2.1 Buying Help!! - Page 2

 

Well, I don't know much about it, but there are apparently places where you can pay a small fee to have something shipped to a business near the border who will hold it for you. If you are interested in the Energy's, ask in the Energy Owners Thread on AVS about what the options are for you in Hamilton. That's a really active thread (over 41,000 posts), and lots of Canadians on there .

i say nothing wrong with the Tannoy option, they make great speakers and have done for a very long time.  just that it your wanting a normal set up, ie speakers and a reciever then you need to get the passive version not the active.

 

I would agree, except that the OP is thinking about expanding to a 5.1 HT setup. People often find it difficult to place a vertical speaker as a center channel. Thus the reason that audio manufacturers use a horizontal MTM center channel speaker design to match with the left/right.  

well no reason you cant stick one on its side for the centre, there is also the option use a different tannoy centre speaker, they should have the some tonal nature.  but yeah agreed if expanding to 5.1 he would prob be better looking at their home cinema speaker ranges rather than the monitors.  some of which look lush, assuming you like dead tree

 

Well, even though MTM center channels in a front soundstage can be a compromise themselves for off-axis listeners over three identical vertical speakers, turning a vertical speaker sideways can be even worse for dialogue intelligibility.  Bookshelf and monitor speakers are typically not designed to disperse sound effectively to the left and right in that position. So you "can" do it, but that doesn't make it a good choice. 

well correct, off axis shouldnt be great but then that assumes your going to be sat off axis.  if your going to be sat bang in the middle then it will make no difference.  mostly just saying you can not necessarily that you should, also given the design i dont think it should be too bad for being off axis anyway.

Are you sure you aren't pushing the Tannoys because you regularly recommend them?

 

You or the OP can go to any major HT forum on the Internet, and the community will tell you not to use a vertical speaker turned sideways. It's basic HT configuration and design 101. Most HT enthusiasts feel that having a good center channel is the foundation of a good HT setup. This advice is heading him in the wrong direction for that given that he is obviously brand new to home audio. 

 

i have recommended tannoys before? i dont ever recall doing so. i was only really speaking about them because the OP mentions them and the particular one mentioned is not a common place speaker so i assumed he has some reasoning betind choosing that (tonal preference) im not that huge on Tannonys myself but i do like their dual concentric drivers. still im not sure where you get the idea i recommend regularly, not sure i have ever before.

I'm sorry. Thought I saw you recommend them a couple of times lately. 

since this thread has reached a dead end, i would very much like to thread-jack it.

 

I am looking for a 2.1 desktop dac/amp to power my Alesis MK2 passive monitors.

 

actually, i could get a separate dac or a sound card. i guess my only requirement is that is have LFE output for a subwoofer and be stable down to 4 ohms.

 

would like something that uses toroidal transformer. preferably between 50-100 watts rms, could be persuaded to get something with fewer watts, if they are "strong" watts if ya know what i mean.

 

would appreciate help on my search. i currently have USB and optical outputs at my disposal, but am not against getting a sound card or something. 

 

bonus points if the device drivers are ASIO compatible. 

Edited by Skoobs - 9/30/12 at 1:30am

 

A year ago, I tried to find an internal soundcard that would output 2.1. Was told by an HT Omega tech that Windows isn't designed to work that way with 5.1 sound cards, and of course 2 channel cards like the Xonar Essence STX I ended up with don't do it. Maybe you'll have better luck. 

 

The Emotiva mini-X a-100 amp has a toroidal transformer and is rated to 4 ohms. But no subwoofer output. You'd have to split the L/R signal coming from a sound card or external DAC to the amp and the sub. 

 

 

i just didnt want to have more than one volume knob, and i dont usually change the system volume on my computer.

 

this is kind of like what i wanted, but i feel like dac drivers are going to be too much of a PITA to be worth it. may as well just use onboard audio with optical out.

 

anyway, this is kind of what i was looking for: http://www.amazon.com/Teac-AH01-S-Stereo-Amplifier-Converter/dp/B00647G78M

 

a soundcard that outputs 2.1 would be pointless as far as i can tell. always better to take optical, spdif, or RCA out from a sound card and stick it into a receiver, amp, dac, or whatever. it can be the job of whatever you plug the sound into to take the frequencies and split them up. i figured the best way to skip onboard sound altogether would be to use USB though.

 

Not pointless at all when using a sub. An internal sound card like the Asus Xonar D1 I used to use has bass management capabilities when set to 5.1. That allows setting a higher crossover than the low frequency roll off of the main speakers. Speakers tend to have more distortion below their tuning point, and the sub can usually produce better bass.  I wish my Xonar STX had a sub line out for this reason and Windows were capable of configuring it. 

 

Most 2 channel amps/receivers don't have that crossover capability either. The sub line out is just an internal splitter. Pretty much only HT receivers have both high and low pass filtering built in, and most subs only have a low pass filter even if they do have speaker level inputs and outputs. 

my receiver that i am using to power my speakers has software HPF and LPF... i guess i assumed they all do