[drew.haynes]

Hey guys,

I'm a hardcore newb with most this stuff but have some friends on this site and thought you'd all know a lot more than me.

Here's the deal.. i've had some Promedia 2.1s for about 2-3 years now. Absolutely adore them. I feel like they are better than any other multimedia speakers I've personally heard. Now they are starting to die on me or something. For the last few months, the speakers (mostly the left) will randomly have a lot of buzz. Sometimes they are clear, sometimes they buzz. It's pretty unpredictable. You can still hear the music, but it's got a lot of annoying noise layered over it. Unless you guys know a quick fix for that, I think it's time I buy some new speakers.

The Klipsch's have lasted a good while and treated me well. I would not mind buying the same ones again - I'm sure many of you know where they are price-wise.. around ~$150 give or take.

Alternatively, I had my interest sparked a little in another thread where I saw someone discussing these Insignia's: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1138085354138

If I were to buy something like those and a 200W Insignia receiver, I'd only spend a total of maybe 170 bucks. Here is my concern... while those still go down to 50Hz, how much am I going to notice my sub missing? I've never owned bookshelf speakers (newb, like I said) so I don't know how those will compare to my Klipsch's. Would something like that be comparable to Promedia's along the lines of clarity and quality? I want plenty of volume, but I don't want something that sounds sub-par quality wise vs. the Promedia's.

As far as bookshelf systems, I have no brand preference. Can a 2.0 bookshelf system match or beat Promedia 2.1s at under ~$200? If so, what can you guys recommend?

Sorry for my ignorance and thanks for your help!


Drew

 

[TheVinylRipper]

Do you already have a decent amp/receiver to drive the speakers?

Whoops, I see you don't have an amp..

Try used Yamaha on the auction site that may not be named..



Wharfedale Diamond 8.1
They get great reviews from folks like the Stereophile. Very accurate sound and very heavy duty construction with things like die cast aluminum woofer baskets and biamp capability.

These are the same speaker in a much lighter color but they are out of stock.. You can see the details better on these.

 

[drew.haynes]

Hmm, those look sweet. They may be a little above the range I'm looking for.. at least for now. As I'll be switching from the Promedia's I am starting from scratch. I'll have to buy the receiver and everything. There is only one pair of those speakers at amazon @ $150... I froogled it and got a pretty steady $250.. which would put me over $300 easy with a receiver.

My biggest concern is how much the low end will suffer by ditching the 2.1 and going to a 2.0. But like I said, I've only used smaller multimedia speakers... maybe the larger woofers used in bookshelf systems will have more bass than I'm aware of.

 

[TheVinylRipper]

Umm... That's why I pointed you to Amazon.. Excellent price there.

If you are not allergic to EQ, I suspect those little speakers would accept EQ very well.

I used to have a pair of Radio Shack Minimus 7's many moons ago.. 4" long throw woofer and soft dome tweeter in a die cast aluminum box.

People used to look around for my "real" speakers when they first came to my house. And I was driving them with a Pioneer 20 w/ch amp..

You could pick up a really nice stereo receiver on the auction site that may not be named. People don't want anything less than 5.1 these days and just two channel stuff tends to go for pennies on the dollar.

I saw a nice NAD receiver with about 80 w/ch go for about $30 the other day.

It had a dead FM section but if you don't listen to FM, who cares..

BTW, I have the reputation as a real cheapskate here already.

I just believe in getting the most bang for the buck..

http://cgi.stereophile.com/cgi-bin/showvote.cgi?447

Quote:

The Wharfedale Diamond 8.1. (No, not the 9.1.) The 8.1 produces excellent sound for peanuts. Some may say that the bass isn't that low and that the speaker isn't that resolving. But at that price, it's the best you'll EVER get! —Shahrukh Dandiwala

 

[drew.haynes]

Sorry, probably driving you crazy right now. I guess I need to start looking at receivers. I really don't know what MAKES a good receiver good.

I may keep my eye on those Wharfedale's if they are still there in a few days, assuming your post DOES mean you think they'll be noticeably better than my klipsch's. As long as they sound better and don't sound like the low-end is missing without a sub.. they look good to me.

 

[TheVinylRipper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by drew.haynes /img/forum/go_quote.gif Sorry, probably driving you crazy right now. I guess I need to start looking at receivers. I really don't know what MAKES a good receiver good. I may keep my eye on those Wharfedale's if they are still there in a few days, assuming your post DOES mean you think they'll be noticeably better than my klipsch's. As long as they sound better and don't sound like the low-end is missing without a sub.. they look good to me.

My brother has some kind of Klipsch computer sound system and to my ears it sounds very good indeed.

I really have no idea whether the Wharfedale's will sound better than the Klipsch's, they both have been making speakers since before I was born, and that is a looong time in the audio world.

I thought you were asking for recommendations on bookshelf speakers, not whether or not to buy them..

Go and check out this thread and take the test it links to and then think about it a bit more before putting out money.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=252560

 

[TheVinylRipper]

As far as receivers go, stick with Yamaha, Denon, Technics, Rotel, Pioneer, Marantz and a few more exotic ones and you probably won't go wrong.

