OT: novice home stereo question

[jh_on_the_cape]

Originally Posted by soulspinner

What Ray said. I like my simple Sonos set up.

I stream everything from my phone with Spotify. Only listen to music in one room so I don't see the point in Sonos.

[AngryScientist]

i know some will turn their nose up at it, but for my small office, i have a bose soundtouch and i think it's pretty excellent. generally i stream music from spotify through bluetooth. sounds very good for a single speaker small unit.

[jh_on_the_cape]

so now you have me thinking I should get 2 great speakers rather than 2 good ones and a sub?

what about a
Dayton Audio DTA-120 Class T Digital Mini Amplifier 60 WPC
with a chromecast dongle
hooked up to
Polk Audio TSx220B speakers

[Peter P.]

With the sub/sat setup you can get good bass with satellite speakers that will be small enough to locate in many places, and a sub you can tuck out of the way, in a corner.

Buy the larger floor standing models if you have the space for them. It saves you one "box" (the subwoofer) and in most cases, except for powered speakers, you won't have to have it plugged in all the time.

I can't recommend a specific brand, but there is a feature I think is important.
If the power amp or receiver you use does not have some sort of internal cross over to spare the satellites from trying to reproduce the low frequencies, the make sure the subwoofer has the inputs/outputs to connect to your satellites. Essentially, the subwoofer would take the speaker level output of your amp/receiver and extract the subwoofer signal, and let the rest of the signal go to the satellites. It saves a lot of wasted amp power that would otherwise be sent to the satellites to try and reproduce low frequencies they weren't designed for.

For instance, the Boston Acoustics CS Sub10 II Subwoofer has such an arrangement.

[giordana93]

don't discount self-powered speakers (i.e. built in amps); they have come a looong way. a decent set will blow Bose out of the water for cheaper. usually easy to find on sale too.
not sure if I missed it, but you need to know if you will need party volume out of these or not. if only low volume, a good t-amp or similar will suffice, but they get strained pretty fast if asked to go loud. opt instead for a basic receiver with the connectivity you need. don't forget craigslist

[jh_on_the_cape]

Originally Posted by giordana93

don't discount self-powered speakers (i.e. built in amps); they have come a looong way. a decent set will blow Bose out of the water for cheaper. usually easy to find on sale too.
not sure if I missed it, but you need to know if you will need party volume out of these or not. if only low volume, a good t-amp or similar will suffice, but they get strained pretty fast if asked to go loud. opt instead for a basic receiver with the connectivity you need. don't forget craigslist

thanks... i am looking for party volume!

what's a good powered 2.1 system? they all seem to be computer speakers.

[Peter P.]

Originally Posted by jh_on_the_cape

what's a good powered 2.1 system? they all seem to be computer speakers.

Pair a Boston Acoustics CS10 II Subwoofer with any of their bookshelf speakers
and you're out the door for about $450.

Polk Audio has a PSW10 Subwoofer on sale. Pair it with their T15 bookshelf speaker and you've got a sub/sat system for $210! Both items received great reviews on the Polk web site. Polk also offers free shipping on all orders from their web site, which makes shopping that much easier.

[jh_on_the_cape]

Thanks! So I can just put a chromecast dongle in there and be done?