Need 2.0 speakers system

AMITNOIDA

Active Member
Joined
Feb 18, 2009
Messages
719
Points
28
Location
Noida
I need a 2.0 speaker system for my bedroom (size 14.5 ft x 11.5 ft). The bed is placed in the room such that the distance between the footboard of the bed and wall is about 4 ft. This 4 ft wide space between the footboard of the bed and wall is the only space for placing the speakers in the room. The height of the footboard is about 22" from the wooden laminated floor. So floor standers may be a disadvantage for this restriction due to footboard of the bed.

Will it be possible to place a pair of 2.0 bookshelf speakers to get enjoyable music in my bed room? I may go for ampli+speakers and will connect to my PC with ASUS Xonar D2 sound card.

Experts please suggest the Speakers + Ampli suitable for my room and advise its placement. I love to listen soft songs including Hindi movie songs. My budget is about 40-50k for speakers + Ampli.
 
Because you are constrained by space and cannot tune it too much, I suggest to go for power speakers. Audio engine is a good option.A5 will come in lower than your budget so you can spend it on CD/DVDs as you please.




I need a 2.0 speaker system for my bedroom (size 14.5 ft x 11.5 ft). The bed is placed in the room such that the distance between the footboard of the bed and wall is about 4 ft. This 4 ft wide space between the footboard of the bed and wall is the only space for placing the speakers in the room. The height of the footboard is about 22" from the wooden laminated floor. So floor standers may be a disadvantage for this restriction due to footboard of the bed.

Will it be possible to place a pair of 2.0 bookshelf speakers to get enjoyable music in my bed room? I may go for ampli+speakers and will connect to my PC with ASUS Xonar D2 sound card.

Experts please suggest the Speakers + Ampli suitable for my room and advise its placement. I love to listen soft songs including Hindi movie songs. My budget is about 40-50k for speakers + Ampli.
 
Amit,

Think this query has already been answered. Audioengine A5 are the best at least for PC based music. Paired with the Asus it will give you great SQ.
 
you could try various bookshelf speakers if you want to go the separate amp and speaker route.I myself have a simmilar problem and I ended up buying pok RTi A1 , which is pretty good value with real wood finish, bi wiring capable with gold plated binding posts.Read the stereophile review of polk RTi A1.I must confess that amp was not a problem for me as I make my own, but the cost might be a setback for you in comparision to an integrated amp + speaker combo like AudioEnine A5 ..but these are great speakers.
 
Thanks Marsilians, MoserW and Sasmit.

Audioengine A5 is definitely a good powered speaker and goes well with PC based music. But my personal choice and preference is separate amp and speker set. If my room space constraint does not permit the same, then I may have to go for A5.

@Sasmit
Can you please share your room size and placement of Polk RTi A1 speakers. Which music source you are using? I have gone through the Stereophile review of this speaker and it seems to be good. What is its price in INR? Which budget amps, you think shall pair well with this speaker?

Thanks
Amit
 
Not sure about Polk, have not heard them. I can recommend Wharfedale though having used them. Not much experience with stereo amps so will leave that to others with more experience.
 
Polk RTi series is an excellent line of speakers and do very well in HT and most music applications.

If its only music listening, i suggest to go for an integrated. If movies watching also then go for a 5.1 AVR with support for newer formats if your budget allowed for it. Otherwise a basic 5.1 with component switching would do well.

Not sure about Polk, have not heard them. I can recommend Wharfedale though having used them. Not much experience with stereo amps so will leave that to others with more experience.
 
Thanks Magma and Marsilians.

@Magma
I have patiently gone through your thread depicting beautiful journey on auditioning various speakers & amps combo. I have planned to cut-paste your audioning posts to make a word file and then to make a brief tabular summary. The things are scattered in your loooong threads. I have been benefitted immensely from your thread. As if I was also along with you during those auditions - very lively and down-to-earth simple. I think, you also had the space constraint like me in my bedroom. I cannot afford more than 6-7" (If stand mounted then the clearance can be max 10" during listening) clearance between the speaker and the rear wall, so back-fire port speakers may not be a good choice. Which speaker & Amps you have finally selected and do you still use the same?

@Marsilians
Have you heard Polt RTi A1 speakers? Is there any dealer at Delhi for auditioning? Although 5.1 in movies will be enjoyable but I am scared with the wires management. In view of above I may stick to 2.0 config. I need a simple clutterfree system suitable for my 14.5 ft x 11.5 ft bedroom. I have my PC and has plan to put a 42" plasma (Pana - my favourite) in future. My dream is to enjoy movies in 42" Plasma with good sound lying / relaxing on my bed. Also, I shall enjoy music ACD (playing in PC) through the 2.0 system.
Can you suggest any Speaker + Amps combo.

Thanks
Amit
 
PSB Alpha B1 is back firing but ive heard it with a clearence of 4-5 inches
it was good too.
however ive not written review about it cause i heard just one song.
i will update a detailed review with comparisons soon

other than the above the Tannoys F1 custom , KEF IQ1/IQ10 , and the PSB image series are my choices for front firing speakers
 
Thanks Marsilians, MoserW and Sasmit.

Audioengine A5 is definitely a good powered speaker and goes well with PC based music. But my personal choice and preference is separate amp and speker set. If my room space constraint does not permit the same, then I may have to go for A5.

