2. pc-audio
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$250 Computer Sound

Recently the crappy speakers my computer came with bought the farm, and now I'm in the market for new ones. I know computer speakers (especially cheap ones) are notoriously crappy, but as a teenager with little income I'm just not willing to spend more than about $250 for a complete audio solution.
I've read up on this stuff for a few days and it seems like there are a few tears of PC-audio. Bottom of the barrel are the <$80 computer speakers. Then there are a few speaker systems in the $90-$180 range that cater to people who want "good" audio from a computer but still don't really approach mid-fi quality. Then, apparently one could get decent audio from a computer by using external amplifiers with mid or hi-fi monitors and eschewing the crappy "multimedia" speakers usually passed off on computer users. Is it possible that I could put together a decent system like that for under two or three hundred dollars?

I think the answer is going to be no, so my next question is which of the $90-$180 2.1 computer speakers is the best? I know they all suck relative to the stuff talked about here, but please humor me. The Altec Lansing 621's can be had for around $100. Is the %70 price increase upgrading to Klipsch Promedia 2.1's (at $170) going to yield a comperable performance increase? These two systems look like my top choices. Anybody have suggestions? Thanks.
patrickfwdb231

Showing 1 response by aboldor

aboldor
49 posts
 
I will humor you - try this for a change.
Now I don't know if this exact model has an input, but I've seen some from the same series that did. A friend of mine (also student) got one of these. I was pleasantly surprised with the sound - of course, considering the price. Shop around - I've seen some models (some with inputs for an external source) at Sears, for instance. There are many units sharing this design with orange lights and MDF boxes, and the more expensive ones ~$300 sound decent (again, for the money). Better than most computer speakers, but I repeat, for this price, don't expect any miracles.
If you want to stick with PC gear, Klipsch makes some reasonable sounding sat/sub combos (seen@CompUSA).
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