Some opinions on a budget PC based stereo

[SMed]

I'm sure lots of this stuff has been covered before, so apologies for the repetition. Just for some relevant back ground information I often see asked:

Music - pretty varied tbh. Might be easier to say what won't be played: won't be listening to classical, jazz, very bass heavy stuff (for the most part). I will be listening mostly to metal and rock with some blues too. My wife will also be listening to top 40 hits kinda of stuff too sometimes.

Room - in my study. It's a good sized small-medium room, but I don't listen at massive volume all the time. Speakers will be on my desk, with some flexibility. They will be fairly close to the wall. I reckon I could get them about 5-7"s away from the wall maximum, depending on the size of the enclosure. The speakers will be at ear level.

Budget - south of £200, preferably closer to £150. This is just for amp, speakers and cables for now. I'll throw in a cheap DAC at some point in the near future. The Behringer UCA202 seems like a decent choice for £20. I have absolutely no problems buying secondhand, and would actually prefer it tbh.



So I'm looking for bookshelf speakers/monitors (either active or passive+amptastic t-amp) for my study. The options are doing my head in! I've heard such good things about the amptastic MiniT amp from ebay, that I really want to give it a try. I'm unsure what speakers to get though. If I get the T-amp, that leaves about £100 for speakers, which I know is not a lot. I hear a lot of good things about the Wharfedale Diamond 9.1's. For the money, are these probably some of the best speakers to get?

1) Q Acoustics Q2010i
2) Monitor Audio BR1s
3) Wharfedale Diamond 9.1/10.1
4) Eltax Monitor III
5) Some Tannoys - which ones?

After that, I've looked at so many other passive speakers, they've all blended together and I can't remember any stand-out models. Any other recommendations would be appreciated. I can get find some Wharfedale Diamond 7.1s for £15, might be worth a shot?



OR... would I be better off going the active route? I've seen a few sets of active speakers/monitors that are also highly rated. A few of the ones I've highlighted:

1) Fostex PM0.4 Active Studio Monitors
2) Studiospares Seiwin Powered Monitors
3) Wharfedale Diamond 8.2 Pro Active Studio Monitors (2nd hand)


Which would be better for me? Sorry for the long post. Thank you.

[snapper]

Hi Sami

Before you go any further, could you please pop into the Welcome area and introduce yourself to our community, as you were asked to do in the registration email you received - ta!

:cool:

[SMed]

Hi Sami

Before you go any further, could you please pop into the Welcome area and introduce yourself to our community, as you were asked to do in the registration email you received - ta!

:cool:

Oops... sure thing. :)

[SMed]

Done. :)

[SMed]

I'm thinking seriously about some M-Audio BX5a active monitors at the moment.

[RichB]

When you get round to it, the Dac Destroyer from Hot Audio (see flebay) is a seriously good bit of kit for the money (approx 35 quid)... I'd recommend as a cheap n easy way to improve your PC audio output.

[Ali Tait]

Active is probably the most cost effective solution, though a good passive one would be the mini t amp coupled to whatever decent bookshelf speakers you can find on ebay or similar. The t amp is reckoned to be very good despite it's low price.

[SMed]

When you get round to it, the Dac Destroyer from Hot Audio (see flebay) is a seriously good bit of kit for the money (approx 35 quid)... I'd recommend as a cheap n easy way to improve your PC audio output.

Yep, that one and the Behringer UCA202 for £20 are both at the top of the list at the moment.

[SMed]

Active is probably the most cost effective solution, though a good passive one would be the mini t amp coupled to whatever decent bookshelf speakers you can find on ebay or similar. The t amp is reckoned to be very good despite it's low price.

Yeah, I was getting kinda stressed out by the choice, but I reckon I can't really go too far wrong with either. Right now, budget is the biggest factor, and for around £100 I think the actives are the better way to go.

[pumpkineater23]

After reading a thread here at AOS I ordered these cables to connect my amp and DAC:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0013BHMS8/ref=oh_o04_s00_i00_details

Initially I was a little skeptical because they were so cheap but I noticed an immediate improvement from my previous cables. Well worth it IMO.

Pete

[Yomanze]

Yeah, I was getting kinda stressed out by the choice, but I reckon I can't really go too far wrong with either. Right now, budget is the biggest factor, and for around £100 I think the actives are the better way to go.

I think you can go 'wrong' as at £100 a pair of (old style) Mission 760i and the Mini T amp you've been looking at will smoke any actives around this price range. In fact I think you'd be looking at £500+ actives to better this setup.

If you can find some old-style Mission 780SE then great. Both speakers are small, readily available second-hand, front ported so ideal for desk, are happy sat on a desk and have a cult following. You will be able to pick up either pair for around £40-£70 these days.

This is what they look like:

http://www.zenn.com.sg/DSC06881.JPG

[RichB]

+1 for the mission 760's (SE if you can get em)... great for a desktop system, mine are 20 year old and have given almost daily service... still going strong!

[SMed]

lol This was the sort of advice I was looking for! Some hidden gems with a cult-like following. :D

Well, it was a bit late. I found some Fostex PM0.5 active monitors locally for £100. Probably could get more for the money, but they were down the road and came with an E-MU 0404 sound card (which was apparently a serious soundcard... in 2004 lol). Well I can sell the card for about £15-25 I think if I want. Some of the other options were either too far or shipping costs etc.

I see some of those Mission speakers on ebay, but they look pretty rough.

Well after some driver issues with the sound card (I can't connect the speakers right now due to cabling mismatch, but I can with this sound card so just using that until I get the correct cables) I got the Fostex PM0.5's up and running after fiddling around for a while. They sound pretty good to my inexperienced ears. They're definitely picking up a little noise from the PC though, since it's running off that sound card. It's not too bad, but I will definitely be picking up a little USB DAC to get rid of that.

They sound substantially better, even with just mp3 and m4a files at the moment. I will be slowly upgrading my musical collection to include better source files. I need to also get an optical drive if I want to rip from CDs.

Anyway, very happy for right now. Thanks for the help everyone, I hope to learn a lot more.

[Stratmangler]

The EMU 0404 is still a good sound card - there are definitely ASIO drivers written for it, and possibly WASAPI too.

If it's the USB model there's also a Toslink in/output.

If it's the PCI model then it might well be worth installing it in your PC - the drivers are still up there on Creative's website.

[SMed]

The EMU 0404 is still a good sound card - there are definitely ASIO drivers written for it, and possibly WASAPI too.

If it's the USB model there's also a Toslink in/output.

If it's the PCI model then it might well be worth installing it in your PC - the drivers are still up there on Creative's website.

It's the PCI model and yeah, I got it all up and running now. The only problem is the PC noise coming from the speakers when there's nothing playing. I'm not sure if shielded cables would help with that?