Requesting 2.1 Desk Setup Suggestions

schlitzbull

schlitzbull

Gawd
Joined
Feb 19, 2014
Messages
633
Im looking into getting a decent pair of speakers and sub for my desk in my office. Between work calls and noise cancelling ear buds on at least 70 hours a week im ready to listen to some speakers and give my ear holes some fresh air.

My level of "audiophile"...
Im not an audiophile but if someone asked me to watch a movie on a TV speaker I just wouldn't watch the movie. I have HD598 SE and ATH-M50x and im happy with those. Both are running on a fiio e10k.
The Atmos setup in my garage is all Polk speakers (CS10 center, tsi100 sides, t15 rears, atrium 5 atmos) with a Bic PL-200 II. All of that is powered by a Pioneer VSX-934. Its not the nicest setup ever but I consider it solid and enjoyable.

Im not set on budget. The cheaper the better but I understand you get what you pay for.

I would rather have better quality vs volume as im sure the wife will bitch if I get anything obnoxious.

Im not sure if Id be better off going with powered speakers with a sub out or speakers/sub on an amp. Id prefer a low profile amp if I go that route so I can put it under my monitor stand. I would like some sort of physical volume control within arms reach but I suppose thats not a requirement if it saves me significant money not having that.

It will be used for games and music (mainly metal and lofi at the moment) only and the source will be my PC.

I did install Polk RC6 speakers in the screened in porch powered by a cheap $90 Keiid amp. I feel like something like that would groslly under power a nice set of bookshelf speakers. Its fine for outside since the neighbors are close. It just seems like the nice stereo amps cost about the same as a full blown a/v receiver?

Any suggestions on products or even a different/better solution than Ive thought of is appreciated!
 
I ended up doing a little more research. Crutchfield's website has a cool tool that lets you "demo" the speakers. I entered my headphones model into the tool then selected multiple speakers to compare. In the compare, there are about 10 different tracks with different types of music. The Polk tsi 100 still sounded good to me and was one of the cheapest speakers they had there (guess I have basic bitch ears). The Jamo C91s seemed to sound similar with the highs being really cleaned up and not as splashy. The next tier up where I could really tell a big difference was getting into the $1000 a pair price range which is more than I want to spend. I also ordered the Jamo C910 sub since the C91s (4" cone) fit my desk space better than the C93s (6" cone). Then I also ordered a Fosi Audio DA2120C to power it all. This is the only part I really dont feel comfortable with. Something about it looks cheap to me but it ticked all my boxes as far as compatibility/functionality. Stuff should arrive Sunday. I dont know if anyone gives a shit but i'll update the thread with my experience.

TLDR;
Jamo C91 Bookshelf
Jamo C910 Sub
Fosi Audio DA2120C
ETA Sunday
 
Commander Shepard said:
Jamo makes some good bang for the buck speakers. What was the total $$?
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$280 for bookshelves
$250 for sub
$160 amp

Ill check out those other brands. I made sure to buy everything sold and delivered by Amazon for easy returns.

Edit:
I like those speaker stands Kanto has to lean the speaker back.

Edit 2:
Do they make powered speakers with sub pre outs for powered subs? I dont have a preference of having a standalone amp. Ive just never owned powered speakers.
 
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schlitzbull said:
$280 for bookshelves
$250 for sub
$160 amp

Ill check out those other brands. I made sure to buy everything sold and delivered by Amazon for easy returns.

Edit:
I like those speaker stands Kanto has to lean the speaker back.

Edit 2:
Do they make powered speakers with sub pre outs for powered subs? I dont have a preference of having a standalone amp. Ive just never owned powered speakers.
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Kanto does and they have a couple of powered subs; not sure about Fluance.
 
Stuff came early. Really happy with the results. The 6" speakers wouldve been too big. The amp pushes the speakers great. About 80% on the volume gets around uncomfortable terrirtory. I was also really surprised with the sub. Its in a 12x12 room and ill prob keep it around 33%. Very happy i didnt end up with a "well its aight" response to it. Would definitely recommend all of these at this price range.

Dont mind my cable mgmt, have to order longer cables.
 

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jarablue said:
I have the Logitech Z623 400 Watt 2.1 set up. Works for me and they get good reviews. So many audio choices out there. Def get what makes you happy. For the money my set up works fine.

Good luck! :)
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Yep thats exactly what I have hooked up to the arcade cabinet and one of the PCs in the garage. Amazing sound for the price quality!


The Fosi Audio DA2120C has been acting up on me a little bit. I cannot find any rhyme or reason to it, but the audio will just stop and change to an ear piercing hiss. Turning the amp off and on clears the problem for some random interval. I'm using the fancy clear blue (like what was popular in the late 2000s) USB cable that came with the box. I ordered a new USB cable and a replacement amp to see if it clears. I might be able to handle the inconvenience except the volume of the hiss seems likes its 50% louder than the volume I was listening to music at aka scares the shit out of me every time.
 
Amp is fine. It didnt like the hub it was plugged in to. Ran it direct to the mobo and zero issues today.
 
I'm a little bit rusty on budget setups. I'm curious to read what you come up with.

In general, I'd always advise on going with a set of bookshelf speakers, and amp and a sub than a "all in one PC speaker box", but this does usually wind up costing more.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I'm a little bit rusty on budget setups. I'm curious to read what you come up with.

In general, I'd always advise on going with a set of bookshelf speakers, and amp and a sub than a "all in one PC speaker box", but this does usually wind up costing more.
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That 2.1 you spec'ed out for me years ago still kicks ass.
 
