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Desktop Speaker Recommendation

Antz123

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Hello All,

I had Klipsch Promedia GMX A-2.1 – Speaker, and they broke down after ages of abuse.

I primarily listen to music (classical rock, indie, some newer bands), some gaming, and movies. I am based out of India, and most of the suggestions that I have read are not available in India. I made a shortlist of some speakers that still feel like a good match-up, do advise on which set-up would be ideal for my set-up. My budget is around 300 USD (+- 20 USD). Though this budget is based on the prices I am getting the gear here in India. In the following list, the prices are converted from Indian Rupees to USD :

1) micca RB42 200 Watt (195USD)
2) JBL Professional PMKII (305P ~ 301USD ; 306P ~ 338USD ; 308P ~ 337USD )
3) Edifier ED-R1700BTs (209USD)
4) Kali Audio LP-6 V2 (488USD)
5) Polk Audio Signature Elite ES10 (268USD)
6) Polk Audio Monitor XT15 (240USD)

(The Range of Speakers on Amazon India)
There are some other brands and models of which I am not aware of, thus may be they aren't in my consideration set.


With the passive options, I also need to find a good amp. Some options for amps I could find here were:
1) Nobsound G2 PRO ( 171USD)
2) Nobsound NS 06G ( 127USD)
3) Nobsound NS-20G ( 136USD)
4) AIYIMA D03 ( 174USD)
5) AIYIMA A08Pro ( 183USD)
6) Fosi Audio TP-02 (163USD)
(The range of Desktop Amplifiers on Amazon India)

Now I can either push to go for costlier JBL, and Kali LP6. or Make a combination of a passive set-up and an amp.

Any help to push me in the right direction would really help. Thank you.
 
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Antz123

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Did I miss something? or some more information might help?
 

NTK

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Welcome to ASR!

There are two threads by @sweetchaos on recommended active and passive speakers. You may want to take a look at those.
 
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Antz123

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Welcome to ASR!

There are two threads by @sweetchaos on recommended active and passive speakers. You may want to take a look at those.
I saw those, the prices mentioned there don't match my local prices. Some cost way more than others.

1) micca RB42 200 Watt (195USD) (USA Price - Under 150)
2) JBL Professional PMKII (305P ~ 301USD ; 306P ~ 338USD ; 308P ~ 337USD ) (USA Price - Under 350)
3) Edifier ED-R1700BTs (209USD) (USA Price - Under 229)
4) Kali Audio LP-6 V2 (488USD) (USA Price - Under 400)
5) Polk Audio Signature Elite ES10 (268USD) (USA Price - Under 190)
6) Polk Audio Monitor XT15 (240USD) (USA Price - Under 150)

The Edifier and JBL series (305P and 306P) are priced similarly to USA prices. JBL also got a good recommendation. The price difference between JBL and Kali is not too high, if I push my budget to Kali would it be a better bang for the buck? Would Kali be worth that extra odd 100 USD?

I would not be able to change speakers for some years, thus wanting something that I will not regret.

Polks and Micca, too are highly rated, however I am really clueless when it comes to Amps.
 

ZolaIII

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Given the price JBL 308P Mark II is tempting but keep in mind that it have only balanced inputs! I don't know where would you put them speakers with 8" woffer's aren't exactly desktop friendly, hardly even 6.5~7 one's are.
Kali's LP 6 V2 are good but they won't sound better especially for what you listen then 308P but they have unbalanced inputs. You can pass with either of them without subwoofer's and they will play nice such gernes that don't have much low or sub bass but do serious high in 70~80 Hz range that's why I think 308P will do better. Question is how cheap you can get a deacent basic audio interface with balanced outputs?
If you want longevity take a look at Yamaha HS8 but they are both balanced and twice the price of 308P's.
 
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Antz123

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Given the price JBL 308P Mark II is tempting but keep in mind that it have only balanced inputs! I don't know where would you put them speakers with 8" woffer's aren't exactly desktop friendly, hardly even 6.5~7 one's are.
Kali's LP 6 V2 are good but they won't sound better especially for what you listen then 308P but they have unbalanced inputs. You can pass with either of them without subwoofer's and they will play nice such gernes that don't have much low or sub bass but do serious high in 70~80 Hz range that's why I think 308P will do better. Question is how cheap you can get a deacent basic audio interface with balanced outputs?
If you want longevity take a look at Yamaha HS8 but they are both balanced and twice the price of 308P's.
Yamaha HS5 would cost around 415 USD here, the HS8 cost around 650 USD. So they sure are beyond my budget.

306P @ 340USD (instead of 308P @ 377USD), or Edifier R1855DB @ 196USD) are relatively more in my current budget.

Thank You.
 

