2.1 setup with desktop amp.

Hi all,

I want to replace my current (very old) 5.1 system which now has a blown speaker with a good quality 2.1 setup as I never use the 5.1.

I love listening to music and I like a bit of bass too - so good stereo speakers and a subwoofer that are run through a dedicated desktop amp would be ideal.

I've been reading up a bit on desktop amps and speakers, but the components that I have been reading about are made by a company called 'Dayton' and don't seem to be available here in the UK.

My budget is about £250.

Any ideas/suggestions would be very welcome.

Thanks

That's a tight budget, up it to £300 and you might have something viable.

Thanks for the reply - I can increase the budget. It's a worthwhile investment that I'll no doubt have for a good number of years. What can you suggest?

Cheers.

Well, for amp the Monitor Audio A100 is definitely the one to go for, and nothing comes remotely close to what it offers for the money at £130.

For sub, you could probably go for the Wharfedale Diamond SW150 for £150, or look at 2nd hand subs if you want some better or cheaper.

That's leaves about £20 of the £300 budget. You can probably spend £20 extra for go for a Wharfedale Diamond 9.0 for around £40, and that put the total at around £320. You can then spend £10-£20 on getting the pair of RCA cable for connecting the sub to the A100, and some speaker cables for connecting the speakers to the A100.

You can go with a cheaper t amp if it has a subout, to be able to spend more on a decent set of speakers

dacads said:

You can go with a cheaper t amp if it has a subout, to be able to spend more on a decent set of speakers

Click to expand...

May be, but nothing that comes to mind that actually has sub-out at lower price...even something like a Topping VX1 cost like £80, and it doesn't have sub-out.

Thanks for the replies guys, the A100 amp looks fab and has won some top awards!

I'm happy with the SW150 sub too.

Any recommendations on better speakers?

OverDrive said:

Thanks for the replies guys, the A100 amp looks fab and has won some top awards!

I'm happy with the SW150 sub too.

Any recommendations on better speakers?

Click to expand...

Depending on how much more you want to spend after spending on the A100 and SW150 I guess...there are quite a lots of options from £80 up to £200 range for the standmount speakers. Also, how far away will you be from your speakers? Just on the desk in front of your from where you sit?

I myself is using the A100 together with a pair of Q3010 and the sub from the AE Aego M 2.1.

Marine-RX179 said:

May be, but nothing that comes to mind that actually has sub-out at lower price...even something like a Topping VX1 cost like £80, and it doesn't have sub-out.

Click to expand...

I thought so as well, shame. Although second hand amp/receiver is always an option via eBay or avforums.

As for the A100 it looks great on paper although not sure about the set top box styling!

The amp doesn't have to have a pre or sub out, if the subwoofer has high level input. The SW150 does, so any stereo amp can be used. A class T amp is an option if getting the A100 and SW150 limits what the OP can spend on the speakers.

Diamond 9.0's though would be a decent choice though for use with a subwoofer, as the speakers don't need larger woofers for bass, as the subwoofer will be handling that. Having said that though, SuperFi have the 9.1's with SW150 for £230. With the 9.0's currently £60 at Richer Sounds, A100 + SW150 + 9.0's = £340. That's only £20 less than going for the SW150 and 9.1's with the A100. Probably the better option if the OP has space for the larger 9.1's.

SW150 and 9.1's for £230 along with a cheap class T amp is an option if spending near to £400 along with cables is going to be too much. Could always get a integrated amp at a later date when funds allow. Only thing is, the A100 is a good buy for £130 and may not be around if and when the OP does decide to get an integrated amp.

dacads said:

I thought so as well, shame. Although second hand amp/receiver is always an option via eBay or avforums.

As for the A100 it looks great on paper although not sure about the set top box styling!

Click to expand...

The thing about full-size amp and receiver is that they are so big, so they are not ideal to go with a desk audio setup. The A100 got plenty of grunt and connectivity, and it does so with a relatively small footprint. It can be placed either vertically or horizontally (which is the way I put mine):
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=29443648&postcount=2

OverDrive, Marman's comment should definitely be taken into account, as he really knows what he's talking about.

Thank you guys for your input

I'm in the process of doing a little research - I will up the budget as I listen to lot's of music, so it's money I don't mind spending.

Sorry if these are silly questions:

1. What is high level input?
2. Can I use the optical out on my mobo to connect to the amp for better sound?

Hopefully after a little more reading, there will be less silly questions

Thank you so much again.

PS, Marine - that's a fantastic setup you have there!

High level input means you connect the subwoofer to the speaker terminals on the amp. The advantage of this way of connecting a subwoofer to an amp is that many amps that are lower in budget do not have either pre or subwoofer out, so allows pretty much any amp to be used with a subwoofer.

As the speaker output terminals are powered, some people do question whether this will harm the amp, because not only are you connecting speakers to these, but the subwoofer as well. No harm will come because the amp is not actually powering the subwoofer, like it is the speakers. The subwoofer has it's own built in amp, it just uses the speaker terminals from the amp to listen the audio signal.

If you're going for the A100, then as that has pre out RCA connectors, you can just use those to connect to the line input level on the subwoofer. Either way will work fine though.

Yes, you can use the optical from motherboard. The beauty of the A100 is that it has a built in DAC. Being a digital connection it bypasses the onboard audio of the motherboard. Most amplifiers for around £130 and more don't have DACs, so you'd either have to use motherboard onboard audio, get a sound card, or a separate DAC. There is a Yamaha that does have a built in DAC and LAN network, but that's £200. For £130, the A100 is good value, and you get Wi-Fi should you need to connect with mobile devices. Only downside is only the two inputs, which would only be a problem if you were using it with a TV set up and wanted to connect three or more devices. For use with a PC, it's unlikely you'd ever need more than two.

