Decent 2.0 or 2.1 speakers for ~$50? - Page 2

You say desk space is an issue. So here are a few options for you to look into.....

1) Dayton B652's - These are roughly 7" wide each. I say roughly because I don't have a tape measure to measure them currently. These are available at Parts Express only (or amazon through the Parts Express store).

2) Polk Monitor 30's - If I had to guess, I'd say these are about 6" wide. They're at $99 right now on sale, which isn't a bad price at all. These are some VERY excellent speakers for the money.

3) Pioneer SP-BS21LR - These speakers are currently NOT on sale. They're usually on sale anywhere from $50-75 for the pair, so do not buy them at full retail price. These are VERY excellent, and smooth sounding speakers. Some of the best in their price range, and even better when on sale. I'd guess that these are about 5" wide each.

4) Polk Audio RTi6 - These ones I'm guessing to be about 7" again wide. Most expensive speakers I will recommend to you, since you're on a budget. These are on sale right now for $120, and that is a VERY good sale, regular price is $160-200 or so per pair. These are basically the new Monitor 30's, but they've done a lot of enhancements to these ones. I haven't gotten to hear these yet, but if the Monitor 30's are anything to compare them to, these should be very excellent (I've heard GREAT things about these).

For an amplifier: (Parts Express only, unless you want to search ebay for comparable tripath amps)

1) Lepai TA2020 - Around $25 or so. Very solid budget amplifier, puts out 20w per channel. That's a LOT more than any PC speakers will have. It's solid, and clean. It won't get LOUD, but it'll sound really good.

2) Dayton DTA-1 - Around $45 or so. Also a good budget amp, but I'd recommend the Lepai over it any day. Only reason I mention this amp is because it does come in a combo with the Dayton B652's for $58, which is a really good price. It's worth looking into if you can squeeze 7" wide bookshelfs on your desk.

3) Dayton DTA-100a - The big daddy amp. This one is $90, but WELL worth it. 50w RMS x 2, clean power, its got a headphones amp (meh but works), I mean this thing is powerful enough to drive very large tower speakers very well. It'll get loud, and stay clean doing it. And when I say loud, I mean LOUD, not z2300 style...but just super clean good sound.

Once you decide on what fits your budget between all of these parts (subwoofers are very easy to add to this later if you wanted), then I can get you some links to the best prices on everything. Depending on what you're after, you can get free shipping on orders over $100 at Parts Express.

My personal setup is the Dayton B652's and the DTA-100a T amp. For $130, I couldn't be happier with my sound. I just need a subwoofer to finish it off, which I'm planning on the Dayton SUB800 for that.

IF you've got a dollar store handy, you should find speaker wire there, 18 gage is fine for this application. Home Depot or Walmart are probable alternatives.

However since you are ordering from PartsExpress anyway, Belkin PureAV bLUE 18 GAGE 25 FT Speaker wire $1.97 and 3.5 mm Stereo Male to 2 RCA Male jacks 5 ft $2.29.
An extra $4.26 seems reasonable.

Cheap and large beats cheap and small.
The Altec Lansing above aren't bad, not sure they are worth $49.

If you insist on small and cheap, no bass

About the lowest priced worth owning are Altec Lansing BXR1220 2.0 USB speakers. No USB speaker is loud but for cheap these are on Amazon for $10.90 with prime

Arctic Sound S111 portable USB speakers got good reviews for what they are about $15 amazon
Edited by brasslad - 8/18/12 at 2:27pm

Oh lord no. The Dollar store (at least here) carries 26 gauge wiring, which will just be absolutely horrible. He needs at minimum 18 or 16 gauge. 14 gauge would be preferred if he uses the DTA-100a (16 is fine, and is more than plenty with the other 2 amps).

Since this is a 2.0 setup, not a 2.1 setup, I'm sure 20 feet or so would be plenty. 16ga wire isn't that expensive. And a 3.5mm to RCA cable is only $0.60 at monoprice, or like $1.50 at parts express. Depending on what equipment he chooses, that will determine where he should buy the wiring at. Parts Express will likely be cheaper anyway due to shipping costs (combined at PE, not combined at monoprice).

Have not bought speaker wire at the dollar store in a long while, I suppose 18 gage might be gone.
You can cut the ends off a couple extension cords, hopefully these will be 18 gage. just harder to keep track of polarity. (one 12 ft OR 2 6 FT, possibly one 9 ft. 16 gage can not hurt but these are low power rig.

Yes, its low power....but speaker wire is really cheap. It doesn't hurt a thing to go with some slightly larger wire such as 16ga, just to know that you've got big enough. I agree, 18ga would be sufficient with the smaller amps, but with the DTA-100a he'll need 16ga anyway. Why cut it too close, when he can spend a few cents more (literally) for the right stuff that will last?

True enough though usually only bass takes serious power, It is not like we are wiring ribbon spreakers, domes and six inch, even loaded instead of baffled are not demanding.
The future well, most people reach good enough and stop.

Personally I tend to overengineer, perhaps I've gone too far the other way.

Mfirst personal stereo was a Scott Receiver in 1967, 18 watts/channel. Drove two Scott two way bookshelf speakers till I replaced them with Utah three ways. The Scotts were Acoustic Suspension 6 inch woofer an .5 dome tweeter as I recall, Utahs were three way, two piezo electric horns and a vented 12 inch woofer. low cost very good sound.

The amplifier power craze changed a lot since then, but I started out using 18 gage (yes 12 gage eventually in my audiophile days). I have seen too many speaker sets come with worse than 18 gage too.

If your looking for just something cheap to get the job done, I'd recommend these. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121014
I've had mine for more than 2 years and still work pretty good. They aren't "blow out the windows" loud but still are decent. You should consider the other's option though if you want to spend a bit more. I just thought I would give a super cheap option if you decide you don't want to spend too much.

Anything that cheap is going to sound just about the same to be honest. If you don't want cheap junk sound, then you need to spend a bit more.

If you REALLY cannot fit even 6" wide speakers, then your best bet, as much as I hate to say it, will be the Creative T3130's. Even those aren't going to sound very good, but they'll be better than those Logitech's by a good margin (doesn't really take much).