Music solution

[naru80]

I need a powerful sound system that can play music from my ipad and android phone or at best a pen drive. Docks and Bluetooth speakers are out of the question because of the loss in quality.

Anyway portability is not a requirement.

My playlist is mostly 70s rock, dire straits, led zep, doors, allman brothers band, etc. esp concerts/bootlegs.

I'm using my computer setup's edifier c3 right now, but its very underwhelming.

Please suggest what I should be looking at. Wharfdale or Bose maybe? Only speakers will do or do i need an amp as well? I'll also use them to hook up to my tv.

Budgets around 20k but flexible. (Has the rupee fall affected prices? Is this a bad time to buy?)

Thanks in advance

 

[jerin]

You can look at Audio engine A5/A2 or any other active speakers, if you want the setup to be simple. If you want to go with a separate amplifier and speaker, then there is Topping TP 20 which costs around 5K (70 to 80 $) and there are a lot of good speakers to select under 15K budget.
Personally I havent listened to Audio endgine, But I do have a topping TP 20 and JBL control one speakers with me, which I think is a good value for money Setup.

 

[apk]

You can look at Audio engine A5/A2 or any other active speakers, if you want the setup to be simple.

+1. Audioengine is a good and simple solution. The A2 will fit within your budget; however I think that the A5 will be a bit over your budget. If you are open to buying used, you may get good bargains on the A5.

There are a few more things that you can do to improve your sound quality:
- Always use the highest quality resolution for the music. This means no mp3. Use CD quality or higher (ripped into WAV or FLAC)
- Are you using the audio out of your computer? In this case, the quality of your music is already getting deteriorated by the low quality of the computer's built in DAC (digital to analogue converter). Hence, it might make sense for you to invest in a good quality sound card, and use the audio out from the sound card into your speakers. The quality of sound will considerably improve with this. Asus makes some good value for money sound cards.
- Use a good quality media player such as foobar for playing your files. If you are using windows 7 or previous versions of the windows OS, then the native windows audio driver also detriorates the quality. Players like foobar takes care of this by using a different version of the audio driver (ASIO4ALL). I think that this problem has been fixed from Windows 8 onwards.

Best,
APK

 

[naru80]

Thanks for the prompt replies.

I'm moving on from my pc. Now that I have an ipad I find the entire booting up and negotiating windows software too tedious. I simply plug in my edifier speakers to my android phone or ipad when I want music. And that's the way I want to go. No waiting forever for the computer to start and then hang intermittently and then the long shutting down process if I simply want to listen to some music for a bit.

I have all my music in 320 Kbps mp3 format. On my phone and on the ipad. From there can I simple plug into something like wharfdale 9.1s or AE5? Do I need an amp or an avr?

Please advise.

 

[clickdiyto]

i think so, I think that this problem has been fixed from Windows 8 onwards too

 

[jerin]

Hi naru80,
You cannot connect ipad/phone audio out directly to a passive speaker(Passive speakers are speakers with no inbuilt amplifier, wharfdale 9.1 is sucha a speaker). However Audioengine AE5 is an active speaker(Speaker with built in amplifier, Please note, the number of input connections are limited or vares from one company to another) and hence you can connect the tablet/phone audio out directly.

 

[naru80]

Audioengine A5+ Premium Powered Speaker System- Black

The a5+ is double the price of a2. Is it worth the money? And is it better than wharfdale 9.1???

I want to audition these before I buy. Any store in delhi that offers this facility? I bought the edifier c3 without auditioning and still regret it

http://www.grabmore.in/products/811...Wireless-Bluetooth-Speaker-Black-Diamond.html
Btw, in the same price range, this is what a friend of mine uses with his iPod. And this is exactly the kind of sound I don't want. The clarity is quite good but there is no bass, no thump, no power.