PC Speakers

[reel2real]

Any recommendations for "reasonable" speakers? About £150
i.e. not crap but not silly money. Just musical desktop speakers for listening to well encoded VBR mp3's. Doesn't have to have rumbling bass for movies.

Wonder if Bose Companion are any good. Acoustic Energy AEGO. Also read promising reviews for M-Audio Studiophiles and KRK RP6 but they are nearfield studio monitors so don't know if they'd fill a room or sound bad unless you're sitting in front of them.

 

[pengipete]

Nearfield monitors aren't quiet or low powered - that's not what "nearfield" means. Large studios would have huge, wall-mounted speakers which give awseomely powerful, rich sound but there's a problem - people at home listen on much smaller speakers, including radios with speakers the size of a ten-bob bit. In order to record a track that will still sound decent on a consumer-oriented device, smaller, more basic speaker were placed in the studio - they are "nearfield" simply because they were placed closer to the desk.

"Monitor" speakers are simply speakers with minimal tonal shaping - at best, they should be capable of reproducing exactly what is being played without emphasising or reducing any particular frequencies. Most home-stereo speakers are designed to emphasise bass and presence to make modern music "pop" out - rather like TV's that tend to have too much saturation and contrast by default because it looks punchier in the shop. Mid-range frequencies are often sacrificed as a result of using the popular two-way speakers - it roughly equates to the popular scooped EQ setting that gets labelled as "Rock".

As many cash-strapped musicians (is there any other sort?) already know, most of the "nearfield monitors" that are sold to amateurs are a waste of money - they're rarely any better than a decent home stereo speaker in terms of sound quality and transparency. The only way to know for certain is to hear them yourself - with reviews being a useful alternative where that's not possible. In general, if you are looking at "seroius" speakers, avoid reviews in computer related magazine and websites - they tend to be over-impressed with booming bass and crystal-clear gunshots. Look to musician's/producers websites and mags - they'll generally have a hell of a lot more experience and will have tested hundreds of speakers over the years - making comparisons more relevent.

Having said all of that, for most home-PC users producing audio/video, spending £100+ on a couple of speakers is pushing it. You can get just as good quality hardware and sound reproduction by running your PC through a decent, small home stereo. I do that - a decent stereo and the speaker mounted on the wall - no need for shielded speakers. Not only do I get good sound quality, I have radio, five CD's that can also play mp3 & wma, remote control, EQ settings etc. (In my case, because I also play guitars and keyboards and sing, I use a small mixer so that everything can be left connected and run through the same amp.) I chose a stereo with no sub-woofer but with an output to add one later if I wish.

Regarding the speakers you named, you'd need to be more specific. M-Audio Studiophile, for example, is a range of speakers and can cost anywhere from ~£75 upto several hundred. Once you have a particular model in mind, look at SoundonSound's website - a good place to start for well written reviews.

 

[reel2real]

Thanks pengipete, very good read. I kind of expected nearfield speakers would produce enough sound i just wondered if they'd been cleverly tweaked so sound was directed to a point rather than dispersed for home use. So if you weren't directly in front they'd sound disproportionatley bad? If that makes sense.

The M-Audio Studiophile AV40 has good reviews apart from some humming from the amp apparently. The KRK RP6 G2 is another that's in the price band and gets good reviews. I would just like a musical (powered) speaker that's noticeably better than your usual mass market sub £100 pc speaker.

I'll be checking out the SoundonSound website.

I play lame encoded VBR mp3's via an amp and speakers in the main room (i'm not impressed with sounddocks) and they sound just great to enjoy. I don't fret over "lost" information and artifacts, i doubt most could tell they're not CD's a) because the encode quality is good b) they aren't going through a high end system c) most of us don't have ears trained to that level. I'm just looking for a reasonable listening experience in another room where the pc is without buying an another amp and finding space for extra stuff.

 

[pengipete]

Sound behaves like light - low frequencies are non-directional and higher-frequencies are very directional - that's why a sub-woofer can be placed anywhere in the room but the smaller, satellite speakers have to point towards the listener and have a fairly narrow sweet-spot where they sound just right. "Normal" speakers - and monitors - output a wide range of frequencies so they fall somewhere in between - they'll sound good regardless of the listener's relative position but they will have a sweetspot where the higher frequencies give a better impression of 3D space and separation. Ideally, they should be placed just above head-height - relative to the usual listening position (which is probably seated when we're talking about desks) and angled slightly downwards so that the tweeters point at your ears.

If you'll only use them whilst seated at your desk, place them about two metres apart and angled to point at the back of the chair. If you want to be able to listen to music anywhere in the room, placing them futher apart and pointing towards a spot in the middle of the room at head height will help avoid losing the stereo effect when you move around.

 

[reel2real]

Thanks again, the KRK's had a good review on SoundonSound and there are some good articles such as this on placement and acoustics

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar11/articles/qanda-0311-5.htm

 

[pengipete]

SoS can get a bit techy at times and they sometimes put a bit too much focus on high-end equipment but they have some good writers and I'd trust their reviews.

 

[Nemesis]

Yeh i have a pair of M-Audio BX5As and they cost me ~£156 pounds theyre lush go real loud without distortion and just generally real good quality

only problem is you cant get real low sub bass out of them as they are only 5" cones with 1" tweeters

 

[reel2real]

Cheers guys, now the M-Audio BX5As are in the mix. I'll be checking out these and the KRK's. I don't mind the lack of really low sub bass. These are just for music for now the cleaner/more musical the better. For me subs really come into their own for movies rather than music where it can just get messy.

 

[pengipete]

You can alway add an active sub-woofer if you want more bass - just connect it to your sound card and switch to 2.1 sound.