eltax monitor III

SAM81 · 18 Aug 2007 at 12:53

looking to get a new set of speakers for the pc. most of my music listening is done through the pc so i thought id invest in a decent set of book shelfs. the pc will run through to a fairly decent cambridge audio amp which will in turn drive the eltax III's.

thing is ill be using the onboard sound on the mother board and im wondering if this will be outputting a good enough signal to get the most out of the amp and speakers or would it be worth investing in a cheap sound card?

cheers

tom_nieto · 18 Aug 2007 at 13:37

A sound card will of course be better, but if you're buying the speakers anyway then you could try it and see if you're happy with the sound.

fish99 · 18 Aug 2007 at 16:57

Those speakers aren't awful (just a general comment, not saying anyone said they were awful), they still sound better than most PC speakers, and even with onboard sound they should still sound good. They're a bit tricky to setup though because the bass port is on the underneath and they have built in spikes. The spikes screw in half to leave flat feet, then you can put some pads on those and put them on your desk.

A soundcard would be a good investment as well though, especially a non-gaming one with good sound quality.

In some ways I prefer the Monitor 3's to the £180 Wharfedale 9.1s I used to own since at least the Monitor 3's are straight forward and uncoloured, even if they're not especially capable (compared to more expensive hi-fi speakers). The 9.1s were just trying miles too hard.

SAM81 · 18 Aug 2007 at 17:43

cheers for the replys guys, think ill go ahead and get them then see if i feel the need to add a soundcard later. yeah, read a few reviews on the monitors and they all state that the spikes can cause problems when setting them up, especially if trying to find some speaker stands.

fish99 · 18 Aug 2007 at 19:17

Yeah they don't go well on speaker stands - you never get them truely stable, even on stands with large top plates like my Atacama SE24s.

For a PC desk though, they're ok, not ideal but ok. Something with a plain flat bottom and bass port on the front or rear would be easier to work with though, and could go on stands at some point if you decided to use them in a traditional hi-fi setup.

Have a look on Super-Fi, plenty of other options available for around the same money or a little more.

SAM81 · 21 Aug 2007 at 22:05

well i went for the monitor III's and i have to say im very impressed. In terms of reference i have little to judge them by, just the old pair of jammo's that they are replacing, but the sound just feels more complete now, im definetly hearing parts of songs that i never picked up on before.

the thing is its got me thinking; what if i changed my amp! i can see this stereo lark getting expensive....!