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Setting up a sound workspace

E

eggrock

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Dec 1, 2003
Messages
4,102
I'm in situation with some potential. I'm moving to a new house and the basement has a nice little area where I think I'll be able to set myself up with some serious workspace. My wife picked the house out (I had to babysit the animals) so I haven't seen it in person, just some photos. The basement is 'finish ready', just bare concrete and 2x4s (with insulation in place). I'm guessing I'm going to have a roughly square area around 10x10-ish that's mine to play with.

Of course I have to build the room, install electricity, carpet and a finished ceiling... And a custom desk of course (finally!) But I want some serious sound to go in this thing. By 'serious' I mean 'quality' and by 'quality' I mean good sound that I can get out of a computer. Doesn't have to be top notch, just really good. (If I really wanted the sound I'd try out some old school vacuum tube sound! Check it: http://www.audioresearch.com).

I'm going to build a system around gaming but I think I'll go away from Creative--for some reason I just hate them even though I've used them exclusively in the past. The M-Audio (whatever) sounds like a good way to go. I see a lot of discussion on headphones but hey, I can egg crate the walls so who wants to go there? I'd rather go with a speaker system.

Who's got some good speakers? Honestly I don't know if I've ever heard pure sound in my life. For one reason or another I've never had quality audio in my vehicles, home or headphones. My $50 Sony headphones are about as good as I've ever heard.. I'm sure a top sound system would bring tears to my eyes. So I want this setup to be sweet, albeit with a vaguely limited budget. I'd like to see a range of options.

I also want to go all out and get the speakers set in the 'perfect' place. Since I'm building a computer desk (which will probably be a U-shape) I can design for speaker placement from the ground up. Hell I can build the desk to be mostly open to stop any unwanted reverb--I want to go the whole nine yards here--again with that nagging budget thing. I honestly have no idea what kind of cash I'll be able to play around with.

Trouble is, I have little in the way of sound experience. Websites, speaker/card/setup recommendations are all welcome. I'll get a good worklog setup for a complete office mod once I get moved up, moved in, (hired somewhere!) and started. I'm really looking forward to this most likely unique (to me) opportunity.
 
You really need to give us a budget. At least ballpark. Stop me when the number get too silly for you.

$500...
$1000...
$5000...
$10,000...
$25,000...

What sort of applications will the audio be used for? Music, movies, gaming? In what proportions?
 
The budget is completely up in the air. The entire basement needs to get finished (1,100 square feet) and that's going to take some dough. Plus I want a pool table. I'm thinking I can somehow tie in the 'playroom' (35'x17') with the office when it comes to sound, use a switch or something. I'd guess a real stereo would be the way to go so I can pipe sound to both places. The computer audio will be gaming for the most part and music when I'm not gaming. Roughly half and half.

Okay, ballpark on sound would be $500 if computer audio and... say $3000 for a complete stereo system.
 
You could combine the two, that’s what I did. I’m allowed “my space” in the house as well so I know the feeling. I’ve also been married long enough that we watch TV in two different rooms so that also helps. I built the surround sound around a receiver and 5.1 speaker system; the centerpiece is the TV. The computer desk is off to the side and back a bit but the same sound system is totally useable. All it took was an optical cable from the computer to the receiver and bingo, I can have great music, watch DVD’s in 5.1 or play games in surround as well.

I’ve been in the Audio Video business like forever and have listened to too many computer audio systems that just didn’t cut it. This works great and saves precious desktop space as well.

Go to a local audio shop and do some listening, that part is a very personal decision. Try some acoustical music and take an action movie.

Have fun, and good luck
 
a good 5.1 sound system and receiver would be at least 3k with the speakers, receiver and cabling. in my living room weve got a B&W 300 series (i think thats what it is) set of speakers for the 5.1 10" sub; and a marantz 7.1 ch receiver with 9 amplified channels for 2nd room etc. altogether that with special braided hi fi cabling for the front speakers and some cheaper surround cabling came to about 3k; not including the CD player we also got with it. the set of speakers we got is just about the lowest end that B&W offers but they still sound excellent to me and for their price range they are very very strong competitors. if you are getting a system that is going to be playing a lot of if not solely music, it would be a good idea to get either towers with built in subs or heft bookshelfs with stands and a good subwoofer for 2.1 listening. also dont skimp on the center channel or the speaker wiring..
 
Okay, a couple more questions. My taste in music runs from Dean Martin to Mudvayne and just about everything in between. The times I've checked speakers out I've heard "these are good for _____ type of music". What's a good all around brand?

Next... Is the wiring all that critical? Googling.... Whoa, does this get technical...
 
Generally, above a certain level, wiring is not critical. The quality of the speakers, amp and source components are, in roughly that order, vastly more important. The budget allocations should reflect this.
 
If I were buying speakers today, I would look at the internet direct brands
AV123.com and ascendacoustics.com are two of the best bang/buck retailers out there.
 
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