Harman-Kardon Soundstick III upgrade

Howling

Howling

Howling

Soldato
Joined
14 Sep 2008
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2,780
Location
Peterborough
Hey folks, currently running my HK Soundsticks as I have for 3 years now and wanting to upgrade. I was looking very closely at the Edifier S1000DB as I wanted to go for a 2.0 set up, but unfortunately I think they're too big. I'm space limited on my desk, which is what's causing me issues with finding a replacement - I think it's going to force me to go down the 2.1 route again. I looked at the Edifier E235, but it doesn't seem to review great for the price. I listen to Rock (ranging from old school Led Zepp, AC/DC, Black Sabbath etc) to current rock/prog rock/metal etc, play movies and games (but the games is the least important as I mostly use my Audio Technica ATH-M50X). Ideally I'm looking at spending ~£200, but I'm not averse to spending more if it's worth it.

Any recommendations and why?
 
Headed back into work now, I'll take a pic of my desk area this evening and post up -- but seriously, not much. I have a 34" ultrawide and 24" monitor on my desk D:
 
Pic.

hNO459U.jpg

I've shuffled stuff around to get as much space as I can, there's about 6 inches of clearance on the right of my monitor.
 
Yeah I'm not keen on the cloth at the front either, I think the mk1's looked nicer than these - but reviews say these are an improvement so that's what I went for :p
Currently running them in, already impressed with the mids and the overall clarity - the lows are surprisingly strong as well, which I wasn't expecting from such small speakers - I was expecting to need to add a sub but I think these might kick enough for me, I'll see how I get on with music/movies down the line.
 
Now I've spent some time with them, I'm definitely noticing the lack of lows.. Initially I thought they were strong because I basically wasn't expecting anything out of them, but after running with various 2.1/5.1 setups over the years I guess I've become accustomed to having much more low presence. Has anyone run these with subs - which subs are recommended? Not looking at mad money here but I've never been sub-shopping before so I'm not sure on pricing - is £100 enough for some form of quality?
 
hornetstinger said:
BK Gemini at the minimum
Click to expand...

I'll have a look at that.

Ideally what I want is something with a tight bass kick.. I've used some x.1 setups where the bass is just ... sloppy? Like spilling over where it shouldn't be - just present rather than punchy if you get what I mean. Logically I'd think the smaller speaker size would provide for tighter response? (I'm by no means a speaker guru, as you can probably tell).

Edit: Also to note, the room is reasonably small. Like <20m sq.
 
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Looking at these subs, it seems most (if not all?) seem to have stereo rca inputs - the Ruark MR1 only has single RCA sub out.. Is this going to be an issue :?
 
Yeah, when mine arrived I realised I didn't have a spare 3.5mm cable lying around - but I stumbled across a fibre cable that I'd had for like 10+ years unused (I think it came with my Logitech Z5500s actually) so I've been using that - sound great :p

Also, this Wharfedale SPC10 is a great compliment to the MR1s - provides that much needed bass that was... not entirely absent but not really strong enough imho from the MR1s. Makes for an expensive setup though, I only intended to spend a few hundred quid upgrading the HK Soundsticks - ended up spending over £500, that's largely due to the space requirements I had though - I'm sure it could have been done cheaper if I had space for bigger 2.0 speakers.
 
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