Speaker Choice <$100~

S

siluro

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 7, 2009
Messages
336
Well my speakers are pretty much completely toast. The cable has come so loose, I've tried bending pins and more, but whatever I do tends to make it worse. Getting radio interference and having them turn on at the middle of the night is never any fun...

So I need a new set obviously and I would have right away jumped and bought the Swan M10s, but it's just my luck they are out of stock. So what would people recommend, unless there's the (M10s instock for the $120?)



The price is slightly lower than $120 because I would rather not spend more on getting something that's worse than the Swans
 
i just got a similar set up to the one listed but different


I wasn't in love with the apperence of the dayton amp in that bundle nor with the spring clips


what I got was is a set of Polk Audio T15 bookshelf speakers ($50 on sale at bestbuy ..think they are $100 now) making a $80~ dollar pair of M30's from newegg a better buy now.

but whatever of the B652 speakers are $39 w/ free shipping on amazon if that is what you wanted.

reguardless blah blah blah choice of bookshelf speakers.

I went on ebay and bought a SMSL SA-S3 25Wx2 t-amp

http://www.ebay.com/itm/110770133296?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649


there is also a SA-S21 (which i didn't see :rolleyes: when i bought mine which has a headphone amp.....soo that one might be nice.

there are a ton of these t-amps on ebay.. my SMSL one is nice and I like it and it performance great... volume seems nicely balanced sound is great..
 
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SMSL SA-S3 25Wx2 t-amp

That is it thanks. I need to remember that one. Yeah.

Get that amp and those speakers or something close to them and you will get great sound. Just know that you need to set them up properly. Usually have the tweeters just below ear level and at least 3 feet away from you. Further away if you can manage. Usually make a triangle of equal distance with your self as the focal point. Aiming the tweeters at your ears. Not always the perfect setup but a good place to begin.
 
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Alright thanks for the responses... Went with the first post because of the low cost since I missed the other posts, but I hope it works for the best and I'll keep that T-amp in mind, thanks!
 
I actually cancelled a little later that day and ordered Polk's M30s... Just got those but I don't have my amp from Ebay yet... Went a little higher end with a SMSL SA-50 I think it was. Overall cost was about the same compared to other T-amps because most of the lower ends didn't include a power supply which seems to be important when it comes to interference. I'm expecting the amp in another week or two sadly since shipping from China takes forever.
 
Well after nearly a month's wait I've gotten my amplifier, not sure if anyone cares for a follow up or review so unless anyone posts showing some interest I'll let this thread die out, but I'll leave a picture before I do.

SDuiN.jpg
 
Of course we would like an update/review!
Most of us post here because we're interested in this type of stuff!

I'm currently looking for some bookshelves to match with my older Pioneer receiver and the Paradigm DSP-3100 subwoofer I just bought.

I'm looking at some older stuff like a Mission 760i, KEF K120 and a couple Paradigm Mini-Monitors and Titans.
 
siluro said:
Well after nearly a month's wait I've gotten my amplifier, not sure if anyone cares for a follow up or review so unless anyone posts showing some interest I'll let this thread die out, but I'll leave a picture before I do.

SDuiN.jpg
Click to expand...

You should flip those speakers. The tweeters need to be closer to your ears.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6LHaHqvze8


is the video i made of my SA-S3 / T15 setup in action


of course those types of vids are not super useful cause the little flip cams mic isn't as good as ears or whatever.

I'm sadly lacking the audio expert lingo / experience ..whatever else to give a expert review of my set up. but I can say i'm very happy with the sound quality (i recently added a Asus XonarDG instead of onboard audio) vs my old logitech Z560s the bass is much less boooooomy and i think the details /clarity is good.

since the DG was $17 (with rebate) the amp was $60~ shipped and the speakers where $50 on sale i'm pretty happy with the results for $130~ total investment.

I need to add a subwoofer soon however.
 
Almighty ODST said:
You should flip those speakers. The tweeters need to be closer to your ears.
Click to expand...

I thought the same, however from pictures I've seen, and the way Polk wrote their logo 'upside down' I have it set the way that it is, which I assume is the proper way. I also stuck small rubber feet on the bottom so I'll probably end up keeping it that way.


Anyhow, as for the actual speakers there really isn't too much to say other than that I'm really happy, pleased, and really surprised by the quality of sound. Going back just a few years when I first purchased into Hi-fi with a set of headphones, I was told there's no way you can get good desktop speaker sound for around the same price, but I would have to argue these sound even better than the HD555.

Very clear, exceptionally loud, I'm using ~50% system volume and about 25% of the volume knob on my amp. So it can no doubt get much louder and I don't find that the extra amplifier power is at all necessary, stick with a TA2020 chip based amp if you don't plan on having a concert or something along those lines for the budget friendly.

One concern I had when ordering this set of speakers was that I didn't have a bass speaker, if you read about the M-Audio M-40s there's a number of complaints about it not having enough bass, however with my set, even as a 2.0 system there's plenty of punchy (not boomy sounding) bass, much more than the Logitech set I had replaced.

All in all I'm extremely happy with the purchase, my only complaint is that as you can see in the pictures, the speakers are rather large, but they really do sound THAT much better. I would highly recommend people to upgrade to this set or a similar setup, if it's anything close to how well these perform I have no doubt it would destroy any ordinary desktop set of speakers made by Logitech or any of those brands. I can't comment on how it compares to the popular Swan M10s or M-Audio AV30/40s though but I have a feeling this is probably a more premium setup. The total cost for me was $155 (probably a little less)... $80 (speakers), $60 (amp + power supply), $15 (speaker wire, additional cables)... I'm sure you can save money on the amp, get a better deal on speaker wire and the 3.5mm to RCA jacks, and if you want pick out a different set of speakers.

Anyhow not sure what else to comment on, please leave any questions you may have and as far as a total rating I would easily have to say 9/10 and as I probably mentioned 5 times earlier, well worth the purchase!
 
They would sound better than the AV40's. A 5.25" driver will have more midrange and better bass than a 4" driver.

I've got a pair of the AV40's, and they sound good, but I wouldn't recommend them for over $120. At $80, they're a good recommendation.

I will concur with the suggestion that you should flip them; Polk has their logo and and tweeter like that because they expect people will be mounting them at head height on the wall and they would be sitting when listening.
 
the T15s are somewhat smaller than the m30s and have the bass port up front also so they could be easier to manage on a computer desk

the M30s are probably a bit better overall..but if you find the T15s on sale they are a pretty nice set of computer speakers in my experience.

as you can see in my pic .. i have no choice but to go for a somewhat sub optimal positioning (laying over on desk as montior stands..i may wall mount them but for now this is what i'm doing.





happily the t15s are just about perfectly sized to serve as monitors stands for my Dell U2211H monitors ..i need to raise them up some anyways as I am 6'2" and even fully extended the Dell's where too low on the desk.
 
That's a good point J Macker, I'll flip them over and try it out, thanks!
 
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