Worthy upgrade from Edifier R1600T for <£150?
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Are the R1600T's the ones OCUK sold around 10 years ago for £50? If so I had some of those back in the day, they were pretty good for that money.
Have you put your R1600T's on desk stands and got them to ear level? I would be doing this first before upgrading speakers.
£150 is a limited budget, but would look at these.
www.overclockers.co.uk
If it was myself I would buy a pair of Adam Audio T5V's for around £240 (yes you'll have to pay more), but you'll get a proper upgrade and your sound card is enough to do them justice. You will need a pair of quality shielded RCA's cables also. You can get 3 meters pairs made up with Van Damme microphone cable for around £30. Again all this is over budget but you'll thank me if you can stretch to it.
Have you put your R1600T's on desk stands and got them to ear level? I would be doing this first before upgrading speakers.
£150 is a limited budget, but would look at these.
B Grade Edifier S350DB 2.1 Speaker Speaker System
Order B Grade Edifier S350DB 2.1 Speaker Speaker System now online and benefit from fast delivery.
www.overclockers.co.uk
If it was myself I would buy a pair of Adam Audio T5V's for around £240 (yes you'll have to pay more), but you'll get a proper upgrade and your sound card is enough to do them justice. You will need a pair of quality shielded RCA's cables also. You can get 3 meters pairs made up with Van Damme microphone cable for around £30. Again all this is over budget but you'll thank me if you can stretch to it.
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Are the R1600T's the ones OCUK sold around 10 years ago for £50? If so I had some of those back in the day, they were pretty good for that money.
Have you put your R1600T's on desk stands and got them to ear level? I would be doing this first before upgrading speakers.
£150 is a limited budget, but would look at these.
B Grade Edifier S350DB 2.1 Speaker Speaker System
Order B Grade Edifier S350DB 2.1 Speaker Speaker System now online and benefit from fast delivery.
If it was myself I would buy a pair of Adam Audio T5V's for around £240 (yes you'll have to pay more), but you'll get a proper upgrade and your sound card is enough to do them justice. You will need a pair of quality shielded RCA's cables also. You can get 3 meters pairs made up with Van Damme microphone cable for around £30. Again all this is over budget but you'll thank me if you can stretch to it.
Yup that's them! Think I got mine for £40 on a ocuk deal, bargain price back then!
They are on desk stands and pointing up at my ears, this did make a nice difference.
I'm not a big audiophile so wouldn't want to be spending much more and not something which is really needed since still very pleased with the edifier speakers, if they ever break, would spend a bit more though so may just wait till that happens
Surprised that there still doesn't seem to be anything worthwhile for a budget after all these years.Speaker technology doesn't really change much - speakers that were good 20 years ago are still just as good today unless they get abused/break.
I'd quite like some of the higher end edifiers, but my ancient T20's are still capable enough that I can't justify upgrading them.
I'd quite like some of the higher end edifiers, but my ancient T20's are still capable enough that I can't justify upgrading them.
I'd be surprised if the S350B is any better tbh, those speakers are quite small which I suspect is why they've added the sub.
Personally I'd be much more inclined to pick up something along the lines of the Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 or Monitor Audio Bronze BR2's with a mini amp, which should be easily doable for under £150, especially if you check the second hand market.
The Monitor Audio don't take much juice to run well so a £20-30 lepy amp would work extremely well, but they can be difficult to find.
Edit: There's actually a pair on the bay for £100 + £8 postage, I'd be all over them in your situation.
Personally I'd be much more inclined to pick up something along the lines of the Wharfedale Diamond 9.1 or Monitor Audio Bronze BR2's with a mini amp, which should be easily doable for under £150, especially if you check the second hand market.
The Monitor Audio don't take much juice to run well so a £20-30 lepy amp would work extremely well, but they can be difficult to find.
Edit: There's actually a pair on the bay for £100 + £8 postage, I'd be all over them in your situation.
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Soldato
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- 6 Sep 2016
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yeah I'd look for drivers bigger than 3.5" they won't provide enough bass without a subwoofer. 5.25" should be plenty for near field use without a sub.
I'm using some passive speakers with 6.5" woofers with a AVR, without a subwoofer although I do have options in using one of my existing subs...or get a small sub ie Wharfedale SW-150 or BK Gemini/XLS or similar.
Those Diamond 9.1 are regular speakers, apparently best to get near field monitors for desk use
I'm using some passive speakers with 6.5" woofers with a AVR, without a subwoofer although I do have options in using one of my existing subs...or get a small sub ie Wharfedale SW-150 or BK Gemini/XLS or similar.
