Egon

I've got two pair of these, run $69.99 at Sam's Club and more elsewhere. For the money they're hard to beat, and have two analog inputs so you could have your pc and iPod hooked up. Won't rock a house party but great for a dorm room. I don't recommend the other Bose systems for my personal taste, but it's your ears and money so I'll just say to check this model out in your hunt. For more money, the other speakers mentioned above are also likely better speakers.

Came to mind, not mentioned above. It's sort of a computer, sort of another box that doesn't look like a computer. It's got a hard drive for storing music (expandable with third-party programs if it's not enough space), can view the interface on your TV if you have one nearby or control with Touch if you get one, and can start with the internal DAC or buy an external if you like. Limited to ITunes interface unless willing to dabble in third-party add-ons.

I don't have my music PC in front of me, going from memory here. I also use ASIO on XP with MediaMonkey. You will definitely disable the computer's volume control by running things through ASIO4All, but you shouldn't have to manually do it. I think that's part of the point, getting a more direct path for the signal not through the mixer. I seem to remember changing two settings. One was in MediaMonkey Preferences, Output, select Asio. The second I think the ASIO4All icon shows up in the bottom right taskbar, down by your clock. Click on that and select the output device as your usb dac. If I've got bad memory and this wasn't helpful, let me know and I'll check the settings on my machine tonight.

FYI, if you did want to start your computer via ethernet from completely off, the app RemoteBoot has been working great for me. And it's free.

I'll preface this that i don't own a Mac and am not familiar with them, but do have an Apple TV. Does anyone know if Itunes on a Mac can play DVD format? Because it can't on PC and requires a conversion step to h.264 format, which is easy but a pain. I tried to convert my 100 movies, but in the end I've settled on J River media center software installed on my XP PCs. I've been happy with it as long as you can see the screen. It works great with an IR remote, easy enough for wife and strangers to use. I can't beat the ITunes system and Remote app for ease of use though. I've settled in my house on iTunes and ATV and airport express with an iPod touch for background listening, and j. River for critical listening and movies on a pc to do what you're trying to do, all because I got sick of converting video and found the QuickTime video player not up to snuff for video on my pc. P.S. Just reread the original post. Try converting a DVD to h.264 to play on your tv(handbrake software works). If you're okay with that conversion process, the atv and any computer running iTunes may be all you need.

I think it's correct that the DAC is likely the issue for you, and a better soundcard may do the trick for you. I'd also look at the m-audio soundcard options along with the previous suggestions. I own an M-Audio card and have been happy with it for years, but the ones above have similar great reputations for the money.

I actually have two sets of these speakers. In the kids playroom, it's not complicated, just red/white analog in from the TV, control volume on your TV, and plug in headphones to the front jack if you want to use them. In the other room I tinkered because I had the parts sitting around and wanted to see what would happen. Even without tinkering, I recommend them as the best in their price range. But the ZVox is the next step in price and therefore should be better, and still less than half of what you budgeted. I also like that it doesn't look like something the kids will pick up or pull at external wires. If you happen to see the bose speakers in a store before you make a purchase, check them out. But you're right, the ZVox looks great for you and I can't recommend against getting it.

This is what I did in my kids playroom, and it's much better than you'd expect. Won't rival a $1000 system, but I'd put it against anything under $250. Ignore the name, but the Bose Companion 2 speakers are actually quite good, and can be had at Sam's club for $69. They're powered, sound better than you'd expect, have two analog inputs (e.g. for TV and Ipod), and a headphone out. No toslink or remote control, but if you use the headphone jack on the speakers and your TV to control volume, you won't need either of those. Use the other $930 on something fun. http://www.amazon.com/Bose-Companion-multimedia-speaker-system/dp/B000HZDF8W Potential upgrades could be a better power supply ($30), using an A/B switch from the analog out of your TV to split b/w speakers and your headphones ($5), or a headphone amp b/w the TV and speakers (the power supply is the real weak point of these). Give them a listen at some store before judging, I think you'll be surprised.

