Recomendations for PC Speakers

I am looking to buy some speakers for my PC. Primarily I use my earphones (Final Audio Design -  Heaven C), but I would like to buy some speakers for as and when I need them.
 
My budget is around £150-200. I have the X-Fi Titanium-HD.
 
Any recommendations are welcome!

I have not heard them, but Edifier is a popular computer speaker brand I often see recommended in the UK.

But how about studio monitors? A little over your budget, but the JBL LSR305s have been getting rave testimonials and reviews since they came out last fall.

I could probably stretch my budget to 250 if need be.

Excuse my lack of speaker knowledge, but what is the difference between "normal" speakers and a monitor speaker? Do monitor speakers come in 2? Would I be able to make use of the SPDIF i/o on my soundcard?

Thanks for the advice

c4sk said:

I could probably stretch my budget to 200 if need be.

Excuse my lack of speaker knowledge, but what is the difference between "normal" speakers and a monitor speaker? Do monitor speakers come in 2? Would I be able to make use of the SPDIF i/o on my sound card?

Thanks for the advice

Click to expand...

 
I believe "studio monitor" or "powered speaker" usually means the speaker comes with built in amplifier(s),
Where as "regular" speakers are un-powered, so they need to be used with a separate amplifier.
You can plug powered speakers directly to the Titanium-HD's RCA line-outputs.

cel4145 said:

I have not heard them, but Edifier is a popular computer speaker brand I often see recommended in the UK.

But how about studio monitors? A little over your budget, but the JBL LSR305s have been getting rave testimonials and reviews since they came out last fall.

Click to expand...

 
http://www.juno.co.uk/products/jbl-lsr308-two-way-active-studio-monitor/501987-01/
 
I can afford these... but, will I notice the difference? Is it worth the extra money?
 

purpleangel said:

   
I believe "studio monitor" or "powered speaker" usually means the speaker comes with built in amplifier(s),
Where as "regular" speakers are un-powered, so they need to be used with a separate amplifier.
You can plug powered speakers directly to the Titanium-HD's RCA line-outputs.

Click to expand...

 
Ok... so I guess there is not left or right seeing as they can be bought as a single speaker? If I buy 2, does that mean that there will be no option for surround sound?
 
In what scenario would I be able to make use of the SPDIF ports rather than the RCA ports?

c4sk said:

Ok... so I guess there is not left or right seeing as they can be bought as a single speaker? If I buy 2, does that mean that there will be no option for surround sound? In what scenario would I be able to make use of the S/PDIF ports rather than the RCA ports?

Click to expand...

 
The Ti-HD (Titanium-HD) is great for headphones and a 2-speaker setup, but not designed for directly working with a 5.1 (6-channel) setup.
The Ti-HD's optical output can be used to connect to an 5.1 speaker setup. but your not budgeting enough for a "quality" 5.1 optical connection setup.
Is is possible to buy a used receiver with a 5.1 speaker setup (200 GBP?) and use it's optical with the Ti-HD, yes, but the optical connection bypasses the really nice PCM1794 DAC chip and op-amps that come built into the Ti-HD.
Personally if i was you, i would buy some nice stereo headphones and plug them directly into the Ti-HD, maybe spend 50 GBP for a pair of self-powered speakers.
The AKG K612 Pro (120-ohm) headphones (110 GBP) should work nicely with the Ti-HD.
.http://www.thomann.de/gb/akg_k_612_pro.htm?sid=3dcfbefa350c3585c43feb14cacc9da9
 
The 16-Ohm Heaven Cs are really designed for use with portable audio (smartphone/mp3 players/iPods/iPhone).
You could spend 80 GBP for a headphone amplifier, like the EPH-02, plug it into the Ti-HD and the Heaven Cs into the EPH-02 and it should improve the audio quality, but I think that would not be the wisest choice.

c4sk said:

http://www.juno.co.uk/products/jbl-lsr308-two-way-active-studio-monitor/501987-01/

I can afford these... but, will I notice the difference? Is it worth the extra money?

Click to expand...

Those are $265 each, right? You need two.

