High end speakers?

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PhreakPhy

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 2, 2003
Messages
357
I need some serious, high end speakers for my computer. I could care less about dolby 5.1 and stuff. I want 2.1 (5.1, 7.1 are acceptable, but not needed) High output, and extreme accuracy. I want my computer audio to rival my home, and car audio. I am looking for the best in sound quality.

Price is much of an object.

Thanks in advance.
 
Klipsch speakers are by far the best I have ever had. Although I have heard good things about Boston Acoustics.
 
Change of plans, I decided i just want 2.1 audio. But I still want the very best. Im looking to spend about 400 dollars.

By the way, card is a SB Audigy 2
 
Yeah, a solid set of monitors is a nice way to go.

I've got 4 Hafler M5's and they're great for what I do (record and listen to music- no games or movies).

PhreakPhy- if you want "extreme accuracy"... ditch the Audigy 2... especially if you only need a 2 speaker setup. Pick up an M-Audio Audiophile 24/96... run that through a reciever or just a 2 channel amp like magnetik reccomended and find a nice set of monitors.

I managed to pick up a pair of my M5s for $140 second hand... shop around and I'm sure you'll find some solid deals.
 
Obviously some people don't understand the point of monitors...

Monitors have built-in amplifiers, so you would only need, at most, a preamplifier to drive them.

They have their good and bad points, that's for sure. Interconnections are simplified because you can connect the speaker straight to your source in most cases. However, you are stuck with the amplifier they come with, good or bad, and each speaker would have an AC power cord. Also, volume and pitch control isn't centralized as with a power/integrated amplifier setup.
 
Uh, I'm pretty sure I understand the "point" of monitors. Read what the threadstarter wants... "extreme accuracy". That is what you'll get with monitors... you wont necessarily get the best sound- you'll get the accurate sound.

And no, not all monitors have built in amplifiers. Active monitors do. Passive monitors do not.
 
Shop around for bookshelf speakers, a lot of forums will give you a plethora of suggestions. I really like my Axiom M3Tis but at $275 factory direct they don't leave a lot of room for the receiver... I'd suggest keeping an eye on the auction sites because you could pick up some awesome deals for much less than retail.
 
I'd have to go along with BO(V)BZ on the Ref 1s also av123 currently has B-stock Rocket SW-10s.. 10 inch 200 W Subwoofer that I look at covetously every day, drooling to complete my 2.1 (satellite + sub) setup. At $200 for a $300 sub that isn't too bad.
 
All Reet 74 said:
Uh, I'm pretty sure I understand the "point" of monitors. Read what the threadstarter wants... "extreme accuracy". That is what you'll get with monitors... you wont necessarily get the best sound- you'll get the accurate sound.

And no, not all monitors have built in amplifiers. Active monitors do. Passive monitors do not.
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That's true. I have 4 MTX monitor speakers and they are passive. However, the sound in incredibly accurate. They are full range tower speakers that play down to 25 Hz but are not overly bass heavy. They are perfectly balanced and seem to reproduce sound how it was meant to be heard. i'll get some pics soon
 
At AV123, they also have a deal that gets you a 38WPC tube amp, a pair of Ref1's [in rosewood, not the wonderful Bird's Eye Maple unfortunately] and 200$ of credit towards cables for only 1200$. Ref 1's alone cost 1500, and the amp retails for 1300 overseas. I'm splitting the deal with another guy, I just want the amp to play with =]

As Newbify2 suggested, check AV123's bstock pages, many great deals to be had there, but if you buy a BEM Ref100 center channel Bstock before I can, I'll kill you! :D
 
BO(V)BZ said:
At AV123, they also have a deal that gets you a 38WPC tube amp, a pair of Ref1's [in rosewood, not the wonderful Bird's Eye Maple unfortunately] and 200$ of credit towards cables for only 1200$. Ref 1's alone cost 1500, and the amp retails for 1300 overseas. I'm splitting the deal with another guy, I just want the amp to play with =]
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:drool: if I had a spare $1200 I'd buy that.
 
emorphien said:
:drool: if I had a spare $1200 I'd buy that.
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Yea, that deal is pretty damn crazy, no matter what finish you get =] I was seriously thinking of just doing it myself, and trying to sell the Ref1's, or maybe using the Ref1's as a center and rear channel for now, before I found somebody to split it with. If you've not heard any AV123 speakers, the Vifa ring tweeters are incredible. The upper midrange to high frequencies are just spectacular :D
 
InternationalHat said:
Actually the Truth's have major reliability issues. Check out some of the threads over at studio-central. I bought a pair of Event TR-8's over them for that reason.

I'd recommend reading this article as well if you're interested in monitors:
http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articl...0b7fae7ed3205d3c86256ae100044f41?OpenDocument
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Great review of those active monitors InternationalHat. It's refreshing to see a review that actually rates things poorly when they deserve it. Too many reviews [especially in audio] make it sound like every new product is great, and always a price/preformance leader in its class.
 
lush6 said:
Best bang for your buck.
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You get what you pay for! If your budget is $500, get something nicer than the Truths. If your budget is $3,000 , get some Genelecs and rent your studio out.

$250 is a great price for a pair of studio monitors. I'd buy the Truths over any "high-end" computer speakers system any day for the same price.
 
