NicolasB
Distinguished Member
Hello all. I'm considering getting an upgrade from the bundled-for-free Dell speakers I'm currently using with my home PC.
The first question is always "What's your budget?" and my answer is nearly always "I don't know, how much do I need to spend?"
If you ask me what I am hoping to spend, I might say "around £50". If you ask me how much I could spend if I had to, I might say "anything up to £200-£300".
I'm looking for a sweetspot/diminishing returns point: in order to justify spending £75, what I'm getting for that money needs to be substantially better than what I could get for £50 - not just slightly better but a lot better; and if I'm going to pay £100, what I'd get would have to be substantially better than what I could get for £75; and so on up.
Hope that makes sense!
Criteria:
- They're for a PC, so we are almost certainly talking about active speakers.
- The main thing I'll be using them for is making over-the-Net calls on MSN, Skype, etc. so the ability to reproduce a spoken voice clearly is particularly important. So we need good mid-range and especially clear treble (for the consonant sounds).
- I tend to like to like components that are described as "transparent" or "neutral".
- Loud, distorted bass is annoying; but if the bass is a bit underemphasised, that's probably not a problem.
- I've a mild preference for something that is not too heavy and bulky; so, other things being equal, a simple pair of speakers is probably going to be better than a 2.1 setup; but not if that compromises the treble and midrange.
Suggestions?
The first question is always "What's your budget?" and my answer is nearly always "I don't know, how much do I need to spend?"
If you ask me what I am hoping to spend, I might say "around £50". If you ask me how much I could spend if I had to, I might say "anything up to £200-£300".I'm looking for a sweetspot/diminishing returns point: in order to justify spending £75, what I'm getting for that money needs to be substantially better than what I could get for £50 - not just slightly better but a lot better; and if I'm going to pay £100, what I'd get would have to be substantially better than what I could get for £75; and so on up.
Hope that makes sense!
Criteria:
- They're for a PC, so we are almost certainly talking about active speakers.
- The main thing I'll be using them for is making over-the-Net calls on MSN, Skype, etc. so the ability to reproduce a spoken voice clearly is particularly important. So we need good mid-range and especially clear treble (for the consonant sounds).
- I tend to like to like components that are described as "transparent" or "neutral".
- Loud, distorted bass is annoying; but if the bass is a bit underemphasised, that's probably not a problem.
- I've a mild preference for something that is not too heavy and bulky; so, other things being equal, a simple pair of speakers is probably going to be better than a 2.1 setup; but not if that compromises the treble and midrange.
Suggestions?
