Hifi system for computer?

Andy Pandy

Andy Pandy

Andy Pandy

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Hi all. I am sorry to ask some really silly questions but I know absolutely nothing about sound sytems!
I am wanting to have a really nice speaker system for my computer so I can listen to Spotify, youtube videos and anything else I throw at it. I am currently using a Creative Labs Megaworks THX 5.1 550 which is showing its age. I really want the speakers to be loud and really rock the house. The volume and bass from my Megaworks 5.1 is very good, but it could be better.

I have been suggested to get a T amp (I have no idea what this is) and a pair of speakers to go with it. I have looked at a well known store that sells rich sounding hifi systems and there is a bundle which comes with

Onkyo A9010 amp
Monitor Audio Bronze 2 speakers.

Is this a nice setup to go for? Should I go for something cheaper if its overkill? I don't even know how to connect it to the computer, do I need to buy a soundcard? I am using the onboard audio from my Gigabyte Z270x Gaming K5 motherboard at the moment.

Sorry if these are silly questions, any help is much appreciated :)

TLDR

Looking for great sounding speakers to connect to my computer so I can rock the house.
 
Funnily enough, I am looking to go down a similar route. I (will shortly) have a pair of B&W M1's that I thought would work well as PC speakers (I have one left over as a make-do centre speaker when I was setting up my 5.1 systems, and have just found a good deal on a second to pair it with). So I am looking for an amplifier to drive them.

My situation is slightly different in that I am also looking to drive another system in my office, for my DJ equipment. So I am looking for something that can drive 2 pairs of speakers and switch between them. A zone 2 if you will.

That discounts that Onkyo, to me, but should work well for you. When I was in my local hifi shop yesterday, the hifi guy (who I do trust), suggested that all this years amps at this price range are great, and mostly on par with each other. You can't really go wrong with any of them. So I am swaying more towards the Pioneer A20 myself because of the inclusion of the second zone. Bonus it is a few quid cheaper too. But the Onkyo was an award winner with What HiFi this year. So you won't go far wrong with that.

As for the connections to the PC. Well, the Marantz PM6006 does have an optical in. Which would be perfect for getting the audio out of the PC (assuming your motherboard has an optical out for the sound). I recently fitted a soundblaster Z card to my machine and that has an optical out. But the Marantz is a full £100 more expensive than the Onkyo or the Pioneer. I plan to use a simple 3.5mm jack to Phono RCA cable to get the sound out my computer and into the amp. As I doubt it is worth that extra £100 to me. And that will definately be an option for you. If you feel the need to invest in other equipment, then an outboard DAC would probably be the better place to spend money. Keep the signal digital until it is away from the interference from the rig.

On the speaker front, I can't speak to the MAB2's. I guess they will be similar to my B&W 685's, although all I have read about them suggests they are not quite as good. But then, neither are they quite as expensive. I'd imagine they will fill the room more than my M1's, but I do enjoy the sound of my M1's, and feel they are a better size to be used for a PC rather than full blown bookshelf speakers. The B&W 686's would make a fine choice though, sitting in between the M1's and 685's. I use them for rears on both my 5.1 systems, and they are really excellent little speakers.
 
The Onkyo is a stereo integrated amplifier, so you'll send analogue audio from your PC to it. That means you are limited to sound quality on the souncard, generally I find them to be noisy (like when you scroll a mouse) you can hear that from the speakers. Not all are like that, but I just use digital out into a avr instead.

A T-amplifier is a small desktop amp, usually 10-50W, and they are pretty cheap, so you could get one of those put more money into the speakers. You don't need massive amounts of power when your speakers are 1 meter away from you.

Onkyo are quite bright, so are Monitor Audio from my experience, so it may not be a good match unless you want a very forward soundstage. Go and listen to a few speaker and amplifier brands.

However if you want "banging" loudness levels, then hifi isn't for you, just get some pro speakers and a pro amplifier.
 
The Onkyo is a stereo integrated amplifier, so you'll send analogue audio from your PC to it. That means you are limited to sound quality on the souncard, generally I find them to be noisy (like when you scroll a mouse) you can hear that from the speakers. Not all are like that, but I just use digital out into a avr instead.

A T-amplifier is a small desktop amp, usually 10-50W, and they are pretty cheap, so you could get one of those put more money into the speakers. You don't need massive amounts of power when your speakers are 1 meter away from you.

