Bookshelf speakers £100

Bacon?

Bacon?

Bacon?

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Sounds like a bit of a spec me thread but in reality I know fairly well what I want, I think.

I've currently got a pair of Edifier 1600T's connected to a Asus Xonar DG sound card, which I like quite a lot.

I'm now thinking of replacing these with either a pair of Edifier 1280T's or Microlab Solo 8C's, unless anyone else has any better ideas?

I'm really not that clued up on my Hi-Fi understanding, and hear people talk about getting a separate sub woofer with amplifier (is that correct?) to go along with a pair of 2.0 speakers. Now if thats case would I be better off getting a sub woofer and amplifier and connecting it to my current speakers than upgrading to some new speakers minus that. If that makes sense.

Thanks for reading :)
 
It really depends on what you want to 'improve'..

If you want loads of bass, and that is all that is currently missing from your current setup, then a Sub is a good idea, although getting anything half decent for £100 is tough, £150 would net you something useful. On this subject, the R1280T's don't go as low as your current R1600Ts, so bear that in mind, they would sound a bit thin in comparison and would definitely need a sub IMO. The Solo 8C's have more bass, but not sure if the overall audio quality is better/worse than the R1600Ts.

If you want to improve overall quality, I am not sure, the R1600Ts are OK (I have the boxier Mk II version), but I would suggest going down to richer sounds are demo'ing#
QAcoustic 2020
QAcoustic 3010
Dali Pico
Dali Zensor 1
Wharfedale 220
Which spans everything really notable in the £100-£200 region, and then you'd need a small amp on top (£50-£100 for a Topping/SMSL T-Amp).
 
I possibly could stretch to £150 with the sub on top, I'll take a look.

I don't really have an issue with my current speakers but I figured if I upgraded to something slightly more expensive as it were then I might have a clearer richer sound quality at the lower volumes, for single room use rather than a party as it were.

I guess I do like the bass though I rarely turn it up very high, its a nice addition but not something I had focused on. Most of my music tends to be either symphonies or pop-rock.

I'll take a look over the ones you linked thanks :)

Edit: So better clarity between the frequencies and a richer sound than my existing speakers would be nice I guess, and then if I can get a sub woofer (gotta look those up now) for the bass at a reasonable price.
 
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I think the best thing to do is pop into a local richer sounds, they have loads of speakers you could try, and really that might help you if a pair leap out as sounding 'right' or if they pretty much sound the same to you as the 1600T's.. There is no point spending anything if the speakers aren't giving you something noticeably better to your own ears.

I personally much prefer my hifi bookshelf speakers to my R1600T's but that's me, I auditioned a load in Richersounds, the main limiting factor is desk space for me, and the DALI Zensor Pico's really had the qualities that I prefer, but I can see how other people may prefer any of the others, or be perfectly happy with the R1600T's, everyones ears and preferences are so different!
 
Ok thanks, I might see if there any stores nearby since I don't own a car I am reliant on public transport.

Can I ask what did you not like about the R1600T's? These are the first 'proper' speakers (as in decent quality ones) I've owned so compared to everything else I've had I love them but I know they aren't a top range speaker so wanted to see where the 'upgrade path' went on from here if that makes sense.
 
The 1600s are quite neutral almost to a fault - some might find them dull compared to speakers with a more "fun" frequency response - the original ones can also sound a bit strangled if they don't have enough space behind them for the port as well.

Would second what Demon said - the real difference upgrading wise short of throwing a lot of money at it is the bass response - you'd have better results as suggested trying a few different speakers and finding what sound works for you if you want so change things up a bit.
 
Yea the thing about going down the hifi route is the cost would become much higher once with things like amps thrown it. My Q3010 sounds better than my Edifier 1600T yes, but not like miles better due to the fact that the 1600T is performance exceed its asking price (for though of us who got it for £50 anyway). Any bookshelf speakers that exceed the performance of the 1600T plus a semi-decent stereo amp would be costing in the region of £150-£250 and higher...
 
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The at the time largely unknown name and some minor imperfections in the sound quality stopped them being £200+ speakers - from a well known brand they'd have easily commanded a much higher price tag (atleast going by the mine - assuming they all have the same quality and not like some brands who then switch to lower quality stuff once they've made their name). So upgrading and getting something that actually sounds better for your money in terms of pure sound quality rather than personal taste requires throwing quite a bit of money at it :S

EDIT: I'm more impressed with the amp on mine than the speakers though - its almost entirely noiseless and performs well compared to some decent spec stand alone speaker amplifiers.
 
