2.1 Speaker Upgrade

skeletonw00t · 4 Jan 2020 at 22:52

Hi all,

I'm currently using Acoustic Energy Aego M 2.1 speakers & a SB Z sound card. The speakers have been great but are about 8 years old now & have started to notice a slight bit more static sound when quiet.

I think the sound card is fine so I'll stick with that.

For a decent set of 2.1's what are the best "bang for buck" recommendations atm? I don't want to spend too much, but at the same time, I definitely do not want to take a step back in sound quality.

I've looked at these:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/crea...g-speaker-system-51mf0470aa002-sp-188-cl.html

and read some reviews, they seem to do well & was considering getting them. Does anyone else who has them have any feedback, or any other recommendations? I'm also open to a 2.0 bookshelf set up if thats better....

Mcnumpty2323 · 4 Jan 2020 at 23:06

Love my old Harmon kardon sounds tick 3
The look of them is marmite
Ie usually people love it or hate it
But sound quality is great
Mine were around a hundred and twenty quid
But the newer ones probably are wireless and have rgb leds in them as is the trend for almost everything now adays
So probably make them more expensive

skeletonw00t · 4 Jan 2020 at 23:59

yes I need them due to RGB hehe

Mcnumpty2323 · 5 Jan 2020 at 00:03

skeletonw00t said:
yes I need them due to RGB hehe

Must actually admit because they are clear plastic or acrylic whatever it is
That they could probably look really good if the leds have been done well
Haven't looked in case it makes me want the new version lol

skeletonw00t · 5 Jan 2020 at 00:13

this is my MOBO btw

https://www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/ROG-Strix-X570-F-Gaming/

Mcnumpty2323 · 5 Jan 2020 at 00:22

skeletonw00t said:
this is my MOBO btw

https://www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/ROG-Strix-X570-F-Gaming/

Nice I like the strix ones just upgraded from strix z270-e
Though went gigabyte for my x570 just for a change
Another thing you can do which I have~though depends how loud you can be with out annoying people lol
I also connected a TV sound bar and a second sub to go with the Harmon kardons
With the sound bar on the floor you get a reasonable virtual surround effect with out rear speakers behind you

Marsman · 5 Jan 2020 at 01:43

Real shame Acoustic Energy discontinued the Aego M 2.1 speakers. Along with the Soundsticks III, some of the best 2.1 speakers for around £100-£140. The Soundsticks III are still going, but after a quick search, they are £200 now?! That's quite a price hike from what previous edition cost.

Pretty much means there is nothing of any real quality for around £100 any more. Those Creative Kratos S5 2.1 speakers look like blinged up cheap rubbish in comparison, rather than anything made to sound good. There were a few people posting in a thread some time back, who had trouble with those Kratos speakers.

Edifier make some very good stereo speakers, so I'd put more faith in Edifier offering better sounding 2.1 speakers than Creative or Logitech for £100.

Hybridtheory · 5 Jan 2020 at 02:21

Have a read here too.. https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/looking-for-decent-2-1-speakers.18855591/#post-32762267

JasonM · 5 Jan 2020 at 12:23

The problem with 2.1 speakers is the satellite speakers tend to be to small, so you end up with a gap in the mid range frequencies.

The better setup is mid size desktop / studio speakers, then add a sub to give gentle fill in of the lower frequencies, this will be much more enjoyable for listening.

I run an Edifier S530 that's a 2.1 system, however I have changed the satellite speakers to some Yamaha piano craft NX-E700, the overall sound is superior to the Edifier supplied satellite speakers, yet i'm still using the same Edifier sub and Edifier amp. Source I use an Asus Essence ST, old card but still high end and totally superior to the Gigabyte motherboard audio that's junk in comparison to the Essence.

The best sub is one that's invisible! What I mean by this, is when your listening to audio it should sounds like all the audio is from the 2.0 speakers, and only when the sub is turned off do you notice the effect it was having, this is what I'm referring to when I say gentle fill in of the sub.

The other thing that's critical is speaker position, you have to position the speakers so your sitting position is in a center of a triangle. Also how far speakers are apart, and how far speakers are from a wall, also the turn-in and height. For this you need desk speaker stands, also speaker isolation is critical to reduce residence It's beyond the topic of this thread, but you could have speakers £500+ speakers, and they could perform less than correctly setup £100 speakers.

Not sure if that's helped or confused, but if you want good 2.1 audio everything above needs consideration. Myself i'm a software engineer that often work from home, when I work I always have music on, so if your like me it's worth investing time/resource into the audio setup.

skeletonw00t · 5 Jan 2020 at 23:36

yeah i get what you mean.

I was looking at the SB Kratos S5's as the sat's seem relatively big compared to some others! and the reviews all seems good & finally, the price is attractive!

JasonM · 5 Jan 2020 at 23:48

skeletonw00t said:
yeah i get what you mean.

