Powered Speakers Perfect for the Dorm Room

Your music loving teen is going off to college and needs something to deliver good sound for a dorm room. Most PC speakers stink. Most iPod docks are weak. Yes I'm including the Bose dock in the "weak" category. (Search Amazon.com for ipod docks) They are simply not robust enough to produce decent, full range sound.

This leaves you with two choices:

1. Send your kid to school with a big receiver and a set of bookshelf speakers
2. Get a pair of powered bookshelf speakers.

No room for a receiver in the room? There are a number of good choices out there for powered bookshelf speakers that will surprise and delight in a dorm room setting. You want to look for something with enough of power to fit your average dorm of 15' by 15' which is surprisingly little. The speaker should have a bass/mid driver and a tweeter. They may or may not have a built in iPod dock but they will at least have a connection for an external audio source.

Two companies offer excellent choices. Audioengine and M-Audio.


The Audioengine A5 ($325) is an excellent choice with great reviews on Amazon. It delivers a wide dynamic range and very smooth sound across the audio spectrum. Audioengine A5 Powered Multimedia Speaker System (Black)


For those who want to spend a little less M-Audio ($199) offers the AV-40. It comes from a studio monitor heritage and delivers rich detailed sound without the overreaching bass some docks do. M-Audio Studiophile AV 40 Powered Speakers

Want more choices? Also look at musical instrument sites like Musicians Friend for a wider selection of small studio monitors used mainly by musicians. The good ones usually come at a higher price but with a good reason.

Either way you can send your kid off to school with something that will do more than simply add background noise.

What is an Audiophile?

Audiophile Philosophy

Are you an audiophile? Someone who endlessly obsesses over your stereo equipment? No matter if you're an audiophile or not you might enjoy this insightful interview with Jon Iverson from Stereophile.com. Interviewed by Scott Wilkinson from Home Theater Geeks Jon talks about the virtues of vinyl, the endless pursuit for the perfect audio system and generally what makes an audiophile. A must for anyone in the industry and a great listen for anyone else. Download or listen to it here

Which is better for outdoor speakers, acoustic suspension or bass reflex?

In a nutshell acoustic suspension speakers don't have a port (hole) in the cabinet and bass reflex speakers do. The port allows for a deeper bass response than the speaker would normally be able to produce, though not necessarily more accurate.  This said it explains why many if not most outdoor speakers are of the bass reflex variety. The port helps deliver more bass which is important in an outdoor environment.

Search Amazon.com for outdoor speakers

The Perfect Flat Panel TV Speakers?

Definitive Techonlogies recently announced their Mythos XTR-50 wall mount Flat Panel Speakers. At 1.5" thick they truly are flat panel worthy. From the Definitive site.

"The Definitive Mythos XTR-50 is the first high performance on-wall speaker whose depth matches that of today’s ultra-thin TVs. It is a mere 1.5 inches deep when mounted on a wall, shallower than many ultra-thin TVs when they are wall-mounted with their factory sanctioned mounting hardware. Beyond its utility and clean modern styling the XTR-50 stands out due to its uncompromising sound quality equivalent to full-size speakers.Definitive’s engineers have unleashed their awesome creativity and brain power to develop this revolutionary speaker that has the high definition detail and dynamic range performance of large speakers yet is a mere 1.5” deep. No other speaker complements your ultra-slim television with more style, versatility and sheer performance."

So the question would be, how did they do this? Well Definitive explains the XTR50 in the following video.

Problems with the Mythos XTR-50 speaker
One important note is that this speaker while thin will likely require a subwoofer to sound good in a home theater. Not that this should be a big issue unless you do not have space for one.

Another issues is that this speaker is REALLY thin. Most current and older flat panel TV's are thicker than this speaker and that is without the TV's mount.  You do not want to position your speaker on a wall next to your TV where the depth of the TV might block the sound to a listener off axis from the speaker.

Other than that this looks like an exciting speaker and we look forward to some reviews. At $699 ea they are not cheap but they certainly are slim.

You can purchase this speaker here. Want more on flat panel speakers. This site has just started out. Flat Panel Speakers.

Beautiful Expensive Spekaers

We are not usually swayed by companies that manufacturer and sell very expensive loudspekers. We believe that somewhere along the line good enough is good enough. Every once and a while we come across a speaker company that makes such visually stunning speakers that get great reviews that we just have to point them out. The Salk Signature Sound speaker line is one of these speakers. Make from the highest quality drivers and exotic woods these hand-crafted built to order speakers are nothing short of stunning. Given our experience with speaker photography these likely look even better in person.

Pricing
The V Series V3 shown at left comes in at a relatively inexpensive starting price of $3495 depending on the finish wood. Salk claims these would normally retail for $7500 a pair. I guess, who knows. It seems you can only order these direct from Salk and you likely get personal service but then again you should.

Custom Cabinets
This is from the Salk website: "The first is what we refer to as our "standard" cabinet.
This cabinet will offer a limited selection of standard veneers (samples
available soon). This will allow us to offer this cabinet model at a starting
price of $3495.

In addition to lower cost, another advantage of our
standard V3 cabinets (when they become available) is shorter delivery times,
measured in days rather than months.

Custom cabinets (such as those shown here) are, as the
name implies, fully customizable. You can design your own cabinet with
virtually any veneer/wood combination you desire. Or match your favorite
automotive finish if you prefer. See our custom finish
options for details. Since labor costs will be much higher, these models
will have a base starting price of $4495." See them here

Not that I have the money to drop on these but if I did... I might.

Is bi-amping worth it?

Many a speaker owner asks this question. I have speakers that are capable of bi-amping but will I gain any benefit out of it? According to Rod Elliott of ESP the answer is a resounding yes!

Basically Bi-amping is a technique which uses one amplifier for the low frequencies, and another for mid and high frequencies. The choice of crossover frequency is not too critical, provided that the amplifier powers are properly balanced to achieve the maximum benefit, and the drivers used are operating well within their frequency and power limits.

Here are the main benefits of bi-amping he lists

• Effectively (up to) twice the 'real' power of the amplifiers themselves
• Reduced intermodulation distortion
• Elimination of the low frequency passive crossover, its inherent losses, potentially poor linearity and crossover point inaccuracy
• Reduction of the difficulty of the load presented to the power amplifier
• No padding is required to align the driver sensitivities, so we are not simply wasting power
• The damping factor is greatly improved for both the low and midrange loudspeakers
• Complete freedom from any interaction between the loudspeaker driver (and its environment) and the crossover network
• Cost savings, since complex passive crossover networks are not needed
• Bi-wiring is included free!
• The flexibility to choose amplifiers which are at their best within a defined frequency range
• Ability to match amplifier power to the exact requirements of the drivers for maximum overall efficiency

Here is the down side of bi-amping

• Two power amplifiers are required for each channel of a stereo system
• An electronic crossover is needed

Now the advantages are certainly very nice but consider that on the down side you need to almost double your electronics cost plus an electronic crossover.

Here is a nice graphic explaining how bi-amping works.



Note that bi-amping should not be confused with bi-wiring which looks like this and does not deliver the same benefits as bi-amping.


Should you bi-amp your system?
Well it comes down to what it always comes down to, if you have the money and your spouse will let you then why not.

Otherwise get yourself a really nice Receiver or Pre-amp and Amp and of course a Great set of speakers and you'll do just fine.

To read the entire well written but VERY technical article click here.