Onkyo are quite bright, so are Monitor Audio from my experience, so it may not be a good match unless you want a very forward soundstage. Go and listen to a few speaker and amplifier brands.

However if you want "banging" loudness levels, then hifi isn't for you, just get some pro speakers and a pro amplifier.
 
xs2man said:
Funnily enough, I am looking to go down a similar route. I (will shortly) have a pair of B&W M1's that I thought would work well as PC speakers (I have one left over as a make-do centre speaker when I was setting up my 5.1 systems, and have just found a good deal on a second to pair it with). So I am looking for an amplifier to drive them.

My situation is slightly different in that I am also looking to drive another system in my office, for my DJ equipment. So I am looking for something that can drive 2 pairs of speakers and switch between them. A zone 2 if you will.

That discounts that Onkyo, to me, but should work well for you. When I was in my local hifi shop yesterday, the hifi guy (who I do trust), suggested that all this years amps at this price range are great, and mostly on par with each other. You can't really go wrong with any of them. So I am swaying more towards the Pioneer A20 myself because of the inclusion of the second zone. Bonus it is a few quid cheaper too. But the Onkyo was an award winner with What HiFi this year. So you won't go far wrong with that.

As for the connections to the PC. Well, the Marantz PM6006 does have an optical in. Which would be perfect for getting the audio out of the PC (assuming your motherboard has an optical out for the sound). I recently fitted a soundblaster Z card to my machine and that has an optical out. But the Marantz is a full £100 more expensive than the Onkyo or the Pioneer. I plan to use a simple 3.5mm jack to Phono RCA cable to get the sound out my computer and into the amp. As I doubt it is worth that extra £100 to me. And that will definately be an option for you. If you feel the need to invest in other equipment, then an outboard DAC would probably be the better place to spend money. Keep the signal digital until it is away from the interference from the rig.

On the speaker front, I can't speak to the MAB2's. I guess they will be similar to my B&W 685's, although all I have read about them suggests they are not quite as good. But then, neither are they quite as expensive. I'd imagine they will fill the room more than my M1's, but I do enjoy the sound of my M1's, and feel they are a better size to be used for a PC rather than full blown bookshelf speakers. The B&W 686's would make a fine choice though, sitting in between the M1's and 685's. I use them for rears on both my 5.1 systems, and they are really excellent little speakers.
Click to expand...


A AVR also adds HDMI switching, something stereo amps lack. I use a Yamaha 671 AVR, with Celestion A1 speakers. I've run this setup with some speaker speakers to make it 5.0, but I dropped to stereo as it's just too many speakers in the room already. But HDMI switching is useful, however I guess with Display port this isn't too important.

If you use a monitor for consoles, multiple audio/video sources then HDMI is useful. Also supports DD, DTS, room EQ, time alignment. Personally I do prefer stereo integrated amps, I found AVR lacking in power, over AVR's however for a computer system, the AVR is more useful- and AVR sound quality is "good enough" and don't need hundreds of watts of powers- a midrange AVR in 2.1 mode will provide plenty of power.
 
hornetstinger said:
The Onkyo is a stereo integrated amplifier, so you'll send analogue audio from your PC to it. That means you are limited to sound quality on the souncard, generally I find them to be noisy (like when you scroll a mouse) you can hear that from the speakers. Not all are like that, but I just use digital out into a avr instead.

A T-amplifier is a small desktop amp, usually 10-50W, and they are pretty cheap, so you could get one of those put more money into the speakers. You don't need massive amounts of power when your speakers are 1 meter away from you.

Onkyo are quite bright, so are Monitor Audio from my experience, so it may not be a good match unless you want a very forward soundstage. Go and listen to a few speaker and amplifier brands.

However if you want "banging" loudness levels, then hifi isn't for you, just get some pro speakers and a pro amplifier.
Click to expand...


Ah so the onkyo amp is no good then. What t amp wouls you recommend I look at getting? If the speakers are no good do you recommend those other ones you said in my other thread? I will mainly be listening to music whilst sitting at my desk. I’ll go to the shop soon and try whatever they have to offer.

What are pro speakers?
 
The Onkyo and Monitor Audio speakers aren't "no good" they may or may not be ideal, it really depends on your usage. I used a stereo amp for my computer, however with multiple sources, some not having analogue out at all, then I needed AV decoder, and amplifiers, so I had three boxes for a computer system- it was stupid. A AVR replaced all three.

