Topic: Need PC Speaker Recomendations....

[arawak420]

hay guys. my speakers on my pc are awful and when i convert and edit shows they sound awful on my stereo. i tried running a 1/8" mini to rca to my home stereo preamp and it humms like crazy. im using a monster cable as well. so im trying to get some good affordable suggestions to a fiarly good sounding set of pc speakers. $100-$200 range is what im looking for.

thanks much

[OFOTD]

i tried running a 1/8" mini to rca to my home stereo preamp and it humms like crazy. im using a monster cable as well.

Sounds like you have good cable but may have a short in the analog out of your soundcard.  What kind of soundcard are you using?

As far as speakers are concerned you should buy first what you can afford but also realize that using most bundled speakers for computers are really kinda crappy.   I have a few friends that have all bought the M-Audio Studiophile DX4 monitors.  I think they are right at $200 and sound really good for the price.

[nic]

i tried running a 1/8" mini to rca to my home stereo preamp and it humms like crazy. im using a monster cable as well.

Sounds like you have good cable but may have a short in the analog out of your soundcard.  What kind of soundcard are you using?

As far as speakers are concerned you should buy first what you can afford but also realize that using most bundled speakers for computers are really kinda crappy.   I have a few friends that have all bought the M-Audio Studiophile DX4 monitors.  I think they are right at $200 and sound really good for the price.

yeah, sounds like ground loop issue with the soundcard.
back in the fall when I was replacing my monitors, I found the M-Audio LX4 2.1 series to sound much better than anything else in the <$500 range. they are no Genelecs or Tannoys, but then again, if your looking at those brands, your budget is definately >$500!

[arawak420]

im using a soundmax digital audio card. it came supplied with my dell 2400 desktop. my desktop speakers don't hum,but the the streo receiver makes a hum. should i upgrade the sound card to a audiophile or what a good sound card to get that i will be pleased with in the future?

[Daryan]

Swan m200's, try newegg.com or theaudioinsider.com

Rocket makes some line that I am sure sound decent as well.


Daryan

[BobW]

Swans M200s are unreal. Excellent sound and image for the money.
I have them at the office and could not be happier.   

Fo reference, those "woofers" are 5 1/2 inches.

[arawak420]

nice recommends. may see about the swans.

any ideas on a soundcard for $100 or less. i really dont need all the dat transfer capabilities as im running a HD unit for recording and i load everything firewire straight to soundforge7. i need a good listening/audio card (cool if it does have the plug in features) and speakers for editing,eq,etc.... the system i hqve now i can't really get right from system to system i play the recordings on. i.e. sounds good on pc, but not home or car, or sounds good in home, but not in car and pc..

if i can get a good audio card/speakers then i can get these recordings to be superbly sound in any playback system.

and and can someone give me more neg karma. im on a mission to see how much of it i can obtain seeings how 60 people think i need it. havent been on the site in over 8 months and somehow got a lot of neg karma. i geuss my spirit has plagued the site or something.

[F0CKER]

if anyone is looking for active monitors in the $500 price range, I picked up a set of Blue Sky's media desk and they sound very nice.  Highly recommend them

http://www.savedbytechnology.com/2003/blue_sky_media_desk.htm

[TenoRichards]

I'm about to order the MTracker and thought I'd better order some good monitors for post work on computer at the same time to save on shpping. I will get the audiophile2496 and so am trying to figure out if I want to buy active monitors w/ digi IN or get a rec'ver for the DAC.

What are the pro's and con's of having digi in monitors vs. the rca in? I'm looking in the 300$ range...Would prefer NOT to have to buy another recvr, as I'm also upgrading hometheater at present AND buying furniture. (note to self: moving to Europe is really effin espensive).

And.....don't kick me in the face if I've asked a dumas Q. :-)

Thanks!
Andrew

[Nick's Picks]

wow..those look nice.

for cheap money, the stupid little edirol digital speakers sound decent.

