hey guys, sorry for the late response. It is a desktop PC with the factory sound card. Space is not really a problem, and neither is bass. i would just like to have a setup that sounds really clear, crisp and full. I have never heard any higher quality setup better than the one i have which is an Acoustic Authority 2.1 setup i bought at Office Max 5 years ago, so i hope to be blown away by the quality of these Behringer speakers. A friend of mine has a set of Behringer HPM1000 headphones and i wasn't really impressed with them. Hopefully the Behringer B1030A's give me a better vibe...pun intended. Upon investigation, i found that the Audioengine a5's are way out of budget. Sound quality-wise, Audioengine A2's or the Behringer B1030A's?
a) What exactly did you friend expected from $10 headphones?
Tell him to get
Fostex T50RP from B&H - i bought mine recently for $74 and several folks agreed with it - it's a deal of the century
b) It wont be hard to blow away comparing to Acoustic Authority 2.1
Behringer Pro monitors will certainly do that
c) For desktop pc - yea - I agree with sholling - Asus Xonar D1 or DX would be your bang for the buck choice. Get some nicer (shielded) cables from monoprice
I haven't really heard ether A2 or b1030a, but on specs alone the later would be much louder and have better bass extension...
I'd recommend you monitors like mine(see sig), but they out of your budget
In my recent trip to pro audio store I listen these monitors:
Tannoy Reveal 501A - it was decent, but struggled with higher volumes and bass
ADAM Audio ADAM Audio A7X - These I haven't had a chance to put thru the paces, but the initial impression - I wasn't blown away, like I was with mine