A friend of mine bought the Klipsch ProMedia (?) 5 piece system for about $300. It sounds exceptionally nice. He had it hooked up to his XP box, not sure about how you would do it on a mac. I was impressed when I heard it though.
Ugh, Bang&Olufson are heavy on style, lite on sound. There are so many good speakers out there, and B&O are actually at the low end of hi fi speakers. Klipsh are very, very nice, as are B&W, Energy, Lynn, McIntosh (!), and many others I can't remember right now.
As for amplifiers, my favorites are Adcom and NAD...and TUBE amps are the way to go, but good luck finding one that's affordable. Those tube amps sound so gorgeous, I got to hear some Miles Davis & John Coltrane on a tube amplifier, the brand name of which I now forget, through Klipsh speakers. Utterly beautiful, and entirely unaffordable. Makes you want to rob a bank or sell smack for a living.
The audio nazi's are always so quick to strike at Bang & Olufsen. I think it's jealousy
I've worked in million dollar sound studios at Turner Broadcasting, and yeah, they sounded a lot better than my B&O setup. The room was also architecturally designed to accomodate the best possible listening experience.
My Beolab 1's produce gorgeous sound, and combined with the other speakers I have in my surround setup, I've never found myself watching a DVD and saying, "Damn, you know, these things are really lite on the audio quality. I really wish I had a pair of <insert name here>'s."
My home is a home, not a recording studio. I want speakers that look good, and sound great, and they do, and for the marketplace they are sold in, they're hardly bottom of the line. Most people probably can't even hear the differences. At any rate, yeah, I've heard better... but that "better" is in a whole other ball league that B&O doesn't play in
I have two Celestion speakers(f-seriers bookshelf) plugged into my Technics 5.1 100watt amp(SA-DX750)
I get great sound...the bass response is weak but its good quality the speakers were 100 bucks for the pair the amp is 200 bucks but I got the floor model for 100
all in all thats roughly 200 bucks and I've had it for about a year now and its great...my next move is to get some nice floorstanding speakers and a cerwin-vega woofer, oh an a VERY nice center channel...since I hear that the center channel actually handles the most of all 5.1 set-ups.
I can't believe the soundblaster exitgy is windows only...how hard would it be to write a mac driver for it? since ts external thats all it would need correct?
[quote] Klipsh are very, very nice <hr></blockquote>
The Dawg is right, and Klipsch computer speakers are candy, too. I just bought a pair of Klipsch / Promedia 2.1's (comes with a weighty subwoofer) and they dance. Major candiness.
I recently got a connector to use my Audiovox stereo system as my computer speakers. I have a laptop so I really needed the better speakers, as the built in ones are very tinny. The stereo system was $100 and the sound quality is just fine. I haven't compared it to other speakers but since I'm not too much of an audiophile as far as speaker quality goes but if someone is looking for an inexpensive system, most of those three piece stereo systems are fine. Though I'm sure some super expensive four speaker + sub would sound better.
hey Bose rox. i have two pairs of Bose 901's hooked up to my imac and i get no tother pleasure than driving my neighbors wild with the sound from my 1000 watt amp.
You can get more stylish hi-fi equipment than B&O - if you spend more than USD40,000.
You can get better-sounding hi-fi equipment than B&O even by spending only 1/3 of their price - if you listen.
And I live in Denmark where they PRODUCE B&O, so my price is below the one you have to pay.
It's not just the speakers; look at the chips they use for d/a conversion, or the principles their power units are constructed after (giving efficiency rather than clean, fast delivery of current. Or...
I still love B&O because I love the style. Just like I still love Mac.
Comments
As for amplifiers, my favorites are Adcom and NAD...and TUBE amps are the way to go, but good luck finding one that's affordable. Those tube amps sound so gorgeous, I got to hear some Miles Davis & John Coltrane on a tube amplifier, the brand name of which I now forget, through Klipsh speakers. Utterly beautiful, and entirely unaffordable. Makes you want to rob a bank or sell smack for a living.
I've worked in million dollar sound studios at Turner Broadcasting, and yeah, they sounded a lot better than my B&O setup. The room was also architecturally designed to accomodate the best possible listening experience.
My Beolab 1's produce gorgeous sound, and combined with the other speakers I have in my surround setup, I've never found myself watching a DVD and saying, "Damn, you know, these things are really lite on the audio quality. I really wish I had a pair of <insert name here>'s."
My home is a home, not a recording studio. I want speakers that look good, and sound great, and they do, and for the marketplace they are sold in, they're hardly bottom of the line. Most people probably can't even hear the differences. At any rate, yeah, I've heard better... but that "better" is in a whole other ball league that B&O doesn't play in
I get great sound...the bass response is weak but its good quality the speakers were 100 bucks for the pair the amp is 200 bucks but I got the floor model for 100
all in all thats roughly 200 bucks and I've had it for about a year now and its great...my next move is to get some nice floorstanding speakers and a cerwin-vega woofer, oh an a VERY nice center channel...since I hear that the center channel actually handles the most of all 5.1 set-ups.
I can't believe the soundblaster exitgy is windows only...how hard would it be to write a mac driver for it? since ts external thats all it would need correct?
The Dawg is right, and Klipsch computer speakers are candy, too. I just bought a pair of Klipsch / Promedia 2.1's (comes with a weighty subwoofer) and they dance. Major candiness.
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Waiting for a Revised Mobo in Nashville
You can get better-sounding hi-fi equipment than B&O even by spending only 1/3 of their price - if you listen.
And I live in Denmark where they PRODUCE B&O, so my price is below the one you have to pay.
It's not just the speakers; look at the chips they use for d/a conversion, or the principles their power units are constructed after (giving efficiency rather than clean, fast delivery of current. Or...
I still love B&O because I love the style. Just like I still love Mac.