Stereo integrated amplifiers are best for stereo sources, usually analogue output, CD player analogue out, etc. But if you add a DAC you can improve sound on digital audio sources, or bypass that devices own analogue section- say if you use a cheap motherboard with noisy analogue outputs.

Again, a stereo integrated amp may be the best option, if you don't need to have HDMI switching, or need DD/DTS decoding.
I haven't owned a T-Amp but I am aware of them, they seem good because they're compant amplifiers, so ideally suited for a desk. A AVR is pretty big, it'll take up most of it up.

Pro speakers are designed for clubs, pubs- they go loud, and usually efficient and easy to drive.

For budget system I'd look into Yamaha 300 or 400 series AVR's, with Q Acoustics 2000 series, or Wharfedale Diamond 9.0's. They are quite small but good sounding and fine for close listening. I use pretty big standmounts because I had them spare.
 
I’ll look into both stereo amps and Avr amps. I won’t need pro speakers by the sound of things then. This is going to be used in my bedroom, I have a big sized desk though so I should be able to accommodate a big amp and speakers.

Thanks for your replies. I’ll hopefully be able to try three things in the shop :)
 
hornetstinger said:
A AVR also adds HDMI switching, something stereo amps lack. I use a Yamaha 671 AVR, with Celestion A1 speakers. I've run this setup with some speaker speakers to make it 5.0, but I dropped to stereo as it's just too many speakers in the room already. But HDMI switching is useful, however I guess with Display port this isn't too important.

If you use a monitor for consoles, multiple audio/video sources then HDMI is useful. Also supports DD, DTS, room EQ, time alignment. Personally I do prefer stereo integrated amps, I found AVR lacking in power, over AVR's however for a computer system, the AVR is more useful- and AVR sound quality is "good enough" and don't need hundreds of watts of powers- a midrange AVR in 2.1 mode will provide plenty of power.
Click to expand...


Yes. I have a few AVR's kicking around. A couple of Onkyo TX-NR609's (running B&W 685/686/HTM61 5.1) and a Sony STR-DG910 (running a pair of Wharfedale 7.1's for the garage). The problem I often find when I hook my decks up to them is a small bit of lag (for DJ purposes). Well, I'm not sure if it is indeed lag, or just me not being used to them. But I dislike using AVR's for that purpose. So I currently run them through a NAD 310 with a pair of B&W LM1's. So my thinking is to swap out the NAD with a stereo amplifier cabale of an A/B configuration, and run the M1's for the PC and the LM1's for the decks. The PC and decks are in the same room, and it will never be a requirement to have audio from both on at the same time. I have no need for other sources as my xbox ones are each hooked up to a 5.1 system with either a 50" plasma or a 120" projector. So all I really need is nice, stereo sound output from my PC and my decks. My displays (3) in that room are fed from my RX480 (so no need for HDMI switching or the likes), or a separate macbook pro for the DJ stuff.

If it weren't for the DJ gear though, I'd probably agree with you. A 5.1/7.1 AVR would be a fine thing for running off a PC. For the OP for example. And you can get pretty good ones second hand, for not a lot of money. Assuming you don't need the AVR to do the new 4k HDR stuff, second hand, high range AVR's can be picked up for a couple hundred quid quite readily. I doubt my 609's would be worth much more than £150 or so no, and the Sony probably around £60.
 
Don't waste your money. There are standalone powered (and even with internal DAC) speakers that will serve you better, save you money, and save you a wiring and space consuming mess of HIFI equipment.

Look at an Audioquest Dragonfly with 3.5mm TRS to 6.3mm dual mono TS cable and a pair of JBL LSR305 speakers. That's about 300 squids. Or for 600-700 squids you could get a pair of KEF X-300A. The KEFs are a one box solution. No need for a DAC or sound card.

If money is no object, the KEF LS50 wireless for several thousand pounds are your best bet and will cause eargasms for the entire family without a doubt.
 
hornetstinger said:
The Onkyo is a stereo integrated amplifier, so you'll send analogue audio from your PC to it. That means you are limited to sound quality on the souncard, generally I find them to be noisy (like when you scroll a mouse) you can hear that from the speakers. Not all are like that, but I just use digital out into a avr instead.
Click to expand...

I've not had that problem.

OP... what is your size limit / budget?

