Good 2.0 Speakers?

Got the T40’s this morning and am returning them. The sound isn’t as good as what I’m currently using, voices in games sounded like they have to much bass. And sounds in general are off, almost as if to much reverb.

If I was looking to splash the cash a bit more and went with active speakers such as the Ruarks do they have to go through a sub or are they good without? And how about connecting them to the PC, would an optical cable be best?
 
AStaley said:
Got the T40’s this morning and am returning them. The sound isn’t as good as what I’m currently using, voices in games sounded like they have to much bass. And sounds in general are off, almost as if to much reverb.

If I was looking to splash the cash a bit more and went with active speakers such as the Ruarks do they have to go through a sub or are they good without? And how about connecting them to the PC, would an optical cable be best?
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I am assuming you are getting the sound from your SoundBlaster Z soundcard? Have you made sure you have not have the surround or other effects switched off?

I have the T40 II along with Monitor Audio BX2 and Q acoustics 3010. Whilst the latter 2 are better, I don't think the T40 II is as bad as the way you described it...something much be amiss. Have you already tried turning down the bass dial on the T40 II, rather than having it all the way up? For my T40 II, I turn the bass dial down to around 40%, as I feel that the bass as default (50%) is affecting the mids and highs of the sound slightly. I would advise play around with the bass and treble dials a bit before making up your mind.
 
Marine-RX179 said:
I am assuming you are getting the sound from your SoundBlaster Z soundcard? Have you made sure you have not have the surround or other effects switched off?

I have the T40 II along with Monitor Audio BX2 and Q acoustics 3010. Whilst the latter 2 are better, I don't think the T40 II is as bad as the way you described it...something much be amiss. Have you already tried turning down the bass dial on the T40 II, rather than having it all the way up? For my T40 II, I turn the bass dial down to around 40%, as I feel that the bass as default (50%) is affecting the mids and highs of the sound slightly. I would advise play around with the bass and treble dials a bit before making up your mind.
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Thanks for the reply. Yes, I tried different bass/treble settings and also played with the audio settings within the SoundBlaster software and couldn't get it to a level I was comfortable with. It was either to much bass or certain sounds or hallow in others, nothing in between.
 
AStaley said:
If I was looking to splash the cash a bit more and went with active speakers such as the Ruarks do they have to go through a sub or are they good without? And how about connecting them to the PC, would an optical cable be best?
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Depends on your preference I guess. Some people will tend to want to add a subwoofer to smaller stereo speakers, others will be satisfied with the bass. Having a sub out connection is handy though is it makes it much easier to add one if need be. You can add a subwoofer to active speakers that don't have a sub out, but it's not as straight forward.

I think it's best to use optical to the speakers, whether it's from sound card or motherboard. There's no advantage to using analogue input unless you've got a really good quality DAC to connect them to and even then, I'm not sure there'd be much difference over the built in DAC to justify the cost.
 
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AStaley said:
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I tried different bass/treble settings and also played with the audio settings within the SoundBlaster software and couldn't get it to a level I was comfortable with. It was either to much bass or certain sounds or hallow in others, nothing in between.
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With good speakers you don't need to fiddle with bass or treble controls. It sounds great in bypass.
 
AStaley said:
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I tried different bass/treble settings and also played with the audio settings within the SoundBlaster software and couldn't get it to a level I was comfortable with. It was either to much bass or certain sounds or hallow in others, nothing in between.
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From the way you described, I cannot help but to feel it is a sound card issue rather than the speaker issue.

What about have you tried connecting the T40 II to other audio device; like your phone for example?
 
hornetstinger said:
With good speakers you don't need to fiddle with bass or treble controls. It sounds great in bypass.
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It's really more to do with personal preference to be honest. The default setting for the T40 II the bass at neutral the audio is a bit on warm side, so for people that prefer more neutral sounding such as myself, having the option to adjust the bass lower allowing more clarity for the mids and highs is not necessarily a bad thing.

Hell, I wish there was an option like that for adjusting my X1 headphone to recess the bass a little for better clarity in the mids and highs to be heard :p
 
Marine-RX179 said:
From the way you described, I cannot help but to feel it is a sound card issue rather than the speaker issue.

What about have you tried connecting the T40 II to other audio device; like your phone for example?
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No, just the PC. I disabled all enhancements on the Soundcard as well. Mute point now as I've returned the speakers, I'll wait until the end of the month and then pick up a pair of the Ruarks MR1's as the reviews for those look really good and they are about the right size.
 
