Need new mobo: Suggestions?

[Mercutio]

Better computer speakers already have SPDIF and/or TOSLINK inputs. Buy a $200 pair of Logitechs and you'll be all set.

 

[Piyono]

Better computer speakers already have SPDIF and/or TOSLINK inputs. Buy a $200 pair of Logitechs and you'll be all set.

Coming from the world of $20,000 soffit-mounted studio monitors I've grown a bit snobby and have learned to turn my nose up at $200 toys. This despite the fact that I cannot afford speakers at half that price right now. Ironically, I've got like $6000 worth of speakers, amplification, cabling and related paraphernalia sitting in my basement, 10,000 miles away in Toronto. Nothing terribly fancy, really, but still, I mean... computer speakers? Have mercy.

*sigh*

 

[Mercutio]

I know the feeling. I have a set of Kef reference speakers and I put an amplifier and real speakers everyplace I might possibly listen to music, but a decent pair of computer speakers is an amazing step up from the crappy ones that are built into laptops and LCD monitors, or the $10 Cyber Acoustics that most people seem to have. I'm a fan of the $40 Logitech X-240s.

 

[Piyono]

I know the feeling. I have a set of Kef reference speakers and I put an amplifier and real speakers everyplace I might possibly listen to music, but a decent pair of computer speakers is an amazing step up from the crappy ones that are built into laptops and LCD monitors, or the $10 Cyber Acoustics that most people seem to have. I'm a fan of the $40 Logitech X-240s.

So you feel my pain. I take solace in your implied sympathies.
The problem with cheap speakers, besides the fact that they sound like poop, is that they, like, 99% of mass-produced consumer stuff, are designed to be used until it's time to throw them out. Nothing about them suggests any care for any ecology or environment. Being something of a softie for the wellbeing planet and its inhabitants I try my darndest to stay away from stuff that was "designed for the dump".

Real speakers are built to last and they can be repaired well into the foreseeable future. They have a lifespan measurable in decades. Sure, maybe the ones I end up getting were built by 10-year-olds in Guatemala like everything else, but at least they have *one* morally and ecologically redeeming quality, and that's a start.


I can't help it. I'm a freakin' hippie.

 

[Bozo]

I have a pair of Klipsch speakers that set me back $2000.00, 20 years ago. Made in the USA and are warrentied forever. I will pass them on to my son and hopefully they will never end up in a landfill.

Bozo :joker:

 

[Handruin]

I bought a pair of the cambridge soundworks model six bookshelf speakers back in 1994 and I'm still using them today as my front speakers for my home entertainment system. I'm sure they aren't as nice as what you guys have, but given the price I paid (about $180 back then) I'd say they were a good deal considering how long I've had them (14 years) and that they're still in perfect shape.

 

[ddrueding]

I do buy new speakers more often than that, but they have a long hand-me-down chain. They never make it to the dump. From my living room to my bedroom to the kitchen to my parents livingroom to their bedroom to my bathroom, and from there on to their friends or a lucky client's office. Good speakers are something that never needs to be thrown away. Especially not when people are still buying crap.

 

[sechs]

I'll probably have to get an optical converter to keep using my Cambridge Soundworks digital speakers.

 

[timwhit]

I'll probably have to get an optical converter to keep using my Cambridge Soundworks digital speakers.

Coax S/PDIF is still digital. I think you may have missed the point.