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Speakers

S

simonfoy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 11, 2010
20
0
I am getting an iMac 27 this week. We have 2 Windows laptops but my son uses Macs in school so to get the best of both worlds I am buying a mac for the house.

Now, I know the inbuild speakers are good but I want them to fill the room and sound brilliant. With a budget of £400 what speakers are recomended?

Also, I have iTunes on my laptop. Will this all transfer over when setting up on the mac or will I have to do it all over again. Enter music, pics of albums, etc etc

Thanks Simon
 
Logitech offer some pretty good 5.1 speakers, for a good price too.
But if you're looking for something that'll really sound GOOD, you might wanna check out some Sony surround sound systems. They offer really good ones, and most likely you'll be able to find one that fits your budget.

And as for the music, pictures, etc, you can bring your laptop into the Apple store and I think they'll be able to transfer everything for you, however, if they don't you might need to invest in a external HDD to transfer over all the files. Luckily, once the files are transferred, OS X basically sets up everything for you, meaning it'll import everything into iTunes, iPhoto, and arrange things in the right order, so you won't have to mess around with any of it manually.
 
Thanks mate. I have a external HDD so if I dump all my music onto the mac it will sort itunes the way I have it on my PC. Is that right, am I understanding it correctly? If so that is brilliant, its taken me an age to get itunes the way I want it. lol.

SPeakers will have a look at what you two suggested. I think between £400-500 I should have enough. One thing I dont want it 5 speakers. I just want 2 to sit on the desk but ned them loud enough.

Thanks again for the swift replies much obliged to you both
 
simonfoy said:
Thanks mate. I have a external HDD so if I dump all my music onto the mac it will sort itunes the way I have it on my PC. Is that right, am I understanding it correctly? If so that is brilliant, its taken me an age to get itunes the way I want it. lol.

SPeakers will have a look at what you two suggested. I think between £400-500 I should have enough. One thing I dont want it 5 speakers. I just want 2 to sit on the desk but ned them loud enough.

Thanks again for the swift replies much obliged to you both
Click to expand...

Oh trust me, I'm the same way with my iTunes. Everything has to be in order, have artwork, etc. But yes, iTunes on your Mac will automatically create folders for all your artists and albums. All you have to do is drag the songs or files that you copied over on the external HDD directly into iTunes and let it do all the work.
Honestly, I have using iTunes on a PC, and I avoid it as much as I can, but I think you'll know what I mean when you get your Mac.

anyway, good luck!
 
With that budget I doubt you could find a speaker system for your computer that is limited to only 2 speakers. 400 to 500 pounds is enough to get some very nice speakers for your iMac.

However, I would recommend getting at least a 2.1 system. That is two speakers for your desktop and a subwoofer that sits below your desk. Don't worry, the subwoofer isn't going to be rattling the windows in the house, they're generally small. The bass, however, is enough to make whatever music you're listening to sound much richer and more full.

I don't do more than 2.1 because I've found that is all I need. For $125 (years ago) I got some JBL Monster speakers which are available through the Apple store. They are pretty decent looking, well designed, and have held up really well. They're listed on Amazon for $99 right now. That's on the high end, I bought a Logitech set for my laptop that was only $27 and doesn't sound noticeable different. The JBL design is nice though.

For your budget though, I imagine you can probably get close to the best 2.1 system available right now.
 
LOL, We sound the same OCD when itunes is concerned. I hate files being out pf place and it took me months to finally get it right all in order. Thanks again you made me laugh lol
 
Hi,
I would recommend not to buy any speakers from Logitech , JBL, etc since they aren't that great. If you care to have a good (Hi-Fi) sound then look for speakers like the already mentioned AudioEngine 5 or even AudioEngine 2 (I've both sets) they are self-powered and really clean sounding.
They got always sterling reviews since being introduced several years ago.

If you want to spend a lot of money have look at Focal studio monitors (made in Finland),
that's why they are a quite expensive in North America but if you live in Europe they should be priced more affordable...
P.S. I wouldn't recommend a Bose speakers also.
 
For computer speakers, I strongly recommend the Klipsch ProMedia 2.1. They're on the cheaper end of what you're looking at ($150 retail, sometimes on sale as low as $120), but they destroy any other speaker sets in that price range for sound quality and they can get quite loud.
 
About moving over the iTunes - if you have itunes managing the music on your windows computer (all the files are stored in the itunes folder) you can just copy the itunes folder from your my music folder over and replace the itunes folder in Music on your mac. Make sure itunes is off for this. When you restart itunes it will look at the itunes library file within the copied files and you have an EXACT copy of your itunes library on your original computer, down to ipod confiurations etc. All you need to do then is to authorize your new computer to play apple DRMed files.
 
Hi strausd,
the Logitech Z5500 might be good to excellent if you like to do a lots of gaming, but unfortunately NOT for accurate music reproduction.
As a matter of fact, none of the 5.1 and 7.1 speaker set-ups (otherwise beyond 2.1) are suitable for accurate music play...
 
you should hear the teufel speakers , they sound excellent if you consider that they are 2.1 pc speakers and below £300
to fill the average living room with sound the teufel do a excellent job considering their price below £300
they are not made with gamers in mind , teufel had music lovers in mind when they created them ,and teufel knows what makes a good speaker :)

the only other pc speaker system i could really recommend are the beolab 4 from bang and olufson but they cost nearly double of the teufels and are no better
 
Buy Genelecs. 6010A. http://www.genelec.com/products/2-way-monitors/6010a/

Genelec's smallest active 6010As are made for computer use and produce unbelievably clear and detailed sound even below 80Hz. Even though they are small, they are loud enough for near field use and you can get a pair for ~350. For most use, these speakers are just fine even without a subwoofer, but if you wish to extend your set later they offer perfectly matched 5040A to get the frequency range down to 35Hz.

Don't buy anything else before testing those Genelec's.
 
WOW thanks everyone.

I don't game so it was music I had in mind. When I worked on the radio we used Bose speakers but the reviews aren't too good on these. Thanks and I will look into all of these suggestions and then make my choice.

Thanks again its been a great help having such good suggestions

Simon
 
Have to a agree with the Audio Engine 5 recommendation. I would consider myself to be an audiophile and these are simply wonderfully detailed and rich sounding speakers. that I would pit them against anything under $1000.

Love them to death... In fact I am considering getting another pair to replace the Paradigm Mini Monitors v2's in my living room.
 
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