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Nice looking iMac speakers?

Slinkington

Slinkington

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 22, 2008
62
0
Hi there,

Just wondering if anyone can suggest any attractive speakers that compliment the aesthetics of todays iMacs. I came across one or two student projects, and something called a UCube, which only seems to be sold in the USA.

Can anyone recommend anything?

Thanks for your time. :)
 
Look good & sound good

The B&W MM1s are a great desktop speaker, awesome sound in front of the monitor, looks are always subjective but i love the understated look of them.
Have a read of of some of the reviews on the  web site for the MM1s they are pretty highly regarded.
They are not cheap but they are worth it.
For best results try playing some Apple lossless or Flac files using Decibel as the music player.
These speakers have an in built D/A converter in them and this is one reason that they seem expensive at first glance.
 
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righteye said:
The B&W MM1s are a great desktop speaker, awesome sound in front of the monitor, looks are always subjective but i love the understated look of them.
Have a read of of some of the reviews on the  web site for the MM1s they are pretty highly regarded.
They are not cheap but they are worth it.
For best results try playing some Apple lossless or Flac files using Decibel as the music player.
These speakers have an in built D/A converter in them and this is one reason that they seem expensive at first glance.
Click to expand...

I would not recommend the B&W MM-1. I've been through several units, and they all emit white noise / hissing. I would look at the Focal XS speakers.
 
M-Audio AV40
One of the best speakers out there in relation to bang to the buck.
 
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i haven't tried these and they are sold out right now, but they do look kinda cool [it could just be me though...]
ceramic_speakers_joey_roth.jpg
 
BOSE Companion!!

Slinkington said:
Hi there,

Just wondering if anyone can suggest any attractive speakers that compliment the aesthetics of todays iMacs. I came across one or two student projects, and something called a UCube, which only seems to be sold in the USA.

Can anyone recommend anything?

Thanks for your time. :)
Click to expand...

I would still go with BOSE speakers, Bose® Companion® 5 Multimedia Speaker System are the ones I have, and I love the elegant, fancy look ..which for me, is just what the new iMac image has. Good luck on your search!! :):)
 
The Hercules XPS 101 are gorgeous looking speakers, but from reading the Amazon reviews, they seem to come out of the box with worse hissing than the B&W MM-1 (but apparently Hercules will replace the power supply for you to fix it, too bad B&W won't do that for you).

hercules-xps-101.jpg
 
Slinkington said:
Hi there,

Just wondering if anyone can suggest any attractive speakers that compliment the aesthetics of todays iMacs. I came across one or two student projects, and something called a UCube, which only seems to be sold in the USA.

Can anyone recommend anything?

Thanks for your time. :)
Click to expand...


According to the UCube page, they are sold at the Apple Store. What country do you reside in?
 
most attractive speaker for the iMac are ones i don't have to see. so, i took a bose sound dock portable and mounted it to the back of a 27" iMac with a twelve south's backpack shelf. sounds better than the built in speakers, and no one knows its there.

you can substitute any decent sounding speaker if you want to heed to the "bose is crap" crowd. the i used the bose sdp to repurpose it now that docking your idevice is lame plus, i just got one of those wireless soundlink jammys.
 
Steve.P.JobsFan said:
According to the UCube page, they are sold at the Apple Store. What country do you reside in?
Click to expand...

I'm from the UK, I noticed them in the US Apple store but they're not in the UK one. :(

Thanks for all the suggestions guys - much appreciated! :)
 
shyam09 said:
i haven't tried these and they are sold out right now, but they do look kinda cool [it could just be me though...]
ceramic_speakers_joey_roth.jpg
Click to expand...

Yup - it's just you ;-)

----------
luke.mac1 said:
harman kardon soundsticks ii
Click to expand...

+1

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angex79 said:
I would still go with BOSE speakers, Bose® Companion® 5 Multimedia Speaker System are the ones I have, and I love the elegant, fancy look ..which for me, is just what the new iMac image has. Good luck on your search!! :):)
Click to expand...

Just be aware that Bose generally don't have good sound reproduction - they're not exactly audiophile ...
 
