Active and passive speakers
Many people think their ears aren't good enough to justify spending good money on speakers and headphones, but hearing is believing. And even the biggest tin ears can appreciate a simple audio upgrade.
If you're listening to the crappy speakers built into your TV or a tiny speaker dock, you can do a lot better, and for not much money. You don't have to spend everything in your savings for your favorite TV shows, movies, and music to convey a deeper sense of drama - all you need is the right gear.
Unfortunately, shopping is hard for audiophiles - there's no standard for specifications, which makes the numbers easy to fudge. Ideally, you would listen and form your own opinions before buying. But, if you don't have the time, here are a few awesome-sounding recommendations that won't break the bank.
Getting active
Let's start with speakers. They take an electrical signal and convert it into an acoustic one. But that signal needs to be strong enough to move your speakers, so you need an amplifier to boost it. Some speakers have the amplification built in - these are called active speakers. If you have to bring amplification, they're passive speakers.
If you want to minimize wiring and the number of boxes cluttering up your space, active speakers keep things simple.
A good place to start is the Grace Digital GDI-BTSP201. While their list price is $249/£189 (about AU$ 242), at lower street prices around $190 they offer solid sound as well as one wired audio input and Bluetooth audio support.
Stepping up to the $249/£195 (about AU$ 317) Audioengine A2+ gets you markedly better sound, due to higher-quality components (including better speaker drivers) and construction. The A2+ has two analog audio inputs and one USB audio input, as well as the option to upgrade the system with a subwoofer in the future.
If you can spare more, there are lots of good options, but I like the A2+'s big brother, the $399/£330 (about AU$ 508) Audioengine A5+. The extra money gets you a significant increase in quality, volume, and depth of bass over the A2+, thanks to an increase in woofer size from 2.75 inches to 5 inches. You also get a remote, which is rare in active speakers, and two analog audio inputs.
The passive voice
If you can stomach a slight increase in complexity, passive speakers - along with a separate amplifier or receiver - get you a wider range of prices, brands, models, and quality. Plus, to upgrade, you can replace individual components instead of chucking everything and starting over.
Money put into speakers has the most dramatic effect on sound quality, so this is an important decision.
Start with the absurdly inexpensive, but surprisingly good, $39/£25/AU$112 Dayton Audio B652. If you're willing to drop an extra $20 for the $59/£133 (about AU$76) Dayton Audio B652-AIR, you'll get an upgraded tweeter that presents more musical and textural detail.
Speaking of surprisingly low prices, the $129 (about £84/AU$165) Pioneer SP-BS2-LR is designed by Andrew Jones. (His designs for Pioneer's TAD brand normally go for five figures.) Plus, the Pioneers offer a huge improvement in sound quality over either Dayton model.
If you're starting to feel serious about good sound, though, the $299 (about £194/AU$382) PSB Alpha B1 sounds even better, and can hold its own against speakers edging up against the $1,000 mark.
Notably, all three companies offer matching subwoofers, making it easy to upgrade your bass.
Amplifiers, sound bars and more
Amplifiers have less impact on sound than speakers, but they do affect sound quality, as well as how loud your speakers can play. If you're buying more expensive speakers, it usually helps to buy a more expensive amp. Again, specs don't help much here, but the bigger and heavier an amp, the more power it can produce.
Start by looking at the $99/£/$144 (about AU$127) Dayton Audio DTA–120. It will push these speakers to respectable volumes, and do so without obvious flaws.
Want to take a step up? The $219 (about £142/AU$279) Emotiva mini-X a–100 will give you more power than you need.
Or, start looking at full-fledged receivers, which give you a remote, more connectivity and features, and, in the case of home theater receivers, video switching and the option to add more speakers for surround sound. Check out the $299 (about £194/AU$381) Denon AVR-S500BT - a great value for stereo or home theater at a street price of $249.
Space-saving sound bars
Don't have the space for two speakers? Sound bars fit below or in front of your TV. They don't sound as convincing as true stereo speakers, but they'll easily beat out what's built into your TV.
If you have your TV on a stand, look at the $299/£194/AU$381 ZVOX Z-Base 420, available for street prices around $199. It acts as a pedestal for your TV, allowing it to take up more space. The extra space means there's a bigger speaker cabinet and bigger drivers for better sound.
Also worth considering is the $249 (about £162/AU$318) Vizio S4221w-C4, which includes a separate subwoofer (making the sound bar small enough to fit in front of your TV), and a larger feature set.
Finally, the $449 (about £290/AU$573) Pioneer SP-SB23W (with a $339 US street price) and $349 (about £226/AU$445) Pioneer SP-SB03 (occasionally a steal at a $174 US street price) offer the same Andrew Jones design that makes the SP-BS22-LR such a killer set of speakers. The SP-SB03 comes in a pedestal form factor, while the SP-SB23W is a traditional sound bar with a separate subwoofer.
Finding the source
Now that you have what you need to make some noise, you need some noise to make. Fortunately, this is the easy part. Computers, TVs, tablets, set top boxes, and smart phones can form the core of a high-quality system - just hook them up to your speakers or amp.
One thing to consider, though, is cutting the aux cord - you probably don't want to be separated from your phone anyway. Bluetooth audio receivers make for a convenient upgrade. As long as they transmit using the newer aptX, MP3, or AAC codecs, they sound great - just avoid models that rely on the old SBC codec.
The $39 (about £25/AU$51) Avantree Roxa handily packs its everything in the form of an AC adapter to reduce clutter. But if you really want to hear your music at its best, take a look at the $150/£90 (about AU$191) Arcam miniBlink, which has a high-quality digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for optimal sound quality.
Odds are, you spend a lot of time listening to speakers in some form or another. It doesn't take much money to make that experience much more pleasant. If you haven't thought about an audio upgrade before, now you have no excuse.
from TechRadar