The combo you've mentioned sounds OK... but you can go better or worse.

My PC uses a pair of Kef LS50s hooked up to a Yamaha S501 and I'm happy with the combo.

If you can handle the size / weight / price... these are epic and compete with things 5-10x their price:

https://www.arendalsound.eu/collections/1723-thx/products/1723-monitor

Get these and you'll never want a new set of speakers... they wipe the floor with the Monitor Audios but they are a bit more pricey.

I have the towers, center and sub in my living room.

The LS50s are very very good... with very good bass response for such a small unit... but the Arendals are otherworldly and will definitely tick the "shake the house" box.
 
mistersprinkles said:
Don't waste your money. There are standalone powered (and even with internal DAC) speakers that will serve you better, save you money, and save you a wiring and space consuming mess of HIFI equipment.

Look at an Audioquest Dragonfly with 3.5mm TRS to 6.3mm dual mono TS cable and a pair of JBL LSR305 speakers. That's about 300 squids. Or for 600-700 squids you could get a pair of KEF X-300A. The KEFs are a one box solution. No need for a DAC or sound card.

If money is no object, the KEF LS50 wireless for several thousand pounds are your best bet and will cause eargasms for the entire family without a doubt.
Click to expand...

I really wouldn't pay a £1200 premium just to have wireless gubbins... the wired LS50s are £800.
 
Thanks for the further replies. There are so many options for speakers it’s crazy! I have a budget of £300 to £400. I have a fairly big desk to put the speakers on, I may have to put the computer on the floor to fit an amp on though. The audio quest dragonfly option seems like an interesting one. Will I only need the dragonfly and the speakers with the cable to get things running? It’ll plug into my computers onboard audio ports?

I’m looking into all these options you’ve posted me. It’s a lot to take in for a beginner lol.
 
From what you've said, I agree with some posters above. I think you'll get far less bass with stereo hifi speakers and though it will go loud, not sure you'll like the sound.

If you want similar bass (ie overpowering bass) to your current system then look into 2.1 systems IMO.

Consider going to a hifi shop, take a cd you listen to and ask for a demo on a budget setup to get an idea of how it will sound. At least then you can make an informed decision.
 
I bought a pair of Monitor Audio Bronze 2 off an auction site for £230 and an pre-owned but unused Denon PMA-50 for £225.

I used it during building works with my PC as a stop gap, but now I just use the bluetooth ability of the AMP to let me use the speakers around the house when painting.

Have watched films using them without a sub, I was happy with them
 
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jellybeard999 said:
From what you've said, I agree with some posters above. I think you'll get far less bass with stereo hifi speakers and though it will go loud, not sure you'll like the sound.

If you want similar bass (ie overpowering bass) to your current system then look into 2.1 systems IMO.

Consider going to a hifi shop, take a cd you listen to and ask for a demo on a budget setup to get an idea of how it will sound. At least then you can make an informed decision.
Click to expand...

I really wouldn't recommend a subwoofer at this price point... just get better 2.0 speakers.

Cheap subs waffle too much and kill the sound quality.

hornetstinger said:
Or buy second hand. My £1000 standmounts cost £125. You won't find a better pair of new £125 speakers with superior sound or build quality than these

http://soundtrial.com/us/oc-content/uploads/0/7633.jpg
Click to expand...

Second hand is a good option at this price point.
 
crinkleshoes said:
I really wouldn't recommend a subwoofer at this price point... just get better 2.0 speakers.

Cheap subs waffle too much and kill the sound quality.
Click to expand...

I agree. But "I really want the speakers to be loud and really rock the house" doesn't scream quality or precision to me. I'm not sure the OP is after quality, rather bass and volume.

I would recommend stereo too, but I think the OP should have a demo of a budget set in eg richer sounds, just to get an idea of whether he likes the sound. If he's after loads of bass, a 2.1 setup would suit his needs better IMO - after all, he seems to like the sound of the current creative 5.1 setup.

What your or I think sounds better isn't necessarily what the OP thinks sounds better.
 
crinkleshoes said:
I really wouldn't pay a £1200 premium just to have wireless gubbins... the wired LS50s are £800.
Click to expand...

Yes, and then you need to spend at least 1500 squids on a proper high power amp and good quality DAC to feed them, so at the end of the day, the cost is the same. Also they're not exclusively wireless, you can run USB directly to them.
 
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