Please help me choose the right speaker setup

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Hobman27

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Hi guys I need your advices!

I'm thinking about upgrading my speaker setup. After a Tony Bennett concert, I feel the need to get a better set of speakers (I think a 2.1 is good for me, since my room is rather small).

I'm thinking about $200-$350 budget (Canadian), I have searched online over the weekend and found some interesting contenders

Promedia 2.1
Corsair sp2500
Audioengine A5+
Swan... i'm not too sure which one, there's several, but the problem is it is very difficult to get them here, so likely this will not be my choice. I don't think any local shop carry them

-Is it worth the money to jump from the $200 level (promedia and sp2500) to Audioengine around $350? I like to go for value, but then these things will probably last many years.

-Also, I learned that Audioengine is a 2.0 set, and I would have to get a subwoofer, which sets it to be quite expensive overall, is there any cheap way out of this? Can I use the sub from my current speaker (logitech x230... yea I know...). I remember reading someone suggesting a 8 or 10 inch sub? How much money do I have to spend?

-Do I need a soundcard? I was thinking if soundcards can improve quality by a decent amount, maybe I'll stick with the sp2500/promedia and get a half decent sound card ($75?) to make up for the difference to an audioengine a5

-I read that some people were having some technical issues with the Audioengine (overheating or some sort), is that still happening now? Or is that a couple years ago?

I only started reading about people's opinions and etc this weekend, but thought I should just ask the pros here directly instead.

Thanks!

btw the show Tony Bennett put on Friday was once again beautiful, it was my second time seeing him live, and at 86 years old he's still got it.
 
I really like Polk Monitor 40's. They sound great and can be turned up very loud. Also they make decent bass so you don't need a subwoofer.

They are pretty large though, so you may not have room for them.
Also, you would need a stereo receiver or amplifier to power them, so after all is said and done they might be out of your price range.
 
I have the swan M10's the one with the small subwoofer. I may be bias some, but I will try not to be.

Promedia 2.1 and Corsair sp2500...got great reviews, but I feel like you would not be satisfied. I believe you would be paying to much for them as well.

The Swan m10's will sound better and clearer, but will lack the bass. Do not get me wrong the "6 sub can put out some thump. I feel like you are sacrificing sound quality for more bass and paying more money. The Swan m10's are $120-140, but online order typically.

The audio engines will be good speakers, with ok bass. If you go with them and want the bass you will need to buy a sub adding to your cost. They will sound great alone, but be weary of the new versions. I have also heard of the overheating issue.

The polk monitors is also a good choice, or you could look at KRK rockit's monitors. KRK has some great speakers. M-Audio is another good company.

Or go with the swan m50w's.

as for the sound card question- if you want one buy the basic asus dg xonar card. It will be plenty for you. Will cost about 25-40 bucks. It will improve your headphone sound and your speaker sound, and provide you with the basic amplification you need.
 
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Hey guys thanks for the input!

The polk does look really nice, but quite large for my current table and setup, my room is in fact tiny right now, but hopefully i'll be able to find a nicer place later this year, even the A5+ feels a little large at the moment.

How are the audioengine a2s? compared to a5 and corsair sp2500? If the sound quality of a2 is very comparable to the A5+, but only not as loud, maybe it would be ok. Also at 200+ its around the same price range as the sp2500, but lacks a subwoofer.

From this video the A2 seems pretty powerful for its size, but then the sp2500 and the swans can probably all do it too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTS3BBTfgQY

Once again thanks Lee and Hotthree hope you guys can drop by and offer you opinions again.
 
I have some A2's, they're powerful enough for me and put out a surprising amount of bass (easily fill a small room). The sound quality is in a different league from cheapo speakers. I was ready to spend more but thought I'd trial them for 30 days... and like them.
 
Look at used gear in your area too. Paradigm is a Canadian company and any of.their speakers would be fantastic. I had a pair of monitor 7s with dual 8" woofers that were amazing for the money.
 
Wiseguy2001 said:
I have some A2's, they're powerful enough for me and put out a surprising amount of bass (easily fill a small room). The sound quality is in a different league from cheapo speakers. I was ready to spend more but thought I'd trial them for 30 days... and like them.
Click to expand...

did you ever feel like you needed a sub when you are playing games or watching movies?

I went to a shop and listened to the a5+ today, they are very nice. I was rushed so I didn't get to test its bass thoroughly. I can get them for 350 i believe, how is that? would the holiday seasons bring some good prices?

I wish they had some decent multimedia 2.1 speakers like the promedia or the corsair, so i can actually compare them, or even the A2s.
 
i really think you should look @ some powered near field monitors before deciding

I have to say I was hella temped to pack up some of my vintage gear / bookshelf speakers in favor of the Tannoy Reveal 501A's when I checked them out the other week.