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Ok so I plan to take a trip to the shop and listen to what other speakers sound like in comparison, in terms of the R1600's I bought them quite late, they're only about a year old at most I think, I remember they were being sold for a long time before I got them.

I'm not particularly impressed by my Asus Xonar DGX compared to the onboard sound with these speakers and my headphones, barely notable difference. If I come back happy with how my current speakers sound I thought of buying a Creative Sound Blaster Z card and then a sub (does it need to be paired with an amp?) like the Yamaha YSTFSW050. Thoughts? :)
 
Yeah, there are a few versions of the R1600T's..

I have the R1600T+
00ZwSS9.jpg


The newer ones are angled, and look quite different:
RA2CnQs.jpg



Mine are OK, but not as good as the bookshelfs I demo'd, and being honest they've never sounded amazing, but I think that's me, I ended up putting them in the kitchen purely because they really don't sound good when turned up and just don't sound exciting, but that's coming from someone that enjoyed the corsair SP2500's..

It'll be interesting to see what you think after demoing some bookshelfs if there is any difference for you.
 
Certainly best to take a trip to your local RS and have a listen of some speakers that are within your budget. For what they cost the Edifier speakers perform well above their price tag, but you might find something like Q Acoustics 2020i, or similar speakers a noticeable improvement over the R1600T. Might come down to sound signature as Rroff says. Some HiFi speakers might present a more exciting sound; entirely depends on the individual. If you are looking for more bass, you'll find that with larger speakers; whether they be HiFi, or something like Microlab Solo 6/7/8C.

If do decide stick with the Edifier's and decide to add a subwoofer, best to spend the extra on a Tannoy TFX. £70 or below on a subwoofer is no money, and a waste of time in my opinion. Although that Yamaha does get good comments, it's only got a 6" driver. You can get larger woofers/drivers in many of Microlab speakers. TFX sub has an 8" driver, which is much better for subwoofer. Bigger is better, but bigger is also going to cost more. The TFX sub has a good ratio of size, performance and cost.

These subwoofers have their own internal amplifiers, so just need to be connected up. As the Edifier speakers have no subwoofer connection, the volume for the subwoofer will have to controlled independently.
 
I knew you guys would say spend more money on a woofer :p

I have to take 3 busses to get to the store so fun trip ;)

I have the original R1600T+ like you linked but it was in reference to a comment earlier about whether the might have revised the model with cheaper components once the brand was known.

And Marsman I am confused by what you mean by "These subwoofers have their own internal amplifiers, so just need to be connected up. As the Edifier speakers have no subwoofer connection, the volume for the subwoofer will have to controlled independently."

Do you mean that buying a subwoofer with the current speakers would require a connection to the PC directly because the edifier speakers do not have a connection for a standalone subwoofer.

Thanks for all the help by the way
 
The vast majority of subwoofers that are bought separately have their own amplifier. It's rare to find one that is what is known as 'passive', which is connected to another amplifier. That type only tend to come with low budget AV packages or those cheap all in one DVD based systems from Samsung, etc.

The subwoofer will need to be connected to the PC. You'll need to split the signal coming out from the PC to go to the speakers and subwoofer. There are some powered speakers that allow a subwoofer to be connected directly to them; either via an audio output or subwoofer connection. Most powered speakers though only have audio input, so any subwoofer has to share the signal coming from the source.

You could set the volume on both the speakers and subwoofer then control the volume within Windows; otherwise if you're changing the volume on the speakers themselves, you'd need to do that with the subwoofer, so to keep a balance.
 
Bacon? said:
Sounds like a bit of a spec me thread but in reality I know fairly well what I want, I think.

I've currently got a pair of Edifier 1600T's connected to a Asus Xonar DG sound card, which I like quite a lot.

I'm now thinking of replacing these with either a pair of Edifier 1280T's or Microlab Solo 8C's, unless anyone else has any better ideas?

I'm really not that clued up on my Hi-Fi understanding, and hear people talk about getting a separate sub woofer with amplifier (is that correct?) to go along with a pair of 2.0 speakers. Now if thats case would I be better off getting a sub woofer and amplifier and connecting it to my current speakers than upgrading to some new speakers minus that. If that makes sense.

