[Starry Night]

Howdy,

I'll soon purchase the new 1.25ghz PM G4. The Apple Pro Speakers seem a little over-priced. Can you suggest a decent 2 speaker set-up that works (plug and play) with the PM G4 yet costs less/performs better than the Apple Pro Speakers?

Thanks!

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Soundsticks look awesome and sound great.

Losts of other sound better but look like **** and are probably overkill.

[G-mac]

I'm going to purchase a 1.25 SP as well. Check out MacZone. They have free shipping, free 512 MB upgrade, no tax (except in CA), and a deal on the HK iSub ($39). You could buy the Apple Pro speakers and add the iSub for only $39! Sounds cool, except MacZone wants you to "call them" for availability of the PM 1.25. Plus, I think the memory upgrade requires some sort of rebate.

[Angus_D]

JBL Creatures are quite good, and look nice.

[iXavier]

I have the Logitech Z340 speakers, which are god-like and cheap as all get out. I use these with my TiBook, and I have the Apple Pro Speakers with my Cube.

I guess the Pro who designed the Pro Speakers must have been deaf because my cheap Z340s (for around $40 when I bought them) sound much better and have a subwoofer.

The point of the story: Go into your local Best Buy and take a listen to different two speaker combinations. Or, just take my advice and go Logitech.

x.

[Starry Night]

Originally posted by G-mac:
I'm going to purchase a 1.25 SP as well. Check out MacZone. They have free shipping, free 512 MB upgrade, no tax (except in CA), and a deal on the HK iSub ($39). You could buy the Apple Pro speakers and add the iSub for only $39! Sounds cool, except MacZone wants you to "call them" for availability of the PM 1.25. Plus, I think the memory upgrade requires some sort of rebate.

Thanks for the ideas everyone! iShall investigate your suggestions.

G-Mac, I think we're both getting a very good deal on the G4. I usually order computers from either Compusa or Amazon.com. The reason being that both companies have a return/exchange policy. As far as I know, in the world of Mac resellers, only those two and smalldog.com allow either exchanges or refunds on defective computers w/out restocking fees. CompUsa and Smalldog = 14 day exchange. Amazon currently has a very liberal 30 day policy for both exchange or refund. Amazon will take it back even if you just don't like it.

W/amazon, you have to read each listing to make sure it's not actually a J and R listing, who does not accept exchanges.

You don't get a lot of freebies with those companies, but at least I'm assured of getting a properly working computer. And the freebies are often a little dubious. Free ram, but costs $40 to install, etc.

[Angus_D]

By the way, the 1.25 isn't new. It's the pre-January model without Airport Extreme and FireWire 800, but with the ability to boot OS 9.

[Steve]

I personally hated my Sound Sticks. They sound like ass IMO. As has been mentioned in this thread, the Logitech speakers are very cheap, sound better than the Sound Sticks (or JBL Creatures), and are LOUD. A few caveats: the sub-woofers are known to blow out after extended, loud playing. Logitech does replace them under warranty, but it is still a nuisance. If you are looking for "audiophile" sound, the Logitechs also are not for that (if you were looking for this, I don't think you would be looking at computer speakers ).

[Starry Night]

Originally posted by Steve:
I personally hated my Sound Sticks. They sound like ass IMO. As has been mentioned in this thread, the Logitech speakers are very cheap, sound better than the Sound Sticks (or JBL Creatures), and are LOUD. A few caveats: the sub-woofers are known to blow out after extended, loud playing. Logitech does replace them under warranty, but it is still a nuisance. If you are looking for "audiophile" sound, the Logitechs also are not for that (if you were looking for this, I don't think you would be looking at computer speakers ).

Steve: No need for audiophile speakers, just basic, but semi-decent, computer speakers will do. I'll focus on the Logitech's for sure.... just something to make Tropico Mucho Macho sound ok...

Angus:

The 1.25 is kind of new, depends how you look at it. It was just released in that form. Btw, according to the
specs at smalldog , the single processor has both Airport Extreme and FW 800 along with the Radeon 9000 pro card and the L3 cache.... at $1299, hard to beat....

[Busemann]

Soundsticks!

(If you are not on an Airport network, but that goes for all USB audio in general )

[Footy]

I don't think you can really go wrong with Altec Lansing speakers.

