Need some Advice about speakers! :D

[bolvack]

Hello guys, well I should start confessing I don't know a lot about this stuff.

So I wanna make my living room a nice place to be and I wanna buy some speakers to make my guests more comfortable. I usually bring my computer and play the music through a pair of computer speakers but I wanna set up at least 4 speakers, one on each corner of the room.

I would like to plug it by the audio jack of my computer directly to the speakers if that would be possible. I don't buy CD's so I probably wouldn't use a device with a CD player or Radio entrance.

I don't want something really loud or powerful, I'm trying to look for a good quality sounding speakers, not very expensive.

I also have a vintage acetate player (not sure if thats the correct name) and if I could plug it into the speakers that would be amazing, but Im not quite sure how to set everything up..

I know this may be a little too dumb to ask for this forums but I need some help and I don't know anywhere else to go to.. Hope you guys can help me!

Thanks!

 

[ChrisA]

Hello guys, well I should start confessing I don't know a lot about this stuff.

So I wanna make my living room a nice place to be and I wanna buy some speakers to make my guests more comfortable. I usually bring my computer and play the music through a pair of computer speakers but I wanna set up at least 4 speakers, one on each corner of the room.

I would like to plug it by the audio jack of my computer directly to the speakers if that would be possible. I don't buy CD's so I probably wouldn't use a device with a CD player or Radio entrance.

I don't want something really loud or powerful, I'm trying to look for a good quality sounding speakers, not very expensive.

I also have a vintage acetate player (not sure if thats the correct name) and if I could plug it into the speakers that would be amazing, but Im not quite sure how to set everything up..

I know this may be a little too dumb to ask for this forums but I need some help and I don't know anywhere else to go to.. Hope you guys can help me!

Thanks!

You to not want four speakers. Not unless you playing movie sound tracks. For music you want "stereo" The means TWO speakers no four.

What is your budget? Decent (not great just non-bad ones) speakers start at about $150 each. This is for "passive" speakers and you'd need some kind of amplifier too. These start about about $100. You'l need wires and cables so a low-end budget for decent stereo starts at about $500.

Next, how large can the speakers be? At any given price point the larger speaker will have beter sound. Size really does matter.

Something like these would work although there are other brands but you want something like this size and price
http://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-Monitor-AM6025-A-Floorstanding/dp/B0002Z2416

Speaker placement within the room in importent too. try to keep them OUT of the corners. That is not the best location. Keep them as far from a wall as practical. In the ideal case the listeners ears and the two speakers make a nice equalateral triangle but with a roon full of "listeners" walkinf around this can't be done.

In any case four smaller speaker in the corners is the worst possible setup for stereo music., going to two in the front will help a lot

Now about movie sound tracks. In the recording is encoded for a 5.1 system then yes get five speakers and a sun and power it all with an AV amplifier. But that is for movies, not music.

 

[bolvack]

You to not want four speakers. Not unless you playing movie sound tracks. For music you want "stereo" The means TWO speakers no four.

What is your budget? Decent (not great just non-bad ones) speakers start at about $150 each. This is for "passive" speakers and you'd need some kind of amplifier too. These start about about $100. You'l need wires and cables so a low-end budget for decent stereo starts at about $500.

Next, how large can the speakers be? At any given price point the larger speaker will have beter sound. Size really does matter.

Something like these would work although there are other brands but you want something like this size and price
http://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-Monitor-AM6025-A-Floorstanding/dp/B0002Z2416

Speaker placement within the room in importent too. try to keep them OUT of the corners. That is not the best location. Keep them as far from a wall as practical. In the ideal case the listeners ears and the two speakers make a nice equalateral triangle but with a roon full of "listeners" walkinf around this can't be done.

In any case four smaller speaker in the corners is the worst possible setup for stereo music., going to two in the front will help a lot

Now about movie sound tracks. In the recording is encoded for a 5.1 system then yes get five speakers and a sun and power it all with an AV amplifier. But that is for movies, not music.

Thanks for replying! I've posted this on like 6 different forums and none seems to care haha.

Well, I guess I should've started stating my budget, sorry for that. I guess it would be 400-500 USD tops. I see those speakers and I actually thought of them browsing ebay, they may be what I'm looking for. I just want the speakers to build a nice music spot at my living room or my room. Both are small places and I may not need something powerful. As I said I actually want something with decent audio quality since my dad won't pay anything, it will need to be cheap.

About the amplifier, I don't know exactly what kind of amp look for, could you give me some basic information about the power of the amplifier? I know that some speakers have a range of power that you can put an amplifier to (30-100W for example), what's the recommended power of the amplifier?

About the positioning of the speakers, I can place them somewhere else of a corner but I don't think there's place for them but to be near a wall (the wall being backwards and the speakers facing the couches trying to make an equilateral triangle), I don't think there is more options for me haha.

 

[ChrisA]

..
About the amplifier, I don't know exactly what kind of amp look for, could you give me some basic information about the power of the amplifier? I know that some speakers have a range of power that you can put an amplifier to (30-100W for example), what's the recommended power of the amplifier?

About the positioning of the speakers, I can place them somewhere else of a corner but I don't think there's place for them but to be near a wall (the wall being backwards and the speakers facing the couches trying to make an equilateral triangle), I don't think there is more options for me haha.

Yes speaker placement is always a compromise. It is best to know the ideal and at least try. There is a lot to it if you are after perfection. THe basic idea is the era hears BOTH the sound from the speakers and the sound reflected off the walls, ceiling and floor.

Power? 50W per channel is enough that you'd never want to turn the volume up past about 3 on a 10 scale. Some audiophiles will disagree but the special brand of amp hardly matters especially with entry level systems like this.

A low-end Sony reciever would do well
Something this simple can work:
http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-TX-8255B-TX-8255-Stereo-Receiver/dp/B001AMSPQI/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1372649967&sr=1-1&keywords=Onkyo+TX-8255

But look at some other features that are available on "network connected" receivers. Worth the extra $100??? I don't know.
http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-TX-8050-Network-Stereo-Receiver/dp/B004UR486G/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1372650038&sr=1-2&keywords=Onkyo+TX-8255

The most basic thing you can get, just an amp with ZERO features that sounds not bad is this. I have one I use with an electronic keyboard. I did not need an FM receiver or a remote control. I'm using it as a musical instrument amp.
http://www.amazon.com/AudioSource-AMP-100-Stereo-Power-Amplifier/dp/B00026BQJ6/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1372650232&sr=1-1&keywords=amp100

Again, other brands are OK, it's just in a forum I have to be VERY conservative and make mainstream selections, Hard to go wrong with the polk m60 and onkyo amp.


Prices can go up fast. But the curve is steep. basically the price double for each insrement of quality. You get "in" for $500 but the next jump is $1K then $2K and so on. At $8K and up they start calling it "high end" But for $500 you get 90% of the way there, it's the last 10% that gets costly.