Looking for a 2.0/2.1 system

[liliff]

I recently built a desktop mainly to appease my needs for gaming (gw2 anyone?), however I haven't yet bought anything for a sound system - I'm literally using a pair of headphones as speakers currently. After having read through several pages of information (this is one of those areas where I have a serious lack of knowledge), I'm not quite sure what is/isn't applicable to me - everyone has different budgets and requirements, etc.

From what I can tell, I probably will get the best bang for the buck going for a 2.1 system considering my room is pretty small - about 6x8 feet - and that I should be going for near-field speakers? I'm also looking at a budget of 100-300, and apart from gaming I listen to a lot of ambient, rock, and folk. Movies and anime is included, too. Accurate sound reproduction at above average volume is pretty important to me (I'm somewhat hard of hearing, ironically).

As for size and positioning, here is what my desk looks like (well, at the time I finished building it, about a month ago):

http://imgur.com/a/Is6C7#5 (welp, image is pretty large.)

I'm considering putting the display in the center and the two speakers on its sides with a subwoofer on the floor, though it seems like a lot of these speakers might makeit uncomfortable to use a keyboard and mouse (I might be overestimating it though). I do have a bookshelf to the left of the desk, raised about two feet from the desk - so I might place the left speaker on it and the right speaker on the right edge of the desk. Is there anything specific I should be looking for with this positioning?

I keep seeing people mention a receiver for use in their system. How important is it to get one, and is it just to have louder sound? I'm going to be sticking with the onboard audio on MSI's Z77-GD65 motherboard, if that's relevant (there's an SS-Out, CS-Out, RS-Out, and Line out jack). Considering my budget, should I also leave getting a subwoofer until later? And, what's this about an amp?

So far, I'm considering a pair of the Energy RC-10s or the Arx a1b, but there are a lot of possibly better options.

 

[lilfiend]

I'm not sure what would suit you best but this might help you.

There are two types of speakers in general, passive and powered speakers.

Passive speakers just have little connectors on the back that bare wire plugs into, they are quite literally a box with a speaker in it. Passive speakers are generally cheap and very modular. Since they don't provide their own power you need and amplifier (amp) to power them. The amp basically takes your sound input and attaches power to it and sends it to the speakers.

Powered speakers are usually more expensive because they have their own amplifier built in. This means they have their own power plug and signal plug. Usually where you have powered speakers you have some sort of mixing desk to manage the signal inputs and outputs. The mixing desk is usually needed since the speakers usually use 1.44" (i think) connectors (big headphone jack, not little 3.55mm jack on your pc). Since powered speakers are more expensive in general they are used in production environments with multiple inputs and/or multiple outputs.

mixing desks can be powered, they can also have phantom power for microphones and they can be used to your single with different EQ's set to different amps that power different speakers (though amps usually have their own)

For what little i know about what you want i'd recommend these, though they may not have the bass you want.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001P2R1RW/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OG88KY/ref=oh_details_o04_s02_i00

I bought this exact setup for my little brother last year for Christmas and he loves it, turns up pretty loud and with the bass control knob on the amp you can get some pretty good bass out of it (dubstep fan). Its not going to be any replacement for a sub but it does a pretty good job.

Holy crap!, just looked at the pic of your desk space you have to work with, that's tiny!!!! The Sony speakers aren't that big but maybe you want to look at smaller passive speakers. Just remember that peak power means nothing, look for RMS ratings to get an idea on how loud they are going to be.

I hope at least some of that was of help!

 

[Impulse]

The RC-10 are a great deal, specially ifyou're catching tthem on sale at $200... They're passive speakers though, so you need an amp of some sort... That can be anything from a small $25-100 desktop T-amp to a full fledged receiver ($100-300 depending on what you need from it, though there's obviously way more expensive receivers out there).

There's a lot of cheaper passive speakers you can consider depending on budget too (anywhere from $100 up), and there's lower end powered speakers (specially in the $100 range) that are worth a look too if your space is seriously restricted (hard to tell from that picture). Not all active speakers are built with mixing and mastering in mind, though there's more variety amongst passives. Passives will generally make it easier to add a sub later or expand the setup. Honestly, that budget range is pretty wide...

For $300 or slightly more you could get a low end sub, some budget passives and a cheap t-amp, but using on board audio's analog out would limit that setup (analog out from a mobo is generally not great); or for the same money you could get a receiver to run optical out of the mobo and then some passives, but I'm not sure if you have the room for it. Best bet might just be a DAC of some sort (whether USB or a low end Xonar card) and some passives + a small amp. You can spend around $200-$250 going that route and a sub later if you feel it's necessary.

Your space dictates a lot of these decisions though, if you don't have the room for some big passive speakers (say at least 6x7x9 W/D/H) then it's all kinda moot... Some of the smaller powered speakers out there can still do a pretty good job (Samson MediaOne 3a or 4a, Audioengine A2)... Better than most PC speakers anyway, unless you're just looking for a raftershaking sub (all around SQ be dammed).

