Speakers.........

[gavsim]

Hi Guys,

First post :)

My boss from work is buying me an EMac for my home so I can do work at home, he has gone for Emac/512mb RAM/80g Hard Drive. I can't wait to get it!

My question is about speakers....

What are peoples thoughts on the speakers that are built into the Emac? I am thinking about purchasing a seperate pair, perhaps the White Creatures 2 speakers? How do these speakers compare to the Sound Sticks? I have heard the Sound Sticks and was blown away by the quality, do the Creatures 2 stand up in quality?

Cheers,


Gav

[evoluzione]

welcome...


i haven't heard the eMac speakers, but i can recommend some 3rd party ones. Altec Lansing ATP3. you can find them for around $70 and they sound fantastic, especially for the money, better than the creatures, and i think better than the sound sticks with sub. i'm picky about my speakers, but i bought a 2nd pair of these for my office i was so impressed.

enjoy

[invaLPsion]

I have a friend who says that the eMac speakers can force the case to make a shaking and rattling noise. The quality is pretty poor as well.

I recommend Creative i-Trigue 3450s.

[wPod]

dont get the sound sticks. . . they are hyped up and over priced. they are decent quality for computer speakers, but they dont have as much clarity at power. you will hear distortion sooner with them. the creature II dont get as loud but they are clear at lower volumes. the speakers that surprised me were the creative iTrigue. they have a larger volume range (where they remain clear) and they have clearer sharper tones.

if you really want good sound, then i would get the iMic and hook it up to your home stereo system.

[AssassinOfGates]

Get the creatures... I have em, posted a review on this thread. (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=62689)

[Opteron]

Best bet is to hook it up to your home hi-fi.

[applebum]

Hi Guys,

First post :)

My boss from work is buying me an EMac for my home so I can do work at home, he has gone for Emac/512mb RAM/80g Hard Drive. I can't wait to get it!



I have an eMac and had it hooked up to my stereo. However, I moved my room around and it would no longer hook up without running a wire all the way around my room. So I needed seperate speakers (the built in speakers are crap). I listened to as many as I could and went with the Soundsticks. Great sound, great bass from the sub. They sound almost as good as it did hooked to my stereo. You can get them from Amazon for $160. That saved me $40 over what they cost at CompUSA. For that price, get them, you won't be disappointed.

[Soire]

I'm waiting for the powerMac updates, and if they ever occur, i'll need to get some speakers- here is the dilemma. I don't really want to blow $250 to $300 on the 5.1 sound systems, but I would like pretty good sound. What do people recommend? it seems that a lot of the speakers only plug into the headphone jack- that seems like it would be bad quality. So what's the most cost effective quality system?

Soundsticks $200?
Creative iTrigue the $100 or the $150 what's the difference?
JBL creature speakers $100?

Please lend me your opinions. thanks.

[russed]

get the creatures, they are very very very good and well worth the money, and also it is fun when everyone goes, oooh what is that big thing on your desk! :D (meaning the sub-woofer)

[CubeHacker]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Klipsch yet! The Promedia 2.1 set is some of the best multimedia speakers for the price.

[Mav451]

Soire: you should consider the Logitech Z640's. <100, and decent 5.1's to boot.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=36-121-104&catalog=60&manufactory=BROWSE&depa=0

One of my friends has this, and it blows my old Altec Lansing 2.1's OUT OF THE WATER. The bass is pretty crazy for a set that goes for $64.

[laserbeahm]

I use the JBL Invader speakers. They are awesome. I haven't tried out the Creature speakers, but I would recommend products by JBL.

[rdowns]

Bose MediaMates.

(Bose bashers need not reply)

[Opteron]

Bose MediaMates.

(Bose bashers need not reply)

Bose are trash through and trough. Except maybe in the Eunos 800, and Mazda Mellenia (check spelling.)

As I mentioned earlyer, hook your computer up to your home hifi, or better yet start building one. Nothing beats great sound, and you only know your missing out when you know what is just arround the corner.

[Mav451]

hmm sounds like the talk of an audiophile (I know because my friend is one, and managed to blow 5,000 in a pop on this stuff). A special AMP, chip, cables...the whole kitchen sink.

[Opteron]

hmm sounds like the talk of an audiophile (I know because my friend is one, and managed to blow 5,000 in a pop on this stuff). A special AMP, chip, cables...the whole kitchen sink.

My current set-up value is ~$4500AUD, this is including all cableing, Amp, LD player, CD player, Tape deck, and 2 speakers. I'll post a pic of the stack when I get a digital camera.

[gavsim]

Just like to say thanx for everyones suggestions, I went with the creatures, just got them and they sound perfect for my needs. Still not got my eMac yet, but have had them plugged in to my ipod and I was well impressed!

Cheers everyone

[nargot]

What do people think about the Harman Kardon USB SoundSticks plus SubWoofer, better or worse than previous posts?

[CubeHacker]

What do people think about the Harman Kardon USB SoundSticks plus SubWoofer, better or worse than previous posts?

I'd recommend against any form of USB speakers. It completely bypasses the soundcard in your computer, which just seems pointless in my opinion. On top of that, it wastes resources and bandwidth since its USB, and can be affected by heavy computer usage (in other words, sound can skip or pause during very CPU intensive tasks, and can lower the performance in games). Computers have sound cards for a reason, so don't avoid it by using USB speakers!

[nargot]

I'd recommend against any form of USB speakers. It completely bypasses the soundcard in your computer, which just seems pointless in my opinion. On top of that, it wastes resources and bandwidth since its USB, and can be affected by heavy computer usage (in other words, sound can skip or pause during very CPU intensive tasks, and can lower the performance in games). Computers have sound cards for a reason, so don't avoid it by using USB speakers!

Good point, i'll steer away from usb speakers

[anubis]

I wouldn't settle for anything less than what I've got hooked up to my beast of a beige g3 (don't laugh - my 7 year old g3 kicks the crap out of everything i throw at it still - web browsing, itunes, ms office, IM, etc).

Here's my setup:
2 klipsch reference rb-35
2 klipsch synergy SF-1
2 JBL 12-inch active bandpass subwoofers
crown macrotech 1200 watt per channel amplifier

can't settle for anything less than klipsch quality.

Thanks,
Chris Berger
Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
New Mexico State University

[Rod Rod]

What do people think about the Harman Kardon USB SoundSticks plus SubWoofer, better or worse than previous posts?

DOACleric is right about the USB concerns.

however, harman kardon now makes non-USB Soundsticks. they're called Soundsticks II. www.harmanmultimedia.com

I have the USB variety of Soundsticks and I'm happy with them. I had some funky audio crunches and skips in Final Cut Pro while connected to my old iBook 700MHz G3. I haven't tested the Soundsticks with my new 12" PowerBook. Since they've been connected to my G5 I haven't heard anything mess up.

[Opteron]

I wouldn't settle for anything less than what I've got hooked up to my beast of a beige g3 (don't laugh - my 7 year old g3 kicks the crap out of everything i throw at it still - web browsing, itunes, ms office, IM, etc).

Here's my setup:
2 klipsch reference rb-35
2 klipsch synergy SF-1
2 JBL 12-inch active bandpass subwoofers
crown macrotech 1200 watt per channel amplifier

can't settle for anything less than klipsch quality.

Thanks,
Chris Berger
Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
New Mexico State University

Great setup for watching movies, though I've never been a fan of Klipsch when it comes to listining to music, other than rock 'n' Roll. I just find in general that they lack the warmth that other speaker brands can offer, eg Energy, Kef, B&W, VAF.