Building a 2.1 powered wireless set up dreams. And work euphoria.

[ematthews]

Findings......So at work I have the following set up. PC feeding my Emotiva XDA-1 to Swan M50 2.1 powered speakers. I set this up a few months ago but yesterday had to rearrange my desk which put the speakers out much further. They now sit almost 6 feet apart. Sub is under the desk. I turned on the music and all of a sudden had this massive sound stage. I now have that feeling of the sound coming out of the center. The speakers disappear. It's fantastic!!! I am really not sure I have ever had my home set up sound like this. Now that I know it will make me work hard for this set up.. It's really Great.

Questions/ opinion.
If you were to build a new 2.1 wireless powered set up at home, what would you go with? I started looking around and it looks like the KEF LS50 wireless may be the only game in town for higher quality playback. This would be built more out of convenience. Turn it on, and feed it through BT by phone source. I see Dynaudio makes a good set as well. I probably and missing a bunch that I haven't found yet. 2.1 set up in a 14x16 area.

 

[lovinthehd]

If I were to go that way I'd check out the JBL 308 with their matching 310 sub set https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1390055-REG/jbl_308p_mkii_studio.html

 

[ematthews]

If I were to go that way I'd check out the JBL 308 with their matching 310 sub set https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1390055-REG/jbl_308p_mkii_studio.html

These are not wireless that I can see. These would be feed from a phone via BT.

 

[lovinthehd]

These are not wireless that I can see. These would be feed from a phone via BT.

Sorry, glossed over the wireless thing, but you could easily add a Google Chromecast Audio which IMHO is even better than bluetooth, if you have wi-fi.

 

[ematthews]

Never thought of the wifi/bt dongle. Honestly was looking at what it would take to build a nicer sounding wireless system like the Kef's offer. I guess the cheapest way would be to add a dongle to my current system and be done.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

Those KEFs are pretty expensive. With a decent-quality Bluetooth receiver and another set of your Swans M50s, you could have your system up and running for a bit over $300. The Bluetooth receiver linked below has much better than average user reviews.

https://www.amazon.com/Avantree-Bluetooth-Transmitter-Wireless-Receiver/dp/B01H6I3YGK

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[KenM10759]

The LS50 Wireless is pricey, though you're getting pairs of 200 watt amps for the mid-woofer and 30 watt amps for the tweeters, a DSP, and a pretty darn good DAC for the money. I've seen used for as little as $1400.

 

[ematthews]

I wonder how they would work using a sub with them. I can adjust all my current settings on my Parasound P5 pre. Does the DSP have an automatic correction when you plug in the sub?

 

[KenM10759]

No automatic correction that I'm aware of, though I don't see that being an issue in the vast majority of systems. Subs have enough control with their own DSP, crossovers, gain, and placement to solve all but the worst of problems.

My own desktop system of LS50'S with Bluesound Powernode 2 could be a good example. The sub is a new KEF Kube 10b. The amp has a simple full range output, so I set the crossover on the sub at 90hz, and adjusted gain with my ears to what sounded right. When my cousin came over today to hear it, he say at my desk a couple minutes playing music and started looking around at his feet for a sub. I pointed it out, off to his left about 5 feet from where he was sitting. He was baffled as to why it sounded like it was coming from behind my desk where the soundstage is.