SP2500's Dead. Looking to Move Foward.

WuMyster · 13 Dec 2016 at 23:11

I've had my SP2500's for I think 5-6 years now and I've loved owning them. I got them when I was a heavy FPS gamer and loved them. Also loved them for music.

Now I pretty much only listen to music and play League so there are probably better options than buying the SP2500's again.

Looking for recommendations. I've never branched out to studio monitors as I was never serious about my music but now I'd like to head in that direction. I'm running an ASUS Xonar Essence STX. I don't know much about good amps or DACs so if anyone has any good sites for info on them that would be much appreciated.

Budget is around £500 +- £100 really.

TIA

dacads · 14 Dec 2016 at 14:40

You could invest in a bundle such as the following:

https://www.musicmatter.co.uk/m-audio-bx5-carbon-pair-with-bx-sub-2-1-bundle

mistersprinkles · 20 Dec 2016 at 00:27

No need to spend that much. Pick up a pair of Presonus Eris 4.5 they are like 120 pounds. Sound great. I've got a pair. You will enjoy them. They come with everything you need in the box. Make sure you plug them into the RCA outs of your card NOT the headphone jack. It pushes too much juice.

If you want to step up from there get the JBL LSR305's. You will need a pair of mono RCA to 1/4" TS cables.

No need to buy an amp or DAC. Just get powered speakers. DAC wise your STX is high quality enough to handle most studio monitors without moving to a dac providing a major improvement.

dacads · 20 Dec 2016 at 10:51

mistersprinkles said:
No need to spend that much. Pick up a pair of Presonus Eris 4.5 they are like 120 pounds. Sound great. I've got a pair. You will enjoy them. They come with everything you need in the box. Make sure you plug them into the RCA outs of your card NOT the headphone jack. It pushes too much juice.

If you want to step up from there get the JBL LSR305's. You will need a pair of mono RCA to 1/4" TS cables.

No need to buy an amp or DAC. Just get powered speakers. DAC wise your STX is high quality enough to handle most studio monitors without moving to a dac providing a major improvement.

Yep, good thing is those also have a subwoofer you can buy separately:

Temblor T8/T10
JBL LSR310S

ATIorNvidia · 20 Dec 2016 at 19:42

JBL LSR305's are £200 currently and it's hard to get anything much better in the UK (No Vanatoo/Emotiva over here) without spending double/triple for something like Genelec 8030's so I'd just get the JBL's + a sub if you want one.

On the passive side you could consider something like a KEF Q100/300 + an amp

mistersprinkles · 22 Dec 2016 at 19:18

He could, but that's going to turn out pretty expensive. KEFs don't sound good on muddy amps or amps that don't have a good relatively transparent sound. Also you need a good 85W/channel to drive Q100/Q300 properly. With less they just don't sound right.

Still, Yamaha makes some decent amps and that's really not a bad option. Having said that, the KEF X300A's are basically Q100's with built in amp/dac and can be had much cheaper than any Q series/amp/dac combo and result in less desk clutter and less things to plug in.

For about half as much $ he can get the JBL LSR305 and an Audioquest Dragonfly Black DAC.