I'm an electrical engineering and music double-major at Virginia Tech. I use my computer speakers mainly for listening to my music collection (mostly classical). Now, I've been pretty satisfied with my speaker setup--a 2.1 setup, harman/kardon-branded, connected to the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card in the two- or three-year-old Dell they came with. Here are the speakers in question.
The problem I've been having is twofold... these speakers can make a fair amount of noise, for their size and price, but in some recordings it can be easy to reach clipping levels. That's not such a big deal... usually I can just turn the volume down a bit and not have a problem.
But the real problem is this: A lot of the music I listen to has extreme dynamic contrast, and it's not that uncommon that part of a recording is simply inaudible, even with all software and hardware volume controls turned to the max! I've been able to get around this by using the preamp in Winamp to boost the volume during quiet sections, but this is a bit inconvenient and kludgy, and I don't always want to use Winamp to play my music.
Considering all this, I've been thinking: perhaps it's time to consider investing in some new speakers. Something with more amplification capacity, so the volume problem vanishes. A 2.1 setup, because I have nowhere in the dorm room to put the extra speakers for a 5.1 setup, and my DVD-watching and game-playing (the target use of most 5.1 systems) are pretty limited. So I'm looking for a set of 2.1 speakers, something that, unlike my current speakers, won't become obsolete with the computer. Of course, the performance criteria I'm most concerned with have to do with accurate, convincing reproduction of mostly classical music.
The threads I've read here have almost universally ended up recommending the Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers as the best option for someone like me. Claimed pros include exceptionally accurate frequency responce and overall amazing sound. I do have a few questions, though:
- Elsewhere on the Internet, I see disturbingly large numbers of people reporting that their Klipsch Promedia 2.1's have failed after a year or two. Things like potentiometers failing, one channel dropping out, or the sub becoming weak over time. There have also been a couple of claims that newer Promedia 2.1's no longer have this problem... but it's hard to tell. Any thoughts on the reliability of these speakers? If I plunk down $150 for speakers that last me 5 years or more, that's one thing. If they last me 6 months to 2 years, well, that's another thing entirely.
- I've also run across the Klipsch Promedia GMX A-2.1's, but found little information on them. I can tell that the enclosures are different; the GMX version has spiffy-looking or hideous, depending on your tastes, metallic satellites. But I haven't been able to find a more substantial comparison between this version and the regular Promedia 2.1's. Are they actually the same speaker? If not, how do they compare when it comes to sound quality and reliability?
- If reliability is still a problem on the Promedias these days, what are some other recommendations for a 2.1 setup for mostly classical music?
The problem I've been having is twofold... these speakers can make a fair amount of noise, for their size and price, but in some recordings it can be easy to reach clipping levels. That's not such a big deal... usually I can just turn the volume down a bit and not have a problem.
But the real problem is this: A lot of the music I listen to has extreme dynamic contrast, and it's not that uncommon that part of a recording is simply inaudible, even with all software and hardware volume controls turned to the max! I've been able to get around this by using the preamp in Winamp to boost the volume during quiet sections, but this is a bit inconvenient and kludgy, and I don't always want to use Winamp to play my music.
Considering all this, I've been thinking: perhaps it's time to consider investing in some new speakers. Something with more amplification capacity, so the volume problem vanishes. A 2.1 setup, because I have nowhere in the dorm room to put the extra speakers for a 5.1 setup, and my DVD-watching and game-playing (the target use of most 5.1 systems) are pretty limited. So I'm looking for a set of 2.1 speakers, something that, unlike my current speakers, won't become obsolete with the computer. Of course, the performance criteria I'm most concerned with have to do with accurate, convincing reproduction of mostly classical music.
The threads I've read here have almost universally ended up recommending the Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers as the best option for someone like me. Claimed pros include exceptionally accurate frequency responce and overall amazing sound. I do have a few questions, though:
- Elsewhere on the Internet, I see disturbingly large numbers of people reporting that their Klipsch Promedia 2.1's have failed after a year or two. Things like potentiometers failing, one channel dropping out, or the sub becoming weak over time. There have also been a couple of claims that newer Promedia 2.1's no longer have this problem... but it's hard to tell. Any thoughts on the reliability of these speakers? If I plunk down $150 for speakers that last me 5 years or more, that's one thing. If they last me 6 months to 2 years, well, that's another thing entirely.
- I've also run across the Klipsch Promedia GMX A-2.1's, but found little information on them. I can tell that the enclosures are different; the GMX version has spiffy-looking or hideous, depending on your tastes, metallic satellites. But I haven't been able to find a more substantial comparison between this version and the regular Promedia 2.1's. Are they actually the same speaker? If not, how do they compare when it comes to sound quality and reliability?
- If reliability is still a problem on the Promedias these days, what are some other recommendations for a 2.1 setup for mostly classical music?