[RiSE]

Im getting my first apple comuter (1.25ghz powermac G4, 1gb ram, 160gb HD)Im wondering what everybody uses for speakers? I dont really want to spend more than $100-$150. ALso does it come with a mouse? haha thanks!

[mark9939]

Hey, welcome to the forums. Lots of people recommend JBL Creatures. They cost about $120, I think. Also, Logitech's offerings are excellent for that price range.

As for the mouse, yes all PM's come with one, but it is only a single button, w/o a scroll wheel. Coming from Windows, you may not like that, so you can always use a 3rd-party mouse.

Welcome to Macintosh!

[AssassyN]

First off, WELCOME to the MacNN Forums & to the LightSide of computing!

Seems we live pretty near!

Anyways, I'd highly recommend the Harmon Kardon SoundSticks + iSub for a truly "Mac-like" speaker setup...the JBL Creatures are pretty swank as well. However, for pure sound quality, I'd check out the Klipsch ProMedia 4.1 system...I own these & use them on my PC and they're simply the best PC speakers I've ever heard, hands down.

As stated, it comes w/ a single button mouse that most consider useless; one of Apple's biggest fallbacks is their refusal to incorporate dual-button mousing. I'd jump on a Logitech MX500 (or MX700 if you prefer wireless mice). It's fully Mac-compatible & all the buttons can be assigned how you like.

[CheesePuff]

Monsoon PlanarMedia 14's - beats the Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 in many ways. And you can get them for $130 or so shipped.

[DBvader]

From my personal listening, all of the speakers that are made for the macs are more looks than performance.

Ive used the Klipsch Promedia 5.1s (there is a new version due out in sept) and the Logitech Z-680s. i sold the klipschs in favor of the logitechs, becuase i would use the Decoding features with my XBOX and the Prologic 2 features wtih my mac (since it had only a stereo out). When i used my 5.1s, i W-cabled it, so that every channel would get a signal. I regret selling the 5.1s. they were clearer, MUCH more balanced (the logis are all bass even after i turn it down the low freqs down in iTunes AND the bass down on the control pod), and just sounded fantastic. The logitechs have some great features (though i still use the W-cable solution now, becuase PL2 doesnt sound great and doesnt use the rears much) but doesnt have the sound to back it up. The bass is everpresent and overpowering and completely bad sounding. the Sub just aimlessly booms away, while on the klipschs its purposeful and clean. the highs are the same story, really, with the klipschs just sounding a lot clearer.

If i could do it again, i would keep the klipschs. though my sennheiser HD600s sound pretty decent (though my MDD doesnt put out enough current to drive them, so i need to build a amp)

My last suggestion would be (since macs w/o the REVO have only stereo out) to get a reciever for ~200 (ive seen the denon 1803 for this price) and spend ~300 dollars on some nice refrence series klispchs. a friend of mine did this with his iBook and is really happy. for about the same money as the 5.1s, you can have a MUCH better, balanced sounding system. and if you want, you can add speakers when you get the inclination/cash and take advantage of positional sound (its bound t sound better on a denon than my 680s)

hope that helped.

[AssassyN]

Originally posted by CheesePuff:
Monsoon PlanarMedia 14's - beats the Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 in many ways. And you can get them for $130 or so shipped.

Hmm...I'd hafta disagree. I own these speakers (and am currently listening to them) and as great as they are for their cheap price, I'd still pick the Klipschies if I had the cash. If you're strapped for cash, however, they are AMAZING for their pricetag and I use mine daily.

[G-mac]

Hey there!

I've got the Silver JBL Creatures and absolutely love them. I think for their price and size, they sound excellent. They look great with the G4 MDD too.

I purchased my first set for $80 online including shipping. I recently bought another set from a fellow MacNNer for my girlfriend's iBook.

You can purchase one from Amazon for around $85 including free shipping. Not sure if this deal still exists. The other speakers mentioned all sound great, but some of them can be rather pricey.

What are you primarily looking to use them for? Games, rock, jazz, blowing out neighbors, etc?

[RiSE]

thanks for everybodys help. Ill be doing a lot of video editing on my computer but also playing mp3's and maybe a game once in a while. The Monsoon PlanarMedia 14's seem like a good deal.

[videian28]

I love my silver JBL Creatures

[rhogue islander]

Another vote here for Monsoon. I have a pair of MM-1000's which have a smooth balanced sound without boom or sizzle. Their dipole operation generates a wide, seemless soundstage which sounds more like live music than that produced by cone designs.

[villalobos]

Originally posted by RiSE:
thanks for everybodys help. Ill be doing a lot of video editing on my computer but also playing mp3's and maybe a game once in a while. The Monsoon PlanarMedia 14's seem like a good deal.

