[LAU] Advice for buying speakers

[Paul Winkler]

On Fri, Sep 07, 2007 at 01:16:21PM +0200, Leslie P. Polzer wrote:
> the quality, too). 400 EUR is the **hard** upper limit for me.

> Do I really need an amp?

Yes, unless you get active speakers.

> Doesn't the signal level of the sound card suffice?

No. Typical consumer soundcards can drive a pair of headphones, but
that's all.

If you end up going with passive speakers, I think one of the best
bargains around is the PSB Alpha B.  I have a pair in my living room
and I love them. The sound is well balanced and pretty neutral.  You
can get flatter speakers, but probably not without spending a lot
more. It'll handle everything you mentioned just fine.  In europe I
think they go for about 250 EUR.  They have dealers all over the
place: http://www.psbspeakers.com/distributors

But you'd also need to buy an amp, of course, so keep that in mind
when comparing active speakers to passive. I'm still using an ancient
home-stereo amp that works OK but is nothing special.  The standard
recommendation from rec.audio.pro for a new low-cost amp used to be
Hafler, but they're not made any more. Nobody on that board had much
good to say about Samson, Behringer, or Alesis amps.

Last time I went monitor-shopping (5 years ago?), I checked out a
bunch of actives but I didn't really like anything cheaper than the
Mackie HR624 (900 USD for a pair, active). I thought the Event powered
monitors were OK, but not really any better than the PSB so I opted to
stick with the PSB until I really feel the need for something
significantly better.

-- 

Paul Winkler
http://www.slinkp.com