Need Decent Speakers

95thrifles · 16 Sep 2009 at 19:12

Hi

I currently have an asus xonar essence stx soundcard, and use goldring ns1000 headphones, this sounds great, I also have a pair of crappy logitech 2.1 speakers which dont sound so good and now appear to be dying on me too, sound is a lot quieter than it used to be and wont go loud for some reason, not too bothered about binning them, but curious as to what to get to replace

The soundcard I have is geared towards headphones I know, so does this effect my options of a decent speaker set up?

And then am I going to be better going for high end PC speakers? If so which? Still after 2/2.1. Or low end separates? and again if so which? and will I need a dedicated amp? again which?

link to soundcard if it helps decision making

Dont have a specific budget, just "reasonable"

Cheers

MikeHunt79 · 16 Sep 2009 at 19:17

mackie hr824's are quite nice.

PanchoVilla · 16 Sep 2009 at 20:52

I'm not best to advise, but for separate speakers, have a look at those T Amp's. First time I heard of them and they seem to be better than older 'last generation' amps by many times.

See reviews for Trends Audio TA-10.1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d17u3tBbE88

Sure there are more advanced users here Uriel, -Ad-, MikeHunt79 to name a few... so their advice is better.

Alexrose1uk · 16 Sep 2009 at 21:58

What's your budget range?

Reasonable can mean a huge thing to many people.
I mean I paid £110 the other day for some Mission 753s...to me thats a bloody bargain (and boy do they sound sweet, especially when coupled with a capable amp and sub), but to you that might be shellshock!

If you can though, go the seperates route; it will offer you a longer shelf life and further upgradeability in the future, IIRC your Xonar has phono output as well as the headphone amp?

If so something like 30W NAD, Cyrus, Cambridge Audio or the likes, second hand off the bay, coupled with some semi-decent bookshelf speakers will do you proud

95thrifles · 16 Sep 2009 at 22:53

youre right, reasonable is subjective, i'd of thought the sig in my rig would give a clue to the fact im not adverse to spending money though
Id say 2-300 but I really dont mind, if a quality setup can be had for 100 without much loss all good, alternatively if 400's gonna see blinding differences then ill spend it, my point was Im looking for the sweet spot of price/performance

MikeHunt79 · 16 Sep 2009 at 23:10

PanchoVilla said:
I'm not best to advise, but for separate speakers, have a look at those T Amp's. First time I heard of them and they seem to be better than older 'last generation' amps by many times.

See reviews for Trends Audio TA-10.1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d17u3tBbE88

Sure there are more advanced users here Uriel, -Ad-, MikeHunt79 to name a few... so their advice is better.

The TA-10.1 is a good recommendation, I'm quite a big fan of Tripath amps, so something like the Ta-10.1 is not bad even tho I have not heard it myself. It's based on the TA2024 which really needs to be paired with sensitive speakers. A TA2020 based amp such as the HLLY T-amp20 will deliver a little more power, and to my ears sounds a little nicer than TA2024 based amps. A decent PSU or battery is a must with T-amps however, it makes a big difference.

Quite a nice combo for around £250 is Kef IQ1's and a T-amp, who I think kef may make a slightly larger version which should give a little more bass extension.

If you don't mind soldering, you can't beat the bang for buck of a modded Lepai TA2020... For around £20 you can have an amp that sounds better than amps costing £200+, I kid you not!