High Quality Speakers for the Money?

[MRC380]

Hey everyone, so for Christmas this year I want to treat myself to a bangin' audio setup for my basement.

 

As of right now, All i have are two USB powered speakers plugged into the back of my Samsung TV, and as you can probably guess, they are not very loud nor powerful.

 

A friend of mine has a sound bar made by Sony, I think. Its quite loud and the audio sounds great. I want something similar to this, but I know nothing about speaker shopping/audio.

 

All i really know is that USB powered speakers are quite limited due to the fact that they are USB powered. So, if the community could suggest a decent soundbar/speaker equivalent that could rest of my TV stand (or could be easily wall mounted) I would greatly appreciate it.

 

Budget: $200-250 Canadian Dollars. 

 

P.S. My basement is essentially a living room with a space for working out (several pieces of gym equipment in there) so the louder the better

[Moist_Sock]

You won't get good quality audio for an entire room. It's just nearly impossible, especially without treatment. A basement would probably one of the worst environments, assuming its the traditional non insulated, brick walls type of basement.

Speakers are designed to be aimed towards one particular area, namely where you sit. You can never achieve the same quality consistently throughout an entire room.

 

The best you can do is either set up a sort of pseudo surround type array, and have speakers on every wall, but even then you'd not be getting ideal sound.

Or just wear headphones.

 

 

Sound bars are a complete waste of money too. 

[MRC380]

1 minute ago, Moist_Sock said:

You won't get good quality audio for an entire room. It's just nearly impossible, especially without treatment. A basement would probably one of the worst environments, assuming its the traditional non insulated, brick walls type of basement.

Speakers are designed to be aimed towards one particular area, namely where you sit. You can never achieve the same quality consistently throughout an entire room.

 

The best you can do is either set up a sort of pseudo surround type array, and have speakers on every wall, but even then you'd not be getting ideal sound.

Or just wear headphones.

 

 

Sound bars are a complete waste of money too. 

Perhaps you misunderstood, I did not intend to literally outfit my entire basement with surround sound audio...I just want louder/more powerful speakers that would fit a more gym-oriented type setting in my basement

 

Also, why are sound bars a waste of money? 

[Dackzy]

1 minute ago, MRC380 said:

Also, why are sound bars a waste of money? 

generally low quality for the money.

[MRC380]

2 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

generally low quality for the money.

Really? in my experience they sound pretty good. Can you offer an alternative?

[Moist_Sock]

1 minute ago, MRC380 said:

Perhaps you misunderstood,

I didn't.

 

1 minute ago, MRC380 said:

I did not intend to literally outfit my entire basement with surround sound audio

I wasn't suggesting that.

 

1 minute ago, MRC380 said:

I just want louder/more powerful speakers that would fit a more gym-oriented type setting in my basement

I know, but as I said, you can't get consistent audio with a simple speaker set-up in an entire room. They're designed for one particular spot. You aren't standing/sitting in one spot the entire time when using a gym.

 

3 minutes ago, MRC380 said:

Also, why are sound bars a waste of money? 

They're speakers that are gimped from the get go. They're in housings that are usually far too small due to them usually being positioned under a television, and they've rarely got proper porting, and are often made out of low quality plastic, or just poorer quality in general.

 

They're purely marketing. A good set of bookshelves turned sideways gives you better sound if you really need a center source.

[stealth80]

you maybe better just buying a pair of good bookshelf speakers and a small stereo amp

 

I agree soundbars aint great (but they get a job done on a budget), but then I'm running a 9.2 Atmos set up which cost me a hell of a lot more than a soundbar

[Dackzy]

Just now, MRC380 said:

Really? in my experience they sound pretty good. Can you offer an alternative?

