What speakers + amp to get?

[Hicks12]

Well im wanting to replace my logitech z4's on my pc and i thought perhaps getting some bookshelf speakers would be more beneficial than spending money on more pc speakers. However this is an area where i have limited knowledge of whats good and bad etc.

I have been looking at the wharfedale diamond 9.0 as they are £50 a pair, but i need to find an amp to use as i only have a creative xfi xtreme gamer (not the cheapy one, the one with extra RAM lols) so the connections wont be right and i suspect it wouldnt handle the speakers very well. Ideally looking to spend as little as possible (goes against everything with quality i know), i only ever had 2 amps and they were used for a hifi and in my living room(been awhile now, cant remember limitations lol), is it possible to have two different sources going into the amp and working at the same time? Doesnt matter if it isnt just wondering.

So basically looking for:
<£70 pair of speakers (2 or 3 setup is what im aiming for)
Good for music, games and films
An AMP for <£100(is this even possible? please advise if budget needs to be changed)

[g8ina]

The Cambridge Audio amp in Richers is my current recommendation, under a ton...

http://www.richersounds.com/product/...-topaz-am1-blk

The Diamonds are cool at 50 quid. Only gives you 2 channel, but the Diamonds bass is pretty sound.

edit, and in answer to your "two different sources going into the amp and working at the same time" query - simply put, no. More precisely, no, not unless you mix the two or more signals via a mixer into one input of the amp first.

[Zak33]

and a second hand NAD 3020 or C 320i (integrated... means you can stick the phono leads straight into it, dont need a pre amp)

I got a second hand one and it's the total dogs danglies.

Ebay... you will get one for about £50 tbh, maybe £60

[g8ina]

A NAD would be great if he's lucky enough to get one Also there is an inherent problem with older NADs in the mute switching FETs. They go soft and you cannot switch them on, so only the input of the power amp stage works, the pre amp becomes useless. Any NAD over 20 years old is considered suspect (by me) in this respect.

If you try for a NAD, I would totally recommend trying for a local one so you can hear it working first

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Have you considered a pair of active speakers?? I would have a look at either a Samson StudioDock 3i or 4i or an Audioengine A3 or A5. Even the Corsair SP2500 can be had for around £180:

http://www.kikatek.com/product_info....source=froogle

Compared to a full sized setup it will take up less space overall.

[b0redom]

+1 for 2nd hand. I got a Cambridge Audio 540A for about £50 from eBay. Sounds awesome!

[Hicks12]

thanks for all the responses!
@ cat, cheers for the suggestion but i think i prefer the chance to upgrade later on (speakers) so i can use the amp for future use when i move out .

im having a look at the NAD amps, just as i was looking my dad noticed and agreed that they are great amps so i think ill pick one of them up... however im a bit lost on what model to get? Theres so many different ones on ebay, is there specific ones to avoid? is the NAD 3130 any good?

I have managed to look at a few specs/documents on the nad 3020 and it seems a bit low in the wpc area, say for example im getting the diamond 9.0, RS says that they are rated at 75w so id need to get something closer to that or above it just to be on the safe side.

I would love to get a 3.1 setup atleast (so i can hear voices better in films) in the future so would i need 2 channels or more? If there is something that can do a 5.1 setup that would be even better!

also richersounds doesnt seem to stock any NAD and afaik they are the only audio store in plymouth so i guess demo wont be possible.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

From my experience you are more likely to want to upgrade the amp first than the speakers. My Heybrooks were run on a Creek 4240 first which was then replaced by an MF XA200R.

Creek do make some nice amps - I would also look at them too.

If you are on a budget don't underestimate Cambridge Audio too. I have had some of their stuff and it is pretty good for the price you pay.

One online store I would check is Superfi:

http://www.superfi.co.uk/

[g8ina]

If you could hold out a bit longer and save the pennies, the Onkyo surround system is superb for the price. My son has one and it really is very good. £300

http://www.richersounds.com/product/...ky-hts3405-blk

On the subject of power, you may find 20 watts RMS is more than enough . Dont be folled by promises of 1000watts peak music power, its a complete misnomer.