PhreakPhy said:
I need some serious, high end speakers for my computer. I could care less about dolby 5.1 and stuff. I want 2.1 (5.1, 7.1 are acceptable, but not needed) High output, and extreme accuracy. I want my computer audio to rival my home, and car audio. I am looking for the best in sound quality.

Price is much of an object.

Thanks in advance.
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klipsch....hands down
 
Sorry, my hand is still up. Klipsch is hardly the best speaker out there, in any price range. With the exception of perhaps computer speakers, Klipsch offers (in my opinion) strong but not market-leading products.
 
xonik said:
Sorry, my hand is still up. Klipsch is hardly the best speaker out there, in any price range. With the exception of perhaps computer speakers, Klipsch offers (in my opinion) strong but not market-leading products.
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I'm sorry, I though we were talking about computer speakers--not many people will argue that Klipsch leads that pack.

However, if you want to hook up some non-computer speakers to your computer....then that rocks.....go right ahead---you're outa my league now. :)
 
With talks of studio monitors and other near-field speaker setups, it's possible that he's looking beyond computer/multimedia speakers. He wants his computer speakers to rival his home audio system, so I guess that's up for interpretation...
 
xonik said:
With talks of studio monitors and other near-field speaker setups, it's possible that he's looking beyond computer/multimedia speakers. He wants his computer speakers to rival his home audio system, so I guess that's up for interpretation...
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Sorry....guess I should of read through most of the posts first... :(

If he really wants to "rival his home audio system", then there's no way that you could go w/ ANY computer speakers (klipsch or not). I just replaced my bose HT speakers w/some athena's and couldn't be happier. Don't get me wrong, Bose is awesome....but I prefer the richer sound of the Athena's--and they're priced quite nice! Get yourself a decent amp and some towers.
 
Stangs55 said:
Don't get me wrong, Bose is awesome....but I prefer the richer sound of the Athena's--and they're priced quite nice! Get yourself a decent amp and some towers.
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Bose is not awesome on this planet or any other. Don't kid yourself but be glad you've moved on.

You don't need towers to get good sound, in fact some people don't like them.
 
Towers aren't patricularly wonderful if you have a good sub to fill in what you are missing in the lower frequencies, but even so, you'll have a hard time finding a pair of floorstanders that can hit even 25hz with any authority.

Just for the record, I've got floorstanders for my fronts and bookshelves for my rears. I can hit at least 100dB without a sub, so I've got plenty of volume from both anyways =]
 
BO(V)BZ said:
Just for the record, I've got floorstanders for my fronts and bookshelves for my rears. I can hit at least 100dB without a sub, so I've got plenty of volume from both anyways =]
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That's like my HT, but I let the sub take over below 80Hz for movies. I usually tune it down and let the speakers kick in some more for music depending on my mood.
 
I think it's a sensible way to go. The floorstanders that I have have an extra 5.25" driver, so can kick out a little more sound, which the bookshelves lack. Even so, when I crank them up into the high 90's, I get hardly any cone movement when I redirect the bass to my sub. under about 90dB, cone movement is virtually unnoticeable on either of the pairs.

Anyways, you can't determine directionality under ~100hz, so letting a respectable subs take over is a better plan. I'm sure my SVS' dual 12" drivers and 900W amp can move a teeeny bit more air than a grand total of 6 5.25" drivers :D
 
Yep, I get 2 6.5" drivers in the floorstanders.

Anyway, bedtime because I see a long drive in my future (tomorrow).
 
For a budget of about $500, we must first take into account the receiver and the soundcard. This should leave about $300 for speakers.

Now, I am very familiar with the Onix Reference speakers (1,2,and 3) but I dont see why it would even be worth mentioning in a thread where the speakers cost 3 or 4 times the budget (even the 1200$ christmas deal with the SP3 tube amp and rosewood onix ref 1s are still way out of the poster's price range).

So, for about 300$, I would try to stretch it to about $400 and then look at these speakers:

1. Polk LSi7 (used on ebay, 699$ brand new)
2. Onix Rockets 150 (av123.com)
3. Klipsch RB-25 (ebay, $300)
4. Axiom M22ti ($440 @axiomaudio.com)

In my opinion, in that particular order as well.

For my computer, I have this setup and I can tell you that it pretty much kicks most a$$ except the setup BO(V)BZ has (which by the way is VERY VERY VERY NICE... cant beat that Onix Ref 2 + 1 and SVS PB2+ combo!!). :p

Harmon Kardon AVR-330
Polk LSi9 (mains)
Polk LSi7 (rears)
SVS 25-31PC+ subwoofer
Better cables interconnects

I have owned, or heard, all those speakers listed.
 
Phreak, any updates at all about what you decided to buy, if anything?

Pinipig: thanks =]

Pinipig has some good advice for getting some nice bookshelves, which is what I'd also do. First, save up a little more money to get a nice set of bookshelves, and skip the sub entirely. I can guarantee you that you'll be more happy missing those low frequencies, but having nice, clean sound. Later, when you have more scratch, add a sub in there to fill out the lower frequencies that a pair of monitors won't hit.
 
Hey Just out of curiosity, anyone heard of Dunlavy sp? Are they any good?
 
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