Well I am not the best in the 300$ sub speakers, but the Presonus Eris E4.5 seem to get some pretty good reviews, they should be in your price range, not sure though

[MRC380]

3 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

you maybe better just buying a pair of good bookshelf speakers and a small stereo amp

 

I agree soundbars aint great (but they get a job done on a budget), but then I'm running a 9.2 Atmos set up which cost me a hell of a lot more than a soundbar

budget being the key word here :') the speakers I have are bookshelf speakers, only smaller. I'll look into the amp though. Not too sure where I would put it

[MRC380]

5 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

Well I am not the best in the 300$ sub speakers, but the Presonus Eris E4.5 seem to get some pretty good reviews, they should be in your price range, not sure though

I took a look on amazon, slightly more than i wanted to pay but they do seem to have good reviews. A little worried on buying speakers that I can't really hear for myself, but most of the ones on display in stores are half broken :')

[Dackzy]

1 minute ago, MRC380 said:

I took a look on amazon, slightly more than i wanted to pay but they do seem to have good reviews. A little worried on buying speakers that I can't really hear for myself, but most of the ones on display in stores are half broken :')

Well they can still give you an idea of the sound.

[The Belgian Waffle]

Beats. Definitely Beats.

Best bang for the bucks

[MRC380]

1 minute ago, The Belgian Waffle said:

Beats. Definitely Beats.

Best bang for the bucks

10/10 would buy

[SSL]

@Moist_Sock I suspect that you're over-thinking this. I get the impression that the OP just wants decent volume throughout the room, not reference level from all listening positions with pinpoint imaging.

 

Moreover, it is actually possible to get decent spatial coverage over a listening area with with the right directivity and sufficient SPL. Note that the whole point of a center channel is the anchor the stereo image below the screen so that imaging is correct even from off-center listening positions.

 

I would expect the venerable JBL LSR305 to be appropriate for this usage situation.

[Moist_Sock]

3 minutes ago, SSL said:

I suspect that you're over-thinking this. I get the impression that the OP just wants decent volume throughout the room, not reference level from all listening positions with pinpoint imaging.

You're probably right. OP didn't give much solid information to go off though.

 

4 minutes ago, SSL said:

Moreover, it is actually possible to get decent spatial coverage over a listening area with with the right directivity and sufficient SPL

Coverage, yes. A consistent sound throughout, is a lot harder. But then again OP probably doesn't care too much, as you brought up before.

 

5 minutes ago, SSL said:

Note that the whole point of a center channel is the anchor the stereo image below the screen so that imaging is correct even from off-center listening positions.

Not sure why you mention this.

[SSL]

16 minutes ago, Moist_Sock said:

Not sure why you mention this.

 

Because it is actually possible to get reasonable consistency throughout a room. This is the principle behind the center channel speaker, as well as mains with a good dispersion pattern.

 

Sure, room modes are difficult; but it's pretty herd to defeat them at all frequencies regardless of listening position, without refrigerator-sized treatments.

[Dackzy]

49 minutes ago, SSL said:

I would expect the venerable JBL LSR305 to be appropriate for this usage situation.

kek I just looked them up, he can get one LSR 305, which cost 220 CAD on sale, normally 238 CAD

[MRC380]

1 hour ago, SSL said:

@Moist_Sock I suspect that you're over-thinking this. I get the impression that the OP just wants decent volume throughout the room, not reference level from all listening positions with pinpoint imaging.

 

Moreover, it is actually possible to get decent spatial coverage over a listening area with with the right directivity and sufficient SPL. Note that the whole point of a center channel is the anchor the stereo image below the screen so that imaging is correct even from off-center listening positions.

 

I would expect the venerable JthBL LSR305 to be appropriate for this usage situation.

Thank you, this is what I was trying to explain.

[Stagea]

2 hours ago, MRC380 said:

 

Budget: $200-250 Canadian Dollars. 

 

It does not have the widest dispersion, but a Klipsh ProMedia set may suit your needs in terms of output capability.

https://www.amazon.ca/Klipsch-ProMedia-Certified-Computer-Speaker/dp/B000062VUO

 

The Logitech Z625/Z623 is another similar alternative.

https://www.amazon.ca/Logitech-980-000402-Speaker-System-Z623/dp/B003VAHYTG

 

There are also 2.0 options like a pair of these...

https://www.amazon.ca/Edifier-R2000DB-Bluetooth-Bookshelf-Speakers/dp/B01CDU3IAI