Hello everyone,

I've lurked this site for a little bit, and as the title says, I've been into head-fi for quite sometime. I'm a bit of a semi audiophile as my wallet doesn't match what I want. I'm pretty familiar with most audiophile jargon, at least regarding headphones, source and headphone amps. I'm new to the Hi-fi scene for the most part.

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I figured that since i have a little bit more money on hand and in need of a desperate upgrade for my speakers, I might as well buy a new pair of bookshelf monitors used for <$100 or so for use with my computer. I'm not so sure what of course, what would be good for that price range or what kind of amp I would need to power them. Any guides (preferably shorter) would be welcome, as well as suggestions/recommendations

There are many computer speakers (self powered) on the market. TigerDirect and Newegg are a couple places you can check online. Welcome to AK!

Hello everyone,

I've lurked this site for a little bit, and as the title says, I've been into head-fi for quite sometime. I'm a bit of a semi audiophile as my wallet doesn't match what I want. I'm pretty familiar with most audiophile jargon, at least regarding headphones, source and headphone amps. I'm new to the Hi-fi scene for the most part.

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I figured that since i have a little bit more money on hand and in need of a desperate upgrade for my speakers, I might as well buy a new pair of bookshelf monitors used for <$100 or so for use with my computer. I'm not so sure what of course, what would be good for that price range or what kind of amp I would need to power them. Any guides (preferably shorter) would be welcome, as well as suggestions/recommendations

It's amazing what you can find used at the flea markets, thrift stores and garage sales. I bet you can get room-filling audiophile-grade sound for a lot less than you expect. :thmbsp:

Welcome to AK!

Ive always been a fan of JBL spkrs products over all the yrs. When I get around to updating my old computer, I plan on trying a pair of JBLs multimedia spkr offerings.
Anything will be better than these el-cheapo ic/multimedia spkrs I purchased from wallyworld yrs ago! I must admit tho, they have served my old-ears well where audio-quality wasnt my real issue via computer.
Once I get a new computer setup, I can use the old ic powered ( single amp side L spkr) multimedia spkr to build a cheap signal-tracer for repair work. Will work in a pinch!

JBL made some great speakers. If you want to go the vintage gear route (popular among AKers), you could start haunting garage sales, flea markets and thrift shops, and keeping an eye on eBay and Craigslist (CL) for local bargains on good vintage speakers. Among the more popular ones available in smaller sizes would be AR (4x, 2ax and 3a especially), KLH (5, 17, 23 are probably the best), Advents, Dynaco 25s, any ESS speakers with the Heil AMTs, early smaller Infinities (Infinitesimals are wonderful, but tend to be expensive unless you're really lucky) and many others. You might find some other brands like Energy (Canadian made) or Phase Technology (USA) that are less-discussed, but also very nice, or maybe some British makes like the smaller Tannoys or Harbeths or Spendors, but you'd have to be lucky to get them within your budget; an auction would almost certainly go too high for those brands. I have Peerless and Rauna speakers that are excellent, but little-known, so ones like them wouldn't cost so much. Plenty of nice vintage speakers out there to choose from; see what you can find, and if in doubt about something you find, post here and ask about it.

To upgrade your sound, you should also consider routing the signal from your computer through a decent external amplifier; the ones built into "computer speakers" are mostly pretty poor, although the ones built into real studio monitors are often excellent, and perfectly matched to their drivers. You might look for a Marantz 1060 amplifier; they sound very nice, are not too big (compared to some vintage amps) and have the right power for most computer-speaker applications in most room environments where people would be using a computer.

Just some ideas. If you are in a hurry to get something, this approach might take too long, but if you can be patient and persistent until something good shows up, you'll probably get better results with vintage stuff. :music:

Hey

Welcome to AK!

How about Indignias?

See the speaker forum ofr more info. :yes:

Welcome to AK!

Welcome to AK. I'm using a pair of shielded NHT Super Zero speakers and a (Parts Express) Dayton APA-150 power amp for my computer monitors. Plenty of power and the speakers are fairly accurate. Nearly all players (Windows, iTunes, etc.) have graphic equalization if you want to goose them a bit on the extremes. You may want to try something similar. You can use a stereo receiver or integrated amp which will give you more leeway on speaker selection. Some of the powered small studio monitors have unbalanced inputs (line level) and sound quite excellent too. Most of those are shielded if you're using a CRT type screen.

Welcome to AK!
Regards,
Jim

Welcome aboard! :thmbsp:

Hehe, thanks for the friendly welcomes.

And in reply to the recommendations: indeed, I've been searching on craigslist for bookshelf speakers, but I wasn't exactly sure which of them were better quality than others. I'll probably continue this for a while until I figure out what's good or bad I guess, and find a good deal.

I think it would help to mention that I currently am using a Zero DAC/Amp (headphone amp), and so my speakers are of course using an integrated amp and are terribly unbalanced -- so much so that using an equalizer can't do much without noticibley decreasing the quality (or perhaps I don't know how to use equalizers very well =\ I'm using electri-q with foobar2k).

Again though, thanks for the recommendations and advice, sorry for the somewhat rushed reply, i'll try to look them up when I have more time. =D

If you find something that looks interesting, use the Google search here to look for info (under the "search" heading at the top of the page) or ask in the speakers section. Someone should know something about them.

Hehe, thanks for the friendly welcomes.

And in reply to the recommendations: indeed, I've been searching on craigslist for bookshelf speakers, but I wasn't exactly sure which of them were better quality than others. I'll probably continue this for a while until I figure out what's good or bad I guess, and find a good deal.

I think it would help to mention that I currently am using a Zero DAC/Amp (headphone amp), and so my speakers are of course using an integrated amp and are terribly unbalanced -- so much so that using an equalizer can't do much without noticibley decreasing the quality (or perhaps I don't know how to use equalizers very well =\ I'm using electri-q with foobar2k).

Again though, thanks for the recommendations and advice, sorry for the somewhat rushed reply, i'll try to look them up when I have more time. =D

I too used to frequent Head-fi, but mostly split my computer time now between DIYaudio and here. I owned the Zero DAC/amp and I'm pretty sure
you can use it as a preamp if you are interested. You would need to go search the thread for specifics as I don't own mine anymore.

I find the current crop of cheap Class D t-amps can sound amazing with a good vintage speaker like the New Large Advent or Dynaco A-25, both of which I have tried with great results. A small pair of Boston Acoustic A60/70's or (what I'm using right now) a $7 pair of Paradigm Titans(a GW find) with a $40 T-amp from the bay is about the best sounding rig I have heard for the money.

Welcome!

Welcome to AK.