Get a reasonable amount of power, say 50 w/ch RMS and you should have a decent system. Noise and distortion are so low in just about any decent quality amp that it is inaudible when playing music that doesn't have extreme dynamic range and probably not even then.

If you have more questions you are welcome to PM me or email if you wish, I don't think my email is hidden..

 

[The Rift]

As far as bass goes, I personally didn't miss the sub of my promedias when I went to book shelves at all. I actually was planning on buying a sub down the road but never did because the bass from my bookshelves was sufficient on their own. However, I also made a pretty significant upgrade and got a receiver that had quite a lot of power(HK3480), and really nice speakers (CBM170s). Going economy style, you might have different results.

 

[TheVinylRipper]

I forgot to mention Harman Kardon, I had one and liked it very much.

The high current capacity really wakes a lot of speakers up for sure.

Speaker impedance is not a fixed thing, it varies across the audio spectrum and if it drops down really low at some point then you are going to need a lot of current to drive your speakers properly.

 

[infinitesymphony]

With budget speakers, you'll almost certainly miss the subwoofer, especially if you listened to music with bass punch and/or sub-bass like rock or electronic stuff.

Those Insignia speakers were flavor-of-the-month last year when they went down to $35/pair. Now they're much too expensive to be a good value. IMO, there's no way that they could approach flat response down to 50 Hz. The Insignia receiver has seen its fair share of blow-ups, too, and is considered overrated in terms of specified power.

Unless you have a significantly bigger budget than $150, that set of computer speakers will be hard to beat.

 

[drew.haynes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by infinitesymphony /img/forum/go_quote.gif With budget speakers, you'll almost certainly miss the subwoofer, especially if you listened to music with bass punch and/or sub-bass like rock or electronic stuff. Those Insignia speakers were flavor-of-the-month last year when they went down to $35/pair. Now they're much too expensive to be a good value. IMO, there's no way that they could approach flat response down to 50 Hz. The Insignia receiver has seen its fair share of blow-ups, too, and is considered overrated in terms of specified power. Unless you have a significantly bigger budget than $150, that set of computer speakers will be hard to beat.

Yeah I think I may wait and get the Klipsch's again, as they occasionally go as low as $99 at Best Buy. That way if I still want a bookshelf system I can gather some money and built a respectable one next summer (starting my last year of college in a few weeks).

 

[TheVinylRipper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by drew.haynes /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yeah I think I may wait and get the Klipsch's again, as they occasionally go as low as $99 at Best Buy. That way if I still want a bookshelf system I can gather some money and built a respectable one next summer (starting my last year of college in a few weeks).

I'm serious about reading the thread I linked to above..

A lot of golden eared HeadFi'ers couldn't hear distortion below -18 dB or so and some were even worse than that..

I managed to get down to -36 dB on my Altec multimedia system, but I have a lot of experience listening for non linearities in sound and to be honest I may have just guessed the last couple of levels.

If you can't hear distortion at that level, why shell out more money?

But then I'm a penny pinching curmudgeon.

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=252560

 

[dizzyorange]

Those Klipsch Promedia's are quite hard to beat. My suggestion is actually another Klipsch model, the iFi. It's a similiar 2.1 configuration but uses much nicer RSX-3 satellites and a nicer subwoofer as well. Last time I checked they were $150 at Costco! (retail: $400-500)

(there is a line-in port of course). I've had the PM2.1 and have the iFi now, and the iFi is clearly a step up. Maybe the best consumer-level computer speakers you can buy.

 

[coho66]

if you're wanting the low cost combined with the convenience of buying a one-box packaged system like the promedia's for a computer...you always have the option of the logitech z-2300's:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/sp...s/231&cl=ca,en

as far as i'm concerned they're definitely comparable performance & pricewise...


as for how much you'll "notice the loss of a subwoofer"....that will depend on a lot of variables...of which some you unconsciously control without even spending any money....such as the type of music you listen to...and the quality/media type thereof

 

[drew.haynes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dizzyorange /img/forum/go_quote.gif Those Klipsch Promedia's are quite hard to beat. My suggestion is actually another Klipsch model, the iFi. It's a similiar 2.1 configuration but uses much nicer RSX-3 satellites and a nicer subwoofer as well. Last time I checked they were $150 at Costco! (retail: $400-500) (there is a line-in port of course). I've had the PM2.1 and have the iFi now, and the iFi is clearly a step up. Maybe the best consumer-level computer speakers you can buy.

That iFi looks sweet! Apparently it is discontinued, which I guess is why I never noticed it before. Same peak power handling as the PM2.1s.. but I guess the sub is larger. I may see if I can find a deal on those.

Right now, it's looking like the PM2.1s (or the iFi) may be what I need.. cheap, fairly clear. I listen to a VERY broad selection of music.. I also do some amateur music creation (no.. not techno

). If I stick with something cheaper like the Klipsch's, I think I can spend the next 9 months really thinking over what I may want to put together next summer with a larger budget.