[Gavinfoxx]

Hi there, I was wondering where one could get, from a currently active, United States distributor that can actually be contacted, the cheapest active studio monitors or 2.0 or 2.1 multimedia speakers that could be said to be 'decent' for music listening?  And where could I get these? Sometimes I want to share some music with my roommate, but I will mostly use headphones for actual computer gaming.
 
Thanks!

 

[PurpleAngel]

Monoprice 5" studio monitors, $170.
http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=605500
Sometimes they go on sale for around $130
 
Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers
Should be able to find some used, but in good shape, for under $100 (eBay)
 
Dayton Audio B652-AIR speakers, $50.
http://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-b652-air-6-1-2-2-way-bookshelf-speaker-with-amt-tweeter-pair--300-651
Should be able to find an amplifier for them for around $30.

 

[OZSA]

Hey,
I'm having the same question but I'm from europe so can't really order those, do you have any other recommendations? I'm using my speakers mainly for background music or movies but the ones I have are the cheapest ancient stuff that you could buy like 10-15 years ago and I want something better For quality music I have an FA-003 headphones but for day to day use I need something in the sub ~100$ range, will be placed right near the monitor and I'm not sure I have space for a 2.1 system, so shielded 2.0 would be fine with headphone port.
 
How good or bad are these ? 
https://www.amazon.com/Genius-SP-HF1800A-Three-way-Hi-Fi-Speakers/dp/B0041Q9PZ0/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
https://www.amazon.com/Creative-GigaWorks-Multimedia-BasXPort-Technology/dp/B001S14DYO/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 (power saver function in this is very annoying if its true what the 1star commenters are saying)
https://www.amazon.com/Creative-GigaWorks-Multimedia-BasXPort-Technology/dp/B001RNOHDU/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1468942588&sr=1-1&keywords=t20+series+ii

 

[Logistics]

The best sounding set of cheap, 2.0 multimedia speakers I have heard are the HK-206's, which are a common Dell-supplied set. I have inspected their internals, and they use many film capacitors in the signal path, and use a protection scheme to keep you from blowing them up by turning them up too loud.

They don't defy the laws of physics, and supply lots of bass, but their clarity and richness is amazing for a set you can typically find for $15. I found my set in pieces at a surplus place so I paid a dollar for each speaker, and a dollar for the wall-wart. A steal for $3.

 

[OZSA]

thanks for replying but that's not available in my country and the cheapest harman kardon speakers start at 150$~ here.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Hey,
I'm having the same question but I'm from europe so can't really order those, do you have any other recommendations? I'm using my speakers mainly for background music or movies but the ones I have are the cheapest ancient stuff that you could buy like 10-15 years ago and I want something better For quality music I have an FA-003 headphones but for day to day use I need something in the sub ~100$ range, will be placed right near the monitor and I'm not sure I have space for a 2.1 system, so shielded 2.0 would be fine with headphone port.
 
How good or bad are these ? 
https://www.amazon.com/Genius-SP-HF1800A-Three-way-Hi-Fi-Speakers/dp/B0041Q9PZ0/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
https://www.amazon.com/Creative-GigaWorks-Multimedia-BasXPort-Technology/dp/B001S14DYO/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 (power saver function in this is very annoying if its true what the 1star commenters are saying)
https://www.amazon.com/Creative-GigaWorks-Multimedia-BasXPort-Technology/dp/B001RNOHDU/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1468942588&sr=1-1&keywords=t20+series+ii

 
Guess(?) the Creative T40s are your best choice.
 
What country are you in?

 

[OZSA]

Romania, this is an example site of what I can buy https://www.evomag.ro/COMPONENTE-PC-Boxe/Filtru/Configuratie:2.0 or here you can check any brand/model across all sites in the country if anyone is selling it https://www.price.ro/
I could buy from abroad but that means inside Europe, non-EU shipments have a huge cost and 25% tax so it's not worth it from outside Europe.
BTW I'm not sure what's the difference between the T40 and T20 but I read the T40 enters power saving mode after 10 minute of idling (no sound) and it needs 3-7 seconds to start again, which is really bad, I would return that immediately if its true (read it on amazon comments 1 star most of them). Don't really need loud speakers, even the crappy A4-tech cheapest speakers that I have now, are never turned up all the way, maybe at 40% max, so I'd rather want clear sound than volume. (I'm a basshead but I know you can't get bass for a 100 bucks from crappy speakers so I'll just use my headphones for that)

 

[Gavinfoxx]

FYI, I would not consider the Promedia 2.1's to be 'decent', not because of their absolute quality, but because they are not remotely optimized for pleasant music listening and would require a ****load of equalization.  I am going from a (broken...) set of M-200's here.  I just want something that's probably a set of studio monitors that sounds decent for music and is a good bang for the buck for that use.

