3 my Altec Lansing 4.1s, but I'm switching to Klipsch 5.1 Ultras because someone told me they're better.

The klipchse 5.1's have never sounded good to me. And for that price you could get a reciever and a 5.1 setup that would probably kick there asses. I have heard those speakers in best buy and at friends houses and still bleh.

-Xionide

A reciever and a 5.1 setup can't do what I need. I need EAX. I can't get EAX to 5.1 w/ a digital connection. So it's a nogo.

 

[mastertech01]

You could try 5 of These

Then pair them up with some of These

All tied to a nice digital reciever and your favorite sound card.


That MIGHT make you happy..

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: mastertech01
You could try 5 of These

Then pair them up with some of These

All tied to a nice digital reciever and your favorite sound card.


That MIGHT make you happy..

My problem is, I can't pass EAX through digital out. So an external reciever does no good.

 

[dpopiz]

yeah, I know I should just go with whatever sounds the best, but what about all the RAVE reviews of the SonicXS's? why do these people unanimously think they sound so good?

I think the main thing I don't like about them compared to my old 340's is that they seem to be missing a lot of mid-bass. tweaking the santa cruz control panel EQ doesn't help

 

[Tab]

Using Logitech Z-5300s, much better than my Altec Lansings. However, the CENTER SPEAKER IS NOT WALL MOUNTABLE LIKE THE REST! ARG! How much are EV Sonic EXs, I cant even find them anyware.

 

[Stoerm]

Sonic 2.1s are on clearance at CompUSA at the moment. Normally, they run about $160 and CUSA is selling them for $50. Good luck finding them though. I cleaned out my local CUSA of their stock. All my friends loved mine so much, I decided they all needed a pair of their own for Xmas. Plus, I picked up an extra set for myself so I can do the "4.2" surround sound on the cheap.

I didn't like them a whole lot at first either. I really feel that you get used to a certain speaker sound and other stuff just sounds wrong to you. It's like the whole digital vs. analog audio argument where nature doesn't produce digital sounds, so it just doesn't sound "correct". Well, I don't know about you, but my ears certainly got used to digital sound pretty quickly. Speakers are the same, I believe. I am in no way an audiophile, btw... but when I hook up my old speakers now, I can tell a definite improvement has been made by switching to the Sonic 2.1s.

Then again, like many have said: if it sounds good to you, just use it! I'm sure there are plenty of other gadgets you could spend your cash on if you're satisfied with your audio.

EDIT: Oh, another thing: I noticed that, as soon as I got my Sonic 2.1s, all my MP3s sounded like crap. It turns out that higher quality speakers reveal poor quality audio compression in a very unforgiving manner. That really sucked, I must say. I could never tell the difference between 128 and higher encoding on any of the other speakers I've used (Klipsh, ACS, etc - nothing truly great, but decent stuff). I read some reviews on these speakers as well and noted that some reviewers reported the same findings.

 

[Bitdog]

I see a lot of computer speaker kits. They claim this, they claim that. Mr X. reviews one compaired to the next, & I look at the speaker size.
A 2 inch speaker give you a 2 inch speaker sound.
No matter how cute the cabinet (plastic) they are, they can't possibly sound good.
Then they have 200 watt computer speaker kits. I look at the dinky weightless amp
and know that converting Alternateing Current to lots of Direct Current requires a
massive metal in a transformer, which has lots of weight.
Now I could be wrong about all that, but the ear knows a good sound from a bad one,
and the old heavy amps for a home sterio that claims it's 100 watt+ output to the speakers, of a brand name, hooked up to real home speakers, JBL studio monitors,
Marantz 3 way 12 inch, er something like that has "THE SOUND".
And you can get a fair sterio at a garauge sale for $50. Then a walkman CD player with a digital radio & 5 station presets hooked up to it via a double RCA to mini sterio jack allows you to place a small CD/radio player on your computer desk without taking up much space.
Which gives you easy access for disk & station changing.
Hook your computers sound card up to the amp the same way.
Then the best sound other than head phones is, more watts output from the amp than the speakers can handle. (keep the kids away). This gives low volumes the base sound it needs. Then for games, I prefer hooking up a getto blaster boom box with 6 inch speakers (they also have tweeters in their cabinets). Place the speakers on each side of your monitor. Something about the boom boxes gives that proper crack to a gun blast in a first person shooter.
So now that all that is said, what I did was scrounge 3 sets of boom box speaker boxes,
place them around the monitor area. (hooked to the wall, on close cabinets, etc )
Then I had an old 75? watt Fisher power amp, & bought a NICE portable jog proof CD player with digital radio. I paid $100 for the whole system (the CD player cost $100)
I tried different speakers untill I got the sound I was looking for.
I also have lots of sound absorbers in the computer room. (carpet, bed, clothes closet, ceiling panel, curtians, etc)
I once hooked my computer up to my 200 watt Philips, JBL studio monitors, $2,500 sterio system and I like the cheepo one I've got now much better for computer use.

For a quickie test, get a sterio mini jack patch cord & dig out your boom box that has the speakers that come off. Place them 12 inches to each side of your monitor, hook up the boom box, & play a first person shooter game.
You might find that you don't need or want to buy a computer sound system when you already have one.

Bitdog

 

[ndee]

yeah, some say the Logitech Z-680 rock, and also the Altec Lansing ultimate 621 but to me, they really sound like ass. The speakers from my dad are awesome, some old Revox wood speakers... aaaaaaaaaaaaawesome.

 

[Dravic]

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: corky-g
is sad that we can develop a taste for exaggerated bass and treble that does not occur in nature.good speaker should reproduce the sound as it was made. However, it's a free country, and taste is personal.

People develop tastes for cigarettes, whiskey and italian shoes too. Is there a Gucci tree you're not telling me about?

HIDE the gucci tree... someone must of seen it from the highway!!!!!!!!!

 

[adams828]

i agree, if you really want the best sound, you need an external stereo amp and speakers, none of these computer setups. i've got 2.1 klipsch right now as well as a panasonic amp and some nice old speakers hooked up. for gaming etc, klipsch is fine, but real speakers are the best way for music. only thing is for a lot of games, the kick from the subwoofer is always needed

honestly, listen to the same recording on different setups for yourself, don't let anyone tell you what "sounds good" and how many watts you need.. if you can hear the difference, $500 speakers will be worth it to you, but if you can't, then a $30 pair will work and save you the extra $ too

 

[Nebor]

For a gamer, an external reciever isn't possible. Unless you have Soundstorm... then you're just a lucky punk.

 

[lazybum131]

Some receivers don't, but I think the majority of them have multi-channel analog inputs.
This is probably for SACD and DVD-Audio, but it'll work with computers just fine, so you'll still get EAX and positional audio.