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Nice looking, high quality speakers for Retina 5k iMac?
- Thread starter JackE94
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http://www.bestbuy.com/site/klipsch...8&ksdevice=c&gclid=CNbKvZuclMICFQET7AodTCsAWg
i paid 200 american for them 2 and a half years ago..... kills me seeing them so cheap now.... best speakers I've ever heard for the money, and that was when i paid 200 for them
i paid 200 american for them 2 and a half years ago..... kills me seeing them so cheap now.... best speakers I've ever heard for the money, and that was when i paid 200 for them
Get a pair of studio monitors. The systems that use tiny speaker and a sub-woofer are best for playing games and movie sound tracks. There are many good brands.
You budget may be unrealistic if you want "premium brands" here is a good one to check out
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/HS5
If you can go with a second their brand the Samson Resolve series is a very god and more affordable speaker
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ResolvSE6
I have a pair of an older version of the Samsom Resolve speakers and the image and details is very good however you do have to get them is the exact right location, use stands to place the tweeters at ear level and pull them out from the wall and corners and think about room treatment. But you do that with ANY speaker.
casual listening should not mean low quality.
@OP I'd check KRK's Rockits as well. Not expensive and very good.
I would never EVER recommend someone to buy Rokits for casual listening, or even for monitoring, unless they were solely producing EDM, even then, its a hard sell, so speakers so unbalanced.
I'd recommend the B&W MM-1 speakers; yes, they are a bit pricey - and are more expensive than the price you have posted as your limit (but you can sometimes get them at a decent discount or special offer). However, in their favour, they are compact, look great and deliver a great quality sound.
i second the hs5 but can also be hs7 or hs8.
doesn't have to be though. just get stereo speakers with at least 5" woofers.
the bigger the better usually. personally i think speakers should go down to at least 60hz. (full bass, sub bass is below 60hz.)
5" goes down to about 75hz
6.5" down to about 55hz
this really depends on the chassis and cones etc. these are just approximates!
Based on OP's price range these speakers are among those I would check that's all. He said high quality, and KRK is above average in terms of quality. I was tempted to mention Foxtex as well but they're probably too expensive. What would you recommend then?
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If you're into hi-Fi look into a decent USB digital audo converter(DAC). It will make a difference in listening to uncompressed audio.
What does low quality have to do with monitors being clinical for casual listening?
there is no such thing as clinical sound. there is also no such thing as studio monitors. it's just speakers that are usually well built and usually active (amp built in).
don't spend much. dacs are a huge rip off scam industry. it will also make very little difference with the already good enough onboard imac dac.
i wouldn't recommend it to the op cause he wants to spend 200 and that's really better spent fully on speakers.
casual listening kind of implies "good enough", which doesn't necessarly rhyme with high quality. OP said he was looking for "high quality".
Now, regarding monitors being "clinical"... A quality sound for me is a well defined, precise image, with no accented regions. But it's highly subjective, OP should try several models/brands and above all trust his ears.
Semantic games here. Most people realize what is meant when you say studio monitors.
By clinical I mean not coloring or affecting the sound, which is a good thing if you are mixing music, but tends to be fatiguing to listen to for long periods of time.
While I agree that for the OP's budget, a DAC and high quality speakers aren't likely to happen, I disagree that a good DAC isn't a substantial improvement over the on board DAC of an iMac. While some audiophile's will spend insane amounts of money for tiny increases in quality, a good DAC doesn't need to break the bank and sounds substantially better than the cheap ones included on a motherboard.
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I won't speculate on what the OP did or didn't mean, but will say what I said before - clinical can be fatiguing to listen to. I have spent a lot of time listening to clinical monitors and headphones and IMO they aren't the best for casual listening. But different strokes for different folks.
The BOSE Companion 5's are probably some of the best speakers out there for under $500 - built like tanks, excellent imaging, superb design. Sound is very coherent due to their full range driver design. And they have they're own makes-a-difference DAC built into the sub (Acoustimass module) so no need to worry about that.
I've owned KRK studio monitors before, and their sound was phenomenal. They were the ST-6's - passive - powered by a NAD C325BEE. Klipsch is also a solid choice, though the iFi's I owned by them, while sounded amazing (and still do due to replaced capacitors on the amp), the capacitors failed. I imagine they've ironed out those bugs by now, however.
I prefer the BOSE, for now at least, so give them a listen. Seriously, I highly recommend them.
Another thing about BOSE, is that they just last. Rare does BOSE, like Apple, have a product that fails, and if anything you can count on getting a well built, long lasting product.
I've owned KRK studio monitors before, and their sound was phenomenal. They were the ST-6's - passive - powered by a NAD C325BEE. Klipsch is also a solid choice, though the iFi's I owned by them, while sounded amazing (and still do due to replaced capacitors on the amp), the capacitors failed. I imagine they've ironed out those bugs by now, however.
I prefer the BOSE, for now at least, so give them a listen. Seriously, I highly recommend them.
Another thing about BOSE, is that they just last. Rare does BOSE, like Apple, have a product that fails, and if anything you can count on getting a well built, long lasting product.
The OP did wrote "awful amount of music and I notice tinny sounds in cheap speakers" So I assume it did not want another satellite and subwoofer system. Not wanting "tinny" to me says he needs some larger diameter drivers
And with his limited budget he is looking at a "quality" but second tier brand
Also he did say "music" and not video games or movie sound tracks. Both of those could use a bug subwoofer to make sound os explosions and car crashes
exactly.
i have no idea why that bose 5 thingy is so expensive. i read reviews on amazon etc.
ppl seem to be happy. many good reviews.
which is weird.
i also found negative reviews and they confirm my suspicion that the combination of tiny drivers and subwoofers just can't reproduce audio with high fidelity. they seem to lack midrange and sound too shrill yet the bass is boomy. i'd expect that... another negative is that they have noise and so they go silent after a minute or so without input which means computer alerts are not audible.
i haven't heard them. if people are happy then that's good. they might have some feel good equalizer built in.
For your price range ChrisA in post#3 pretty well nailed it. At $200 the Yamaha HS5 would be excellent speakers to get, and being nearfield monitors would sound excellent at your desk. You can tweak the sound in the iTunes equaliser as well, and there plenty of presets to show you the way.
Not weird at all. People are ignorant. They don't know what quality stereo gear sounds like. It takes some time and critical listening to know what to listen for.
With a cheap system you can hear the boom and thump but with a better system you can figure out what the bass player is doing with his fingers. The different is in the level of detail. Most people don't care enough to listen that carefully.
Ah yes my bad, however it'd be worth another 60 quid to get them here's a pair of white ones which would look cool with the 5K retina.
Or what about a pair of White Rokit RP5 3G for £219 with free delivery.
Personally, I'd keep an eye out on UK ebay for some used ones. I just bought a pair of Rokit RP6's in mint cond for the gf for AUD$270. Ebay is great for 2nd hand monitors if you know what you want because they are almost always well looked after.
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