High End PC Audio Alternative

[satish536]

Im tired of my promedia 2.1 time to get some new personal toys....
Heres the Plan:-
Budget max 500 really stretched out....
Amp:-
the upcoming Emotiva DZA-1.Class D 75 x 2.

Speakers (Trying to decide, btw i find my klipsch really bright sometimes so i need a smoother tweeter)

Choices within budget are
Axiom M3 v2 :-(easiest transaction since im in canada, but aluminium tweeter wouldnt be too in the face i hope. On the other hand high sensitivity=high loudness)
http://www.axiomaudio.com/m3ti_main.htm

Ascend CBM-170 SE(Also looked at aperions but the ones i could afford had 4 inch driver wouldnt be as much bass)(sensitivity =power hungry)
http://www.ascendacoustics.com/pages/products/speakers/cbm170/cbm170.html

Feel free to add any other choices but my transaction would be online only.

How would i add a subwoofer to this set up would i need one with speaker level inputs ?
Or one with line level rca type inputs & outputs can be used routing it via the pc , the sub, then amp..... not sure..

Any help is appreciated ..

 

[bandphan]

http://www.samedaymusic.com/product--FOSPM1MKII

have you condisered something like this?

 

[WmAx]

The Ascend CBM-170 has been measured by the NRC[LINK]; it's an extremely linear and low distortion monitor with smooth off axis response transitions. It is the best choice in it's price range if low distortion and linear response are the objective. Due to it's extremely smooth response, you can successfully use precision EQ to modify it's tonal signature to your preference - a feat not possible on most speakers due to their built in colorations. I don't know of any easy to use EQs via software that are of sufficient precision. But if you use Foobar, you can use the convolve plug-in to apply a perfect correction filter to your preference. But it's not a direct process(ask if you want details).

-Chris

 

[Tom Andry]

These are a pretty good choice.

 

[jcPanny]

Av123 Elt525

AV123 has a new line of smaller bookshelf monitors, ELT525, that would be good for near field listening. $300/pair.

If you don't want to wait for the Emotiva zone amp, powered monitors like the Audio Engine 5's would be a good option.

 

[satish536]

I did considered the audio engine A5 & Axiom Audiobyte. But i realized if i go with bookshelves and an amp for nearly the same price i can get 2 high grade bookshelves and a sub or maybe even a pair of full range tower, driven by the DZA-1.

The room to cover is small, student dorm. This system would be for music 95%, but i listen to mostly high bpm electronic music and like accurate punchy bass
1. How would i add a subwoofer to this set up ? A
Any decent sub woofer choices for around $120?
2. I could ditch the idea of a sub, if i could find some nice tower speakers for $400 a pair. Any suggestions?
3. Do you guys think the Emo would have enough juice for tower speakers or are bookshelves and a separate sub with amp a better option ?

thanks for the suggestions wmax you have pushed me towards the ascends, now highly considering these and im also going to look into the av123 bookshelves... any experiences with the axiom M3's anyone.
Ill pass on the active monitors, the swans are out of my price range anyway. But i do remember demoing a pair of swan HT floor standers with sweet sounding ribbon tweeters.

satish

 

[WmAx]

1. How would i add a subwoofer to this set up ?

If you have a sound card with bass management and LFE output with a hardware based crossover and separate output for the subwoofer, then this is one solution. If your sound card does not have such a feature, and if you do not want to buy a sound card with this feature, you can use a high quality external active crossover such as the Behringer CX2310, which retails for about $90. Don't let the price be deceiving - this unit is built from extremely high quality parts and will be a transparent crossover with *no noise injection.

Any decent sub woofer choices for around $120?

For that price, it is pretty much agreed by a wide selection of people that the Dayton Audio 10" self-amplified unit from www.partsexpress.com is the best unit.

2. I could ditch the idea of a sub, if i could find some nice tower speakers for $400 a pair. Any suggestions?

You can not match the measured, objective performance overall for the same price as compared to the CBM-170 + subwoofer combination with a full-range tower; not of which I am aware at least.

3. Do you guys think the Emo would have enough juice for tower speakers or are bookshelves and a sub a better option ?

The CBM-170 is fairly efficient - 75 watts is sufficient to drive them to rather high averaged SPLs in a dorm room.

If you want to enhance performance substantially for any speaker in that room - please consider getting wall-hangable acoustic treatments. They will DRASTICALLY improve the sound quality in a small room such as a dorm room regardless of the speaker used.

-Chris

 

[satish536]

I decided i should be able to use this system without the computer too by plugging in a cd player straight into the amp so forget the bass management on the sound card which btw is a Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS Notebook.