FrgMstr said:
That 2.1 you spec'ed out for me years ago still kicks ass.
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I'm glad you still like it!

It is still a hell of a bang for the buck (and not in the cheap sense) but I don't have a good idea of what is still around and at what cost post crazy-inflation and supply constraints.
 
I upgraded my Logitech to a pair of HS7 studio monitors with a focusrite external audio processor. The sound imporvement is unreal!

But def get what you can afford. You can get good sound for cheap today.
 
Im rockin my mackie cr5's and loving the sound. Simple setup and can just y-off a cable to a sub if wanted.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I'm a little bit rusty on budget setups. I'm curious to read what you come up with.

In general, I'd always advise on going with a set of bookshelf speakers, and amp and a sub than a "all in one PC speaker box", but this does usually wind up costing more.
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Idk if its budget at this price point...but

Fosi Audio DA2120C
Pair of Jamo C 91 II
Jamo C 910 sub

I got stuff on sale and it came out to around $600. Absolutely love it though. Usually dont get above volume 35/100. Its loud, clear and plenty of bass for my 12x12 office. No regrets.
 
schlitzbull said:
Idk if its budget at this price point...but

Fosi Audio DA2120C
Pair of Jamo C 91 II
Jamo C 910 sub

I got stuff on sale and it came out to around $600. Absolutely love it though. Usually dont get above volume 35/100. Its loud, clear and plenty of bass for my 12x12 office. No regrets.
Click to expand...

There is something special about a system that gets loud effortlessly. The sound is big, but it doesn't "sound loud".
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
There is something special about a system that gets loud effortlessly. The sound is big, but it doesn't "sound loud".
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Absolutely. Great way of describing it.

Edit:
Crutchfields website has a cool audio virtualization to give you an idea of what the speakers sound like. Ive personally have preferred polk over klipsch and these jamos, to me, sounded like a slightly better audio than the Polks I was looking at. Turns out Polk owns Jamo.

Anyway, im sure its not the same as an in person demo. But what I got was not only what I expected, but better. Im poor at describing audio with words apprently lol. Hopefully you know what im saying. It gave a good sense of the overall tones. And you can demo a variety of music types.
 
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I am still using a pair of Alesis M1 Active MK2 powered monitors hooked to an M-Audio BX Subwoofer (under the desk)
I got these in a trade over 21 years ago. I did have to repair both of them a few years ago, a couple of capacitors sit really close to a mosfet and end up drying up/failing after a number of years.
Put upgraded caps in and kept the leads a little longer so that I could tilt the caps away from the mosfet.

I also had to fix my friends M-Audio BX5's. one of them failed due to leaky caps so my friend brought them over and I replaced the caps on both since the other one probably would have failed eventually.

IMG_3530.JPEG
 
Zepher said:
I am still using a pair of Alesis M1 Active MK2 powered monitors hooked to an M-Audio BX Subwoofer (under the desk)
I got these in a trade over 21 years ago. I did have to repair both of them a few years ago, a couple of capacitors sit really close to a mosfet and end up drying up/failing after a number of years.
Put upgraded caps in and kept the leads a little longer so that I could tilt the caps away from the mosfet.

I also had to fix my friends M-Audio BX5's. one of them failed due to leaky caps so my friend brought them over and I replaced the caps on both since the other one probably would have failed eventually.

View attachment 546744
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Whats your clock/weather thing next to your PC?
 
schlitzbull said:
Thanks! Think im gonna pick one up, looks cool and been looking for something like this.
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I also have a horizontal model in my bedroom. I got this from a friend. Saw it at his house one day and mentioned that I wouldn't mind having something like that since it was cool looking.
A few months later he needed his sons Traxxas RC car either fixed, upgraded, or painted and offered me the La Crosse as payment.

zune-remotes.jpg
 
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Zepher said:
I also have a horizontal model in my bedroom. I got this from a friend. Saw it at his house one day and mentioned that I wouldn't mind having something like that since it was cool looking.
A few months later he needed his sons Traxxas RC car either fixed, upgraded, or painted and offered me the La Crosse as payment.

View attachment 546868
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This pic might be the best case scenario for a universal remote that I've ever seen!! :D
 
ND40oz said:
Klipsch ProMedia 2.1's are great bang for the buck. Costco has them on sale right now: https://www.costco.com/klipsch-promedia-2.1-thx-computer-speakers.product.100657992.html
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That is nuts.

I can't believe these are still for sale.

I remember them being all the rage on all the review sites in the late 90's.

A 25 year run for any product still being competitive is quite an achievement, doubly so for a tech product.

Here is Anandtech's review from 2001. I wonder how much they have changed since. I am going to have to google the current versions.
 
The Klipsch Promedia 2.1 is one of my best bang-for-the-buck computer purchases ever. It was my gateway drug to better computer audio. I've spent an obscene amount of $$ on audio since then. :ROFLMAO:
 
Are they better than the logitech 2.1 setups? That has been my go to and what I have running on the garage PC and arcade cabinet.
 
schlitzbull said:
Are they better than the logitech 2.1 setups? That has been my go to and what I have running on the garage PC and arcade cabinet.
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I'll let someone else answer this.

They reviewed very well in the late 90's, but that was compared to other "PC Speakers", which doesn't necessarily say much because most of them looked something like this, and could predict incoming cellphone calls:

2u8mqwgrfgp61.jpg
 
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