Help me pick out good computer speakers!
November 24, 2010 2:25 PM   Subscribe

[Christmas Gift Filter] Help me get my boyfriend some nice speakers that he can use with his Mac Book Pro.

My boyfriend is a gifted musician and composer. He doesn't have any external speakers that he can plug into his lap top, and I would like to get him some for Christmas. He has a Mac Book Pro. The trouble is that I not only know nothing about computers, but I am also the opposite of a gifted musician, so I'm not sure what I should be looking for in terms of speakers.

So, my questions are:
1) Are there any specific speakers that you can recommend me, preferably that I can buy online? It would be nice if there was something good for under $100, too.

2) What should I look for in speakers? What sort of specs equal good quality sound?

Thanks!
posted by wansac to Technology (10 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
I am super happy with me Audioengineusa A2's, although they cost $200. I have found that you really can't go by specs for speakers, you really have to go by ear. Audioengineusa has a free trial period. I ended up sending some gear back to them and it was easy and not a hassle at all.

For $100, you could probably pick anything on Amazon. Klipsch also makes great speakers and they probably have something in your price range.

If you can super splurge though. The A2's are great.
posted by reddot at 2:40 PM on November 24, 2010 [2 favorites]


The M-Audio AV 40s should also sound really good and are $150. Their AV 30s are $100.

You may also want to consider the Klipsch Groove PM20 2.0 or the Creative Labs GigaWorks T20 series II.

I much prefer to get a pair of larger speakers rather than smaller speakers with a separate sub woofer. Many fewer wires.
posted by reddot at 2:57 PM on November 24, 2010


I'm runnin the Bose Companion 2's and they're a good value for under 100 bucks. I'm a musician myself - take that for whatever it's worth... If I had four hundred bucks to throw around I'd get a nice five speaker system with a sub and yadda yadda, but I don't, so I'm runnin the Companion 2's. They produce a lot of sound for just two speakers. It's crisp and clean, and I'm impressed with them...
posted by Glendale at 3:12 PM on November 24, 2010


Best answer: you don't say what kind of music they want to play but for anything not involving very loud and deep bass (ie dance music, pipe organs) i highly recommend these behringer ms20s

they cost $CDN $130, and to fill a larger room the MS40s have twice the power and are $150.

no subwoofer, but they do have larger woofers than anything else i am aware of in this class, and they are generally very clean and accurate. a subwoofer can be added later if required.

also budget another $15 or so for an optical cable.
posted by paradroid at 3:17 PM on November 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


I fell in love with the Soundsticks made by Harman Kardon in partnership with Apple way, way back. Nothing else I've seen in the 5 years since has sounded quite like it (for comparable price and size of course) They're still selling the same model five years on - I'm not sure if it's a bad thing in that it indicates the technology hasn't moved forward, or a good thing in that it can't be improved on.

Anyway that review is spot on - "ultraclear" sound quality also means that it will be too bright or sibilant for some types of music - rock and metal don't sound good on it, and the subwoofer is underpowered (so your explosions and gunfire in computer games and movies will lack punch) but it delivers such clarity in vocals, jazz, strings, drums, anything in the mid range to high end. I'm not sure why that is, maybe the 8 tweeters have something to do with it...
posted by xdvesper at 7:17 PM on November 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


One of the dirty little secrets in the speaker-building business is that 90% of the cost of building a high-fidelity speaker lies in the enclosure; the "box", as it were. The actual wholesale component cost to speaker builders for the hardware, ( the various crossovers, drivers, etc.), is astonishingly negligible; it's not uncommon to find precisely the same tweeters in speakers which cost anywhere fro $400 to $4000. The lesson here then is too ignore brands, and to always instead look for as well-made and as rigid a enclosure as is possible. With this in mind, the enclosure material should be as thick and non-resonate as the weight and your budget considerations will allow. MDF as a material is a good starting place to learn about this, if you care.

As a general rule, it's very difficult to produce the range of frequencies humans can hear with a speaker which is less than about 3 inches in diameter, which means that any enclosure less than .5 cubic feet will likely be sub-optimal. A speaker's job is to move air in a prescribed manner, the physics here are entirely about how the air movement is controlled. The science in speaker design lies in the proper porting, or not, of the the air which is compressed within the enclosures when the speaker baskets move backwards.

Connectivity. Inputs and outputs are critical, the more the better. Having analog and digital is always a bonus, but clean amplification power is what final accuracy is about. Of all the powered speaker models recommended so far, only the behringer ms20s which paradroid linked to above can actually qualify has having these considerations in mind.I am so impressed by those that I am considering getting some for myself.

Currently though, I was leaning toward this T class amp, and some cheap bookshelf speakers from Parts Express to take on the road myself.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 8:54 PM on November 24, 2010


I strongly recommend quality used home stereo speakers with a separate power amp or receiver (receiver equals amplifier plus radio). If you are interested in that approach, I'd be happy to look at your local craigslist for potential deals.

2) What should I look for in speakers? What sort of specs equal good quality sound?

There is virtually no correlation whatsoever between specs and quality when it comes to speakers.
posted by Chuckles at 12:30 AM on November 25, 2010


um, not to rain on your parade, but as a musician, I think 'computer speakers' are a waste of money and time. They sound terrible and just clutter my desk. If I received some from my girlfriend I'd probably just end up having to try and smile politely at them as i unwrapped them. Thinking - how soon can I toss these before she'll notice.

Personally I just run my computer into my Hi-Fi Amp / Studio monitors directly which sounds much better.

Does he not already do this? a mini-jack to RCA cable is pretty handy for that kind of thing.
posted by mary8nne at 7:39 AM on November 25, 2010


Response by poster: mary8nne: No, he doesn't have any speakers other than a pair of headphones (if he already had a solution to a lack of computer speakers, I probably wouldn't ask this question). I should mention that we are college students right now, so we can't necessarily professional quality equipment. When you say computer speakers sound terrible, would that be true of ALL computer speakers? Because a lot of the reviews on Amazon seem to be written by knowledgeable posters and indicate that there are some good ones to be found, but then again I, myself, don't actually know this. Also, as a musician, when you were still in music school and didn't have studio monitors, would this have been helpful to you?
posted by wansac at 11:15 PM on November 25, 2010


Best answer: You have mail, wansac.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 2:27 PM on November 26, 2010


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