I was looking at the SB Kratos S5's as the sat's seem relatively big compared to some others! and the reviews all seems good & finally, the price is attractive!

The thing with gaming speakers such as those Creative ones, is they tend emphasise the high and low sounds. For games and action films this is maybe ok, but general listening / music this is not good.

What is the requirement, if it's music you should be looking at something better then those Creative speakers. For general listening a good pair of 2.0 Edifiers would be better.

skeletonw00t · 7 Jan 2020 at 22:24

so i ended up getting the LG G560... mainly for the looks & they go with my RGB scheme.

They connect via USB, so I didn't realise they don't use my soundcard! that was a bonus at least, as it unblocks fully the air flow to the gfx card & de-clutters the case more.

Question though - will the sound be good enough without a soundcard? i read they have one built in etc& they sound decent, but i'm surprised/miffed & impressed all at the same time, that soundcards just don't seem to be used anymore

JasonM · 7 Jan 2020 at 22:35

skeletonw00t said:
Question though - will the sound be good enough without a soundcard? i read they have one built in etc& they sound decent, but i'm surprised/miffed & impressed all at the same time, that soundcards just don't seem to be used anymore

Your sound card is quite reasonable and you should have kept it in the audio chain.

Your speakers have a DAC inside them, it won't be as good as your sound card, but those speakers won't have the resolution to notice much difference anyway. Those speakers you have purchased will probably have a $5 DAC inside of them, compared to the $20 DAC components on your sound card.

What you really should have done is purchased speakers that take input from your sound card, this way at least the money was going towards speakers and amp components inside of them. That said if your happy with what you have purchased, and the style of them match up with existing computer, then keep using them.

aoaaron · 7 Jan 2020 at 22:51

skeletonw00t said:
so i ended up getting the LG G560... mainly for the looks & they go with my RGB scheme.

They connect via USB, so I didn't realise they don't use my soundcard! that was a bonus at least, as it unblocks fully the air flow to the gfx card & de-clutters the case more.

Question though - will the sound be good enough without a soundcard? i read they have one built in etc& they sound decent, but i'm surprised/miffed & impressed all at the same time, that soundcards just don't seem to be used anymore

decent purchase given the size:sound ratio. I would have opted for edifier speakers though.

general rule of thumb is buy speakers from people that make speakers, not from people who make mice/keyboards/speakers/trackpads imo.

there are exceptions of course.

Colonel_Klinck · 7 Jan 2020 at 23:06

I still have my original SoundSticks from 2003 as my daily use 2.1 speakers and they still sound great and are a design classic. Tempted to get the wireless version through.

Mcnumpty2323 · 8 Jan 2020 at 16:33

Motherboard on board sound now adays is really pretty good
Not saying it can out do a good sound card or satisfy an audiophile or some one doing professional sound stuff with their pc
But it comes at no extra cost unlike a sound card
Every ones hearing is of course different so it's down to how good does it sound to you really
But yeah good on board sound has really curtailed sound card sales I think
As for usb might be ok had usb headphones before with no major complaints about the sound but main disadvantage I can see right away is can't go plugging them into a lot of other equipment should you want to I would think
No matter what others say the main thing is still going to be
Do they sound OK to you?

And nice to see another soundsticks lover lol.
Ocuk don't sell them so should be ok to mention if you look around enough you can find the new soundsticks at a sensible price. Or even get a refurb set from Harmon kardon for about half price hopefully. Still with full years warranty though

JasonM · 8 Jan 2020 at 19:12

The on board audio on my on Gigabyte's Z370 HD3P was junk. When I say junk there was more background interference than cassette tape. The sound was thin and washed out, Amstrad and Alba in the 1980's probably had better sounding CD players. I plugged that Gigabyte Z370 into what would be £500 worth of amp, and £1000 worth of Yamaha speakers, that front end just revealed how bad the on board was.

The sound from the motherboard it's not even Hi-Fi quality, a Soundblaster 8 bit from the 1990's was more enjoyable to listen to. Just imagine the cheapest sounding, thinnest sounding digital source you have ever listened to, then add a load of interference, and that's how the onboard is.

One of these days i'm going to take the output from the Gigabyte motherboard into a high-end DAC, then i'm going to put the audio to You Tube so everyone can hear it.

b00merang69 · 8 Jan 2020 at 19:28

JasonM · 8 Jan 2020 at 19:33

b00merang69 said:
LOL

I'm going to do it, I'm going to take the audio from the Gigabyte, and put the source into a high end DAC, then put the audio onto you tube, then A/B with other sources. Then the whole world can hear it for themselves.

And just to mess with everyones head that thinks motherboard audio is good, i'm going to A/B the audio with a cassette tape, it's that bad the cassette tape will sound better in the A/B test.

b00merang69 · 8 Jan 2020 at 19:34

Was there any cooper bar separating the audio components from rest of Mobo (not that is was needed in the past and was mainly the analogue side)?