Yet another pc speaker thread

[alexwakelin]

My current pc speakers are the Creative I-Trigue 3300. I was happy with them when I purchased them ~3 years ago, but I'd like to step up to something a bit better. I'm really happy with the JBL Tour Venues in my home theater set-up and was condidering pairing these with a Dayton 8" sub. I have a spare stereo receiver I'm not using right now to power the speakers. Anyone have suggestions for something under $200 that will be an improvement on what I'm currently using? I find myself listening to my Sennheiser HD 485 headphones more often due to the shortcomings of my speakers.

My main use for these speakers will be gaming. I don't think I can give up having a sub, when I crank the volume I like to be able to feel gunshots, explosions, etc. Surround sound isn't important in this set-up, just decent 2.1 channel sound. I'd like something that has a small footprint, or is wall mountable (the JBL's come with wall mount brackets, which is a plus). My desktop space is at a premium. Any suggestions on an alternative to the dayton sub? It's large enough that I may have trouble finding somewhere to put it. The creative sub fits nicely under my desk and it would be nice if whatever I replace it with does as well. Come to think of it, is it possible to keep using this sub and just replace the dinky speakers it came with? The bass from it is hardly earth shattering, but it's at least adequate, and I'd be able to spend a bit more on the speakers.

I've heard good things about the Klipsch 2.1 speakers, but I think even a low priced bookshelf speaker like the JBL's will outperform them hooked up to a decent stereo receiver.

JBL Tour Venue $69.95 with free shipping
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/428968-REG/JBL_TOUR_TOUR_Venue_Series_2_Way_.html#

 

[alexwakelin]

bump - suggestions/opinions anyone?

 

[Phil Taylor]

Back in the summer I was camping at a racetrack for a week and we were listening to music and watching DVDs on my laptop and was wanting more sound than the laptop was putting out. So I went to the local WalMart and found an Altec Lansing BX 1121 powered speaker set for only $30 and figured if I didn't like them much I'd just take them back to my local WM when I got home. I ended up keeping them - they sounded so damn good.

It's got two speakers and a down-firing sub cube that put out a LOT of full-range sound with impressively tight, deep bass and crisp, clean, airy highs - I was very pleasantly surprised and the my fellow campers were impressed with the sound quality as well. I use them now when I watch movies on my laptop from Netflix's "watch now" service.

Not sure if it would be an improvement over what you have - but for only $30 you can't go wrong - and if you don't like 'em take 'em back to WM.

 

[Duffinator]

I have a pair of Klipsch Pro Media Ultra 2.0's mated with a 8" Yamaha sub and it sounds pretty good to me. When I was shopping for computer speakers a couple of years ago I though Klipsch in general had a very nice lineup of speakers.

 

[yettitheman]

Back in the summer I was camping at a racetrack for a week and we were listening to music and watching DVDs on my laptop and was wanting more sound than the laptop was putting out. So I went to the local WalMart and found an Altec Lansing BX 1121 powered speaker set for only $30 and figured if I didn't like them much I'd just take them back to my local WM when I got home. I ended up keeping them - they sounded so damn good.

It's got two speakers and a down-firing sub cube that put out a LOT of full-range sound with impressively tight, deep bass and crisp, clean, airy highs - I was very pleasantly surprised and the my fellow campers were impressed with the sound quality as well. I use them now when I watch movies on my laptop from Netflix's "watch now" service.

Not sure if it would be an improvement over what you have - but for only $30 you can't go wrong - and if you don't like 'em take 'em back to WM.

I think Seth=L has a set of those. They were pretty good, and then he modded them a little bit

 

[kaducii]

Klipsch have a problem with their lowend sub design. I owned an Ultra 5.1 before the sub overheated and died and found that a lot of people had that problem. I'm not sure if it applies to the 2.1 set but you might want to look into it. Since you are mainly playing games, you probably don't really care about sound fidelity so I'd say any 2.1 logitech system would be good, my Z680s are still going strong and works great for games. Also I've heard some good things about these:

http://store.digitalriver.com/store/speaker/DisplayCategoryProductListPage/categoryID.11219000

Free Shipping and if you don't like them, they'll take it back and pay return shipping too. A while back they had a coupon that gave 50% off to computer speakers.

 

[stato]

I have a set of Logitech Z-2300 THX certified computer speakers and they kick *** for what they are. A little bit dearer in Australia than your normal fare but with your location being in the "land of great audio prices" you may get some cheap. They really do liven up the computer world in my house.

 

[FeisalK]

check these out

http://www.nuforce-icon.com/

 

[Seth=L]

If you are looking for an all in one solution for fidelity, AudioEngine has some nice offerings.

I am personally using a free receiver with some Polk Audio RT7 speakers I picked up on Craigslist. My systems are always revolving. The most expensive setup I have had attached to the computer was probably a pair of Boston Acoustics CR 57 bookshelf speakers ($79+tax) powered by my Teac CR-H220 cd/receiver (around $60 after selling the speakers that came with it) and a nice little Magnavox 7" active subwoofer ($15).

That system would be about $170 I suppose, it sounds very good. I am currently using it in another room in the house. The speakers are very small and well built (perfect for a desktop) as well as the head unit. You could always go for a used stereo receiver, it just won't be the same form factor as the Teac.

The Klipsch sats and subwoofer don't stand a chance against the systems I have mentioned above. I have a couple pair of those Klipsch ProMedia sats, they sound decent for PC speakers. However, they are cheaply built with very low quality parts. They don't handle much power and are far to overly bright (tinny) for serious music listening. The Promedia subwoofers went from decent to terrible IMO. Logitech offers better performance per dollar when it comes to strictly computer speakers.

I didn't read the entirety of your opening post (too tired), so I apologize if I am not addressing what it is you are looking for.

 

[abboudc]

I'd skip pc speakers altogether. Get something like a Gizmo ($110 shipped). You can add two quality bookshelves like Behringers 2030's ($130/pr) or Ascend 170's ($350/pr) and sub and have a killer 2.1 setup that would completely destroy PC speakers.

 

[alexwakelin]

Thanks for the suggestions. The gizmo looks pretty cool. Right now I have a spare receiver I'll probably use, but I was looking at the pyle mini amp in the interest of saving space.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/571693-REG/Pyle_Pro_PTA2_PTA2_Mini_2X40W_Stereo.html

It's cheaper, but doesn't look nearly as good as the gizmo.

 

[abboudc]

Thanks for the suggestions. The gizmo looks pretty cool. Right now I have a spare receiver I'll probably use, but I was looking at the pyle mini amp in the interest of saving space.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/571693-REG/Pyle_Pro_PTA2_PTA2_Mini_2X40W_Stereo.html

It's cheaper, but doesn't look nearly as good as the gizmo.

The big difference is the Gizmo has a subwoofer output -- which IMO at that price point is a big difference.

An old receiver would work too if it had a sub out and met your stated space requirements. The gizmo is small.