ZolaIII

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Well then Kali LP 6 V2's for 490$ on Amazon. Keep in mind balanced audio interface with balanced only speakers would cost you more.
 
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Antz123

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Well then Kali LP 6 V2's for 490$ on Amazon. Keep in mind balanced audio interface with balanced only speakers would cost you more.
Thanks, will make the final call over the weekend. As of now, I think passive options are out. I will pick one out of these three Edifier (due to its cost), JBL (balance between cost and sound), Kali (due to its sound)
 

deprogrammed

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Given the price JBL 308P Mark II is tempting but keep in mind that it have only balanced inputs! I don't know where would you put them speakers with 8" woffer's aren't exactly desktop friendly, hardly even 6.5~7 one's are.
Kali's LP 6 V2 are good but they won't sound better especially for what you listen then 308P but they have unbalanced inputs. You can pass with either of them without subwoofer's and they will play nice such gernes that don't have much low or sub bass but do serious high in 70~80 Hz range that's why I think 308P will do better. Question is how cheap you can get a deacent basic audio interface with balanced outputs?
If you want longevity take a look at Yamaha HS8 but they are both balanced and twice the price of 308P's.
Why can't he just get RCA to TSR cables? You don't need another box. That is what I use with my Loxje and HS8's. No issues at all.
 

ZolaIII

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Why can't he just get RCA to TSR cables? You don't need another box. That is what I use with my Loxje and HS8's. No issues at all.
It's -6 dB or more on input that can't compensate for it (by OPAMP) because it's not ever supposed to.
Hopefully you will stop doing that after reading and go for professional balanced preamp instead.
 

Zapper

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Hello All,

I had Klipsch Promedia GMX A-2.1 – Speaker, and they broke down after ages of abuse.

I primarily listen to music (classical rock, indie, some newer bands), some gaming, and movies. I am based out of India, and most of the suggestions that I have read are not available in India. I made a shortlist of some speakers that still feel like a good match-up, do advise on which set-up would be ideal for my set-up. My budget is around 300 USD (+- 20 USD). Though this budget is based on the prices I am getting the gear here in India. In the following list, the prices are converted from Indian Rupees to USD :

1) micca RB42 200 Watt (195USD)
2) JBL Professional PMKII (305P ~ 301USD ; 306P ~ 338USD ; 308P ~ 337USD )
3) Edifier ED-R1700BTs (209USD)
4) Kali Audio LP-6 V2 (488USD)
5) Polk Audio Signature Elite ES10 (268USD)
6) Polk Audio Monitor XT15 (240USD)

(The Range of Speakers on Amazon India)
There are some other brands and models of which I am not aware of, thus may be they aren't in my consideration set.


With the passive options, I also need to find a good amp. Some options for amps I could find here were:
1) Nobsound G2 PRO ( 171USD)
2) Nobsound NS 06G ( 127USD)
3) Nobsound NS-20G ( 136USD)
4) AIYIMA D03 ( 174USD)
5) AIYIMA A08Pro ( 183USD)
6) Fosi Audio TP-02 (163USD)
(The range of Desktop Amplifiers on Amazon India)

Now I can either push to go for costlier JBL, and Kali LP6. or Make a combination of a passive set-up and an amp.

Any help to push me in the right direction would really help. Thank you.
The R1700BTs model has a subwoofer output, which is good to have. When you connect a subwoofer it engages a high pass filter in its DSP to prevent the deep bass from distorting the other sounds. It's harder to add a subwoofer to these self powered speakers without such an output. An external DSP crossover can be used but is fairly expensive.

I haven't seen any good measurements of the R1700BTs. The JBL 305p and 306p are reviewed on this site and did well. If you get a 308p or the LP-6v2 you may not feel the need for a subwoofer.

The Aiyima A07 is a good amp if you can live with just a volume knob.

Look through the review index on this site. Additional reviews of similar depth are at https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/. Another source is spinorama.org.
 

ZolaIII

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@Zapper plenty of subwoofer's with pasive fixed high pass filter @80 Hz trough lo level (RCA) I/O. Any desktop PC with multi chenel sound card (if such work's properly and performs deacent) can do more than any DSP box.
 

Zapper

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@Zapper plenty of subwoofer's with pasive fixed high pass filter @80 Hz trough lo level (RCA) I/O. Any desktop PC with multi chenel sound card (if such work's properly and performs deacent) can do more than any DSP box.
Well, that's true, but the multichannel soundcard is a DSP that happens to be inside a PC. Those cost money too. If you already have one and you use your PC as the primary music source, then sure, you can high pass your speakers with it. But a speaker with a built-in high pass DSP like those Edifiers can work with most subwoofers that have their own lowpass filter without any other DSP or active crossover or multichannel soundcard. It's a good idea and it's too bad more self-powered speakers don't have that feature.
 