I'll just leave a comment in response to what was directed towards me, then get out of the conversation. Where were the harmonics when I couldn't localize my sub? I believie they were in the range I couldn't localize. 80Hz is low for the average ear's directional hearing, two standard deviations below the mean in at least one study. I've established that I’m not golden-eared and the harmonics should have faded off by the frequency I can localize. Since your ears are more golden than mine, it seemed a plausible explanation in absence of a well designed experiment. I don't understand your wave front arrivals; the onset of sound idea is too abstract for my scientific mind to visualize, so I can't comment on it. If I can't picture the wave and what's happening to it, I'm lost. I'm not sure your conclusion is supported even by the data in your test. Too many potential variables went untested. I won't argue that you picked out the location of a sub on more than one occasion in your life. I would argue that this doesn't at all confirm that the average person off the street can localize very low frequencies. "Life in stereo" is a catchy marketing tagline, but just not supported by physics or neurobiology below a certain point. I don't see this research that is so plentiful in your assumptions. All I see is what you condescendingly refer to as "research", the kind from scientific journals edited by experts in their fields, and "old arguments", which seems to be your term for conclusions made from experiments repeated over and over with the same results. I'm stepping away from the conversation because I feel as though I'm trying to discuss evolution with a church group. At the end of the day, no matter how much I believe science, they'll believe there's something else going on. And that's their right to have their own opinion.

Wow, that was an explanation I could understand. I'm glad I asked because it would have taken me a long time to find that information so clearly explained. That seems like a reasonable explananation. Our ears can't localize low frequencies, as years of research states. However, we can localize the other noise that comes out of the average subwoofer that shouldn't be there but is. This explanation lets science/physics and Barry's finding that he could localize a sub coexist happily. My simple brain likes it. As long as the sub he heard wasn't in the small few that has ultra ultra low THD, because that would just confuse me. I didn't check out your references yet to see if subs even exist that can meet this requisite ultra low THD. Thanks again for the explanation, I learned something today. I'm sure THD in components before amplification (which would amplify the distortion too) matters, but maybe I won't base my buying decisions heavily on it from here out.

Shadorne- I'm unfamiliar with some of what you said and need it explained in more layman's terms for my simple brain. I agree with your statements about human hearing, they're well proven. I'm not familiar enough with what THD is. I know it stands for total harmonic distortion, but not really sure what that is. Are you stating that although my sub is crossed over at, say, 80 Hz, it's still putting out an appreciable level of sound at 1000Hz? I don't know the ins and outs of speakers like others here and recognize an opportunity to learn. And Barry- what do you mean by wavefront arrival time? Is this the phase? I'm picturing a wave, going up and down with its amplitude and frequency, and say that wave at a given frequency hits the right ear at the peak of its amplitude and the left ear at the middle of its amplitude. Is that what you're describing, or something else? We disagreed above, but may come to agreement if I understand your stance better.

How about another way to look at this... do any of you have suggestions for a good budget distribution? BlueErnest, I'm not sure if you're in Italy or U.S. or somewhere else, but it appears that in the States these headphones run in the $30-$50 range. They appear to be a great value based on their reviews. Does anyone else here have guidelines for how you set up your system and where you like to spend the greatest portion for the best "bang for the buck"? That may help to figure out the appropriate budget.

I looked up your headphones. Judging by customer reviews, it sounds like you'll be happy with them. I like the M-Audio and it's a solid product, but I think it's possible to do better. That said, mine is still great for all my needs after several years of use, so that's a recommendation. I wonder, 1) what have you been using with your headphones so far, 2) do you plan to use them only in one place or mobile, and 3) do you have a receiver or some other type of amp? As Eloise pointed out, the M-Audio sound card doesn't have a powered headphone out, so you'll need another piece of hardware to amplify the signal. Are you using an iPod already? If so, which model? It may be possible to get quite good sound out of that using a headphone amplifier and a cheap cord. Something like these two things would give you a sound I think you might like from an iPod. Cord to get un-amplifed signal from iPod Audio Out Cable for iPhone/iPod (Apple Connector to Audio 3.5mm Connector) http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10831&cs_id=1083101&p_id=6225&seq=1&format=2 Inexpensive Headphone Amp http://www.amazon.com/FiiO-E5-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B002OG5GT8

I own the 2496. It has a very nice sounding analog out as long as the computer is set up right and the power supply has enough extra power. I've owned it for several years, as it was released probably 8 years ago. If I were buying today, I'd get something else because technology has moved on since then. I'm not familiar with the product Eloise recommends, but it seems like good advice to look at that or similar products.

Thanks for not taking offense. You're absolutely right to believe what you do based on your experience. Same for me, and for that reason, we each set up our systems how they work best for us. In my room, the subwoofer isn't pointed directly at the listener; all sounds from it are reflections. Would that skew the results and make it less directional? It works for me, but may not be "best practice". I'm on this site to learn to do things better, and this may be a learning opportunity. I really would be curious to see any evidence that supports a lower crossover. This discussion may end up costing me money if I have to buy a bigger amp to drive my speakers at a lower crossover. =-) Happy listening!