Low end speakers (~£50-£70) - 2.1 or 2.0?

Mr Jack · 12 Oct 2022 at 09:35

I'm looking to replace the old pair of Creative speakers that have served me well for... well, actually it's been so long I don't remember when I got them must be around twenty years... I'm no great audiophile so I'm not looking at blowing a large wad of cash on it but I don't want to just pick up some bargain bin crud, so my budget is in the £50-£70 range. My question is: at this kind of price is it better to pick up a 2.1 system or will I get better sound by skipping the subwoofer and just getting a two speaker setup?

Mr Jack · 12 Oct 2022 at 09:49

throwaway4372 said:
Skip the sub, they annoy people, get a nice 2.0 set.

As in annoy the person using it, or annoying other people? I live in a detached house in the middle of nowhere, only person I have to annoy is my wife and she's used to it

Mr Jack · 13 Oct 2022 at 10:18

Thanks, @Armageus, I took your suggestion and ordered the Edifier R1600T. Only €75 over here so pretty much bang on budget.

Mr Jack · 13 Oct 2022 at 15:39

Minstadave said:
A sub at this price point is going to be trash. Is the main use gaming or music?

Pretty mixed bag, music while I work, gaming, watching stuff all factor in.

Mr Jack · 13 Oct 2022 at 23:21

Minstadave said:
Did you read the OP? Or even the title?

Like, I could stretch the budget a bit...

Mr Jack · 15 Oct 2022 at 11:37

Thanks, @JasonM, that was the kind of information I was looking for. These need to go on my desk so size is limited for the left/right speakers anyway.

Mr Jack · 18 Oct 2022 at 12:17

Haggisman said:
Was going to recommend the Edifier Studio R1600T III, but it looks like you've already ordered them

Yes, I followed the suggestion from @Armageus. Literally just set them up in fact. Good looking speakers, solid build quality, nice and easily adjustable, and because they take separate left/right inputs I can swap them around to fit with where my PC sits on the left of the table. More importantly, they sound so much better than my old speakers: much better bass, much clearer in the higher stuff. There's probably audiophile words to describe what I mean, but I don't know them

Unfortunately there a couple of drawbacks:

1. Honestly, they're a little big for my desk, and I had to raise my second monitor not to block the speaker. I did wave a tapemeasure around to check before I ordered them, but it's hard to get an impression from that and I hadn't really figured on how comparatively hefty for desktop speakers they are until I saw them.
2. I'm going to have to buy some speakers to go with my TV now...

Mr Jack · 18 Oct 2022 at 13:24

Low budget, man, low budget!

Mr Jack · 18 Oct 2022 at 17:14

JasonM said:
All new speakers you should not be driven hard at very first, as the speaker material is stretching in that initial break in period. You start running all new speakers at low volume, then gradually build up the power. One way is to leave new speakers at low volume constantly playing in the background at first.

Didn't know that. Honestly though, I don't run them that loud anyway so I guess it'll be fine? These are desktop speakers: I'm running stuff at about normal conversation volume when sitting a metre away rather than running a disco.

Mr Jack · 20 Oct 2022 at 18:17

Problem 3: Now I can hear how cack the audio on about half of YouTube videos is.

Mr Jack · 10 Dec 2022 at 10:03

Guest2 said:
Interesting thread. OP was sorted by post 6 yet here we are 3 pages in with recommendations of £400 speakers

The worst thing is that after getting the new speakers, the quality of the built-in speakers on my TV started really annoying me and we ended up blowing almost €300 on a soundbar + subwoofer setup for the TV. So much for not spending too much on speakers!