Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Which PC speaker setup do you use?

Juat interested in peoples views on PC speaker systems (as we are all interested in speakers i am sure there are some opinions!). I just upgraded to the new Logitech z2300 system and I have to say that for a little over $100 I am pretty impressed. The 8" subwoofer does a really good job, and I get a fair representation of a stereo image from the 'mains'. Anyway what does everyone else have?

Klipsch ProMedia 4.1. I don't think it's available anymore. Sounds great.

I have an old JVC receiver with a pair of Axiom M2i's.

At the moment: Pioneer VSX-1014-Tx with Axiom M60s heh.

Grado RA-1 Clone and Grado SR125 Phones from a Audigy 2 soundcard

I use logitech as well. I have heard great things about the HSU system.

i got some mid grade altec lansings with a small sub. its nothing great, but if i really want to go crank it, i go to the living room!!

bigjohn

Another vote for the Klipsch setup. I have the older 4.1 set as mentioned.

For the money the Logitech systems are a good value as well..

I used to like the sound of my Klipsch's until the Axiom's moved into first place for listening preference...

In reply to:

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Another vote for the Klipsch setup. I have the older 4.1 set as mentioned.

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Me too. For a PC system, this system rocks!!!

An Altec Lansing 4.1 system I got at Sam's over 5 years ago...This little setup rocks! for $75.00 and was a far cry from the old Altec Lansing stereo set I was previously using (and still have).

But I agree with BigJohn...if I want to really rattle the walls, I go in the livingroom.

WhatFurrer

Built in iMac speakers + iSub. It's alright. The sub is pretty weak, but it's better than no sub. Occasionally I'll hook the audio up to my headphone amp (Gilmore Dynamic) and listen through Sennheiser 580s.

I have the promedia system as well and it has served me very well for quite a while now (I bought the original a few years ago).
I've been tempted to get 4 M2i's and checking that out. If I pull the finances together I'll let you know how it sounds.

james

Sennheiser HD570s or headphones/mic combo from someone or other. Or Sennheiser PX250s.

I've got a Yamaha system (2 speakers & sub) that's not half bad. Don't know the model, but I picked it up at CompUSA about three years ago.

I use a Yamaha sub/2-sat system, as well. I think it's a YST-something model. I bought it in late 1997 or early 1998 and have never had the desire to upgrade. My computer is in one of those hutch type things that looks like a wardrobe when the doors are closed. Works great to keep little Steven's hands away from the equipment.

Recently I'd moved all my stereo gears to the office and have been using the M22ti, SVS PB1 sub, and HK 3480 on my computer, probably overkilled but they practically blow me out of the chair! ;-)

On the "play" computer:
M22ti mains
M2i rears
Velodyne CHT-8 sub
H/K AVR325 receiver

On the "work" computer:
Klipsch Promedia 2.1

I notice that some people have their computers hooked into a receiver and Axiom speakers. Probably a dumb question, but how would I make this connection?

there's not susuch a thing as a dumb question!

You can do it in many ways. But here are two popular ones:

(1) Simple. Buy a splitter connector that has mini-stereo plug in one end (to connect it to your heaphones jack in the computer) and RCA jacks at the other end. the RCA jacks will go to one of your receiver inputs and obviously this connection will give you an analog signal.

(2) More expensive. You can buy a sound card for your PC/Laptop with digital outputs for sound and then connect it to your receiver using either the coaxial or the optical connectors. This will give you a higher quality digital connection that will be as good as the music source.

Hope this helps!

I forgot to mention in my original post that I also just purchased an Apple Airport Express network so will soon be able to stream my digital audio files all over the house to my stereo/home theater systems. I will post my thoughts when it is all set up.

I use a Logitech Z-5300. I rocks, yet nowhere near as much as the Axioms in the living room

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=2,CONTENTID=6851

Mac

Denon AVR-3805
Denon DVD-2200
SVS PB1-ISD
Axiom Audio M80ti
Axiom Audio VP150
Axiom Audio QS8

“I feel more like I do now than when I got here!”

My computer speakers:

Axiom Audio M60's
Axiom Audio VP150
Axiom Audio QS8's
SVS PB2-Plus (PB12-Plus/2)

Ah the advantages of having my home theater in my bedroom..yes my bedroom is 20 x 15 ^_^.

- D

Oooh - I thought I was the only one with M60s as comp speakers...

Nope me too! I also have my m60s hooked up to the computer via digital out on my creative audigy 2 sound card to the digital coax jet on my Denon.

Musicmatch On Demand with cd-quality online streaming audio is great for checking out new artists/albums!

Any thoughts on comparison between playing cds on the comp and on a separate cd player?

Musicmatch? BOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Personal opinion aside.

It's all winamp for me baby, course with a 9000+ mp3 collection

I do enjoy playing stuff on the seperate, purely because my computer is a noisy bastard and kinda ruins the experience a bit

- D

It was winamp for me too all throughout college, and then after I bought my m60s I discovered mp3s don't sound too hot throught those speakers and proceeded to rebuy my college mp3 collection in cd form, which is a very expensive move...

however musicmatch subscription is still great for checking out new stuff cause you can stream entire albums!

The problem i have with playing stuff on the separate is that i can only load one cd at a time, as I don't own a cd changer and that can get rather tiresome after awhile. From someone who is used to mp3-playing and assembling 500-song playlists, that is. Oh well quality over quantity...:(

Not looking to buying an expensive separate digital music thingy anytime soon, so I guess I'll have to live with that unless someone has an ingenius recommendation!

-AT

MP3's don't sound good if you download them through musicmatch / itunes etc. because they're only 128kbps... I'm picky, all my mp3's are other ripped from CD's I own, or at a minimum 160-192kbps... The lower the bit rate, the worse they sound

-D

so daphoid do you rip mp3s from your cd collection on to your hardrive and assemble a playlist from those?

Yup the mp3s I have from college are mostly 128 kbps and below which is why they sound crappy however the ones that can be bought/downloaded from musicmatch are 160kbps. I haven't done that tho'...haven't quite caught that bug...

I just threw away my whole mp3 collection and started again using 320kbps. I actually was going to go Apple lossless but I don't think my previous generation Ipod is compatible. I intend to start streaming my mp3's over a wireless netwirk so wanted really good baseline quality.

I sense that you have a $#!*load of hard drive space... Which gen iPod do you have?

Yeah I do rip from CD, but I rip at VBR (Variable Bit Rate) with a range of 160-320. Basically in short VBR only uses the bandwidth when it needs too. There's no sense in using 320 kilobytes for silence now is there? It works qutie nicely!

As I said earlier I've got about 9000 or so songs, sitting at around 45GB of music, compared to my friends, this is an 'average size' collection, I've got friends with two or three times what I have in just music. As for total hard drive space I have 440GB's in his box, and a 60GB mp3 player

- D

I have the first gen Windows version - pre docking station. i did a quick test with an Apple lossless file and got an error message. Maybe there is a firmware upgrade now?

I've got 4.8Tb here at work...but I guess I can't use that for my mp3's.

Probably not, then. Although there have certainly been a lot of iPod updates. I'd check Apple's site.

Yeah, probably not. That's one hell of an array! Drooool....