Best 2.1 Speakers for my Thinkpad? (VideoLogic Sirocco Pro)

[noetus]

I've been looking for quality 2.1 speakers, good enough for quality music playing, for quite a while. The current speakers on offer from Logitech, Klipsch, Creative, Cambridge and so on all seem to leave something to be desired. But then I discovered the VideoLogic Sirocco Pro speakers that were manufactured back in around 2000 and were really, really good, according to reviews. Strange to say, though I can find plenty of reviews of these online, I can't seem to find any for sale anywhere, on eBay or anywhere else. What happened to these speakers? Does anyone know of speakers that are better than, say the Klipsch Promedia 2.1 made by some obscure audiophile company somewhere? (I don't want to go with more than 2.1)

[skitty4gzus]

In my opinion go with Logitech. They have always sounded pretty good, especially for the money. Great rich sound, quality products. Hard to go wrong with a good thing.

[noetus]

I just wanted something a bit more "hi-fi"-ish, without actually going down the route of putting together amp, satellites and subwoofer myself, which rather defeats the purpose of buying computer speakers in the first place. Logitech seem mediocre at best, along with Klipsch and the rest, in hi-fi terms. I'm willing to spend $300-400 for a better set of speakers, but it's really hard to find anything in this price range/quality.

[skitty4gzus]

well, honestly it seems like your asking for quite a bit out of speaker technology. Your asking for hi-fi quality music out of speakers with drivers no bigger than say what, 2" or so. With no sub attached? Your wanting full range sound without a true subwoofer and still achieve hi-fi quality. But, with these days of iPods being close enough to call them children, engineers and product developers are marketing everything we could ever want, including 2.1 speakers. You are gonna have to do your research for a nice pair, but they may be marketed in the portable mp3 player sector?

[GomJabbar]

I think I would take a look at the Bose Companion 3 Series. I have not personally listened to them, but I have been impressed with Bose products in the past. Maybe one of your local electronic retailers has a set to listen to.

Companion® 3 Series II Multimedia Speaker System

[Thinkpaddict]

Do yourself a favor, and check out the M-Audio DX4 pair of speakers. These are less than $140 at NewEgg.com currently, and are as close as you can get to audiophile quality below $200. These are 2.0, not 2.1, by the way (just my preference.)

The reason why I make this recommendation is that I am getting a pair of speakers for my X21, and I did some research.
My recommendations are: If you want to go really cheap without getting something uberly crappy, check these Altec Lansing speakers, which cost about $20:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6836113157

If you want to get much nicer quality at somewhat more cost, get the DX4 pair:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6836127002

I also checked out the Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 2.0. These are $100, and not as good as the DX4 ones. Some people also seemed to have a lot of problems with the secondary speaker losing sound intermitently due to supposedly poor connections to the primary speaker.

Let us know what you decide.

[noetus]

Well, thanks for the M-Audio DX-4 recommendation. I have now discovered what I think is my 'dream' 2.1 setup for listening to music from my T42 while it is docked, the Klipsch RSX-4 satellites combined with the Klipsch RPW-10 subwoofer. I didn't realise that Klipsch sell their mid-range speakers separately - these are from the 'Reference' series and have been getting good reviews (*much* better than the Promedia 2.1, which themselves are better than the Promedia 2.0 as far as I can tell - I did own a pair of Promedias once and found the build quality to be very cheap, though I did quite like the sound). A little pricey - $220 is the cheapest I've seen for the satellites, $280 for the subwoofer, once shipping is paid that's $500 plus shipping for the setup However, I think it will sound good

[Thinkpaddict]

I would be interested to hear what that system sounds like. I am now leaning towards buying a set of Behringer B2031A I just checked the customer reviews on ZZounds, and this set is getting the top reviews, comparable to $1000 systems (at $339.) However, you won't get a lot of low frequency performance from it. It is rated at 50Hz, but according to people it starts rolling noticeably at 100Hz.