Learn me: pc speakers that don’t suck.

I'm interested in this, and wondering how you all are connecting the amp to the PC.

preach said:

 

I, too, rock 20th century speakers on my desktop. I know not what you need just feeding the cheap berkeley part of this thread...

My lab at work is between IT's office suite and the shipping/receiving warehouse.  All of the old computers, office furniture, etc. from all of our branch offices across the state wind up in the warehouse right out my laboratory door, before they get scrapped, recycled, or shipped off to marketing and redistribution.  I say all this, to say, I have the pick of the litter for old, discarded, tech, for work.  I have that same Boston Acoustic 2.1 set up in my lab, and the lady in IT who's office is on the other side of the wall hates them.  Amazing how much bass comes out of that little sub.

Headphones are nice, but how long do you want to wear them?  Personally, over-ear headphones are the best for sound, but after 30 minutes, they get tiresome and ears sweat, hurt, ot both. 

WonkoTheSane (FS) said:

You can't just post this and move on, why 2 computers and what is that giant jewelers loop/Star Wars/USB coffee mug thing at bottom left?

In reply to pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) :

Space mouse for CAD.

https://3dconnexion.com/us/product/spacemouse-compact/

pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) said:

You can't just post this and move on, why 2 computers and what is that giant jewelers loop/Star Wars/USB coffee mug thing at bottom left?

I agree.

3 screens, 3 keyboards, 2 mice, 1 spacemouse, 1 set of speakers.  What is happening here?

In reply to pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) :

This is my hasty work from home setup that I've been slowly refining since March.  The "main" computer (laptop) is my workstation that I swap out with my personal laptop when the school I teach at switched to remote learning.  My company got hit with a nasty ransomware infection back in Sept of 2019, so they got fairly paranoid about people using their work computers for personal stuff and asked us not to do it, so I set up a Surface to use as my sound/video/GRM/reddit source.

That USB coffee mug thing is a 3d Connexion Space Mouse:

It's a 6 axis mouse for CAD/CAM work, it allows you to spin a model around and launch commands (keyboard or macro'd).  You can find a ton of videos online.  If you're a CAD guy, you should be using one of these, it's easily a 25% boost in productivity.

What are PC speakers really, other than speakers that you attach to your PC?

Brett_Murphy (Ex-Patrón) said:

I'm interested in this, and wondering how you all are connecting the amp to the PC.

Headphone jack on the PC to the RCA inputs on the amp. Long live the 1/8" jack!

tremm said:

Last I checked the consensus was Klipsch promedia 2.1 (has been on sale for $90 recently at Costco & walmart), or Harman kardon soundsticks. Basically depends what you want to spend I guess. The amp idea seems appealing; but speakers get physically large. Bluetooth headphones or earbuds are nice & you can walk around with them, pair them with your phone & tv too. 

Passive speakers don't have to be large. The ones I use for the rear channel on my surround system are about 2" square. Plus you can get flat ones that are designed for wall mounting.

Since we're all bragging on our old school sound setups, my work computer can either airplay (better than bluetooth!) to a Pi that feeds an amp in the closet with a couple of decent size floor speakers sitting on each side of the couch - or more commonly, a Monsoon MM700 2.1 setup. The speakers are pretty directional but that's okay since I don't tend to move around much when using the keyboard.

WonkoTheSane (FS) said:

If you're a CAD guy, you should be using one of these, it's easily a 25% boost in productivity.

I've used mine to play Descent (Rebirth) and Sublevel Zero before.  Unfortunately it doesn't work as well I want it to.

In 'The Expanse', its what the pilot uses to control the ship. 

Since we are talking about old school PC stuff in here... I have one of these also 

ProDarwin said:

WonkoTheSane (FS) said:

If you're a CAD guy, you should be using one of these, it's easily a 25% boost in productivity.

I've used mine to play Descent (Rebirth) and Sublevel Zero before.  Unfortunately it doesn't work as well I want it to.

In 'The Expanse', its what the pilot uses to control the ship. 

 

Since we are talking about old school PC stuff in here... I have one of these also 

 

Oooh, first gen!  A couple'a years ago I had a customer still rocking that on their XP machine that they refused up grade.  I don't think those drivers ever worked on windows 7/8/10.  That had to be from what, 99/00?

WonkoTheSane (FS) said:

ProDarwin said:

WonkoTheSane (FS) said:

If you're a CAD guy, you should be using one of these, it's easily a 25% boost in productivity.

I've used mine to play Descent (Rebirth) and Sublevel Zero before.  Unfortunately it doesn't work as well I want it to.

In 'The Expanse', its what the pilot uses to control the ship. 

 

Since we are talking about old school PC stuff in here... I have one of these also 

 

Oooh, first gen!  A couple'a years ago I had a customer still rocking that on their XP machine that they refused up grade.  I don't think those drivers ever worked on windows 7/8/10.  That had to be from what, 99/00?

I got this one in ~04 I think.  They came out in late 90s though.  Yeah, the drivers became an issue after a while, and plugins.  While most of the apps support a spacemouse natively now, this thing doesn't have the right drivers for that.  It relied on a plugin for each software.

I actually prefer the sphere form factor and resistance of it over the 3D connexion devices.

Spaceballs?

In reply to ProDarwin :

I can see that.  I used to rock a trackball for my mouse for the same reason. 

The Expanse is on my short list of series to watch as soon as I finish up Altered Carbon..