Okay I've decided to hold off on the 5.1 computer speakers and I am currently researching DIY HT systems. Any suggestions on where to start.
Okay, I'm just going to read off your PM here, since I can read previous posts this way. If it bothers you, I won't do it again.
Okay I've decided to ditch the 5.1 computer speakers and started looking into investing into a 5.1 DIY HT system.
DIY actually means Do-It-Yourself...it generally implies you are actually "building" the components yourself. I think you mean you just want to put together a regular home theater setup =P
Any suggestions on where to start. I'll probably just start with a 2.1 system and continue to add as my budget allow for.
That's a pretty good start.
The system will go into my 13'x14' bedroom and I would like to hook it up to my computer, TV, DVD player, and Console systems.
Any surround receiver can handle that.
Could you give me any links or suggestions.
My signature has 2 links, though they might be a bit dense for some. The most knowledgeable "computerspeak" audio guys I know is the Peripherals forum at Anandtech, guys like Yoyo and a few others give advice for new folks getting home theater sets all the time. At another time I would have suggested 3dss-forums but that place seems to have died down. 3DSS was the place I first heard about "bookshelf" speakers, this was back around 2002 when a couple of guys were ahead of the curve and found their Gigaworks and Klipsch Ultras weren't good enough for DVD voicing, and started auditioning and then finally replacing the satellite speakers with bookshelfs (and using the subwoofers as amps! Pretty neat and cost effective replacement).
What can you tell me about the Acsend CBM-170 SE? Thank you for your time.
Well, I would go to Ascendacoustics.com's forum if you are really interested. Ascend is a company that started from a former engineer at M&K (big name THX home theater speaker company, very high end). He wanted to make accurate speakers affordable to everyday people, so he took designs inspired by M&K speakers (very low profile, simple, with most of the money spent on the cabinet and drivers).
The reason was, the bookshelf market at $100-500 is very crowded with excellent retail products. To make yourself known, as a newcomer, you can do one of two things--either force your way in by selling your product cheaper than it really is (as Microsoft did with the Xbox), or, as Ascend chose to do, skimp on everything else (basically, the looks; its a very simple cube shaped speaker) in order to provide a product that stands out at its price range. Ascend took drivers that were very popular with DIY (do-it-yourself, guys who build their own systems) include aerogel (an incorporeal substance used as a heat insulator on the Space Shuttle) midrange drivers from Audax and tweeters from SEAS.
The concept was really stolen from DIY people (i.e., build your own speakers that are much better than retail speakers for the same cost, because you aren't spending that much money on the cabinet or retail overhead). Another concept stolen from DIY is that people who build their own speakers build them for accuracy.
Not a specific "flavor" or "taste" that is unnatural. While a specific flavor such as pushing the frequency response in a certain range might make rock music sound better to some, it'll probably sound a lot worse with another kind of music. An example would be Klipsch, whose well known for amped-up treble that sounds suitably horrible for other types of music.
Making an accurate speaker is not easy, just like the amplifier post I made before, making an amplifier that can provide you sustained juice at all frequency ranges is a lot harder than an amp that claims 100W/channel, but it was measured only at a specific frequency. At the same token, an accurate speaker means it has to be accurate at all frequency ranges, and that means drivers that can sustain a lot of structural stress.
Ascend got its popularity this way through selling primarily online and using drivers that would otherwise go into much more expensive speakers.
Not too long afterwards, a lot of companies which indirectly worked with Ascend started "copying" Ascend's business strategies. You now see quite a few other speakers that use Ascend's business strategy of "spending all the money on the speaker" and less money on useless things like advertising or beautifying the box. SVS (A subwoofer maker), Hsu (another subwoofer maker) and Onix (another online speaker maker) have recently introduced their own "accuracy first" speakers into the market. They are mostly in the $250 and below range, as they respect Ascend (most of the owners of these companies including Ascend commonly post in Avsforum) and weren't interested in competing directly with Ascend, but helped the market by providing even cheaper options for consumers.
That's the main gist of what's known as the "internet direct" business model. You yourself don't actually have to purchase internet direct speakers, as retail speakers are very good themselves. The jump from PC speakers to bookshelves is the bigger one, as internet direct (ID) speakers and retail speakers are like two different types of luxury cars, while the PC speaker is a horse drawn cart. Just getting up there with "real" speakers is the big jump.
To conclude: I'd suggest you ask around either at Anandtech's Periperals forum, or the AVS forum.
I'm guessing ID people will suggest you either Ascend/Axiom/Onix/SVS speakers with a Hsu/SVS subwoofer, a Panasonic receiver, while the retail people (those who don't like shopping online and prefer a company with a retail base) will suggest either Energy or Paradigm speakers, a Velodyne subwoofer, and a Pioneer or H&K receiver.
Heh, just a hunch.
Anyway, here's a linky about Ascend's newest speakers (SEs) from the owner himself. Ascend was already well known for very accurate speakers, but David F wanted to make something *really* special in the commercial price range by bringing in very high quality tweeters (from SEAs of Norway) you usually find in DIY speakers or very, very expensive speakers. This allowed David to tighten up the frequency response of his speakers to within +/- 1db (decibel) from the 80-20KHz range. Most regular loudspeakers operate in the +/-3db range, which is 9 times larger than the Ascends. As for computer speakers...I wouldn't even go there.
http://forum.ascendacoustics.com/showthread.php?t=1584
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