ZolaIII

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Well, that's true, but the multichannel soundcard is a DSP that happens to be inside a PC. Those cost money too. If you already have one and you use your PC as the primary music source, then sure, you can high pass your speakers with it. But a speaker with a built-in high pass DSP like those Edifiers can work with most subwoofers that have their own lowpass filter without any other DSP or active crossover or multichannel soundcard. It's a good idea and it's too bad more self-powered speakers don't have that feature.
It's just a small capacitor on output line either with such sub's or speakers and sometimes you can make your own for cuple buck's.
You didn't think seriously they put a ADC - DSP and DAC on such with bunch of other stuff? When you buy speakers you buy them for how they sound.
 

VeerK

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I just went through this same decision last month and I chose the Kali LP6V2. Stellar performance out of the box, can EQ the deficiencies, very solid all around performer and more space conserving than Passive + Amplifiers
 

Zapper

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It's just a small capacitor on output line either with such sub's or speakers and sometimes you can make your own for cuple buck's.
That will give you a crappy 6db/octave roll-off in the best case, but it will be much less effective than even that because the peak impedance of the speaker is at its resonance. Little attenuation will occur for frequencies above resonance because of the rapidly increasing speaker impedance with decreasing frequencies. You will get rapid attenuation below the resonance, but that's lower than you want to cut off.
You didn't think seriously they put a ADC - DSP and DAC on such with bunch of other stuff? When you buy speakers you buy them for how they sound.
If you are talking about the Edifiers, then yes, they have ADCs, DSP, and DACs. It's all in a single TI chip, like this one.
 

wwenze

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Well, that's true, but the multichannel soundcard is a DSP that happens to be inside a PC. Those cost money too. If you already have one and you use your PC as the primary music source, then sure, you can high pass your speakers with it. But a speaker with a built-in high pass DSP like those Edifiers can work with most subwoofers that have their own lowpass filter without any other DSP or active crossover or multichannel soundcard. It's a good idea and it's too bad more self-powered speakers don't have that feature.

Already inside your motherboard. Unless you use a laptop or something.

The Edifier subout on one hand is convenient - The speakers HPF themselves while also sending a LPF-ed signal to the sub
On the other hand the user has no control over the crossover frequency
Neither pro-or-con, it is what it is

That will give you a crappy 6db/octave roll-off in the best case, but it will be much less effective than even that because the peak impedance of the speaker is at its resonance. Little attenuation will occur for frequencies above resonance because of the rapidly increasing speaker impedance with decreasing frequencies. You will get rapid attenuation below the resonance, but that's lower than you want to cut off.

True for passive speakers. However active speakers are active, their load impedance seen by the source is at least a few kohm and usually flat.
 

Zapper

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Already inside your motherboard. Unless you use a laptop or something.
Good to know. I'm a laptop guy mostly.
The Edifier subout on one hand is convenient - The speakers HPF themselves while also sending a LPF-ed signal to the sub
On the other hand the user has no control over the crossover frequency
Neither pro-or-con, it is what it is
I don't think the subwoofer out is low-passed. The edifier subwoofer that they sell to go with those speakers has an adjustable low pass. So if I'm right about that you can control one side of the crossover, which is OK.
True for passive speakers. However active speakers are active, their load impedance seen by the source is at least a few kohm and usually flat.
Yes that makes sense. Still a 6dB rolloff though, unless you make a multistage RC filter or use inductors.
 
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As you are in India, I'm not sure if you can have someone receive it for you in the States and ship the speakers to you in India, but if that's possible, would you consider the Pioneer DJ VM-50 that are massively discounted on woot.com right now for only 79$/speaker? They are #3 on sweetchaos's recommendation list for active speakers under "US$350/pair", and are recommended over the JBL 305Ps by hardisj too. Anyways, that's what I bought for my computer speakers and I feel like for only 158 USD, I'm getting a pair of speakers that are as good as ones that cost over 300 USD which is your budget. If you can find a cheap proxy shipper? Maybe this might not be an option for you but just wanted to chime in and share my two cents..
 

ZolaIII

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@Zapper all right then.
Edifier r1700bt are horrible! You can get them even with bass - 5 dB and treble - 6 dB but you can not fix large wide deep in the midrange. I seriously doubt crossover for sub is done properly as nothing else is.
Please in the future when making recommendations hire do it with measurements or don't do it at all!

Edit: actually get me thinking would mids improve if cabinet is sprayed with hardener inside and stuffed properly with port closed which tuning is bad and produces that low bass hump (which is port alone) and cabinet refractions with it. Even so then it would have to be crossed with a sub pretty high (120~130 Hz) as it's small 5.5" woffer and certainly not worth a hustle (for me, who already have them can try if he wants).
 
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