Speakers - recommendations for iMac

N

nirelandman

Registered
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 :D

Thanks,
nirelandman
 
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.
 
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/showthread.php?threadid=343759&highlight=bose
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071005000341AAvXxmx


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?
 
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.
 
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
 
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