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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio candidates - Moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tinkershaw who wrote (1505)	6/14/2005 12:16:29 PM
From: Eric L	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2955

OT: PC Speaker Ramblings ... Tinker, << I'd be interested on what set up you install. I presently have Cambridge Soundworks cubes with a floor base, cost about $150 or so a few years back. ... Been shopping to upgrade but have not really found anything compelling as I'd like to fill the entire room with music. >> In the late nineties and before they became part of Creative, the Cambridge Soundworks MegaWorks speakers were generally regarded as the best available PC speakers. Period. The end. If you managed to pick up the 3 piece (2:1) 270-watt MegaWorks 210D system released in 2001 that generally retailed for about $250, for ~$150, you got a heck of a deal and shouldn't be worrying about filling a room with reasonably good quality sound (for powered PC speakers) unless it's a darned big room. I suspect you may have a lower powered CS system. If you do in fact have the MegaWorks 210D you aren't going to find much to top it. In my case I paid about $125 for my Altec Lansing 3 piece 2:1 system which delivers decent audio quality (for powered PC speakers), a good step up from the typical included speaker pair, and passed on both the MegaWorks 210D kit and the competitive Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 speakers (still a good value at ~$150 today) several years ago even though I was running a high end Turtle Beach card in a P3 Dell Dimension which is now my secondary desktop PC. I moved the speakers over to a newer P4 Dell Dimension with a Creative SBL card with the intention of upgrading them at some time. The Altec's have treated me well. While it won't shake the walls, the downfiring subwoofer is constantly powered, runs cool, and doesn't miss a beat. The Satellites aren't great but not bad either for delivering listenable mid-range and high-end. As for compelling ... after a quick survey in recent days, starting with Cambridge or what's left of them after their purchase by Creative, I couldn't find anything overly compelling myself. Klipsch hasn't upgraded the Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 although their ProMedia Ultra 2.0 speakers get very high marks. There is nothing out there I'd split with $300 or more for, which I would be willing to spend if it really was compelling, and didn't require upgrading to an exotic sound card more robust than the Creative SBL card I have installed. The legitimate speaker manufacturers like Cambridge, Boston Acoustics (now history after being purchased by Dennon and Marantz), or Klipsch who used to modify their low end products for PCs simply haven't been doing much recently with near-audiophile 2:1 PC speaker sets. I'm not interested in 5:1 or 7:1 surround sound in my 350 square foot office, as opposed to the entertainment centers in my home, I'm simply interested in somewhat improving the quality of stereo audio in the office, and although I generally listen at low volume, and occasionally I would like to fill the room evenly with decent quality sound. I basically would like a better powered subwoofer and 2 better powered satellites than what I currently have with a remote control for treble and bass volume. While the Microsoft multimedia keyboard controls overall volume on my current kit those controls are on one of the satellites which flank my monitor and I can't reach it without standing up and reaching. Ideally I'd also like to shelf mount the satellites on the front wall I face or place them on low speaker stands there, rather than on the workstation surface with 2x to 3x the spacing I currently have between them. Without making a lifetime project out of this, last evening I ordered the 200 watt THX-certified, 3-piece, Logitech Z-2300 2:1 system for the throwaway price of $120 delivered. Comparative reviews of the Z-2300 and the theoretically rather comparable Creative MegaWorks 250D-THX (which may be discontinued and may have been trouble prone) can be linked from here: reviews.cnet.com ¹ Cambridge has the original 210D for $249 (without shipping) but shows it as backordered. The Creative MegaWorks 250D-THX appears to be a cost reduced version of the 210D tinyurl.com On the surface the single knock off apparent to me on the Logitech Z-2300 for my use is that the speaker cables are hard wired to the satellites so I'll need to extend at least one with an RCA coupler and about a 9' longer RCA composite cable to get them off my workstation, forward, and wider spaced. I'm trusting that won't deteriorate quality and with that short run it shouldn't even if thinner gauge than I would like. Worst case I'll mount em back on the workstation flanking the monitor. For a sunk cost of $120 plus a cable extender, I'm not gonna lose sleep over it. The Z-2300 midrange gets mixed reviews although the high end rates well. Hopefully the mid-range is slightly improved from my Altec's which I rate as fair. I'll let you know my satisfaction level with the whole system after I take delivery, install, and burn them in. I might add that early on I ruled out the $249 Boise Companion 3 system. I recommended it to a friend about a year ago who installed it on a Dell with the same sound card as mine. It's not bad, he's satisfied, but it's nothing to write home about at its price point, and basically is comparable to what I'm currently running. In 6 to 12 months I'll probably retire my Dell Dimension 8200 to secondary status and purchase yet another Dimension. At that time I'll shop around again. I did notice that their high end speaker option for Dimensions is the Logitech Z5500 5.1 Speaker System [a $289 adder] and their high end card is Creative's Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS (D) Card w/Dolby 5.1, and IEEE 1394, so it's in the same family as what I just purchased and the Z5500 is one of the better reviewed 5:1 systems. The short of this overly-long response to you is that on the best of days we are not going to get audiophile quality out of PC speakers unless we connect a sound card output to a good integrated amplifier which I may do someday -- but we should be able to get decent quality. It's a bit sad that the good speaker manufacturers that did have a focus here, either aren't around anymore, or are focused elsewhere. Speaking of Apple -- which this discussion is supposed to be all about -- and to get back on topic, did you notice that Nokia added Apple to their partners list today? channelregister.co.uk Best, - Eric -

To: tinkershaw who wrote (1505)	6/14/2005 2:37:39 PM
From: Eric L	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2955

OT II: One more 2:1 PC Speaker Set ... Tinker, ... in the previous post I forgot to mention a very well reviewed 3-piece 2:1 system that I almost opted for -- the Altec Lansing FX6021 InConcert. Deciding factor was the price at about 2x the price of the Logitech setup I ordered, making it a little less of a throwaway. It has a weaker (non-shielded) subwoofer than the Logitech I chose, but the sats evidently produce better sound and the cable is modular. fastlanehw.com Overall it appears to be one of the best 2:1 systems out there for music quality although it's somewhat week on bass. - Eric -