New speakers needed!

MonkeykingZX

MonkeykingZX

MonkeykingZX

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Cambridgeshire
Want to upgrade my rather lacklustre x-530's, looking for a decent 2.0/2.1 system, budget will be between £150 and £200 depending on whether some mm stuff sells :)

Currently have an Asus Xonar D2X.

Hope you guys can point me in the right direction :D
 
Well, either AE Aego M, or maybe these new Corsair SP2500 speakers. Not sure how good those Corsair's really are TBH, without reviews. For £230, they'd have to be bloody good IMO. That's if you have very little desk space, and can only accommodate smallish satellite speakers.

Other options if you have space available would be a pair of larger active monitor speakers, or a stereo amplifier and some decent sized bookshelf/standmount speakers. Space permitting, if it were my choice to make, I'd get a stereo amp and some bookshelf speakers.

One thing you must consider, if you do think about going 2.0, is the difference in bass. Active monitors, or bookshelf speakers will have less, but far more accurate bass than over bloated 2.1/5.1 PC speakers. Some people don't like that, they like to hear overbearing bass, thus find cheap 2.1/5.1 speakers sound better than a decent stereo setup.

For £200 you can get a really good stereo amp and speakers. 2nd hand will buy you more for your money, but even new you can get some decent kit. Sound quality wise, PC speakers will sound crap in comparison.
 
Marsman said:
Well, either AE Aego M, or maybe these new Corsair SP2500 speakers. Not sure how good those Corsair's really are TBH, without reviews. For £230, they'd have to be bloody good IMO. That's if you have very little desk space, and can only accommodate smallish satellite speakers.

Other options if you have space available would be a pair of larger active monitor speakers, or a stereo amplifier and some decent sized bookshelf/standmount speakers. Space permitting, if it were my choice to make, I'd get a stereo amp and some bookshelf speakers.

One thing you must consider, if you do think about going 2.0, is the difference in bass. Active monitors, or bookshelf speakers will have less, but far more accurate bass than over bloated 2.1/5.1 PC speakers. Some people don't like that, they like to hear overbearing bass, thus find cheap 2.1/5.1 speakers sound better than a decent stereo setup.

For £200 you can get a really good stereo amp and speakers. 2nd hand will buy you more for your money, but even new you can get some decent kit. Sound quality wise, PC speakers will sound crap in comparison.
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What options would you recommend for Active monitor speakers?

or the amp option?

Just out of curiosity
 
Well, stereo amplifiers are not small, so obviously with that option, you would require more desk space than if you went for a 2.1 solution. Quite a few people put their monitor on top of the amplifier, which is fine, as long as one allows for ventilation. Amplifiers get pretty warm. If you have never looked at stereo amplifiers before, they are roughly 43cm wide, 30cm deep, and about 10cm high. Cambridge Audio Topaz A1 is a pretty decent budget starter amp, which new would cost £70. If buying 2nd hand, you can get one of the better models for probably about £100. NAD are another popular decent brand.

Active monitors are a decent option, like PC speakers, they have the amplifier built in, which is probably the way to go, if you absolutely had no room for a separate stereo amplifier. Active monitors can get pretty expensive pretty fast, especially for the quality brands. However, you can get some budget models which while are not going to be anywhere near the better quality models, will still offer decent performance for the price. An example of a decent mid budget monitor speaker would be M-Audio BX5A There is also the cheaper AV40's, also made by M-Audio, these are from the entry level line. I think they are currently about £110. In the same line there are also AV20's and AV30's, but I think they are best avoided, as the AV40's are easily better. The 20 and 30 models don't offer good enough performance for what they cost really, not in comparison to the AV40's.
 
+1 for active monitors.

I've been running a set of Behringer Truth 2031A for about 4 years now, I got one of the last few sets priced sub-£200 before they bumped them to ~£250ish.

They're technically overkill for typical PC desk use, as they're big, mid-field monitors meant to be positioned a couple of feet back from the listening position (ideally). You can find some great deals on more sensibly sized models for your budget that will give things like the Corsair 2.1 sets an absolute pasting. You might need to dial in some EQ depending on source, as they're designed to be as neutral as possible for critical listening, so could sound a little 'cold' out of the box.

Coupled with a BK XLS200 sub, mine are utterly fantastic for music and movies at sensible volumes, but stay totally composed right up to chest-thumping levels when I get the decks going.
 
I've just noticed, what the hell is it with the AV40's, they seem to keep increasing in price. I remember when they were £80, now they are £125.
 
Marsman said:
I've just noticed, what the hell is it with the AV40's, they seem to keep increasing in price. I remember when they were £80, now they are £125.
Click to expand...

This seems to be a common thing with monitors - the Alesis M1 Active mk2, for example, used to be <£200 for years, now £250, my Behringers are the same, the KRK RP series appear to have suffered as well.

I guess the weak £ is partly to blame here.
 
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