Thanks for reading :)
Click to expand...

I'd put it to you this way, you're already running £100 worth of audio, and not a bad setup at that. If you want to improved audio you'll have to up your budget.
A good set of book shelf speakers and a separate amp would cost around £180, and even then, its hard to say if you'll perceive a significant change.

Take a trip to richersounds and go have a listen! If you find something nice you could pair it up with something like a topping vx1. Bear in mind you loose all the dsp effects you get with a soundcard.
 
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Edit: Ok realised I made some mess ups then :D

So I visited the store and decided to keep with what I have currently, and spend around £220 later on in the year on some better speakers. However I would still like to upgrade with a subwoofer and possibly the soundcard. Now please tell me if I have this wrong, the soundcard acts as the digital to analogue converter, and an active speaker already has an amplifier so you don't need a separate one (or does a separate amplifier work on active speakers not just passive?). Now I don't plan on plugging headphones into my soundcard so would I better off getting a USB DAC to help improve the sound quality or does that make very littke difference when compared to a cheap sound card.

My next question is whats the best way of connecting my speakers and subwoofer to either a sound card or USB DAC (they don't do PCI variants do they?), is it a simple as a 3.5mm splitter coming from the output of whatever I have plugged into the PC.
 
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Active/powered speakers have their own amplifier. They cannot make use of any amplifier other than the built in one. It's passive speakers that need a separate amplifier; HiFi speakers being the prime example.

If you don't plan to use headphones, then you could get a DAC, rather than a better sound card. I use a DAC rather than a sound card, because I don't care about gaming sound features any more and I really can't be putting up with the possible problems that can plague a sound card; such as driver issues and EMI.

If you're going to connect up a subwoofer to go with your R1600T speakers, then yes, you'll need a 3.5mm spitter if using PC audio output; RCA pass through or piggyback cable if using a DAC, as they tend to have RCA output.
If using a 3.5m splitter, you'll then need another cable which will allow the 3.5mm connection to be converted to RCA; which is the most common type of input connector on a subwoofer.


The sound card cannot act as an amplifier for speakers, because they require much more power than headphones, which it cannot supply.
 
Ok that makes a lot of sense, thank you. :)

In that case I'll get a DAC and a RCA splitter, what sort of price point should I be looking at for a DAC (any recommendation below £50 ideally).

With DAC's whats the common forms of connection they have if I want to connect to a PC, as I see the terms Optical and Coaxial terms used for imputs but I am unsure if my motherboard has those connections, this being my motherboard:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4140#sp
 
You've got optical output, so a FiiO D03K would be a decent low budget option. FiiO E10K would be better, but is primarily a DAC/headphone amp. Does have a line out for connecting speakers, and should you at any point decide to get headphones, you'd have the headphone covered already. If you bought just a DAC and did decide any some point that you want headphones, you'd have to get a headphone amp as well. Just a thought. :)

Not sure there's much choice for around the £50 mark for just a DAC. Although I wouldn't look to buy another sound card, the beauty of one is that there's a decent amount of choice for around £50. Maybe there are some DACs out there for around £50, that I'm not aware of.
 
What would be the best way to connect the RCA output from one of those to the set of speakers and woofer, would you just simply connect one set of cables to the L and go to the speakers and then the woofers to the R, or is it a lot more complicated than that.

Currently I'm thinking of getting 2x phono RCA cables with 2 splitters, one of each of the outputs of the DAC.
 
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Well if it's a D03K, then best way would be using a pass through RCA cable; sometimes called piggyback cable. The plugs that connect into the RCA socket have an extension socket on them, to which you connect another RCA cable; so effectively you have two cables coming from the one output. One cable will go to the speakers, and the other to the input on the subwoofer.

Because RCA is one socket per channel, one for left and one for right, just as it in on the Edifier's input. So you'd need two RCA pass through cables and two standard straight RCA cables to from the pass through cable to the subwoofer. You could probably just use one though, as the subwoofer is only the one channel; unlike stereo speakers which are two, left and right.

If you're going to use 3.5mm output, then you could use the 3.5mm to 2 RCA cable you're likely using currently, but before connecting to the speaker, connect a passthrough cable first, which will go to the subwoofer, then the RCA connector into that.
 
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