I'm looking to get new speakers as my Altec Lansing VS4121 are pretty much on their way to the great beyond. What I'm looking at right now are the Klipsch R-15PM and possibly a subwoofer to accompany them as I hear that they are lacking on the low end.

 

Does anyone have these or has heard them? Does anyone have any better suggestions in the similar price range? I'm favoring active speaker set-ups, but am open to passive too.

Speakers last much longer than the electronics within. I don't like powered speakers for this reason, you fry the amplifier section and end up having to toss out otherwise perfectly good speakers.

 

Instead, you can buy yourself some regular bookshelf speakers, probably better ones for the same price, and a T-amp (with or without DAC), and the speakers will last until you die.

 

Bookshelf speakers you have the choice of thousands and it would be impractical to make a specific recommendation - I'd visit your local hi-fi shop and have a listen to what they have.

 

Amps are plentiful too. I use a Topping VX1 DAC-AMP with my PC but it lacks a subwoofer out, it runs about $100. The VX2 model might be preferable if you don't need a headphone output (it also gains an optical input in exchange for any sort of analogue input). I use an SMSL Q5 Pro with my bedroom setup and that does has a sub out, as well as remote control, about $140.

 

If you don't need a DAC, the companies above produce standalone amps too. At the very bottom of the range simple T-Amp from Lepai/Lepy can be had for $20 or so and will sound just as good at low-to-medium volumes (but will distort sooner when you crank it up).

 

 

EDIT: Just looking at Amazon prices, the R-15PM is $450 and the otherwise identical passive model, the R-15M is $181. That's ridiculous.

 

EDIT2: The subwoofer decision will partly drive your speaker selection too so you should bear that in mind when shopping. I don't use a sub so I use the larger (basically standmount size) Monitor Audio Bronze 2 for my PC. But with a sub, I'd be plenty happy with the compact Bronze 1. Best value compact option might be something like the Q Acoustics 2010 (superseded by the 3010 but still available). 2020/3020 is the larger option.

Edited May 18, 20187 yr by Humanoid

What you are saying makes sense. I guess I was looking for an easy way out by not having to look at amps and figuring out which is the best available at the price range.