Slinkington said:
I'm from the UK, I noticed them in the US Apple store but they're not in the UK one. :(

Thanks for all the suggestions guys - much appreciated! :)
Click to expand...

They're in the US and Canadian stores. I checked UK retailers, UK eBay, and came up empty handed. Try looking for a pair on the USA eBay, from a seller that will ship internationally.
 
I'd avoid Bose as they are all about looks, same for the sound sticks. I'd also avoid M audio as their quality control has been terrible since they were bought by Avid. Right now I think the AudioEngine 5's are pretty good. The bamboo ones are very handsome.
 
bubbamike said:
I'd avoid Bose as they are all about looks, same for the sound sticks. I'd also avoid M audio as their quality control has been terrible since they were bought by Avid. Right now I think the AudioEngine 5's are pretty good. The bamboo ones are very handsome.
Click to expand...

Wow. You have a low opinion on expensive gear, but you just love the cheap stuff. I think I know everything there is to know about you.
 
macrumorsuser10 said:
Wow. You have a low opinion on expensive gear, but you just love the cheap stuff. I think I know everything there is to know about you.
Click to expand...

Wow. He's actually totally right, knows what he's talking about, and Audioengine is FAR from cheap.

Have you ever heard "No highs, no lows- must be a Bose?" They are ALL about selling you the image of "top quality" and charging a premium without actually delivering the goods- and they've convinced everyone that doesn't know anything about audio that they're the best. I bet you spend $100 on Monster cables too :rolleyes: and think you're making a smart purchase.

In fact, a lot of the people I know who hate Apple products and think they're overpriced toys often like to (unfairly) compare mac users to people who brag about their Bose speakers. If you want to make a sound engineer or audiophile lose all respect for you, tell him you think Bose are "audiophile quality" and watch his response.

M-Audio make great stuff, especially for the money- but their speakers aren't the prettiest. Also, they had to lay off a ton of their manufacturing and quality control people recently, and they've had a few faulty speakers slip out into the market- but their customer service is alright. I have a pair of AV-40's at work ($150) and I love them.

Audioengine make top-notch speakers, and I have a pair of Audioengine 2's on my macbook air at home (in white). They're $200, so hardly cheap compared to the Bose, M-Audio, or Soundsticks. They sound fantastic and look better than anything else I've seen. The Audioengine 5's are between $400 and $470 a set, and they're quite big, so they might be more speaker than you need.

In white or carbonized bamboo, Audioengines look really, really good, and sound miles better than any Bose.

Audioengine 2

Audioengine 5
 
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Since how speakers sound is so subjective, you should try different speakers at a store and decide for yourself what you like.

For me, the Bose Companion 2 were not bad, and when I upgraded to the Bose Companion 5 I was not disappointed. Both matched my iMac quite nicely.

Audiophiles seem to disagree with me, I do not claim to be an expert. But then true audiophiles spend thousands of dollars on speakers and only listen to CDs because they can tell a difference when music files are compressed. :eek:

You have to decide what is practical for you.
 
Joe is absolutely right. Sound quality is completely subjective. I just hooked up my Bowers and Wilkins MM-1 speakers. Have to tell you, these things are blowing me away. And, I am listening to a decent quality Sirius stream of classical Christmas music. So, nothing too spectacular from a quality perspective. The processor in the MM-1s is taking it all to another level. I also tried the Bose Companion 20 a couple days back. While that sound was great, the MM-1 set is clearly a notch or two above. The question is, are you comfortable spending $500 (US), $250 (US) or less. My ears rank the MM-1 at $500 as the top notch followed by the Bose Companion 20 at $250 and then the Soundsticks somewhere around $150. Unfortunately, you do get what you pay for. But, if you can't hear the difference between any of these sets, then my advice is to take the cheapest alternative.

Happy Holidays, good luck and let us know your final decision,

Tom
 
Sound quality is not subjective, it's very measurable of how well speakers can reproduce the frequencies sent to them. Your opinion of how speakers make you feel is what's subjective.
 
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