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(speaker comparison) ProMedia 2.1 orCreative GigaWorks T40..

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 10:29 am
by Psychlone
I'm having issues with my current speakers and am planning to get some new ones. I have 2 in mind but can't make my mind up for which one I want.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... llFullInfo

http://www.klipsch.com/promedia-2-1-computer-speakers

The creative ones don't have a sub but from what I read they seem to have better specs and don't really need one. I guise I could always buy one if I wasn't happy with the sound quality.

Re: (speaker comparison) ProMedia 2.1 orCreative GigaWorks T

Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2013 11:34 am
by Andere
Phlegmatically, there's no real difference between them, at least not concerning common use and how your ears receive it all. In question of required room space, the Creative ones are neat: only two loudspeakers.

But, but, why stick with two speakers or 2.1, when you can get at least 5.1 at the same price - and it gives you a whole new specter of sound? The only problem is that at least older DVDs and games don't necessarily work with anything higher than 2.1, so you need to adjust your settings. Sorry if I step on toes. :oops:

"Written by a man who grew up with the astonishing sound quality on mono record players and C-cassette".

Re: (speaker comparison) ProMedia 2.1 orCreative GigaWorks T

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 1:50 pm
by Moeboid
Buying speakers really is a pain. I had a quick look at the specs and they're meaningless. Unfortunately, that's not unusual. Have a look and see if you can find some reviews by people who know what they're talking about. Even if there were more meaningful measurements, reviews are always the best source of information for anything audio. Having said that, for such cheap products, I doubt anyone who knows what they're talking about would have bothered to review them. If you're interested, I'll explain why the state are meaningless:

The Creative ones state a frequency response of 50Hz - 20kHz. It doesn't matter what frequencies a speaker can produce, what matters is what range of frequencies a speaker can produce at a comparable level. A more meaningful statistic would be 50Hz - 20Khz +/- 3dB. That means that no frequency within that range is more than 3dB louder or softer than what it should be. Better still is a frequency response graph, showing everything from 20Hz to 20kHz. Generally, the more information they give you, the better the product. They also give a 32 Watt power output, which is a totally useless statistic unless they also state a sensitivity. Who cares how much power the speakers consume unless we know how much of that actually gets converted to sound (most of it gets converted to heat, unfortunately). All we can do is guess.

A few more issues with those ones:
1. You're paying for 6 drivers. It's always better to pay for as few drivers as possible when you're on a tight budget.
2. The width of the enclosure is 3.5", meaning the the drivers themselves are probably about 3". You can't get good bass out of a 3" driver. I doubt they go down to 50Hz with any reasonable degree of accuracy. They might not look as cool, but they would've been better off putting a single 4" or 5" driver in there.
3. What kind of speakers offer a bass and treble control? They should get it right, not you. Any decent speaker should have one knob: Volume.
4. Plastic is a really bad material to make an enclosure out of. But then again, I doubt they're producing enough bass for it to be an issue.

And one good thing: Woven glass fiber and cloth dome drivers. Very high quality drivers are made of the same materials. That means that there probably is some degree of quality there.

And now the Klipsch ones. There are more measurements on this one. They give a distortion measurement, but 5% is not good! Gosh, don't turn them up too loud. I'm not a fan of putting a sub with two tiny little speakers, but I guess it's cheaper than trying to get good bass out of TWO speakers. The two satellites are made of cheap plastic, but at least they're not pretending that there's any bass coming out of them, so that's probably ok. The maximum acoustic output means nothing, but since you wouldn't want to turn them up all that loud anyway, who cares. I'm going to guess that the Klipsch ones are better. The design just seems a little more sensible.

But! I just did a little research and I think these might be in your price range. There things are pretty nice. If you can get them, they're probably infinitely better than either of the ones you were looking at. http://audioengineusa.com/Store/Audioengine-A2