I have a NAD 3020A upstairs being fed just from my iRiver MP3 player and measuring my power output, it never rises to above ten watts RMS, and that's deafeningly loud for the bedroom

Downstairs I have a Marantz 6.1 SR5200 surround amp, and even there I never use more than 25 watts RMS output.

Maybe you should be considering a surround amp right now, there are plenty of good models in ebay right now including a Marantz SR4300, one of which I owned in the past. I only paid £75 for my SR5200 2 years ago

If you want to give me a bell to discuss options Im ok with that, lemme know by PM and Ill give u my number.

[1stRaven]

I have one of these powering a 5.1 surround setup. its a little older but cost a £1000 when new so worth the cash.

[SHare]

If you've got a modern GPU with HDMI output that carries sound you'd be as well getting an AV amp and selling your sound card. You should be able to pick up a decent AV amp with several HDMI inputs for under £100 second hand. Gumtree is a gold mine, I picked up a nice pair of B&W 601 bookshelf speakers for £150 a couple of years ago and paid much the same for my Yamaha DSP AX761 amp and I'm extremely pleased with it.

[Zak33]

On the subject of power, you may find 20 watts RMS is more than enough . Dont be folled by promises of 1000watts peak music power, its a complete misnomer.

I have a NAD 3020A upstairs being fed just from my iRiver MP3 player and measuring my power output, it never rises to above ten watts RMS, and that's deafeningly loud for the bedroom

this... with bells on

the RMS figures quoted by most mainline companies is rubbish.

in fact, simply having larger speakers, as you're considering, close to you... and you'll be more than loud enough.

25w per channel from a proper audio company.. and you're sorted tbh.

[Hicks12]

again thankyou for all the replies! In regards to power, i had a thought in the back of my head that it would simply be BS (like DB ratings on fans lol) but ive been trying to get back to speed and understand most of the audio industry and what i found was an article basically saying match the amp and speakers watts as much as possible and if not then have the amp more powerful than you need , however it seems that its not really the case so i will ignore that lol.

I should say that the speakers will be on my desk or on the wall so pretty close to me so yeah i wont really need them really loud.

@ Share, thats an interesting idea that i hadnt actually thought of, one thing that always stuck in my mind was if theres any audio quality lost by doing it this way because surely the gpu's dont have a very good sound chip? Or am i being completely stupid and all its doing is transfering the signal directly through the hdmi cable and no processing is done by the gpu?

Its a hard decision for me and as ive got almost infinite amount of time im just looking over ebay and trying to check out reviews so i apologize on slow replying, got reports to do for next week aswell but after that i will be dedicating the search for a good amp .

[Hicks12]

on a slightly different note, are wireless speakers any good yet? my dad and i are struggling to plan where are rear speakers will go when we.move as the floorboards need to come up (a lot of them ) so was wondering if wireless is en option. budget would be like 200 for th sspeakers pair or 5set.

edit: Dont want to keep posting in a row so ill do a quick edit , I may have had a change of idea as the thought of using an AV amp for everything and using it over hdmi for my pc sounds like a solid idea as i have a bluray drive so it would be nice to take advantage of the new HD sounds etc, the more i keep thinking about it the better as it would future proof me in a way so that when i move out in about 5 or so years ill be able to take this with me and have it setup in the living room for tv etc and HD audio should be around/top dog for a fair while... ive also noticed i have an influx of around £250 so the budget is able to change to something like this:

AV Amp- £150~ (up to £180 but £150 probably the sweet spot)
Speakers- was already pretty set on diamond 9.0 but if someone can suggest alternatives below £80 for a pair that can work well in a 5.1 setup (eventually) id appreciate it a lot.

[DannyM]

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/new-...est-buy/929469

[g8ina]

Aye, I already mentioned the Onkyo Tis good. MY son has one and he is impressed too.