I haven't heard that much about the LSR308s. The advantage they would offer is (a) more volume and (b) a little bit deeper frequency extension. The LSR305s should get plenty loud enough for computer use.

purpleangel said:

The Ti-HD (Titanium-HD) is great for headphones and a 2-speaker setup, but not designed for directly working with a 5.1 (6-channel) setup.
The Ti-HD's optical output can be used to connect to an 5.1 speaker setup. but your not budgeting enough for a "quality" 5.1 optical connection setup.
Is is possible to buy a used receiver with a 5.1 speaker setup (200 GBP?) and use it's optical with the Ti-HD, yes, but the optical connection bypasses the really nice PCM1794 DAC chip and op-amps that come built into the Ti-HD.
Personally if i was you, i would buy some nice stereo headphones and plug them directly into the Ti-HD, maybe spend 50 GBP for a pair of self-powered speakers.
The AKG K612 Pro (120-ohm) headphones (110 GBP) should work nicely with the Ti-HD.
.http://www.thomann.de/gb/akg_k_612_pro.htm?sid=3dcfbefa350c3585c43feb14cacc9da9

The 16-Ohm Heaven Cs are really designed for use with portable audio (smartphone/mp3 players/iPods/iPhone).
You could spend 80 GBP for a headphone amplifier, like the EPH-02, plug it into the Ti-HD and the Heaven Cs into the EPH-02 and it should improve the audio quality, but I think that would not be the wisest choice.

Click to expand...

Oh so the SPDIF is for 5.1? I will be better off buying stereo monitors with this budget. Maybe I can invest in 5.1 in the future.

I have some very good headphones... I need some speakers for when I have people over.

cel4145 said:

Those are $265 each, right? You need two.

I haven't heard that much about the LSR308s. The advantage they would offer is (a) more volume and (b) a little bit deeper frequency extension. The LSR305s should get plenty loud enough for computer use.

Click to expand...

Ok... That case I will probably just stick with the ones you recommended and get 2 of them

Thanks a lot for the advice.

After listening to a rack of monitors at my local Guitar Center, I just purchased the JBL LSR305s. For the price ($225 US for the pair), there was nothing else that could touch them. There were better sounding monitors, but all >$400/pair. The sound stage is amazing and the horn shape on the tweeter provides a very wide sweet spot. Listening, the sound stage is so well unified that it is impossible to tell where the two speakers are located except that they mark the field boundaries on the left and right. For casual desktop listening, I couldn't be happier.
 
Cheers... Brian
 
P.S. The LSR308's were notably better (and $150 more expensive for a pair), but I'd have had to buy a bigger desk.

c4sk said:

Oh so the SPDIF is for 5.1? I will be better off buying stereo monitors with this budget. Maybe I can invest in 5.1 in the future.
I have some very good headphones... I need some speakers for when I have people over.

Click to expand...

 
S/PDIF (optical or coaxial) can carry up to 6-channels of compressed 24-bit/48k of digital audio or 2-channels of 24-bit/96k (or 24-bit/192k?) of uncompressed digital audio.
I just do not see a good enough reason for you to use S/PDIF right now.

bms44974 said:

After listening to a rack of monitors at my local Guitar Center, I just purchased the JBL LSR305s. For the price ($225 US for the pair), there was nothing else that could touch them. There were better sounding monitors, but all >$400/pair. The sound stage is amazing and the horn shape on the tweeter provides a very wide sweet spot. Listening, the sound stage is so well unified that it is impossible to tell where the two speakers are located except that they mark the field boundaries on the left and right. For casual desktop listening, I couldn't be happier.

Cheers... Brian

P.S. The LSR308's were notably better (and $150 more expensive for a pair), but I'd have had to buy a bigger desk.

Click to expand...

Thanks Brian... I think I'm going to pick 2 of these up..

purpleangel said:

S/PDIF (optical or coaxial) can carry up to 6-channels of compressed 24-bit/48k of digital audio or 2-channels of 24-bit/96k (or 24-bit/192k?) of uncompressed digital audio.
I just do not see a good enough reason for you to use S/PDIF right now.

Click to expand...

Yes, I don't see a reason for spdif right now.

Thanks again