2.1 Computer Setup Upgrade?

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PhantmShado

Limp Gawd
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Aug 17, 2009
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So, I've been working off of some M-Audio Studiophiles DX4s paired to a Hsu STF-1 for a bit now, and, while I've enjoyed the clarity and responsiveness of the subwoofer, the DX4s have aways seemed to fall short of what I would like (I own a pair of ATH-A900 headphones that are more what I'd like the DX4s to sound like).

Now, I've recently finished school and am moving into a new place for work, and I'd like to celebrate with a bit of a speaker upgrade. Currently I'm using one of these to produce the sound.

What I'd like to know is, given these components, and focusing on the fact that the DX4s are what I would really like to upgrade, what would people suggest as good upgrades? I'm thinking about $1000 pretax post delivery charge for a budget for this project, and I'm willing to switch to using a receiver if people think it's a good move. I would like to stay with bookshelf speakers. I know when I searched around way back when, but ultimately decided to put this off, the name Energy RC-10 came up a lot as a great deal for bookshelf speakers. Going that way would leave plenty of room for a receiver. I'd like to know if anyone else has suggestions they feel would be better given the budget. Also, if a subwoofer upgrade fits within budget and people think I'd like it I'm open to that.

Finally, in consideration of space usage, I was wondering if anyone had preffered methods for wall mounting bookshelf speakers. I might like to hear about them along with speaker recommendations.
 
Forget upgrading the sub, you won't get a meaningful upgrade in musical speed (cycle delay) to fit into your budget.

Put down ~$350 on a Yamaha receiver. I say Yamaha not because their receivers are particularly exemplary in performance, but because they are the only brand (Onkyo, Denon, HK, Pioneer) that gets you multichannel pre-outs at this price range, which will allow you to upgrade the amplifiers later. Amazon will give you decent prices with no tax and usually free shipping.

Then ~$600 for the speakers. You have quite a few options to you.

This is a good price range where you can hunt for pre-owned (audiogon) or refurbed (manufacturer ebay stores, i.e. polk, infinity) where you can snag some really high end gear. As far as new-in-box speakers, a lot of them are pretty uninspiring at this price range. If you have the money IMO, always go pre-owned refurbed into a higher price range.
 
I would look at the Polk audio store for the Lsi series on ebay to start with, and on audiogon I would look at getting deals on AV123, Ascend, Energy, NHT, Paradigm, there are a lot others. Got any idea what you like? Size, appearance, listening tastes.
 
I should be able to accommodate most bookshelf speakers in terms of size. For appearance I'm fairly open, I imagine I won't know if I have an issue without seeing them. Listening tastes are mainly prog rock, but I do everything from classical to folk, no need or want for booming base.

I notice those brands all also have products within budget. Would I be that much better served finding the lower priced versions on audiogon?
 
If you have $600 that should be enough to make an offer on a Polk Lsi9 on audiogon:

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?spkrmoni&1283314550&/Polk-LSI9-Cherry

I believe these use a Vifa ring tweeter that goes out the 40 KHz...very impressive for soft dome tweeters as they usually do not go much beyond 20 KHz. It also has 1.5" thick MDF cabinets. Very solid design. If I had the money right now I'd probably pick up a pair for myself. The cabinets are gorgeous too.

NHT also makes nice (piano gloss) speakers although they do use metal drivers & tweeters. For simplicity sake I just usually suggest speakers with soft dome tweeters because they are more compatible with most people. Because of its stiffness, metal acts like a pure piston, and as a result produces cleaner sound through most of the audible spectrum than soft domes at the cost of a resonant frequency (metal rings like a bell) which can be annoying for some people (me). You really have to go to exotic materials like beryllium or diamond before you get the best of both metal & soft domes (as a result, I only own speakers with beryllium or soft domes). If I suggest a soft dome I figure I'm less likely to get a complaint, lol.

I suggested Polk Lsi9 because they are well reviewed and fairly easily to find. There are some other brands that I think are excellent that you could get for $600 pre-owned (like the Ascend Sierras) but they are a bit hard to find.
 
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I would forget the Polk LSi9's. They're nice enough speakers, but without significant room treatment they will murder your ears. They're not bookshelf speakers either. You can use them as mains in a home theater and they require a lot of power/volume to produce any bass.

Mid-Tweeter-Mid (MTM) designs(what the LSi9 is) don't work well for nearfield listening in practice. The two mids interfere when driving the same frequencies and as a result they have a very limited vertical sweet spot... at the tweeter level. There's some cancellation of midrange frequencies when off-axis. You will be forced to mount these at a height where the tweeter is at the same level as your ears. The benefits to this design are directivity and half the normal far-field decibel loss. The worst side effect in a small room is that "beaming" and lack of far-field loss will make your midrange reflections insane. And you're going to have major cancellation issues to work through at any reference volumes.

They're also really sensitive to amplifiers. If you're into exotic tweeters, there's other stuff out there that's more flexible.

Start with a traditional tweeter-mid design. You don't really need to double up drivers when you're a couple feet away. Go listen to some stuff at a local hi-fi store until you find something you really like. Just don't get sold on something stupid for a small room like electrostats or omnipolar crap from mirage. Emotiva stuff is on sale right now if you want to go with a preamp/amp from them.
 
I think you are confused about the multi-driver speakers. Two drivers will interfere each other at extremities but in a smaller seating range it will have greater output. In the vertical MTM array the source will radiate in a cylindrical pattern with null output above and below.

line-source-wave-200.jpg


If anything this would be an advantage near-field and create a very special sweet spot.

An Emotiva amp + pre-amp is at minimum $700. Unless you'd like to suggest some speakers that come up at $300 delivered.

The Lsi7 would also work. Care to explain why it would be murder to your ears in an untreated room? They have a very downward sloped off-axis response curve.
 
The falloff for a TM is about 6db/meter. For an MTM it's 3db/meter. As a result, MTM's exhibit some messy reflections in smaller rooms. There's less loss in the midrange so the reflections on the same plane are a lot more apparent. And as far as I'm aware, the tweeter still has some vertical dispersion in an MTM design. The only way you get away from that is with multiple tweeter sources like MTTM(stupid design iirc) or by using certain planar/ribbon tweeters.

I listened to the LSi9's in a very similar room to one where I've listened to a number of different powered monitors and bookshelf systems. The LSi9's were on good discrete amps with an HDCD source too. Honestly, I didn't really like them and I know it was all room because I've heard them in a larger room and their LSi15 brothers on a very similar setup and they sounded much much better if a little bit soft at the top end. They're good speakers for people getting into the hobby, but I stand by them not being suited to nearfield use in a small room. I'm sure it's possible, but I think you can get better sound out of a something with a TM design..

The Emotiva stuff is on sale. I thought it was under $600 for a combo? If not, that's a bit pricey and yeah I'd avoid it.
 
well why dont you upgrade to BX5a Deluxe or even BX8a Deluxe?

I have the BX5a with the SBX10 subwoofer and could not be happier.

Well I could but not for the same price.
 
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