You have a ton of options and some research to do IMO, but clearly defining the space you've got to work with should be one of the first steps.

 

[counterpoint]

The Energy RC-10 is a great choice if you have the room for that. Other options include Pioneer SP-BS21-LR (on sale), Pioneer SP-BS41-LR, Polk Monitor30, Polk Monitor40, Polk Audio TSi100, Polk Audio TSi200, Polk RTi A1, Polk RTi A3, BIC America DV62si, Dayton B652, Fluance SX6, Infinity Classia C205BK, Infinity Primus P143, Infinity Primus P153, Infinity Primus P163BK, JBL L830, but I would stick to the Energy RC-10s if I were you. Other amplifier options include the Emotiva mini-X a-100, Dayton APA150 (very nice, high quality, similar to Emotiva but better value, auto-sensing, includes the convenience of RCA line-out for subwoofer), Dayton DTA-100a, Topping T-amp, or a stereo receiver like the Sherwood RX-4109. Even better would be an older high quality stereo or mulitchannel receiver off ebay or craigslist. In the world of amplifiers, the heavier the better. I would focus the money into quality bookshelf+amp components because you can always get a sub like the Dayton SUB-800, Dayton SUB-1000, Dayton SUB-1200, BIC F12, BIC PL-200, BIC VK-12, HSU STF-2, etc. later on down the road.

You may also want to look at other options like the Swan M50W or the M200MkII.

 

[Impulse]

To add a little bit more to the discussion about positioning... You won't want the speakers laying flat on the desk but you can fashion ghetto stands out of anything if necessary, you want the tweeters near ear level... Look at the measurements of some of the speakers mentioned above and see if you have the room, the lower end Polk/Pioneers can be found on sale for $50-100.

You'd be surprised at the amount of bass many of those speakers put out when you're listening from a very close distance, specially the ones with 5" woofers or larger. Most of those are rear ported though so you need about a good six inches of clearance behind them, which means having them pretty far forward on that small desk or moving the desk.

The Infinity Primus have the advantage that they're front ported so they can be closer to the wall and they're also a decent step in between some of the lower end models and some of the higher end ones like the Energy... They're pretty large though, some of the tallest/deepest of that bunch I think. I've had the P153 & P163 and for $100-150 (per pair) I think they're great. (Crutchfield has them at the same prices but you can find $20-off coupon codes for them easily)

 

[liliff]

Found a few pictures that better illustrate what my room/desk is like:
http://kyoto.maidlab.jp/p/IMAG0311.jpg
http://kyoto.maidlab.jp/p/IMAG0309.jpg

The desk is about 40"x20". Anyway, it sounds like I'll have to compromise on the front-ported vs rear-ported issue - from reading it seems the small room will still cause colouration with both types and choosing front-ported won't make much of a difference.

Is using a receiver (I could just put the receiver under the desk) with optical out from the mobo going to be significantly better than using an amp or DAC like Impulse mentioned (btw I think I saw you looking for bookshelves at audioholics )? I'd probably increase my budget if so.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

I'm just impressed you have a PC in Japan. You're going to want wall mounting in that space, though.

 

[liliff]

Oh actually, I'm in Chicago. I'm renting this room for real cheap, though, and might not have permission to wall mount anything but I'll check.

 

[LeninGHOLA]

Japan, Chicago, same thing

You can probably get some narrow stands to put to the sides of your desk, or behind, but they likely will not be cheap. Unfortunately, all of the speakers you're looking at will be too large for the desk. Maybe think about Audioengine A2's.

 

[Impulse]

The Samson I mentioned are just slightly larger than the A2 but a better value IMO, and perform comparably (A2 are front ported tho)... The A2 are hard to beat size-wise tho. Must be a different Impulse at audioholics btw, only AV/speaker message boards I remember posting at lately were HSU's... (asking about a local retailer they used to have)

Front ported speakers will still be better than rear ported if you absolutely have to push them up against the wall, there'll still be some coloration but not nearly as much if you're sitting right on top of them... A lot of bookshelf/HT discussions usually relate to setups where the person is sitting much father from the speakers, even in a small room.

The advantage of a receiver is the obvious stuff, you get more inputs/outputs, a remote, decoding for DTS and other movie standards, etc. Most of that you wouldn't really need at a desktop. A budget receiver isn't inherently any better as an amp (or a better DAC for that matter) than a discrete amp and DAC, precisely because of all those other things you're paying for. It really depends on the particular models you're looking at tho.

If you think you'll ever move and re use the setup them a receiver's obviously better for expanding the setup to 5.1, easier to find good deals on used receivers too... Many run somewhat warm so take that into account if you're putting it under the desk, they tend to be pretty large as well.

 

[CyberJunk]

if you want a good 2.0 system go to like guitar center and buy a pair of studio monitors

like the mackie's with the 5" woofer and get some mopads to put under them and your good