Those Diamond 9.1 are regular speakers, apparently best to get near field monitors for desk use
If size is a concern then you should be able to pick up some Tannoy Reveal 402's within budget, sound can be kind of personal though so it could be worth auditioning them first if you can, or at least buying from somewhere with easy returns.
Compact and quality on a budget is a difficult one, there's almost always some sort of trade off, I'd be more inclined to spend £150 on headphones than speakers if looking for quality and small.
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Over passive speakers / amp, verses active monitors. Active monitors will give you adjustment such as high frequency roll of, these adjustments help setup where as passive speakers won't have this. The OP should keep using his Edifiers, then in mean time save up for some 5-6" active monitors that are in budget, that's of course if he wants active monitors. One thing is the OP's STX II is good quality, but will need good quality / well shielded unbalanced RCA's to reduce the noise being picked up.
You could even do the upgrade in stages, think of the above as stage 1. Then some point later stage 2, where the OP gets an external DAC with XLR's and runs balanced cables into the active monitors. This should give another improvement in quality, plus an option if the STX II ever failed, or drivers not compatible in the future. You could even connect the STX II optically (optical is galvanic useful from a noisy PC) into an external DAC with XLR if you wanted. This would give best of both worlds, processing still on the STX II, but external DAC with XLR providing cleaner signal into the active monitors. OP does not have to go this far, but it's options in the future.
You could even do the upgrade in stages, think of the above as stage 1. Then some point later stage 2, where the OP gets an external DAC with XLR's and runs balanced cables into the active monitors. This should give another improvement in quality, plus an option if the STX II ever failed, or drivers not compatible in the future. You could even connect the STX II optically (optical is galvanic useful from a noisy PC) into an external DAC with XLR if you wanted. This would give best of both worlds, processing still on the STX II, but external DAC with XLR providing cleaner signal into the active monitors. OP does not have to go this far, but it's options in the future.
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I'm semi-in-agreement here.
The speakers I mentioned last are grand and can be had within his budget, however you're spouting the crazy cable stuff you have elsewhere which is utter nonsense. I've had this debate with you before, you're of an age where your hearing is declining even in the best case scenario, but you rant about cables and spending silly money on the most ridiculous things imaginable. Top tier speaker manufacturers have used power extension cables before and couldn't tell the blumming difference, they literally ran over the street to B and Q and bought some power extension leads -- they didn't care because cables do not matter after a certain point. Any copper of a decent gauge wire will offer EXACTLY the same sound quality, this has been proven repeatedly time and time again.
The only people that argue otherwise are suffering the placebo effect or of an age (which is roughly around where buying into audiophile gear becomes viable) where their hearing has declined.
You're also suggesting optically connecting, which means the END device DAC is processing the audio rather than the probably superior STX II, you might as well just connect to your onboard optical should it have one.
JasonM is somewhat infamous on this forum for thinking cables make a huge difference, he does occasionally have decent advice but nothing he's suggested in this thread should be considered.
No.
I'm talking about a £30 cable here hardly expensive, he will need new RCA's if running studio monitors anyway. I'm talking about shielding on cables, I did this video a few years ago to show how different shielding on RCA cables effects noise. The gain on the speakers is set to +6db to emphasise it.
You don't know my age, or how my hearing is but thanks. And I've never mentioned power cables. Can tell you people who listen to my home HiFi system seam to like it.
The soundcard is still handling the digital audio processing from the computer, but it is no longer responsible for the final analogue conversion, so things like dynamic volume levelling, equalisation or effects still handled by the card. If you have a DAC with XML output use it as it's superior to unbalanced, nothing disputed here. Also I never told the OP to get an XLR DAC, I did say he could do this in the future if he wanted.
PC's are noisy, if there is an option to galvanically connect then use it, I'm surprised you don't understand. Thread here with someone having exactly this issue.
KEF x300 Sound Feedback
Hi guys, Any reason why my KEFs produce such a horrible noise when not being used? They are plugged in via USB to my PC. It tends to be that I can unplug the USB, plug it back in and they don't have any horrible static noise for a few mins but it soon starts up again. I assume interference from...
forums.overclockers.co.uk
BTW you also mentioned if digital you might as well use motherboard audio compared to the STX II, the STX II has a TXCO clock to reduce digital jitter, motherboard digital does not have this. So you don't understand about digital jitter.
What top tier manufactures, Fyne Audio talk about RF here.
