HooStat
Addicted to Fun and Learning
I was trying to figure out how little I could outfit a medium sized room with high quality full-range sound. I am thinking of my room (14 x 20 with vaulted ceiling that ranges from 8' to 11') but I asking more of a general question. I thought I would make it a challenge to see what people come up with. The price limit is a bit arbitrary -- feel free to exceed it by a little if you have an awesome solution but let's keep a hard limit of $1500.
Some additional rules: The system must include speakers and all electronics including cross-overs, DACs, and amplifiers. Don't include the source -- assume that the user will provide a computer with a USB out from a streaming service and that the computer will do the digital attenuation. Feel free to suggest another way to connect to a digital streaming source and provide volume control, if you like. Exclude costs for wiring or speaker stands or room treatments.
I think, in a perfect world, the system would include more than 1 sub.
I am defining full-range as a -3db point of <= 30 Hz. I am defining "high-quality" as something that has been (or likely would be) tested on ASR and found to be well-engineered and sold by a company with a reasonable reputation for the product.
All prices in USD but feel free to convert to your local currency. All prices should be list prices and should be for new products.
The best I could come up with was the Kali Audio LP-6 active speakers ($300), the Kali WS-12 sub ($600, which includes a built in cross over for the LP-6) and something like the Schiit Modius DAC ($200) with all balanced connections. It might be possible to add one of the $99 mono price subs that @hardisj reviewed to even out the bass, but I am not sure how well it would work in practice (may depend on the actual room modes).
I picked Kali because their speakers seem to be well-engineered and a good value. Plus the matching sub takes care of the speaker-sub integration without needed another piece of equipment.
Anyone else want to try?
Some additional rules: The system must include speakers and all electronics including cross-overs, DACs, and amplifiers. Don't include the source -- assume that the user will provide a computer with a USB out from a streaming service and that the computer will do the digital attenuation. Feel free to suggest another way to connect to a digital streaming source and provide volume control, if you like. Exclude costs for wiring or speaker stands or room treatments.
I think, in a perfect world, the system would include more than 1 sub.
I am defining full-range as a -3db point of <= 30 Hz. I am defining "high-quality" as something that has been (or likely would be) tested on ASR and found to be well-engineered and sold by a company with a reasonable reputation for the product.
All prices in USD but feel free to convert to your local currency. All prices should be list prices and should be for new products.
The best I could come up with was the Kali Audio LP-6 active speakers ($300), the Kali WS-12 sub ($600, which includes a built in cross over for the LP-6) and something like the Schiit Modius DAC ($200) with all balanced connections. It might be possible to add one of the $99 mono price subs that @hardisj reviewed to even out the bass, but I am not sure how well it would work in practice (may depend on the actual room modes).
I picked Kali because their speakers seem to be well-engineered and a good value. Plus the matching sub takes care of the speaker-sub integration without needed another piece of equipment.
Anyone else want to try?