New PC's sound is way way too low

RealVen said:

I've never had a sub woofer, and to be honest I'd be afraid that with the volume up the bass might take over and start vibrating etc. Anytime I hear someone plead for more base I get the image of the booming car driving down the road and I'm just not into that, I'd like a little clear base but not overpowering everything else.

That's probably a good instinct.

Subwoofers on PCs are often sold to game-players that just want to rattle walls without any intention of accurately reproducing music--just as subwoofers are sold to these jokers you refer to for car systems.

There are some pretty high quality amplified speakers for PCs, but not in your price range.

And they tend to be larger.

You just can't expect much from small speakers with a diameter of only a couple of inches.

So lower your expectations. They can actually sound pretty good if you don't have anything else to compare them to.

I got 2.1 speakers for a bedroom TV. Liked them so much, I bought the same setup for my main PC. I like them because they sound great, relatively cheap and has a remote volume control to which you can also connect headphones or Aux-in. The base response and volume are adjustable at the remote. And they BLAST! They'll rattle the walls if you want. I got both sets from Office Depot on sale. The Egg has them cheaper but after adding shipping, they're a tad higher.

Cyber Acoustics-3602 Speakers: Newegg.com - Cyber Acoustics CA-3602 30 Watts 2.1 3 Piece Flat Panel Design Subwoofer & Satellite Speaker System

So what are some good speakers for 2.0?

By "good", I mean the least expensive possible, but that you guys would still consider quality.

When ignatz says "high quality amplified speakers for PC's"
and fireberd says "cadillac"

what is the minimum price range we are talking?

RealVen said:

So what are some good speakers for 2.0?

By "good", I mean the least expensive possible, but that you guys would still consider quality.

That's a confusing and contradictory definition.

One man's good is another man's unacceptable.

You are going around in circles. If you cannot audition the speakers, you MUST just take a leap of faith as you personally will have no idea what they sound like.

And you would be a fool to buy speakers because someone else says they are "quality", whatever that means.

If all you want is for someone to say that speaker X is "good", just go to Newegg reviews and look for the word "good" and buy the cheapest speaker in which you see that word. You would be a fool to do that, but it's your choice.

Different people have entirely different opinions about the "quality" of reproduced sound. Human memory for sound is terrible---people cannot even accurately identify a piano note struck 60 seconds ago from the note next to it on the keyboard.

But you already knew that.

You could look at more expensive speakers, say above $100, made by Swan or Klipsch, but what would be the point? You don't know if you will like them either without listening. You may think they don't sound any better than a $30 pair. Which is fine and which would make the extra expense wasted.

Toss in the state of your own hearing (frequency response) and you have even more reason not to listen to anyone else's opinion.

Alright, I will just have to make a decision then. Thanks for all the help!

That's the problem. What sounds good to one person may sound like a rattle can to another. Review the specs and choose a set that has a response in the range of 100-150Hz to about 12,000-15,000Hz. These should provide a good range of sound at a lower price. The problem with 2.0 is that you'll need "full range" speakers to get the lower end and these are generally higher priced. That's where 2.1 speakers shine. The internal amp splits off the low frequencies and sends them to the woofer. Mid and high range frequencies get sent to lower cost speakers. I paid $39 +tax for mine. I've only heard "better" from $600+ speakers. But, I have to admit, I'm no audiophile.