I have a set of the ATP3 speaker with woofer and absolutely love them. They are cheaper now that they've been out for a couple years.

http://www.altecmm.com/product_detai...ATP3&sID=2

-Footy

[CheesePuff]

Monsoon PlanarMedia 14 - the best speakers I have had yet (better then and cheaper then the Klipsch ProMedia 2.1's).

[Starry Night]

Checked out the sound sticks, creature speakers, and the Logitech Z340. They all seem fine, though the Logitech has a great price. Yet really don't need a subwoofer. My house has an open floor plan and I can easily hear the home stereo system ($1600 speakers, Meadowlarks) from where the computer sits. I'm also cramped for desk space, thus a sub, even a small one, competes for valuable space.

The inexpensive ($25) Altec Lansings would do the trick and appear well built. But I think I'll go with these Yamaha's. Nicer looking than the Altec's, have a headphone jack, and I've always liked Yamaha, didn't realize they made computer speakers.

[Starry Night]

Originally posted by Angus_D:
By the way, the 1.25 isn't new. It's the pre-January model without Airport Extreme and FireWire 800, but with the ability to boot OS 9.

Angus_D was correct, the new 1.25ghz SP G4 doesn't have Firewire 800 or Airport Extreme. Smalldog had posted the wrong specs and has since removed them.

No matter, today I bought one anyway!

[Casper Crane]

Originally posted by Busemann:
Soundsticks!

(If you are not on an Airport network, but that goes for all USB audio in general )

What's wrong with Airport + USB Audio?

My 2 cents are that I was dying to get the Creatures for my P'Book, but I am disappointed. They sound fine for the most part, but on some tunes they lack midtones something awful.

The Apple Pro Speakers were much better with an iSub. I might get the iFire and go back to that. Or get Soundsticks. Design is too important to me, like many other Mac fools.

[Luca Rescigno]

I have a set of Yamaha 2.1s myself. I don't think you'll be disappointed if you buy from them - they look good too.

As far as all those HK/JBL/Apple speakers, I think they're a lot of show and no real substance. They're extremely overpriced and rather weak. Creatures are around $100, but they're tiny. I can't believe they would put out as much quality sound as an equally priced set of non-showy speakers. When you get higher up in price, the Soundsticks are far overshadowed by higher end offerings from Klipsch and Logitech, and other companies too of course.

[Smokerz]

www.yamaha.com look at the Cavits Yamaha is out of the PC business and dumping their Cavits. They used to cost $349 to $499 now $99 to $199. USB attached to play music off the hard drive natively recognized by OSX (Jaq & Panther) U-100 and up use passive speakers I use Polk 3-way bookshelf they sound excellent far betterr than any powered setup I 've ever listened to.

[jimf_81]

I have a pair of Altec 621's and they are pretty darn sweet (soundwise anyways).

[OreoCookie]

In Germany, I connect my iBook to my amplifier (Marantz, got it nearly for free ) and my speakers kill any PC speakers out there.

Cost me 3 € for the cable.

[Link]

If you want good sound a set of Klipsch DMX 2.1's or the standard 2.1s are in order....

Otherwise logitech ones are fine, I like altec subs but their speakers are typically ugly, and yamaha is pretty good usually (their speakers tend to be heavy).

The pro speakers are $50, and they sound like crap without an isub... with an isub they sound awesome, however.

I finally retired my pro speakers after my G4 stopped registering them correctly. OS 10.3 won't even boot with them plugged in and I have to go through a crazy method to get them to work or wait 10 minutes for them to detect and it really pisses me off. Worst waste of money ever.

[tooki]

Seriously, both the SoundSticks and the Creatures clearly put looks way ahead of sound quality (I mean, yeah, they sound better than the $6 speakers Dell includes with its PCs, but they don't give you $100+ sound, not by a long shot).

For half the price, or less, of those, you can get great speakers -- or you can spend the same amount of money and get awesome speakers.

My suggestion is Cambridge SoundWorks, which has several awesome speaker sets (in ascending order):
-PCWorks
-SoundWorks
-MicroWorks

I've owned the first two -- the PCWorks live on my TV, and the SoundWorks my mom has now.

Do a forum search for SoundWorks, you'll find more people swooning over them as well.

tooki

[KeyLimePi]

No, you're wrong. The Creature Speakers sound much better (hey, if you can make definitive conclusions so can I )