The Question Thread

[rabidfurby]

Yep, you want a subwoofer. It sounds like you're tired of your laptop speakers, and a huge part of their tinny sound is the lack of bass.

Those 3 I posted aren't your only choices, just a couple that jumped out at me. Your best bet is to look here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/electronics/559928/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_e_1_4_last

Those are the bestselling 2.1 speakers (2 speakers and a subwoofer, which for what you want is the best setup) on Amazon. Pick one from that list with a lot of positive reviews and you most likely won't be disappointed.

If you're willing to go a bit above your price range, these are #2 on the list above, and have 423 reviews, 90% of which are 4 or 5 stars. And they look damn cool.



http://www.amazon.com/Harman-SoundSticks-II-Multimedia-Speaker/dp/B0001DBEM4/ref=dp_return_2?ie=UTF8&n=172282&s=electronics

[Rillion]

If you're willing to go a bit above your price range, these are #2 on the list above, and have 423 reviews, 90% of which are 4 or 5 stars. And they look damn cool.

Reminds me of a jellyfish.  Yes, they do look very cool, but I ended up going with these, which are a newer version of the Logitech speakers you recommended.  Thanks for the advice.   

[fatcat]

My brother works as an audio engineer and he says these are about the best you can get for amateur budjets.

http://www.dv247.com/studio-equipment/alesis-m1-active-520-active-studio-monitors-pair--30394

Subwoofers are an audio false economy. You might get alot of bass out of them, but you're not actually getting a real good depth of frequencies. If you actually isolate each speaker, all you're getting from the subwoofer is dull thuds, and all you're getting from the little speakers is the same tinny shit you get with a $10 pair of budjet shit, though brought together they can sound somewhat passable.

There really is no substitute for size when it comes to good speakers. The size of the speaker is directly proportional to the range of frequencies it can (clearly) produce at one time.

Granted, most people can't tell the difference between a high grade system, and something thats just made to sound like a high grade system, but if you really care about sound quality, specifically for music listening, you want a good quality pair of active monitors like the ones I linked to, with a decent speaker size and a decent amount of power drain.

If you just want cinema style booming audio, then .1 subwoofer systems are great. Logitech are generally for the gaming / home cinema crowd, who really don't want much more than something that sounds impressive.

[Bill Brasky]

Dude.  Those are monitors.  You'd need to jack them into a receiver-amp, and run a patch cord from the lappy audio-out and treat it like a stereo component. 

She just wants to hear the computer play some tunes and vids on a 17 inch screen.  Not that big a deal.  You need to be sitting five feet from the screen, or less.  Microspeakers and a bass cube works fine for that. 

If it was a home stereo set-up with big screen, 5.1 surround, I'd agree with you.  Those would probably make decent rears.  But that is not a practical application for a laptop. 

[BonerJoe]

I love my Yamaha MSP5's:

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Yamaha-MSP5-STUDIO-Powered-Studio-Monitor?sku=600116

[Rillion]

Incidentally, the speakers showed up today.  So, two days after order.  Way to go, Amazon!  Pretty sure I ordered through the freetalklive link, too...

Umm, am I supposed to put the subwoofer on the desk or the floor?

[Bill Brasky]

Sub goes on the floor, it'll drown out the highs when watching/listening stuff with more delicate sounds, dialogue and twinklebells will be borked.  

Nice desk.  

Also, you're a lefty, eh?

[Rillion]

Sub goes on the floor, it'll drown out the highs when watching/listening stuff with more delicate sounds, dialogue and twinklebells will be borked.  

Nice desk.  

Also, you're a lefty, eh?

Cool, and thanks.  The desk belonged to the stripper who lived in the last house before we did.  Can't believe she didn't want it!  Only thing is that it doesn't have much storage, so I use the silver box and hooks for camera, scanner, tripod, headphones, etc. 

Yep, lefty.  I can use the mouse with my right hand, but would rather lift a drink with it.     Left hand is better for taking notes on whatever. 

[Rillion]

New question: I got a marriage proposal today for defending the legality of showing porn to children.  Is that awesome or terrible?

[Harry Tuttle]

New question: I got a marriage proposal today for defending the legality of showing porn to children.  Is that awesome or terrible?

I hope that means he loves your capable mind - as do the rest of us. If he is inappropriately showing porn to children then I suspect he would fail to win your heart and succeed in getting himself ostracized.

[BonerJoe]

Gretchen? Why am I not surprised?

[Rillion]

Gretchen? Why am I not surprised?

Yeah, I've got a name.  What?  What? 

 

[freeAgent]

Dude.  Those are monitors.  You'd need to jack them into a receiver-amp, and run a patch cord from the lappy audio-out and treat it like a stereo component. 

She just wants to hear the computer play some tunes and vids on a 17 inch screen.  Not that big a deal.  You need to be sitting five feet from the screen, or less.  Microspeakers and a bass cube works fine for that. 

If it was a home stereo set-up with big screen, 5.1 surround, I'd agree with you.  Those would probably make decent rears.  But that is not a practical application for a laptop. 

They're powered so you don't need an amp/receiver.  All you have to do is convert the 3.5mm stereo plug from your laptop to RCA and then get RCA->TRS cables.  I do this with my M-Audio BX-5a/BX-10s monitors/subwoofer (though they use TS cables, not TRS like those Alesis apparently do).  It takes a couple minutes to track down the cables, but the sound and quality is worth it, IMO.

[BonerJoe]

Gretchen? Why am I not surprised?

Yeah, I've got a name.  What?  What? 

 

It just seems so...fitting. I don't know why. Not in a bad way.

[Bill Brasky]

Dude.  Those are monitors.  You'd need to jack them into a receiver-amp, and run a patch cord from the lappy audio-out and treat it like a stereo component. 

She just wants to hear the computer play some tunes and vids on a 17 inch screen.  Not that big a deal.  You need to be sitting five feet from the screen, or less.  Microspeakers and a bass cube works fine for that. 

If it was a home stereo set-up with big screen, 5.1 surround, I'd agree with you.  Those would probably make decent rears.  But that is not a practical application for a laptop. 

...the sound and quality is worth it, IMO.

It's still 2.1

A modest improvement on something that is sufficient and adequate.  

I'm sure you've seen the wicked shit, lets not confuse the two.  If you want premium sound, you need to do it a little differently.