Well, like the title explains, I'm in the market for speakers. This will be my first really good sounding system. I've had old floor standing speakers with my dad's old stereo receiver and various computer speakers and a little system in my car. I want a 2.0 or 2.1 system pretty much for listening to music, and some gaming and movies. It will have to be something that will be real clear and "true" sounding. I wanna stay around $300 for atleast the 2.0 set up, then maybe get a sub later on. So my dilemma is which route I should go...
Option 1:
I could buy a pair of studio monitors, like behringer truth or m-audio studiophile or some KRK rockits. They would hook up to my computer, which has an M-audio delta 1010LT audio card through RCA. I'm using this card as a virtual mixer, so I have my Xbox 360 going into my computer and through my speakers. Obviously the monitors would be designed to do what I want to achieve with my system.
Option 2:
I could find some used or sale on some decent home theater speakers. I was already looking at a pair of Klipsch synergy b-2 speakers for $40. I would obviously need to get a good sounding amp or receiver to power these. One thing I could do with option 2 and 3 and not with one is utilize my sound card's spdif output. I don't know if that would be completely necessary though, because my sound card would only be transmitting the sound to be processed by another source (the receiver). It would have to be based on which could convert the sound to analog better, and I'm thinking my sound card might win out on that one.
option 3:
Similar to 2, except I build my own speakers. Only reason I would do this is as a learning experience/fun. I might also be able to build a pair of speakers that are of higher quality for the price then anything I could buy. Only trade off would be the time and effort needed to design and build them. I've thought about possibly even designing my own crossovers to match all the speakers. It would take a lot of time and effort to learn about it all and I don't know if it would quite be worth it right now. Obviously I wouldn't build an amp, so that would also be a necessity. Most likely i'd buy drivers and parts from Parts Express, and then build my own boxes.
As for subs for all of the options, those seem to be a little easier to build. I've put together a few sub systems in cars with friends, so I understand how that works more so then building speakers. I've priced it out and have figured I could build a decent 8" sub that would be powered by 240 watts and get pretty low for less then $300. spec wise, its a lot better then something you can get for that price in any store.
The reason for my urge to get a nicer system is after really listening to my friend's home theater system in his basement. They have some Paradigm studio 20 v.3 speakers in front with a denon receiver. I just love how music sounds so much more alive and real. Makes it almost more personal and less i dunno, unrealistic? It was like the difference between bluray and dvd. With dvd, movies were just movies. They never really looked like something you could actually imagine seeing in person. With bluray, everything looks more real and I feel like I can actually relate to the movie better because I could picture myself being right there. It seems less like a movie and more realistic.
So I strayed a lil off topic, but hopefully you get the idea. Any suggestions would be awesome. Thanks.
