Speakers - recommendations for iMac

[nirelandman]

Hey all,

I'm looking for some feedback as to what speakers to get for an iMac 24" (when we finally get our hands on it)

It must:

• Be great for positional audio for gaming
• Perform brilliantly at producing my high bitrate iTunes library.
• Meet points 1 & 2 baring in mind my room is longer than it is wide - 8 feet wide by 13 feet long

It must not:

• Be a mess of wires - it's connecting to an iMac after all
• Exceed £200 (excl. P&P)

2.1 channel or 5.1 channel audio is fine, it's the quality I'm more concerned about.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated

Thanks,
nirelandman

[Natobasso]

Once you get the proper output from your 1/8" jack on your mac you can use practically anything you want!

I recommend anything by Bose.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

While this may be construed as simply opinion, Bose has been suspect of being overpriced and underwhelming. While they may seem to sound "astounding" to non-audiophiles, ask any professional audio person about Bose, and 99% of the time they'll say, "No way -- overpriced for mediocre quality."

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...highlight=bose
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...5000341AAvXxmx


I recommend anything by Klipsch, Bang and Olufsen, JBL, Yamaha or Onkyo. Most of those are for high-end audio rigs, though, but your comment about "Perform brilliantly at producing my high bitrate iTunes library" leads me to believe you might want something high-end for your audio setup.

Are you looking for a stereo setup that can perform without your iMac as well, something like a receiver and a set of speakers, or are you just looking for a speaker setup only -- something designed to work with a computer?

[Natobasso]

Bose works fine for me, though I don't buy into the hype.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

They work fine for me, too -- plug 'em in, and sound comes out. If that was the only requirement by the original poster, I'd recommend them, too, but the poster posted some criteria that I just don't think Bose can meet.

It's the quality of the sound I'm questioning. Having listened to a Bose 2.1 setup that cost well over $1,200, I can say I was extremely underwhelmed with the quality (muddy lows, exaggerated highs and questionable midrange). While the sound coming out of the speakers may have sounded loud and crisp, I did not perceive it to be "accurate" or "true" to the original source.

I believe that for the money one spends on a Bose setup, they could get a much better setup elsewhere for the same price. For what it's worth, though, this was almost 10 years ago.

[nirelandman]

Thanks for the replies guys, and again eldiablo for the detailed stuff you seem to be more than qualified to answer most Q's I throw at you! Now my thoughts:

Natobasso said:
"Once you get the proper output from your 1/8" jack on your mac"
-What you mean "proper output"? And is the 1/8 inch jack just the 3.5mm jack yeah? (sorry for potential dumb moment there)

ElDiablo said:
"Are you looking for a stereo setup that can perform without your iMac as well, something like a receiver and a set of speakers, or are you just looking for a speaker setup only -- something designed to work with a computer?"

Yeah just computer only, but you'd be right in thinking I don't want to plug it in and it work "just fine" I want it to have a wow factor and not for how loud it can be, purely for the quality and detail - don't get me wrong I'm not claiming to be a audio connoisseur or audiophile but I do want the sound to be as great as £200 can buy me (say $380 USD by the time I'd get it shipped here, if I was buying from the States.)

I agree with you on the Bose thing - not keen from the little info I have heard, and of the ones you mentioned I've heard good things - I don't want to have to buy separate ext. sound cards or adaptors if at all possible, however in another forum I read that if I were to buy Logitech (sorry) Z-5500's I'd need a TOSlink to 3.5mm adaptor to hook it up to iMac IF I wanted Digital optical sound...(which I do as I don't want analogue to mess up the quality when it's fed potentially across 5.1 channels!

Hope this helps and thanks so far,
Regards
NIrelandMan