SPEC ME a good all purpose audio setup

Rain Man · 22 May 2006 at 19:58

Ive got about £230 for a decent audio setup

I was going to buy some logitech z5500's but i listen to a lot of music so im thinking some stereo speakers would be better?

i dont have a sound card im using onboard and im very new to the whole amps and shelf speaker stuff so what do i need?

I will be buying a sub at a later date for added OOMF

fish99 · 22 May 2006 at 21:20

Wharfedale 9.1s are supposed to be fantastic speakers. Some others to consider - Monitor Audio Bronze B2, Mordaunt Short Avant 902i, B&W DM601s. New prices are £180, £200, £150 and £250 respectively, although I just bought some MS 902is for £120 new and delivered. You can probably save 30-40% on all those prices by getting them used.

There's a roundup here which might be helpful-

http://www.monitoraudio.com/pdf/B2WHF206b.pdf

Maybe a used Rotel amp to go with them.

If your onboard sound has digital output you could buy a DAC and not need to worry about a new soundcard. I don't know much about DACs though so you'd have to ask someone else about that. Or you could get something like an M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 soundcard which will do a nice job with stereo music. If you're going to be playing some games too then an X-Fi isn't a bad choice, especially since you can (or so I'm told) bypass the upmixing it does by using it in audio creation mode.

Maybe consider some stands as well.

Bare in mind where the speakers are going to go (in particular how close to a wall), when picking them since the ones with front bass ports (B&W, Wharfedale, B&W) are more flexible about positioning than the rear ported MS which need to be 30-40 cm from the rear wall.

tom_nieto · 23 May 2006 at 01:49

Stereo speakers and an amp is your best option. If you are willing, look into some second hand kit as you'll get a lot more for your cash.

Rain Man · 23 May 2006 at 09:29

ive been looking at the home entertainment thread and people have all sorts of pre amps and crazy things

could you recommend me just a simple piece of kit which i womnt get confused with lol. Justbasicly an amp which can drive some nice speakers and a sub, maybe a decoder? floor speakers. thats about all i can get for 250 i think?

cheers

fish99 · 23 May 2006 at 14:16

You don't need a decoder if you're getting stereo speakers, you just need a stereo inegrated amp. Look on ebay in the 'home audio/hi-fi->amplifiers->integrated amplifiers' section. An integrated amp has the pre and power amp built into one unit and are obviously cheaper than two seperate units, and exactly what you should be looking at given your budget.

Then those four sets of speakers I mentioned are among the best bookshelf speakers for under £250. Get them used though. Nothing wrong with floorstanders if you have room for them, but they are designed for larger ground floor rooms. What kind of room is it for?

Definitely don't need a sub with either bookshelf or floorstanders if it's for music. Floorstanders tend to go deeper than bookshelf though, but that doesn't mean bass is lacking on bookshelf speakers.

Again, think about where they are going to go when deciding whether you want front or rear bass ported speakers.

You really need to do some research yourself, rather than just ask for a single recommendation, or at least ask on a dedicated hi-fi forum rather than a PC forum. Also, what suits someone else you might think sounds horrible.