Should I upgrade my speakers?

T

tel0004

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 26, 2007
Messages
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Right now I have a computer with onboard sound (IP35E motherboard)

The speakers are Logitech X230's.

I listen to music pretty much 100% of the time I'm at my computer. I also watch movies and play games sometimes.

I'm happy with the quality of my speakers, but maybe its because I haven't heard great speakers.

The music I listen to is 128kbs, so its not the highest quality. Some of the stuff I have the CD's for, and I could encode it again at a higher bit rate, but its just not feasible for the vast majority of it.

I'm not opposed to spending 200 or so on a new setup, but I just want to know how much I will benefit from it, and where the money should be spent between speakers/soundcard. If it will make a noticeable difference, I chip in more money.

Also, I don't really have room for a 5.1 setup, and since games and movies are a small percent of what I use my computer for, I'm not worried about it, although if two speakers could mimic 5.1, I would be interested.
 
Hrm... I would say that you could probably get away with something like Klipsch 2.1. If you want something a bit more hifi, you could look into getting 2 bookshelves and a small receiver to start you out.

BTW, I also heard some Bose Companion 3 speakers, and considering that all computer speakers are compromised and none are truly good with fidelity, see if you like those and pick them up if you do.

Let us know how this turns out.
 
If I was you I would get the basic logitech 5.1 systems that are out. The X530 and X540 I believe. ;)
 
The 530/540 wouldn't be worthwhile, as both of them sound pretty... meh. For $200 I'd be all over a set of headphones. Either that or the Klipsch 2.1 if headphones are not an option. Some el-cheapo receiver and some Insignias probably wouldn't be awful either, and taking advantage of the motherboard's optical out might help the sound without getting a new card also.
 
Is this the Klipsch system you guys were talking about?
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202068270&listingid=19487545&dcaid=17902.

I don't listen with headphones all that often, so I certainly wouldn't spend 200 on headphones, although I do want a decent set. I'll probably get a set of AD700's down the road, but I'm not worried about that now. I'll do some research in a month or so when I decide on them.

So how much better would bookshelf speakers sound compared to the Klipsch 2.1 with 128kb/s bit rate mp3's?
 
tel0004 said:
Is this the Klipsch system you guys were talking about?
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202068270&listingid=19487545&dcaid=17902.

I don't listen with headphones all that often, so I certainly wouldn't spend 200 on headphones, although I do want a decent set. I'll probably get a set of AD700's down the road, but I'm not worried about that now. I'll do some research in a month or so when I decide on them.

So how much better would bookshelf speakers sound compared to the Klipsch 2.1 with 128kb/s bit rate mp3's?
Click to expand...

Midrange will be much better with a bookshelf system regardless of bitrate. What you wont get with a lower bitrate is solid imaging, ambience, and positioning cues (i.e. position of images).

You will still get more midrange reproduction with a bookshelf though. Those satellites are kinda small and have a midrange suckout.
 
Those little dinky satellites will be terrible in the midrange. Lower bitrate encoding chops off the frequency response at the edges, which means for the most part the midrange is preserved.

Bookshelf vs satellite is no comparison--the drivers are superior in size and performance, and the larger enclosure helps. With satellites its convenience of size over performance.
 
Wow, it's odd to read about the ProMedia 2.1 being a "dinky" system on the same forum it was praised on a couple of years back. I bought it based on a recommendation from this very forum, and I love it.
 
They're great if you are very space limited or decor conscious. If you don't mind trading asthetics for performance than satellite based systems are all dinky.

But its all a matter of perspective. My ex-roommate agreed my setup sounded great but he didn't really care that much and was satisfied with his iFis. On the flip side he bought a LCD TV for his computer that was twice as big as my monitor. Really depends on your priorities too.
 
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