Speakers

[phppete]

Can anyone recommend a good set of PC speakers? Having recently loaded my CD's onto my PC and using iTunes I now require a nice set of speakers. I was looking at the Harman Kardon Soundsticks 2 which seem to have excellent reviews on amazon.co.uk but mixed reviews on amazon.com.

Speakers must be plug and play to work with Windows XP and an iBook.

Budget is around £100/$180

[johnfl68]

I would recoment the Bose MediaMate or Companion 2 (this is the new version of the MediaMate).

I have the MediaMate and I am very pleased with the sound quality compared to the monitors I use in the studio that cost much more.

As for reviews, I have seen some mixed reviews, but I am begining to not trust reviews as much these days, it' almost as if people who don't have anything better to do are writting these reviews because of one bad product expereince they may have had sometime in there life.

Bottom line is, they are computer speakers, and if you are looking for computer speakers, either the Bose or the Harman Kardon should be fine, as they both have made good products.

Hope this helps.

John

[Kevin]

I haven't tried any of those HK SoundSticks but I have an older set of 2-piece speakers from HK and they are excelent (for 2-piece). They came with an older Dell system so I doubt they were top of the line even at the time but they did a great job.

I am currently using a 3-piece set from Sony that I got on sale for $100 a while back. They sound really good and with a flip of a switch I can redirect my audio through my home theater system with much bigger Infinity speakers. My only complaint about the Sony system is that the bass/trebble knob doesn't do anything when I use the headphone jack so I have to use a software EQ when I use my headphones.

I haven't tried any Bose computer speakers but I have tried both their home theater and car audio systems. With the Bose systems that I tried you would either love them or hate them depending on what you are listening to. On music that was all highs and lows there is nothing better but for music with lots of midrange (like heavy metal) they don't do very good at all. Of course it has been several years since I have gone speaker shopping so that might not be true anymore.

[phppete]

Thanks for the replies, I'll look up a few more reviews, so much to choose from you feel a bit lost. The majority of my music is rock/metal so I'll keep an eye on reviews and comments.

[dank]

With the Bose systems that I tried you would either love them or hate them depending on what you are listening to. On music that was all highs and lows there is nothing better but for music with lots of midrange (like heavy metal) they don't do very good at all.
That's odd. Their reputation is, "no highs, no lows, must be Bose." I used to be a big fan of their audio equipment; not so much anymore.

Dan

[tappel]

My favorite PC geek magazine, Maximum PC, gives brutally honest product reviews. They loved the Klipsch ProMedia GMX A-2.1 (http://www.maximumpc.com/2004/10/klipsch_promedi_1.html). In fact, they usually like anything from Klipsch. Appears to be in your price range too.

Tom

[Randall]

The Klipsch ProMedia systems get a lot of recommendations from rock/metal-type people. Reviews of other speakers in that price range (Logitech Z-2300, Altec Lansing MX5021, the HK Soundsticks) almost always use the ProMedia as a point of comparison.

The only set I've heard personally was the Logitech speakers (actually the prior model, Z-2200). Good bass but kind of lacking in the vocal range. Based on that experience and the reviews I've read, I'd probably be looking at the Altec Lansings -- great highs, but opinions are bitterly divided over their bass response. Much like the Grado headphones I know and love.

Probably not what Pete's looking for. :wink:

Randall