Don't forget that your mac can drive stereo speakers directly without the need for an amplifier. This is in my opinion the best solution. You just have to buy a set a quality speakers (midsize), and enjoy the music.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...0.5.8.3.1.13.0

Villa

[DBvader]

Wow, thats pretty cool, actually.

how many watts can it deliver per channel?

[Leonis]

Originally posted by DBvader:
Wow, thats pretty cool, actually.

how many watts can it deliver per channel?

15W per channel I believe

I used that cable to drive my mid-sized bookshelf JBL speakers and it works great

Since I am very "picky" on style I went back to the Pro Speakers/iSub combo to match my SlowSilver� and Cinema Display

[DBvader]

aww...i was hoping it would be enough to power a pair of klipsch refrence series bookshelfs (75-100 W)...it would have saved me on an amp.

[villalobos]

Originally posted by DBvader:
aww...i was hoping it would be enough to power a pair of klipsch refrence series bookshelfs (75-100 W)...it would have saved me on an amp.

Well I don't know about the actual power it delivers, but trust me it is enough for bookshelf size speakers. Like Leonsis above, I use JBL speakers (2-way speakers, 6.5" woofer. rated for 125W), and it is powerful enough, without any distortion that i can hear (RTCW explosions are now VERY realistic to say the least!). I would still give it a shot.

Villa

[exa]

Well, the Klipsch reference bookshelves are rated at 93-97 dB/watt/m (depending on the model) and I believe the internal power mac amplifier is actually 20W, not 15W.

So I'm sure the internal amp will be more than enough to drive the Klipsch speakers. Really, power ratings are silly things. Especially with Klipsch speakers which use horns, which get extremely loud; also I've heard of people powering the big Klipsch horn speakers with <5W super expensive amplifiers.

[billybob128]

if you have a good home sterio near plug it into that

i do with my bose 321 and all i need to say there is that ill never buy any more speakers again

[loh]

If youre lookin for Computer speakers, Monsoon Pm 14's. Thats all I have to say.

[Number 6]

Speakers? 3 years ago, I bought the HK soundsticks with my PMG4 400Mhz. Apart from sounding really excellent, they also look spectacular...! I will be getting the same when I buy my dual G5 soon (some would say a waste, given the G5's audio capabilities, but for me the sound quality is good enough from the soundsticks).

Have fun!

[p.s. re: your budget. The soundsticks are a bit more expensive, but you might pick up a pair somewhere that might fit within your price range]

[MilkmanDan]

I just went on eBay and searched for "flat speakers." I bought a 5 piece set for $30, four little flat speakers and a sub. Made by GE. They're great for most everything a dorm room would want to do. Even drowning out the loud room-mate love makin going on next door. Which is important.

[urban]

Is it true that macs dont produce 5.1 unless you add a 5.1 enabled sound card to it?

[Cipher13]

My Boston Acoustics BA635s rock.

Awesome system.

[DBvader]

"Is it true that macs dont produce 5.1 unless you add a 5.1 enabled sound card to it?"

yes, im not sure even how well (games wise, etc) OS X handles multi channel sound. until the Revo, there were no cards >2 channels. you can decode DD (and maybe DTS) with a special version of VLC and pass it along to the revo.

[natan]

Originally posted by urban:
Is it true that macs dont produce 5.1 unless you add a 5.1 enabled sound card to it?

I'm positive this will all change in the next 6 months. With the G5's having optical out standard, it's only a matter of time before 5.1 out on a Mac is available.

[DBvader]

yeah, but in what form? optical out can do one of two things. it can either carry a standard stereo signal or a digital compressed format (like a DD/DTS format) that has to be decoded outside the computer. If you think about it that way, then we are either stuck with stereo out, or every apple program will have to encode audio to send out to the reciever. thats not really an option as it will kill CPU cycles etc. the only solution for computer multichannel sound is the anlog outs we see in PCs (and the revo).

sure, optical outs in the G5 means that apple is thinking about multichannel sound, but if this is the way they are planning on doing it (and i dont think they are...i see programs like DVD player being the only ones passing the signal from the DVD to the optical out since it doesnt have to actually generate it.), then were stuck.

[natan]

Originally posted by DBvader:
yeah, but in what form? optical out can do one of two things. it can either carry a standard stereo signal or a digital compressed format (like a DD/DTS format) that has to be decoded outside the computer. If you think about it that way, then we are either stuck with stereo out, or every apple program will have to encode audio to send out to the reciever. thats not really an option as it will kill CPU cycles etc. the only solution for computer multichannel sound is the anlog outs we see in PCs (and the revo).

sure, optical outs in the G5 means that apple is thinking about multichannel sound, but if this is the way they are planning on doing it (and i dont think they are...i see programs like DVD player being the only ones passing the signal from the DVD to the optical out since it doesnt have to actually generate it.), then were stuck.

Who said it has to encode multchannel audio for every application? Why not just certain applications, and the rest are stereo over optical out? That wouldn't take much CPU.

