Bookshelves or PC speakers?

[Aritolis]

Looking for some good music sound for my computer. Got a soundblaster z sound card and am looking for some good speakers. My question is "Is it better to go with PC speakers or Bookshelves." Lookin at about a $150 budget and i think you gotta get an amp or something for the bookshelves. What is the better option for the price? Thanx again in advance.

 

[Aritolis]

Thank you thee_prisoner and photon boy for your posts. I am looking for a little more bass as my setup is in my living room. i have some good headphones for surround and gaming so i only want the speaker for music. not really too happy with all the 2.1 pc speaker setups i saw though they arent bad im just looking for better. the monitor/sub/amp setup sounds like it will do the job w the bass so i will prob go with that. dont have any probs tweaking the audio(enjoying doin it a lil) so trying to get the speakers to match isnt an issue unless ima have to do it for every song. though the AV40's are nice im just hopin to match or beat the sound for the price.

 

[photonboy]

Thank you thee_prisoner and photon boy for your posts. I am looking for a little more bass as my setup is in my living room. i have some good headphones for surround and gaming so i only want the speaker for music. not really too happy with all the 2.1 pc speaker setups i saw though they arent bad im just looking for better. the monitor/sub/amp setup sounds like it will do the job w the bass so i will prob go with that. dont have any probs tweaking the audio(enjoying doin it a lil) so trying to get the speakers to match isnt an issue unless ima have to do it for every song. though the AV40's are nice im just hopin to match or beat the sound for the price.

Home Theater discussion:
*Random link, but part of an ARTICLE on home theatre setup. Fun read:
http/www.hometheater.com/content/top-picks-compact-speakers

BUDGETTING:
I doubt you can find much better speakers for $150. In general you're looking at (very, very roughly):
a) $150
- PC stereo
- AV40 or similar

b) $200
- PC 2.1
(Subwoofer adds bass, but a 2.1 setup costs MORE than a 2.0 setup if you compare apples to apples such as nearly identical sound except more bass).

c) $300+
- separate amp/receiver (can still use PC though)
For music, the best you can achieve is with larger, quality speakers using an external, dedicated amplifier. I would roughly guess at $100 minimum for a good amplifier and $200 minimum for STEREO SPEAKERS. You can get a Subwoofer here as well, but again the BUDGET rears its ugly head. If you buy a subwoofer you have less for the stereo speakers. The money MIGHT be better spent by getting more bass in the speakers and avoiding a subwoofer. At what budget, adding the Subwoofer for more bass offsets any quality loss elsewhere may be difficult to determine.

So, basically you get what you pay for on average, so unless you increase the budget there's not much I can say. Absolutely NO POINT in getting a great amplifier/receiver and having little money for good speakers (and vice versa).

HDTV and HOME THEATER:
I spent a long time investigating speakers for my HDTV/stereo. I looked into a setup with a Sony Receiver and all the connectivity for it (HDMI etc). In the end, the main issue was something I hadn't considered at first. Volume would be controlled by the receiver's remote and, for me, there was no way to do this via my HDTV. Maybe this is a lot easier now and the methods I know of MAY include:
- Receiver programmable (like using a Cable/Satellite remote for on/off and volume with a TV)
- Universal Remotes
- Tablets/Phones (if compatible to IR/Bluetooth, and using an APP). This sounds very promising in fact and maybe a small tablet could double as an interface for managing a digital AUDIO collection.
*Some HDTV's have a loop-back method so volume commands are sent to an attached receiver. This requires both an HDTV with this features and a compatible receiver and it may be a proprietary feature.

I mention this not because you're likely to buy this now, but if you buy a different HDTV in the future and want better sound than the CRAPPY, CRAPPY, sound most HDTV's have, you'll need to do a little research. Hopefully, a non-proprietary solution that ALL HDTV's support becomes available.

My IDEAL SPEAKERS would cost about $500 and connect to an included amplifier via the HDTV. All control would be as normal via the HDTV remote; it was a sacrifice I was willing to make (but apparently I am not the "boss" in call cases). External devices (BD player) would connect to the HDTV (amp being dedicated with minimal connectivity should reduce cost). I think it very likely that OLED HDTV's being flat and wall-mountable will force better development of similar solutions:

a) standalone AMP BOX (inputs, video processing, wireless link to HDTV screen)
b) more speaker choices (if screen is separate in some cases, why not have different speaker choices?)

Cheers.