I looked at the Behringer CX2310 although this unit is sweet, i cant afford it if i buy amp, speakers and a sub. So is there a cheaper way to use a cross over?

Checked out the dayton sub. what about the low level rca inputs, speaker level inputs on the dayton sub can these be used for crossover purposes ?
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=300-633

There is a new contender to the ascents, the Emp EF30, can anyone share some experiences with these?
http://store.audioholics.com/product/1674/19/emp-ef30-bookshelf-speakers---same-as-rbh-tk-5c--pair-
At this point im pretty much decided on the ascends or emps and the amp, but need a good cheap and reliable fix for this subwoofer cross over issue.

 

[WmAx]

I decided i should be able to use this system without the computer too by plugging in a cd player straight into the amp so forget the bass management on the sound card which btw is a Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS Notebook.

I looked at the Behringer CX2310 although this unit is sweet, i cant afford it if i buy amp, speakers and a sub. So is there a cheaper way to use a cross over?

1st, call Ascend and see if they have any refurbished CBM-170 speakers left. They were selling these for about $100 less as compared to the new price.

As for a crossover solution - if you use the speakers stand alone - there is no practical way to use a crossover unless it's an external unit. Also, you would need a pre-amplifier if you were to use the speakers stand-alone. This is because you need a level adjustable (volume) line level signal to send to both the speaker amplifier and subwoofer amplifier, so that both adjust their volume by the same amplitude. I am not familiar with that new Emotiva amplifier - but it seems unlikely that it will offer a pre-amp processor loop so that you could use it as a pre-amplifier in this external crossover situation.

Checked out the dayton sub. what about the low level rca inputs, speaker level inputs on the dayton sub can these be used for crossover purposes ?
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&Partnumber=300-633

Those are simply pass-through RCA jacks.

There is a new contender to the ascents, the Emp EF30, can anyone share some experiences with these?

I am not aware of the objective measured performance of this product. From a statistical standpoint, it is very unlikely that they can compare to the CBM-170. As a reference, scroll through the Soundstage NRC measurements [ LINK ]- out of over 100 hundred speakers analyzed so far - perhaps 3 or 4 of them compare overall to the Ascend CBM-170 in the measured parameters. Of course, there a critical parameter missing from these measurements: cabinet resonance. But it can be assumed most speakers are fairly resonant - and the Ascend uses typical hi-fi construction - so you can be insured that is too is as resonant as most. But it clearly excels in other areas. The Ascend also is more sensitive; it can achieve the same level using about 1/2 the input power.

-Chris

 

[satish536]

Say i dont use a a crossover

Scenario 1
If i run the audio rca from the soundcard to the dayton rca input. The rca output from the sub to the Emo amp and then bookshelves.

Scenario 2
If i run audio rca from soundcard to the Emo amp. Take speaker level output from the amp and run it into the subwoofer, then run the speaker outs on the sub to the ascends.

Questions:-
1. How much sq would i lose as compared to using the behringer crossover?
2. If i choose to use either of these scenarios(1,2) i hope im not risking blowing my bookshelves when i crank up the emo, since there wouldnt be a crossover involved?
3.What are the strengths /compromises of scenario 1 and 2 when you compare them.. which is better,more sq oriented ?

 

[WmAx]

Say i dont use a a crossover


1. How much sq would i lose as compared to using the behringer crossover?

In the best case, assuming the natural roll off point of the Ascends is not in a frequency range located in a major room null, then it could be integrated with the subwoofer successfully. But, you would be limited to low SPL. When you used the system at moderate SPL, the substantial movement of the midbass driver would drive the speaker into slightly audible distortion - or when at high SPL - moderate levels of distortion - causing sound quality degradation. The Dayton subwoofer's crossover is also only a 2nd order(12dB/octave), allowing substantial amounts of energy to breach into higher frequencies, which means it need to be set at roughly 60 Hz or lower to prevent localization problems.The external crossover allows you to integrate the subwoofer and main speaker at an ideal frequency, and allows the bookshelf speaker to relieved of most stress, allowing it work at even high SPLs without audible distortion.

2. If i choose to use either of these scenarios(1,2) i hope im not risking blowing my bookshelves when i crank up the emo, since there wouldn't be a crossover involved?

You are not likely to damage the speakers unless you drive then continuously at high enough SPLs to cause obvious distortion.

3.What are the strengths /compromises of scenario 1 and 2 when you compare them.. which is better,more sq oriented ?

Scenario two did not make any sense at all.

Just use your sound card's built in crossover and save up and buy a used Adcom preamp and the Behringer CX2310 crossover in the future. You can get a superb quality non-remote controlled Adcom pre-amp for about $100-$150 on eBay.

-Chris