They really did sound just freaking awesome (no other amp ..etc to clog up the ol' desk) (granting of course T-amps are generally quite small)


http://www.guitarcenter.com/Tannoy-...23-i1535575.gc?&source=4WWRWXGP&cagpspn=pla&=


don't know about where you are but they are $179ea in teh U.S. for what they are I thought the base response was impressive.

the KRK monitors suggested are pretty nice also


as are the Samson Resolv A6


if possible you might want to give some monitors a try before buying something




oh right and then going in a total 180 but if you need decent and small (i have a couple pairs of these) if you can find them Vintage Realistic Minimus 7 (i have bigger slightly) minimus 77 speakers i paid $10~ for them then another $5 for a surround kit they are hooked up to my wife's audio set up (vintage Pioneer SX-450 (minty...it is nearly perfect shape) and the Minimus 77 speakers little SX-450 is only 15wpc but it sounds really nice with the Minimus 77 speakers


if you have patience and research (and are careful...to not buy broken crap ;)) you can generally get fantastic value on 2nd hand speakers I'm still pretty stoked on buy last week for $40 (with stands) a pair of JBL L1 bookshelf speakers .... really nice sounding (Made in America :)) vintage speakers I have them hooked up to my vintage Pioneer SA-710 integrated amplifier and it really does sound nice I have from pc > usb > focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (using ASIO) > Pioneer SA-710 >JBL L1s

sadly in addition to patience and research being required, I suppose the other thing that works against going used / vintage in your case is the size issue my JBL L1s dwarf my RTi4s (which are kind big for bookshelf speakers). But the Minimus 7s or 77s (77s tend to have surround issues the orig surrounds tend to rot the 7s don't seem to have this problem) would be smaller the the A5s


oh right one more thing basically anything mentioned in this blog will make either the promedias or the corsair multimedia speakers sound like ass...

personally i'd just remove them from consideration... I do not think either of those sound very good at all.
 
Hobman27 said:
did you ever feel like you needed a sub when you are playing games or watching movies?

I went to a shop and listened to the a5+ today, they are very nice. I was rushed so I didn't get to test its bass thoroughly. I can get them for 350 i believe, how is that? would the holiday seasons bring some good prices?

I wish they had some decent multimedia 2.1 speakers like the promedia or the corsair, so i can actually compare them, or even the A2s.
Click to expand...

It's a good solid sound with plenty of depth, and the clarity.. wow! I use it for music, movies and gaming (no where near full volume). It's great in games and movies but there's just couple of songs with a really low bassline that the A2's struggle with (such as Massive Attack - Angel). Definitely worth trying.

The A5's aren't just louder, they also have a slightly lower range. But I think these are overkill for my needs. Room is ~5m x 4.
 
Thanks Atarione and Wiseguy, you guys are making me feel really good about the bookshelf speakers like the Audioengines, now I just need to find a place where I can test the A2s out, possibly against the A5s.

In the mean time i'll need to look into 2nd hand stuff too, possibly for a sub even.


Wiseguy, do you have a soundcard for your A2?




Lastly, can anyone comment on M-Audio BX5 D2? I found that they are about 100 dollars cheaper than the A5+, around the same size
 
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Audioengine makes some nice stuff but you can easily get more for your money with passives and an amp (or even other monitor brands), the A2 and A5+ are both overpriced IMO. The A2 are worth the money if you really need something very compact tho, and the A5 are a decent package with that remote and whatnot... Still pricey tho. Samson MediaOne 3a are half the price of the A2 but very comparable IMO, little larger but still far smaller than most actual bookshelf speakers.

I had a pair on my desk until I replaced them with some Infinity Primus (on stands), the Samson are now in my bedroom. The difference between smaller speakers like that and larger bookshelves is far more than loudness tho.

Forget about the Promedias or Corsair, PC speakers like that are just in a league below (lots of loose bass but not really a great overall sound or value). Also, speakers will make a far greater difference than the sound card but your source is important too. If you're using on board audio it's worth spending $30-40 on a low end Xonar or a Fiio DAC. Spend $25-50 on an amp (Lepai or Dayton amp from Parts Express/Amazon). Spend another $100-150 on a decent pair of bookshelves (Polk, Infinity, Energy, and Pioneer are good brands to look at, check other recent threads around here, or look thru older ones).

At that point you've spent about $200 and you can decide whether you wanna blow the rest of your top end budget on a decent subwoofer or if you're happy with the bass from the bookshelves (a very real possibility with near field listening if you get larger bookshelves with 6" woofers, depending on audio genre and personal preference).

All of that requires a bit more research and consideration than some of the more integrated packages you'll find, but you'll get far more for your money too (for a lot less than the A5, or a lot more speaker than the A2 for the same kinda money).

There's other powered monitors like Audioengine's which might be a better deal as well, of course, you can check out stuff from companies like M-Audio, KRK, Tanoy, Yamaha or even Samson at the low end (like those $100 MediaOne I mentioned).

The only downside to powered monitors is that they're a little less flexible when it comes to adding a sub if you eventually go that route (at that point you'd have to look at subs with high level input/outputs), whereas with passives it's not only easier but you can grow the setup to 5.1 or re use the speakers and/or amp separately elsewhere (TV, bedroom, etc). You can do that to an extent with powered monitors too depending on the source (variable volume output would be a must at the source), tho when the internal amps die the whole thing goes.

