[classicalguy]

Yea, looks like the price is up to $50/pair today. They were $40, then $46, and now $50. Even though they are probably worth every bit of $50, it would be hard for me to buy them knowing that they once sold for $40 (I told you I'm a cheapskate).

 

[Spareribs]

I'm still listening. I can't believe how incredible these sound. I am pinching myself. Nice bass.

 

[Snake]

Quote:

Originally Posted by classicalguy I never suggested buying a T-Amp and modding it. I use it out of the box, and it sounds great with my small bookshelf speakers. It sounds much better to me than a mid-fi receiver or my old Hafler DH-220 (which was a big and much more expensive amp).

Thank goodness - the Hafler wasn't very good at all. Top-end grain that only the original Adcom GFA-1/GFA-1A, SAE and (the later) H/K Citation 22 easily beat. From just a bit later in era (from the GFA-1), a B&K ST-140 beat them all quite handily with 1 arm ripped out of it's socket and the other arm tied down to it's ankles.

The Hafler was a decent value for the money when new, but "just" OK sounding. IIRC there was quite a bit of modding available to help make the Haflers better, and that's going back a long time before "modding" became so fashionable.

 

[Spareribs]

Now that I have these Insignias, I'm thinking about buying 2 more Insignias speakers and a subwoofer to create a surround sound system. Will this be ok with these kind of speakers? I know nothing about surround sound systems. I do know that I have to get a 5.1 reciever.

Also, these Insignias have pretty good bass already. Will a subwoofer be ok to add? Will it be bass over kill?

 

[mikee898]

If I were to get a pair of these for my computer, and I have a audiophile 2496 card, what else would I need to get them to work? Do I need a t-amp? And what about cables?

 

[classicalguy]

Mikee898: you'd need an amp for sure, and maybe a preamp to control the volume (or an integrated amp). A t-amp might work, and has volume control built in. I say "might" because so far no one has commented on whether the t-amp is powerful enough for the speakers. I suspect it will be fine, but I have not tried it.

You would need a cable between your soundcard and the t-amp, and speaker cable between the tamp and the speakers. I don't know whether your soundcard has a mini-rca jack or dual full size rca jacks. You need to either get a mini-to-mini cable or a dual full size rca --> mini cable. The cables are readily available at radio shack. The t-amp comes with a really short low quality mini->mini cable (about 1 foot)

You need speaker cable between the T-amp and the speakers. I'd recommend 14 gauge, which fits well in the t-amp clips.

 

[classicalguy]

Spareribs: Sure, you can use them for surrounds. In fact, if we're talking about movie soundtracks, most of the rear channel sounds don't require high quality speakers. You can also use a sub. Integrating a sub for music can be difficult. For movies with a dolby digital receiver with sub output, you just plug it in and it shakes the floor when the dinosaur walks. I have really good fronts and really cheap rears. Works fine.

5.1 requires 6 speakers: 2 fronts, 2 rears, 1 center, and 1 sub. Center channel is important for dialog. The insignias might work, but you might want to get a dedicated center channel speaker. Are the insignias shielded?

 

[mikee898]

Thank you classical guy.

Now I guess I just need to know if the t-amp is enough to power these.

Anyone wanna let me know?

 

[Hirsch]

I got curious and bought a pair of these at $46 (Insignia NS-B2111), as I had some older components that were sitting around unused and could be put into a system if I had another speaker (NAD 1020 preamp, highly modded Hafler DH-200. Snake is right, the mods were necessary for the Hafler's even back when I built the kit). A price increase to $50 doesn't matter a bit. They're still seriously underpriced for what you get.

OK, these aren't the replacement for my B&W Matrix 804's, or my Celestion SL600's. Let's get that out of the way. However, they didn't cost $2K/pr either. China is starting to put out some serious audio gear (among many other products) at much lower pricing than is possible in the US. What's happening now is that the quality is going up, as the Chinese electronics industry learns what works and what doesn't. Don't let the low cost fool you. This is a real speaker.

These have a more solid feel than the Epos ELS-3, and construction appears excellent. Nice frequency response with no obvious gaps. Imaging has good height and depth. Localization of instruments in the sound field was far better than it had any right to be (I'd rate this as better than my KEF 101.1's). There's some sibilance, but I may give them a try in my Electrocompaniet rig if it doesn't resolve with burn-in, to make sure it's not the amp. In any event, these have great sound, particularly at the price. There's also just a trace of a "tinniness" in the sound, but I've only had them a day. I'll burn them in, and see what happens.

Spareribs, you can set up a 5.1 surround system with these. A subwoofer usually has adjustable crossover and volume settings, so that you blend the sound in. If a decent sub is set up right, you don't even hear the transition between the speaker and the sub. Bass just seems to go lower and have more impact naturally.

I can enthusiastically recommend these speakers. At $25 ea, they're a steal, and will outperform some speakers at several times their cost. These are the real deal. I'm in shock that you can get sound like this at that price.

[size=xx-small]Edited to remove a redundant redundancy.[/size]

 

[Hanzo]

So everyone is very enthusiastic about these, but what about finding Polk r15s on ebay for $50? Would these insignias outperform them?

