Recommended Speakers - 2.0 or 2.1

Drollic · 21 Aug 2022 at 18:01

My JBL 2.1 setup that was a gift died recently having lasted something like 15 years. I know very little about sound equipment and what makes a good setup. I currently use soundmagic e11 buds for gaming and for the price I'm really impressed. They are noticeably better than the e10 model I also have which are pretty knackered.

Can anyone recommend some smallish satellite/egg/box speakers either with or without a sub. I don't need a sub and understand if you get one, for the equivalent price, the satellites therefore tend to be worse? Should I be using the 3.5mm jack from my board or trying to use USB into some kind of DAC built into some of the speakers? Some now seem to come with bluetooth but I thought this gave worse quality and can lag slightly? Looking for something costing no more than £150 max and ideally cheaper as it's just for youtube, music and twitch. Oh, and they need to be available in black

hornetstinger · 21 Aug 2022 at 18:11

Increase your budget

Do you have requirement of hdmi, surround sound down mixing, bass management, room correction?

I would recommend having a AVR. Speakers like q acoustic 3020i. Subwoofer like bk xls200.

That will cost a lot more than £150 though

Have a look at a avr back panel and decide if you need that connectivity.

Generally it's best to have a sub but that means spending £150-£6000 on a subwoofers. You can get away bit having a subwoofer in hifi system but typically then you use floorstander speakers.

A avr has a dac built in.

Another option is a digital integrated amplifier.

hornetstinger · 21 Aug 2022 at 18:22

You could use hdmi out from your PC, and consoles to get upto multichannel high Def sound, which you then downmix to stereo / 2.1

Having a AVR will allow you to go multi channel later on just add speakers as needed.

A stereo amp will generally sound better than a AVR however a avr will give you more features that help in a multi media system.

I use a avr in a pc / console system it's a 4.1 system.
Replacing the avr with a stereo amp means I lose hdmi audio/video routing, room correction, bass management, time alignment, surround sound decoding, hd audio decoding.

lsg1r · 22 Aug 2022 at 01:10

Edifier would be my suggestion if you want to stick in that price range, while covering your requirements. I was originally looking at getting a set but decided they were a bit too big (now looking at kanto yu2) but they do seem to get good reviews etc.
You can connect them via optical out (assuming motherboard in sig)

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Marine-RX179 · 22 Aug 2022 at 11:01

If you don't mind considering 2nd hand, you can get a Corsair SP2500 2.1 Speaker system for £75 with CEX, and it should have 12 months warranty cover as well.

With the remainder of the money, you could probably spend it on a USB external DAC or soundcard like those of Creative etc.

hornetstinger · 22 Aug 2022 at 14:25

Speaker shaped objects like that aren't designed for sound quality. Better to get quality.

JasonM · 27 Aug 2022 at 00:58

I would look at these Edifier R1855DB, then for source run a digital output from your motherboard. That's the best you will do for around £150 new. There are cheaper Edifiers but they don't contain a DAC, and that means running motherboard analogue audio that is normally never good. The R1855DB also contains a sub out port that could be used to add a sub later.

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Personally for me however, I would be searching out second hand studio monitors, looking at speaker stands, foam isolation, good quality source and other things. However your not in this category, so if you want something easy to setup, then above is probably your best solution.

arknor · 19 Sep 2022 at 06:34

avoid presonus whatever you do hum from the amp, gets worse over time, even if they are connected to only the wall socker the amp speaker has a slight hum.

google suggests it's normal for these speakers...

I literally have a pen on my desk leaning against the speaker cone to stop it from humming as for some reason they got worse the last few days.

speakers not blown because I never had them loud and never had the base turned up.

don't think I would ever buy a pair of powered speakers again tbh unless I could hear the exact pair I'm buying in a store before I took them home