@Sasmit
Can you please share your room size and placement of Polk RTi A1 speakers. Which music source you are using? I have gone through the Stereophile review of this speaker and it seems to be good. What is its price in INR? Which budget amps, you think shall pair well with this speaker?

Thanks
Amit

My room size is around 10 * 12 feet. Music source is a PC with Asus Xonar DX, the current amp is a 2*40W ( TDA1514 A) btw it's DIY it plays quite happily with the polks..btw polk recommended amp range is 50 - 125W. I am already in the process of building a 2*100W amp.I suggest if you're buying a commercial amp you should stick to 2*100W that will give you good headroom...have a look at my thread in the DIY section.
 
Dont forget to audition the Lithos Noa-1. They will allow you to wall mount and you also save 6K on speaker stands and save space.

The Polks sounded harsh on the treble to me and capable of causing listening fatigue very easily.

Other must audition are the wharfedale Diamond 9.1s

Cheers
 
If it is a budget of around 15 K that you are looking at, there is no need to look beyond the PSB Alpha B1. It is an outstanding speaker at that price.

If you like laidback sound quality the EPOS ELS 8 at about 18K is also a good option.
 
I went through the stereophile review of PSB alpha B1, it seems to be inferior to the polk RTi A1 both in terms of superficial finish i.e. it has vinyl finish compared to ther RTi's wood veneer. It's sound quality also is not very highly regarded by stereophile, the highs seemed shadowed and it doesn't have the bass extension of the RTi.

If you have a look at the measurement section of the review and compare with RTi's measurements , yuo'll easily see the difference. Here is a quote from the measurement section of the PSB alpha B1 review "The PSB's cumulative spectral-decay plot (fig.8) is perhaps the only graph that indicates any compromises due to the speaker's low price, in that the decay of the impulse is marred by some low-level resonant modes throughout the treble. "
 
Last edited:
Hei with that budget you can go for

PSB Alpha + NAD entry level Amp

or

Mordaunt Short Mezzo 2 + Cambridge Audio 340A/540A

or

Dali Ikon 2 + Nad/CA/Marantz amps

it should be better than Audio Engine but to be fair I have not heard Audio Engine myself.
 
I went through the stereophile review of PSB alpha B1, it seems to be inferior to the polk RTi A1 both in terms of superficial finish i.e. it has vinyl finish compared to ther RTi's wood veneer. It's sound quality also is not very highly regarded by stereophile, the highs seemed shadowed and it doesn't have the bass extension of the RTi.

If you have a look at the measurement section of the review and compare with RTi's measurements , yuo'll easily see the difference. Here is a quote from the measurement section of the PSB alpha B1 review "The PSB's cumulative spectral-decay plot (fig.8) is perhaps the only graph that indicates any compromises due to the speaker's low price, in that the decay of the impulse is marred by some low-level resonant modes throughout the treble. "

Sasmit, I dont know about finish. Thats a personal preference. But I can tell you that the two speakers you talk of are chalk and cheese. If you love musicality, the Polks come off decidedly second best. However I encourage you to listen to both and make your own decision.

Also while on the reviews, please bear in mind that the Alpha B1 was placed as the 2nd best speaker in the no-price-bar category in the 2008 Stereophile listing. That meant that the speaker was placed next to a counterpart priced nearly dozens of times greater than itself!
 
The polk was reviewed in september 2008 and the PSB alpha B1 was long before that, I have not listened to PSB alpha B1 but looking at the measurement plots in the review any one can make out the speaker lacks low end,not that a bookshelf of this size should have serious low end grunt..but simmilar products from other manufacutrers go a quite a bit lower down.The wharfdales would be a much safer bet compared to PSB's IMHO..if you disregard the polk.

A spectral decay plot is an extremely good measure of cabinet quality stiffness and uncolored reproduction, if you look at the spectral decay plots of the polk and PSB ..you'll immidiately see the difference..I don't have a bias for any brand ...sometimes coloration gives character to a speaker which an individual might have a liking for...in the end it's all personal taste.
 
The polk was reviewed in september 2008 and the PSB alpha B1 was long before that, I have not listened to PSB alpha B1 but looking at the measurement plots in the review any one can make out the speaker lacks low end,not that a bookshelf of this size should have serious low end grunt..but simmilar products from other manufacutrers go a quite a bit lower down.The wharfdales would be a much safer bet compared to PSB's IMHO..if you disregard the polk.

A spectral decay plot is an extremely good measure of cabinet quality stiffness and uncolored reproduction, if you look at the spectral decay plots of the polk and PSB ..you'll immidiately see the difference..I don't have a bias for any brand ...sometimes coloration gives character to a speaker which an individual might have a liking for...in the end it's all personal taste.

Lacking low end in bookshelf is not necessarily the worst thing in the world. Many manufacturers go by the assumption that the user would add a sub to bookshelves if he needed low end.

So by compromising on the low end the woofers in the speaker would not bottom out as easily giving the manufacturer more versatility in making the speaker shine in the mid range and upper. RBH does this with their bookshelves they do not go very low but the mid range and upper end can handle tons of headroom.

In a speaker shootout one reviewer preferred the RBH for this reason as the Dyns he was comparing them to bottomed out on many songs. He preferred if the speaker did what it does best so that the subwoofer can handle the low end.
 
Back
Top