Topic: ISO: Cheap System

[King Crimson]

what it boils down to is that im sick of the speakers in my computer.  i want to be able to play the music off my laptop without having to burn cd's.  i know you can do it with RCA cables.  so i guess what i would need is a reciever with rca inputs and some cheap speakers.  just something that will get loud 

not looking for anything stellar, any suggestions?

[ducati]

If it's a laptop, I assume you take it with you at times...  Why not a pair of nice headphones?  I just bought a pair of Grado SR80s (under 100 clams) and I'm damn impressed of the sound I get out of my iPod, eMac, and iBook.  Really damn good.  Much better than a cheap stereo, and portable.

If that's no good, I saw emagic 2|6's on sale for $99 at Sam Ash.  I used one to run digi out to a DAC for awhile--the sound was pretty damn good!  It has both digi and analog out, IIRC.

[King Crimson]

didnt really think of the headphone route....hrm i dont really like the feel of headphones...but ive never really had a "good" pair (ie better than the ones that come with your system).  any cheapish- under $75-100, that are going to be good with a thinkpad. 

[Nick Culbreth]

I'll second the headphone suggestion, you'll get way more bang for your buck.  I'd try to find a local dealer who carries several lines of headphones and go and see which headphone feels best and has the sound that you're looking for.  If it were me I'd probably get a pair of Grado SR-80s since they're pretty lively and don't need a headphone amp, you might be able to find a pair of Sennheisers as well but in my experience the Senns need an external headphone amp to really shine.  As always YMMV.

[Tim]

the Sony mdr75-06's are also in that price range and sound very nice. the grado's are open phones so you can't wear them on a plane, in a library etc.

sennheiser would also be a direction to look...

[Tall Adam]

i use a thinkpad, id also suggest investing in a 24-bit soundcard (echo indigo is great). 24-bit is a huge advantage, and it sounds better for 16-bit than the system card too, better amp, louder, and a nice big knob for volume control. theyre around $100, i use mine into my AKG k240s for playback when its just me listening and i love it.

[Tall Adam]

also, on a seperate note, if you go the 24-bit route and do not already have dvd-a capability...i know where you can get a *cheap* copy of intervideo windvd platinum which plays dvd-a, PM me for that info

[spyder9]

If you are looking for something for home playback, may I suggest the following:

Yamaha RP-U100 USB receiver (external sound card)  You can hook up any speakers to it.  Play music (shns, flac, mp3, cds, whatever) straight from your laptop or hookup a cd player to it.  It has RCA jacks on the back.  I have Klipsch KB 1.1 bookshelfs hooked up to them.  Here's one on eBay where the guy is throwing in speakers with it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3701&item=5169638153&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

I've had mine for a year, and its the schnizzle!   It cranks loud enough to fill my 12x25 room. The Yamaha receiver alone will fetch around $100 on eBay.

For portability, like planes and such, the above suggestions on phones is the way to go.

[King Crimson]

24 bit soundcard would be nice...but i have a university computer and i dont want to mess with anything.

[Tall Adam]

an indigo wont mess w/ anything at all! its plug and play, so you just slide it into the PCMCIA slot, computer does it from there, no harm done! it also has ASIO drivers and such which you install from a CD but if you dont want to, im pretty sure it will work just as well without, provided you arent playing back ASIO.

echo indigo auction

thats the same as the one i have, playback only, no inputs. i love mine, PM me if youre interested and i can give you more info.

[BobW]

I have a spare Rotel RA-931 that fed my patio speakers for sale for $165, shipped. It was never outside, just the speakers were.
You'd need a soundcard with analog audio out.
This is a pretty solid 30WPC solid state integrated amp.
It can feed many a decent pair of speakers, like the inexpensive pair of Polk R15s that I just saw on ebay......

If you have a soundcard with a clean analog output, you could be lightyears ahead of computer speakers for a little over $250.
Good headphones are a less pricey option.

Be forewarned.......audio gets expensive easily and is downright addictive for tapers.