 

[OZSA]

I'm searching for 2.0, there is just not enough space for the sub, also can't even get promedia here

 

[OZSA]

Hey, I did buy the creative T20 II in the end. It sounds okay but its a bit strange to me, maybe because I always listened to headphones but the bass is weird, sounds kinda fake but all in all its good, I just have one problem with it. So I got a program with a beep alert, its just a simple system beep and it was ok with my old speakers but with the creative there is a strange click/switch sound after the beep. I'll upload it, the first click is always my mouse button but after the beep there is what I want gone, any ideas what it is ? 
 
here's the beep:
https://clyp.it/00nyfegq

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  Hey, I did buy the creative T20 II in the end. It sounds okay but its a bit strange to me, maybe because I always listened to headphones but the bass is weird, sounds kinda fake  

 
That's from the port tuning trying to squeeze out as much bass as they can from tiny drivers, same reason why other speakers in the same size just went with barely having anything below 150hz or they have a subwoofer.

 

[OZSA]

Is there anything I can do with it ? The speaker has a minimum of 50hz spec btw.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by OZSA /img/forum/go_quote.gif

Is there anything I can do with it ?

 

What do you mean, apart from just listening to it? Like dealing with the bass? You can EQ it - trim somewhere around 120hz (not a lot), then trim the frequency bands to the left and right of it (all these can be slightly different depending on what graphic EQ software you use), see if that helps.

 

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by OZSA /img/forum/go_quote.gif

The speaker has a minimum of 50hz spec btw.

 

That's what they squeezed out of it using the port tuning (you might want to just trim a bit more in the band below 120hz). The limitation really is the size of the drivers as port tuning can only do so much (and even then being larger doesn't guarantee it'll have a flatter on top of a widerer/deeper response). Contrast that Creative speaker to something like the Swans S3W for example - those are larger 3in HiVi "fullrange" drivers (by that they just mean it goes up close to 10000hz), but they opted to put them in a sealed enclosure instead. You get a narrow response rating of around 70hz to 10000hz (or 120hz to 8000hz, their site is loading slowly for some reason), but whatever it does have, it does very well. 

 

[OZSA]

that clicking sound doesn't go away even if I turn down all frequencies at 500 and below to -20db, but the first few beeps are okay, the rest of them start to have this click, weird. Well for youtube I'm cutting 500 and below by about 3-8db on all frequencies, then the bad speech bass goes away, so I guess its okay oh yeah and bass on the speaker control is turned to zero. I think I'm gonna use this setting for music aswell, the frequencies between 120 and 500 add some bad rumble to the music, its much better without (if it can't produce good bass I rather have no bass whatsoever).
BTW: the left speaker is supposed to be quieter or its faulty? I'd say at least 10 if not lower, my phone app shows 2-3db difference but I doubt that's accurate.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  that clicking sound doesn't go away even if I turn down all frequencies at 500 and below to -20db, but the first few beeps are okay, the rest of them start to have this click, weird. 

 
That doesn't seem like clipping or overexcursion anymore.
 

  Well for youtube I'm cutting 500 and below by about 3-8db on all frequencies, then the bad speech bass goes away, so I guess its okay oh yeah and bass on the speaker control is turned to zero. I think I'm gonna use this setting for music aswell, the frequencies between 120 and 500 add some bad rumble to the music, its much better without (if it can't produce good bass I rather have no bass whatsoever).

 
Should be your minimum for music, but...
 
 
 
 

  BTW: the left speaker is supposed to be quieter or its faulty? I'd say at least 10 if not lower, my phone app shows 2-3db difference but I doubt that's accurate.

 
...this one shouldn't be happening. Even with the amp board on one speaker and the signal travels over a longer cable to the other speaker the difference shouldn't be audible. The amp might be busted or about to die completely, get it replaced under warranty while you can.