Some stuff about computer speakers for lossless audio?
Jason Asked: Some stuff about computer speakers for lossless audio?
So i finished building my newest machine a few weeks ago and thats all great and all but what I've been using to get audio from it are the integrated speakers in my monitor. Needless to say they have quality that would cause any self respecting audiophile to stab pencils in their ears. So now I'm looking for a good set of speakers to compliment my computer. The problem I'm having is that I know very little about what makes a set of speakers good or bad, types of speakers, proper placement, wattage vs. db output, interfaces, impedance, anything really. So I was hoping that one of you fantastic people could give me a quick lesson on bookshelf speakers and maybe reccomend something for me to consider getting. I'm not exactly an audiophile but I appreciate the quality of music, and can easily tell good audio from bad. I've got about $60 weighing down my wallet that needs to be used, and I'm using the integrated mini phono jack on my board though I have digital audio output. And I wouldn't be against getting a new sound card as long as it's PCI or PCIE x1 2.0 interfaced. Oh and most of mymedia is encoded in FLAC. Any ideas?
Answers:
So I guess that your question is, after distillation: "What computer speakers should I buy that won't sound like crap?" I don't know. If I want good sound from my computer I plug it into one of mylarger sound systems. I doubt that $60 will get you much. The problem with computer speakers is that the manufacturers exaggerate everything. The first time I saw a set of computer speakers that boasted an 800 watt rating, a big, green question mark appeared above my head. My Peavy CS 800 weighs 40 pounds and these things must not even weigh 5 pounds. Magic? No. Just huge exaggerations. What I'm saying is that you can just ignore the ratings about watts dB output and frequency response. They lie or at least stretch the truth until it's as thin as a Chinese noodle. My best advice is to buy a set from a top rated brand (and get some more money together) like Klipsch, Bowers and Wilkins and,… I can't think of anyone else. I'm sure that computer geeks will say I'm all wet and that Logitech or Earball or some other teeny plastic box speaker sounds terrific but I think they all have tin ears. Those things sound to me like shrieking, tinny, plastic speakers with an unrefined blob of inaccurate distorted bass coming from something that has the nerve to call itself a "subwoofer."If you want to build speakers, I can help with that. Just say so.
Bose Companion 2 Series II (graphite) themselves are fairly lightweight–the left speaker weighs 2.3 pounds and the right is 1.8 pounds–but there's enough heft here to give you the perception that the speakers contain some quality components. Bose has conveniently placed the volume control knob and headphone jack on the front of the right speaker.