 

[Spareribs]

Thanks Classical Guy and Hirsh. Very good info

You asked if the speakers are shielded. I don't think they are. I am looking for the info and I don't see any mention of it. Will this be a problem if they are not sheilded?



I am thinking of getting this JBL center channel speaker. Hopefully it will be a good match.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...Fencoding=UTF8

Can anyone recommend a good musical subwoofer to match?
I'll think I will be using the Denon 3805 receiver which is 120 watts per channel.

 

[ooheadsoo]

I would recommend going with another insignia for the center channel. It will match in tone and provide a better dispersion pattern, at the least.

How serious are you about a subwoofer? It costs quite a bit of dough to get your foot in the door with real low frequency extension.

 

[classicalguy]

Spareribs:

If you are going to use the speakers very close to a tube TV, then you need shielded speakers because the magnets in unshielded speakers can mess with the tv image. This is usually not a problem for the fronts because you can space them far enough away from the screen, but people often put the center channel speaker on top of the screen. If it's not shielded, that can be a problem.

I've heard good things about the Bic center channel speakers, but I've never heard them myself.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...Fencoding=UTF8

Same goes for Athena subs that are regularly on sale.

http://www.onecall.com/ProductDetail...=true&id=20367

I don't agree with Hirsch about the ease of setting up a subwoofer for listening to music. It's true that subs have volume and crossover adjustments, but getting them to blend really well with bookshelfs is either very difficult or nearly impossible in my experience. But getting them to shake for movies is easy.

You should only consider a subwoofer that has its own amplifier built in (active). A passive sub won't work with your receiver without a separate sub amp.

The Watts ratings of mid-fi receivers are very unreliable, as are THD. You really cannot buy mid-fi electronics on the basis of published specs. You should ask here for recommendations on the best dolby digital receiver in your price range. There are usually people around with good suggestions.

I'm glad to see people enjoying the speakers. It will be interesting to hear from someone who tries a T-Amp with them. T-amps are great for desktop computer systems.

As for the comments about my Hafler DH-220 amp, yes it's old. I thought it sounded pretty good after it got warmed up - very euphonic like a tube amp. It has a very long warm up time, and sounds terrible cold. One thing I really like about the t-amp is that it sounds basically the same the minute you turn it on as it does 2 hours later. I certainly don't think the Hafler was the last word in accuracy, but it was a solid mid-level amp in its day.

I find it very strange that people who diss the T-Amp on measurement grounds recommend buying a vintage 1970s mid-fi receiver. Those things were not accurate. Certainly less accurate (with all of their tone stages and AM-FM parts, and crummy noisy switches) than either a Hafler DH-220 or a T-Amp. I also have an Adcom 585 dual mono amp in my big rig. I need that beast to power my big old B&W 801 speakers. It sounds great, but there are aspects of the T-Amp that are better (quieter, no warm up, puts out a more delicate sound). The amps are in totally different classes. But the T-Amp does some things really well. Everyone who has heard them is impressed. Yes, there is limited power output and bass rolloff, but everything has tradeoffs.

I think we're going to see a lot of good sounding reasonably priced digital amplifiers in the near future. But for the time being, there is nothing in the price class of the T-Amp to compare with it. You have to get to $130 or so before there is anything else worth considering.

 

[Spareribs]

Thanks for the info classical guy. The Athena subwoofer that you recommend is 100 watts while the Insignias 120 watts and the center channel speaker is around the same range. Will this be ok if the subwoofer is a lesser wattage than the speakers?

 

[classicalguy]

Spareribs: you're mixing up numbers. The insignias are unamplified speakers. The power rating is the amount of watts that the speaker can take from an amplifier before being damaged. Insignia is saying "don't use an amplifier that puts out more than 120 watts because you could damage the speakers." But this is really not true. You could use a 300 watt amplifier without any problem as long as you don't turn it up too high. Also, you can blow out speakers more easily by over-loading a low powered amp into clipping. So that "maximum power handling capacity" number is not really very meaningful. In fact, it's downright misleading when people would shop for speakers on the basis of power handling capacity: "my speakers are better than yours because they can handle 500 watts." That's nonsense.

The Athena subwoofer has a built-in 100 watt amplifier that powers the subwoofer. There is no relation between the power handling of the insignias and the amplifier in the subwoofer - two totally different unrelated things. Your 5.1 receiver will have a high level (unamplified) output for a subwoofer. You run an rca cable between the subwoofer output of the receiver and the sub, and the receiver will handle the crossover point. You set the loudness with the tone controls in the amp and you're done - at least for movies. You'll have to ask someone else how well this works for music - I have no experience with 5.1 and stereo music with the sub. I think you can set the receiver to handle the crossover with music too, but I'm really not sure.

I have a sub in a two channel setup, and it has never sounded as good as a unified speaker.

Note also that you can always add a sub later. You may find you don't need a sub. Or, you may decide that you want a really big sub that will sound to your neighbors like the low rider car passing your house.

The problem with many subs is that they play loud, but they have the "one note" problem of only making thumps, not sounding musical. The Athena is supposed to be very good sounding for the price.