The 5th Terminal - FYNE AUDIO
Fyne speakers from the F500SP to the flagship F1 Series have “5th terminal”, sometimes called the grounding or earth terminal. What is it and how does it help?
www.fyneaudio.com
Recording studies such as Abbey Road will use isolated mains circuits to reduce noise, and also employ voltage regulation and balanced power units. They also use grounding and shielding to drain off the noise, anyone can use some of these technics to improve their own audio, there is at least one person on here that using a balanced power unit and a dedicated power line from his own consumer unit. All I can suggest is try some of these things on your own HiFi then tell me you never noticed an improvement.
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No.
I'm talking about a £30 cable here hardly expensive, he will need new RCA's if running studio monitors anyway. I'm talking about shielding on cables, I did this video a few years ago to show how different shielding on RCA cables effects noise. The gain on the speakers is set to +6db to emphasise it.
You don't know my age, or how my hearing is but thanks. And I've never mentioned power cables. Can tell you people who listen to my home HiFi system seam to like it.
The soundcard is still handling the digital audio processing from the computer, but it is no longer responsible for the final analogue conversion, so things like dynamic volume levelling, equalisation or effects still handled by the card. If you have a DAC with XML output use it as it's superior to unbalanced, nothing disputed here. Also I never told the OP to get an XLR DAC, I did say he could do this in the future if he wanted.
PC's are noisy, if there is an option to galvanically connect then use it, I'm surprised you don't understand. Thread here with someone having exactly this issue.
KEF x300 Sound Feedback
Hi guys, Any reason why my KEFs produce such a horrible noise when not being used? They are plugged in via USB to my PC. It tends to be that I can unplug the USB, plug it back in and they don't have any horrible static noise for a few mins but it soon starts up again. I assume interference from...
BTW you also mentioned if digital you might as well use motherboard audio compared to the STX II, the STX II has a TXCO clock to reduce digital jitter, motherboard digital does not have this. So you don't understand about digital jitter.
What top tier manufactures, Fyne Audio talk about RF here.
The 5th Terminal - FYNE AUDIO
Fyne speakers from the F500SP to the flagship F1 Series have “5th terminal”, sometimes called the grounding or earth terminal. What is it and how does it help?
Recording studies such as Abbey Road will use isolated mains circuits to reduce noise, and also employ voltage regulation and balanced power units. They also use grounding and shielding to drain off the noise, anyone can use some of these technics to improve their own audio, there is at least one person on here that using a balanced power unit and a dedicated power line from his own consumer unit. All I can suggest is try some of these things on your own HiFi then tell me you never noticed an improvement.
You're a barmy cable guy, you also mentioned being 50 + awhile back.
Nobody looking for good budget audio should look twice, you're full of it. I'm not going to respond to anything else simply because you make yourself look nuts.
£30 in a £150 budget is massive, what on earth are you on about? Spend £30 on cables with an overall budget vs speakers and amps? Bugger off and be quiet, you're insulting yourself and anyone else with an IQ over 100.
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I'm not sure the ins and outs of it but they can sound a bit "boxy" with a little bit of resonation - which ultimately separates them from being much more expensive speakers, unfortunately I can't remember if I modified mine (I did a deep dive on it at the time) or if mine were one of the sets which came with padding already in there to fix it (for some reason some did but a lot didn't) but you can also improve them with a bit of padding though it needs to be done properly with knowledge of speaker design - which is beyond my working knowledge 10+ years on.
I'm someone who tries to improve things and gain knowledge first hand. 40 years ago people used lamp cord to connect speakers, people did not know any better but knowledge moves on.
BTW you have started this tonight, I just mentioned the OP will need a good £30 RCA shielded interconnect to run to studio monitors as he would need a long cable run.
Thanks for confirming your age and the ability to hear.
The OP does not need to spend £30 on cables, it's a waste of money that would offer zero benefit.
You're peeing the OP's budget down the drain for zero gain.
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Just turned 40 myself, I recognise my hearing being less than it used to be.
It's quite literally quantifiable, you're telling people on severe budgets to spend money on cables. You're off your bloody rocker mate, nothing within that price range is going to benefit from cables, and frankly a thousand pound setup wont either. You can argue the fact until the end of time, you're conning yourself into spending money and giving bad advice. Get over getting old, it sucks but it happens.
Associate
- Joined
- 10 Sep 2006
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- 1,800
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- UK
M Audio BX5 D3's are a little under 200 for a pair, they would be a pretty good upgrade.
There £20 actually (just checked), and these are better then your typical Amazon Basic / Generic cable as I have shown in that video above, they are made from Van Damme studio cable. He will need a 3M cable pair anyway that would be £10 even for a generic, so we are talking a £10 difference! He does have what was a £200 retail sound card.