Dorm and speakers

[venzuel00]

I'm trying to decide if it is a good idea to buy computer speakers around $200s. I have three to choose from. These are: megaworks 510D, 550 or the klipsch 5.1.

It would be mainly for music and games in a 300 sf room. I really don't want to buy a hifi speaker/amp mainly because i'm broke (i'm a student) If anyone has any experiences with these speakers, please let me know.

From what i have read at 3dsoundsurge, the 510D came really close to the sirocco crossfires. Just a thought.

 

[jim]

Unless you are only looking at 5.1 setups, you may want to take a look at the Swan Diva M200 as well. It's gotten pretty good reviews. There is also a review on 3dsoundsurge .

 

[dd3mon]

I'd stay away from the klipsch setup for a dorm room.. I'm in a dorm currently and my roomate has a klipsch 2.1 setup. The overall sound isn't bad, but in the dorm setting the sloppy sub just become unbearable at times because of the horrible reverb problems created by the dorm setting (ie: tile floors, cement walls, cheap wooden desks). I'd say this is about as unfriendly environment as could be for a speaker system. The klipsch (in a good environment) is bass heavy, and pretty poor bass at that IMO - in a dorm it just becomes too bad for me to enjoy at least. I'd check into some designs that are supposed to be a little more neutral like the high end logitechs or altec-lansings.

-dd3mon

 

[vwap]

Quote:

Originally posted by dd3mon I'd stay away from the klipsch setup for a dorm room.. I'm in a dorm currently and my roomate has a klipsch 2.1 setup. The overall sound isn't bad, but in the dorm setting the sloppy sub just become unbearable at times because of the horrible reverb problems created by the dorm setting (ie: tile floors, cement walls, cheap wooden desks). I'd say this is about as unfriendly environment as could be for a speaker system. The klipsch (in a good environment) is bass heavy, and pretty poor bass at that IMO - in a dorm it just becomes too bad for me to enjoy at least. I'd check into some designs that are supposed to be a little more neutral like the high end logitechs or altec-lansings.

I'd just go with a 2.1 setup of some sort.. I currently have the Klipsch 4.1's, and while they worked alright and all, they aren't nearly worth the price. The bass is a bit too muddy, and the midrange sucks... what makes it worse is that the treble is too loud. [Either that, or my onboard soundcard sucks.. or maybe both

]

Anyhow, I'd go with a 2.1 setup just because, well, in a dorm room, unless you're by yourself, it's going to be a pain to tell your roommate, "Uh.. can I stick these behind me, over by your desk somewhere?".. I mean, a dorm room is only so big...

I've got the remaining two speakers of my setup sitting in my closet at home. In three years now, I've never found a place to put them in my dorm.

Just my $0.02..

 

[Daemoth]

Quote:

Originally posted by vwap what makes it worse is that the treble is too loud. [Either that, or my onboard soundcard sucks.. or maybe both ]

Wow, how do you stand onboard? What kind is it? I know I plugged my sirocco crossfires into my AC 97 onboard and yea, I thought I hurt my speakers. They would distort horrible at any volume. I freaked out thing it was my speakers. Then I plugged it back into my sound card and that problem just disappeared.

 

[venzuel00]

I finally decided on buying the megaworks 550 for my dorm. It should arrive sometime next week. I wonder if it's possible to use the 5.1 channel out of my laptop line out by using the auxiliary cable connected to subwoofer. Will I get 5.1 when used with Power DVD? what about music, will it be 2.1 or 5.1?

 

[vwap]

Quote:

Originally posted by Daemoth Wow, how do you stand onboard? What kind is it? I know I plugged my sirocco crossfires into my AC 97 onboard and yea, I thought I hurt my speakers. They would distort horrible at any volume. I freaked out thing it was my speakers. Then I plugged it back into my sound card and that problem just disappeared.

Heh... It's some sort of C-Media chip... It's not horrendous.. but not great, either.. I figure I have my headphone rig for anything half worth listening to..

 

[jim]

Wow, that was quick!

Anyway, I just noticed from your profile you're a fellow uiuc enginerd. That makes three of us. (well, that I know of anyway...born2bwire is the other) Enjoy your new speakers!

Talking about onboard sound cards, my dell laptop has the ESS maestro3 built in right next to the CPU. It must be the worst sound I've ever heard in my life. Well, maybe not. It's a toss up with the fisher price pseudo-turntable I had when i was a kid.

 

[venzuel00]

Well, I bought the M-audio sonica theater. I'll let you guys know how it all goes. I'm also gonna test to see if I can get 5.1 capability from my laptop's line out, although I am a little skeptical about it.

 

[jim]

hi venzuel00,

you won't be able to get 5.1 capability out of your laptop's lineout. It is only two channel. The m-audio theater has the necessary surround outputs. In either case, if your source material isn't multichannel (eg mp3s or cds) you're not going to get multichannel sound anyway, just the same two channels played out of your surrounds. You'll only need the multichannel for movies and maybe games. The only music sources that are MC are dvd-a and sacd, and I'm not aware that either of these can be played on the computer...yet, anyway. Have fun.

 

[venzuel00]

oh I see.

Thanks again for your inputs

 

[Born2bwire]

What the!?! It is another UIUCer!! Hee hee, you know, I just got me a set of the Megaworks 550 in January. They're a great set.

Oh and jim, I found one more UIUCer, Brent S, he's a grad student and he dropped by my room to check out the MG Head. So now we have a coupla more to add to the ranks.

EDIT: In regards to multichannel music playback via computer: The Audigy 2 has 24/96 multichannel DAC's and 192/24 stereo DAC's. It supports and includes a player that will playback true DVD-A. The DAC's are Sigmatel and the specs of the DAC's state that they support SACD as well, though I wouldn't speculate at all if the Audigy 2 would be able to playback SACD or even if they would support both formats. Personally though, I would use a component system for DVD-A or SACD because I don't think that a computer would be able to do the formats justice.

Hey, your a Surgie too! Hee hee

 

[jim]

awesome man. Hey, now that we have a somewhat sizeable group, perhaps we should finally arrange a mini-meet of sorts. I'll start a thread in the meets forum where you can post if you're interested or not and figure out the logistics.

 

[venzuel00]

this is great. I lived in Garner Hall. Where do you guys live?

Planning on moving out to an apartment next fall.
We should definitely plan on meeting sometime to test out our equipment. I currently own the airhead and super mini V3. They are both for sale too.

 

[Born2bwire]

I live in FAR but I'm moving into a townhome (not really what I would call a townhome, more like an apartment in a vertical configuration) next year. I don't know if we'll hear from Brent, my impression is that he's very busy late, I think he's wrapping up his studies. He's in an apartment.