[TenoRichards]

wow..those look nice.

for cheap money, the stupid little edirol digital speakers sound decent.

Thanks, Nick. But what are the REASONS for going to a digi in besides convenience. Will they impact the sound in any significant way at this $$ range?
p.s. I think you've got me sold in the Sony 3100es for home theater. I DID see a 7100 on Pricegrabber for 1100 bux though. Tempting.... Went and listened to the Canton Ventos yesterday (for HT) and they are very tastylicious. Probably shouldn't afford them though....needing furniture really effin' sux.

[MBecker]

for cheap, but solid speakers, look at the klipsch promedia 2.1 speakers, they used to run for $200, but occasionally dell with run deals to get them for about $110.  For a soundcard, the m-audio transit can be had off amazon for $70.  Its a usb soundcard that also does 24/96.  Only negative is that it use optical inputs/outputs instead of coaxial.

[nickgregory]

I have got the klipsch promedia 2.1s as well and they sound fantastic for computer speakers...more than sufficient to do editing, cutting up, etc.

[dnsacks]

for soundcards, I strongly recommend the chaintech av-710, available for a whopping $25 from newegg.com, etc.  This card provides an optical digital out (optical only, unfortunately) that, with a bios flash, will pass bitperfect spdif out and also provides VERY nice analog sound via a burr-brown dac.  See, http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-71477.html for a pretty detailed review. 

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

What are the pro's and con's of having digi in monitors vs. the rca in? I'm looking in the 300$ range...Would prefer NOT to have to buy another recvr, as I'm also upgrading hometheater at present AND buying furniture. (note to self: moving to Europe is really effin espensive).

IMO, the biggest advantage of the standalone digital monitors is that you can take them in your luggage on tour.  Hauling around a receiver and speakers is not as convenient.   A medium sized pair should fit nicely in a rolling carry-on luggage bag.  I can't count the times I've been in a hotel room with fresh tapes after a show and nothing but headphones.

Probably not the most common of selection criteria, but I have my priorities.

[OFOTD]

for soundcards, I strongly recommend the chaintech av-710, available for a whopping $25 from newegg.com, etc.  This card provides an optical digital out (optical only, unfortunately) that, with a bios flash, will pass bitperfect spdif out and also provides VERY nice analog sound via a burr-brown dac.  See, http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-71477.html for a pretty detailed review. 

Thsi soundcard is NOT bit-perfect.  A friend had this card and said the same thing about the firmware until he realized that bit-perfect is not a software function but a hardware function.  The C-Media chip appears to be the only low cost chip that does bit-perfect. 

dsacks, have you been able to verify the bit-perfect claims? or is it just assumed?

[dnsacks]

In order for the chaintech to become bit-perfect, you need to flash its bios so that it is recognized by your pc as an audiotrack prodigy (and then install the audiotrack prodigy drivers).  Prior to doing this, I was unable to get my digital receiver to play back 16/44.1 dts encoded wav files, which need to be sent to a digital receiver unmolested to play back.  Once I flashed the av-710 and installed the audiotrack prodigy drivers the chaintech av-710 played back dts encoded 16/44.1 wav files perfectly.  Thus, my verification of its bit-perfect nature is solely based upon its ability to accurately pass dts to my digital receiver which I understand will not work if the digital output is resampled.

My understanding is that the audiotrack prodigy drivers enable direct asio support that is lacking in the chaintech (and standard via envoy chipset) drivers. Note also that flashing the chaintech bios so it is recognized as an audiotrack prodigy apparently disables the chaintech's analog outputs.

the program necessary to flash the chaintech's bios is available at http://volny.cz/needsoft/eeprw.zip (or I can provide a copy) -- be sure to run this program from a bootable floppy disk as it will not work if run from within a dos window in xp.

Note -- the chaintech only has a digital OUTPUT and does not accept digital in.