[DBvader]

um, yeah it would. the reason that DVD programs are able to send out the digital signals so easily is that they dont have to generate it, they just get it from the DVD and pass it out. simple as that. but, lets say iTunes were going to use that same technology, it would have to generate a decodable signal (ie AC3/DTS) that recievers can decode. so anything producing audio (you cant have 2 systems one for the digital stuff and one for the anlog, so it would have to be a one or the other solution) would have to generate this decodable format.

wouldnt work well. how PCs do it is a bit more elegant (or crude, depending on how you look at it), they have their own standardizations that dont take up many cycles that anlog 6 channel outs are able to put put (like direct sound extensions, etc). The mac solution (using digital outs) would only be confusing, hard on the CPU, and expensive for the end user.

i say make some mac standardization for multichannel sound that all apps can use and roll out sound cards with anlog 6-8 channel outs (and have the new macs have it built in)

EDIT: sorry, misread a bit. you can have some apps encode to the optical out and some not (thats what i think were going to see in DVD Player in panth)...but then what is the point? you would still need a reciever to take advantage of stereo sound? sound like an awful waste to me.

[natan]

Originally posted by DBvader:
um, yeah it would. the reason that DVD programs are able to send out the digital signals so easily is that they dont have to generate it, they just get it from the DVD and pass it out. simple as that. but, lets say iTunes were going to use that same technology, it would have to generate a decodable signal (ie AC3/DTS) that recievers can decode. so anything producing audio (you cant have 2 systems one for the digital stuff and one for the anlog, so it would have to be a one or the other solution) would have to generate this decodable format.

wouldnt work well. how PCs do it is a bit more elegant (or crude, depending on how you look at it), they have their own standardizations that dont take up many cycles that anlog 6 channel outs are able to put put (like direct sound extensions, etc). The mac solution (using digital outs) would only be confusing, hard on the CPU, and expensive for the end user.

i say make some mac standardization for multichannel sound that all apps can use and roll out sound cards with anlog 6-8 channel outs (and have the new macs have it built in)

EDIT: sorry, misread a bit. you can have some apps encode to the optical out and some not (thats what i think were going to see in DVD Player in panth)...but then what is the point? you would still need a reciever to take advantage of stereo sound? sound like an awful waste to me.

It seems to me that the way Apple is marketing the Logitech Z-680's that they're currently planning on having an outside source do the decoding. I don't really think this is a bad idea - it'll free up the computer, and consumer DTS hardware decoding is not too expensive these days.

[Jupeman]

I guess I'm missing some of this optical out concern, and I consider myself a minor audiophile (I have my Mac hooked up to Paradigm Reference Studio/20s, a NHT subwoofer, and an Outlaw receiver and that all is just for my Mac... .

If you're asking the Mac to ENCODE 5.1 sound out of a stereo souce then you are asking the processors to do work. I think this is a waste of time because taking two channels and making them 6 is "fake" (except maybe the subwoofer out, you'd effectively be asking the computer to be a low pass filter, etc).

If you're asking the Mac to decode the 5.1, what good are ANY of its outputs going to be? It will need 6 outputs, therefore this isn't a relevant scenario.

If you're asking the Mac to simply output the 5.1 signal, it doesn't only have to come from DVDs. There may be future audio sources that have 5.1 encoded or 5.1 games. The CPU effort to output these is no more than outputting from that DVD, which is not much.

I'm excited about the digital outs for the future ability to play 5.1 games and simply for the better sonic clarity of digital connections. The latter isn't a huge concern when you're listening on $80 PC speakers, but it is fun to know that your sound is as clean as possible.

One nice bonus of optical cables is they don't pick up any electromagnetic interference. I look forward to the day when all our connections are optical.

2Ghz G5 order still showing "on or before 8/29/03"...

[DBvader]

i have a pair of Z-680s that i use with my mac right now. you can take the stereo out that the optical will deliver at all times and use the PL2 mode on it (matrixing out the stereo into a simulated 6 channel set up on a frequential basis). If it detects a digital signal, it will switch to DD/DTS/etc... Thats a concievable solution. Problem is, the 680s arent very good sounding speakers (though im inclined to think apple doesnt care about performance of speakers the way they trumph their other speakers like soundsticks and creatures) and 99 percent of the time youre going to be using a stereo source anyway! Its an almost worthless situation. Games and things could indeed pass along DD/DTS encoded signals, but a whole games worth would be a huge amount of data. PCs handle it differently, and have a different format that is easier and smaller to stream to soundcards which 'understand' it. this is not a possibility for the mac, even if it used a smaller format, it would have to convert it to AC3 or whatever for the reciever to decode!

" One nice bonus of optical cables is they don't pick up any electromagnetic interference. I look forward to the day when all our connections are optical. "

i was under the impression that at longer legnths the signal fades (and that is why coax is a bit better), but i could be wrong.