TL;DR: Audioengine makes some nice all in solutions (their DAC and amp are pretty good too, depending on what you need), and I've heard they have terrific service and support... But there's a world of options out there you've yet to look at, and they may not be the best value for your needs.
 
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Thanks Impulse for the information! I was away for the long weekend and didn't get a chance to follow up.

I am planning to retire my current pc (2500k) to a htpc in maybe 3 years, and would like to have that option to use whichever speakers i get now as a part of it, a 5.1 setup most likely (if there's a need). I read online that could done with the Audioengine A5s, but maybe I should consider passive speakers instead.

I have next to 0 knowledge about stereo setup (tv or computer) and amplifiers. I did a quick search on Amazon.ca, and found a huge range of prices and designs and I am quite confused of what I need. If i want to have the option to expand to a 5.1 setup in the future for the htpc setup, I need to go 5 channel amplifier, and I would not need to get receivers? (told you i'm clueless). Is there any standards/specs that I have to go for/avoid for amps?

http://www.sigelectronics.com/Electronics/Home-Theatre-Systems/Pioneer-SP-BS21-LR-Bookshelf-Speakers
http://www.crutchfield.ca/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=107R150&Click=52257

how are those for speakers?
 
Newegg puts those Pioneer BS21's on sale for $50/pair literally llike every month... No clue if their Canadian wing does the same or what, they also put the larger model on sale at $100. Those Polk are a better value at those prices IMO...

About amps and receivers, you could get a decent stereo t-amp now (it won't be any larger than a hamburger) and invest in a 5.1 AVR when you're actually doing that. Decent entry level AVRs with some automatic calibration (like Audessey) would run you about $200 and take up a lot of space on your desk, tho a lot of people have no issue with that. The Denon AVR-1612 is going for $200 at a lot of places since it's last year's model, one of the better values out there IMO. This year's equivalent model is $350 and doesn't add a lot of things (smartphone control, some streaming capabilities, 1 HDMI input in front).

A budget 5.1 AVR won't necessarily sound any better than a cheaper amp because you're paying for a lot of other things in addition to amplification (input switching, a GUI, decoding of various formats, automatic calibration, etc etc.). Active or powered monitors wouldn't be easy to expand into a 5.1 setup, you'd need a receiver that has pre-amp outputs for the main speakers which isn't common (or additional gear).
 
Thanks guys, thats a lot of good info.

I've been following this 2.1 speaker thread closely as well, and combine that with some web searching, I've come up with the following so far.

Pioneer SP BS41 ($150 from kijiji)
the guy claims its new, and I couldn't find any other place that sells them at reasonable price. If only if I was in the US, i would've been able to get them from Newegg for 105 dollars.

Topping TP21 ($84 from Amazon.ca)

As for the sound card, probably asus xonar something for 50ish dollars, since I've seen that name come up quite often up here.

So a total of close to 300 dollars. What do you guys think?
 
If you are in Canada, skip the Pioneers and get some Paradigm atoms. Much better speaker for the same price.
 
fss69 said:
wouldn't the atoms need to be used to be around the same price?
Click to expand...

Used they would be about $50-60 less than the pioneers. Not sure what the retail new price is in CA. Can't imagine it is much more and with such speakers, buying them used is like buying a used car with 20,000 miles on it. Practically new.
 
spaceman said:
Used they would be about $50-60 less than the pioneers. Not sure what the retail new price is in CA. Can't imagine it is much more and with such speakers, buying them used is like buying a used car with 20,000 miles on it. Practically new.
Click to expand...

Atoms are relatively plentiful on ebay and are a steal at at the $100 or so they go for in the US. I don't know how widespread they are in canada. Maybe a canadian maker like Axiom might be more popular and cheaper used there.
 
fss69 said:
Atoms are relatively plentiful on ebay and are a steal at at the $100 or so they go for in the US. I don't know how widespread they are in canada. Maybe a canadian maker like Axiom might be more popular and cheaper used there.
Click to expand...

Paradigm is a Canadian company.
 
That doesn't necessarily mean they're more plentiful there, tho logically it should... Microsoft manufactures and packages all their CD/DVDs at a facility in Puerto Rico and they've still charged me $15 to ship alternate media (x64 etc.) when I've needed it, heh, the manufacturing plant is literally 20 min. from my house.

Definitely worth checking the used market tho.
 
Impulse said:
That doesn't necessarily mean they're more plentiful there, tho logically it should... Microsoft manufactures and packages all their CD/DVDs at a facility in Puerto Rico and they've still charged me $15 to ship alternate media (x64 etc.) when I've needed it, heh, the manufacturing plant is literally 20 min. from my house.

Definitely worth checking the used market tho.
Click to expand...

I understand your example but Paradigm is a proud Canadian company and they have a huge following there according to several of my past teamates in BF. There are used ones around $90 almost every week and several stores carry them new. Any Canadian looking to get into audio needs to hear them first and go from there b/c they are a benchmark for entry level audio.
 
darn I called the store that sells paradigm today (the only one in Calgary), 215 for each one, so 430 for the pair...

I think I should just stick with Pioneer... argh...
 
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