Thank you, that's really helpful. Does the optical from the motherboard bypass the on-board soundcard?

I'll post up on here once I've selected the components

Yes, onboard audio is only used if you connect to the 3.5mm analogue outputs.

Hi guys,

I've been reading up more on the A100 amp:

This thread was really useful:
https://www.avforums.com/threads/monitor-audio-a100-owner-experience.1910441/

Definitely going to get this amp - the AirPlay functionality would be great too as I have an iPhone and iPad.

I'm now thinking I might invest in some floor standing speakers, as I do pretty much all my listening from my PC it might be worth it with this amp.

If I went for some floor standers, would that reduce the need of a subwoofer, or would I be best going for 2 bookshelf speakers and a subwoofer?

I've seen pairs of used B&W 603 S2s for around £250, or Monitor Audio Bronze BX5 for a little more.

Thanks.

The floor standing speakers you've mentioned are good ones. Some people have the idea of wanting floor standing speakers, but a few look at the cheap models. Not worth buying cheap ones, as they need well made cabinets to sound good, which comes at a cost. Those people would be better off buying bookshelf speakers and a subwoofer if needed.

With well made good floor standing speakers, then yes, there is less need of a subwoofer, compared to bookshelf speakers; whether they will offer enough bass is purely down to personal preference. I've seen some people use a 5.0 setup, rather than 5.1; using floor standing speakers for left and right. For them, they didn't require a subwoofer. Others will want a subwoofer as well.

If you've got a Richer Sounds near you, then pop in and ask for a demo of floor standing speakers and also a demo of bookshelf speakers with a subwoofer. You can get some idea then of whether the bass from floor standing speakers will be enough for you.

If you don't have a local audio store where you can have a demo, then I think floor standing speakers put out enough bass to satisfy if music is the main concern with most music that isn't bass heavy genres. For movies and maybe gaming, some like the added weight a subwoofer can provide even with larger floor standing speakers; again though, it comes down to personal preference.

OverDrive said:

Hi guys,

I've been reading up more on the A100 amp:

This thread was really useful:
https://www.avforums.com/threads/monitor-audio-a100-owner-experience.1910441/

Definitely going to get this amp - the AirPlay functionality would be great too as I have an iPhone and iPad.

I'm now thinking I might invest in some floor standing speakers, as I do pretty much all my listening from my PC it might be worth it with this amp.

If I went for some floor standers, would that reduce the need of a subwoofer, or would I be best going for 2 bookshelf speakers and a subwoofer?

I've seen pairs of used B&W 603 S2s for around £250, or Monitor Audio Bronze BX5 for a little more.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

By the way, I always thought you are you are going to use the speakers at a desk in front of a monitor due to you asking specifically desktop amp, but could you clarify what's the actual environment or how are you going to or planning on positioning the setup?

Thanks for the replies guys

I was in town today and popped into Richer Sounds in Holborn (I was actually walking to the shop when I posted my last message). To my delight, they had an A100 in the front window display. A really helpful chap set it up in the demo room for me...it sounded absolutely fantastic with the speakers we tried! There was so much detail and depth to the sound...and that was with source audio from my iPhone/Apple Music. We also tried it with some lossless files he had on his phone.

The A100 was very impressive in person and was much heavier and more solidly built than it appears in photos.

We tried the A100 with the following pairs of speakers:

1. Dali ZENSOR 3 (bookshelf - mounted on stands) - £310
2. Dali ZENSOR 5 (floor standing) - £549
3. Atacama MOSECO 6 (larger floor standing) - £729

The ZENSOR 3s sounded really good and they could actually push some good bass, however I think I preferred the overall depth of sound from the larger floor standing speakers. So I'm now thinking that I may go for these without a subwoofer.

I think I will buy some used speakers online so that my money goes a little further. However, I will buy the A100 from Richer Sounds as they were fantastic today and I would like to give them my trade.

How do these four used pairs of speakers compare and do they seem well priced?

1. B&W 603 S2 - £250
2. Monitor Audio Bronze BX5 - £300
3. Dali Zensor 5 - £320 (quite a saving over the new price I saw today)
4. Monitor Audio Silver RX6 Speakers - £550

It seems that the parameters of my original idea have changed somewhat. I spend lots of time listening to music in this room, so I think this will be a great investment.

Regarding the listening environment:

My desk is positioned against one of the walls in my dining room/study, the room is just over 4x4m with a wooden floor. If I went for floor standing speakers I was thinking of positioning the speakers on the back wall in each corner of the room.

If floor standing speakers seem overkill for this environment/for primary use with a computer please say.

Thank you so much for your advice. I have so much to learn in this area.

EDIT: Just noticed that the used Dali Zensor 5s are in pretty poor cosmetic condition - hence price (it did seem too good to be true) - I will avoid that particular pair.

Hi again,

Just another quick update. I've had a read about these 4 pairs of used speakers on What-HiFi and a few other sites and they all seem pretty good, so don't worry about feedback on those. The RX6s being the best and the B&W 603s being the most entry level out of these.

However...I did also have a read about the Q Acoustics 3020 bookshelf speakers and 3070S subwoofer mentioned above. They appear to be very highly regarded, so I'm now giving these serious thought.

There is a large part of me that would love to get some floor standing speakers, but i'm thinking that the Q Acoustics setup may be better for my PC and the dining room/study - they would also fit nicely on my desk with the subwoofer on the floor next to it.