AStaley said:
No, just the PC. I disabled all enhancements on the Soundcard as well. Mute point now as I've returned the speakers, I'll wait until the end of the month and then pick up a pair of the Ruarks MR1's as the reviews for those look really good and they are about the right size.
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Sound card (driver) can be flaky at time in terms of reliability.

I hope that it really was the issue with your particular T40 II and using the Ruarks MR1 would be the answer to issue. But if the Ruarks MR1 also sound bad connecting to your PC, then you'd know where the problem lies.
 
Fairly certain it's not driver/sound card, might even just be me I've had my current speakers for such a long time I've probably grown accustom to them. Also I'll probably pickup a AE-5 in the not to distant future as I'll probably build a new PC.
 
AStaley said:
Fairly certain it's not driver/sound card, might even just be me I've had my current speakers for such a long time I've probably grown accustom to them. Also I'll probably pickup a AE-5 in the not to distant future as I'll probably build a new PC.
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Actually I just remembered something...I think I have actually experienced in the pass about what you meant about the "hollow sounding" that you describe.

Just get an idea, for your old 2.1 speaker set-up, you have the sub on the floor but the satellites speakers on the desk is that correct?

The thing about about T40 II is that its bass/low frequency would actually go all the way down to 35Hz, which means the bass would actually be comparable to , if not even lower than some 2.1 speakers; most studio speakers 4" inch bookshelf speakers will only go down to around as low as 70Hz Hz, which is good enough for music, but it's lack the rumbling sound effect for explosions in games and action movies etc.

The problem with the T40 II is that the low frequency and heavy bass if use on a bog standard desk with either MDF or chipboard, the sound will become distorted. A 2.1 speaker will not have this problem as the satellite speakers will only go down to as low as 120Hz, and anything below that will be pass onto the sub to handle (which is place on the floor rather than on the desk in most cases), and the highs and mids come out from lows essentially come out from separate units rather than altogether from a set of 2.0 speakers.

Believe or not, I have had the same issue even with my Monitor Audio BX2 on my desk, due to its bass/low frequency go down to quite low as well (down to 38Hz) and I was not getting the audio quality I was expecting with the sound (particularly the bass) sounded distorted rather than tightly controlled with precision. I gotten the IsoAcoustics ISO 130 Studio Monitor Stands and have my BX2 sitting on it on the desk, and it has minimised the distortion and sound very good now.

I actually gone from the T40 II, to the Edifier R1600T II Plus, and BX2 with the same distortion problem, before actually realising the problem lies with my desk, not the speakers. It's been a long time since I had this issue, so it was completely at the back of my mind.

Not saying your issue is definitely this as well, but it might worth to keep this in mind.
 
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Interesting, not something I would ever have given any thought to but it does make sense. And, yes you are right in your assertions about my setup.
 
The Ruarks are great i had the old pair which was the MR1 without the optical so i got a M/F V90 Dac and kept that now i have the new MR1 MK2 but still use my Dac for 2 reasons really 1 cause i don't have optical on my motherboard and 2 cause i use Magni 3 Headphone amp with my Dac for my Audeze LCD-2C. Regarding Bass on the Ruarks they do produce decent amount of Bass for such a small speaker but i had mine on stands and near the Wall which helped and i had it like that for few years. Now i got a Rel T Zero Sub and its a lot better for a bedroom setup its great
 
AStaley said:
Interesting, not something I would ever have given any thought to but it does make sense. And, yes you are right in your assertions about my setup.
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Also for reference while I love my Q Acoustics 3010 + Creatives X7 + sub combo as well as Monitor Audio BX2 with A100 Stereo Amp, I can tell you that you really need reasonable distance away from them at where you sit and have the volume turned up to above a certain level in order for them to sound at their best; typically if you are only sitting at like with the bookshelf speakers within arm reach distance, at low volume level (relatively speaking) of the speakers some details may actually not be presented or apparent to you.
 
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Got my Ruarks MR1 MK2 connected to the SBZ with an optical cable. So far the sound is okay, still feels a little hollow in game so not sure if I need to change anything. I’m certainly more comfortable with these than the T40’s, music when the volume is turned up is awesome.

On the Ruarks I’ve turned the inputs up to 3 which seems to help, all SB control panel settings are on defaults. Within the sound settings for W10 do I need to enable any higher sample rates (set at 48kHz), think it’s currently on 24bit48kHz? Also do I recall correctly because I’m going through optical the settings with SB control panel aren’t applied?
 
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