[Nick's Picks]

wow..those look nice.

for cheap money, the stupid little edirol digital speakers sound decent.

Thanks, Nick. But what are the REASONS for going to a digi in besides convenience. Will they impact the sound in any significant way at this $$ range?
p.s. I think you've got me sold in the Sony 3100es for home theater. I DID see a 7100 on Pricegrabber for 1100 bux though. Tempting.... Went and listened to the Canton Ventos yesterday (for HT) and they are very tastylicious. Probably shouldn't afford them though....needing furniture really effin' sux.

well...the edirol DAC just makes for cheaper cables to use.   I run a toslink cable into them...and they sound good enough for what I need them for.  image pretty well too.

as for the Sonys...the 3100 does not upsample to DSD, and is an analog amp.  find an older 3000es, or 5000es.
only the new 7100 and 9100 are digital.

[TenoRichards]

well...the edirol DAC just makes for cheaper cables to use. I run a toslink cable into them...and they sound good enough for what I need them for. image pretty well too.

as for the Sonys...the 3100 does not upsample to DSD, and is an analog amp. find an older 3000es, or 5000es.
only the new 7100 and 9100 are digital.

Can you esplain Lucy? "Unsample to DSD...." Still a wannabe audiophile so I need help understanding this jargon. I know what DSD is (still listening to the Glen Philips DSD daily...) The newer 3100 is a digi amp? Ok. I capisc dat.... But unsampling dsd is something I don't quite get.  YOu mean it won't play that signal if given it (like DTS decoding capabilites...). What medium is dsd? SACD?
TIA,
AR
thanks again for the edirol suggestion. Will go give them a listen.

[Nick's Picks]

yes, SACD uses the DSD protocol.
the older sony 2/3/5/9000es recievers would upsample all analog and digital PCM inputs to DSD and then on through its circuitry.  I never actualy got to find out if this DSD signal is made use of w/a DSD DAC (1bit/2.8xgHz), or if there is some 24/92 DAC inside. 
but in any case, Doug says so. 
I also read some official documentation that discussed this and the signal path of these ES S-Master Pro chip recievers.
only the new 7100/9100es models do this.  the rest are analog amps.  as in SS.
the digital amps are different.

[divamum]

Bumpin' this up with some further questions...

Am finally getting a new desktop with an ok soundcard and I think it's time to get some better speakers too. The budget won't stretch to a lot, but I'm thinking around $100-150 which I'm hoping is going to at least put me in the ballpark for something better than the ones we have.  I've looked up the Edirol and Klipsch models mentioned in this thread, but also saw the Roland 7's on sweetwater at about the same price.  Any comments on those?

Any further comments on these models?  Any others to be mentioned?

Also, should mention: my 'puter where I do the sound stuff sits in a wooden armoire which actually is a GREAT enclosure for sound (even the existing not-very-good speakers sound alright because of  the acoustic phenomenon the cabinet creates).  We tend not to listen at maximum volume and it's mostly (although not exclusively) classical so the bass thing isn't as big a deal for us as for some people  They need to be fairly (physically) small just to fit where they need to go and - again, for space issues - ideally just 2 speakers rather than  a 3-piece set (which I'm hoping won't limit the actual sound quality TOO much).

Anything I should know? Am I asking too much for too small a budget? Thanks guys -  I know  my total n00bness is showing, but educate me - I'm keen to learn and I'm hitting Santa up for some more GEAR this year! lol

Thanks!

[taylorc]

I had ordered a pair of Edirol MA-10's from cascademedia, but a couple of weeks after ordering them I was informed they had been dropped for a different set.  I believe the Swan m200's have been dropped from newegg.

Going to order a pair of Roland DM-10's ($145) http://www.rolandus.com/products/details.asp?catid=9&subcatid=0&prodid=DM%2D10.

[zowie]

Do you have a Sam Ash or Guitar Center near you?  Go in and LISTEN to them.

I'd suggest checking out the M-Audios too.