T20 or Edifier S330D

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FatFed

Gawd
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Jun 19, 2008
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I've been itching to get some new speakers for some time now, as one of my 2.0 speakers is pretty much dead. I'll say this now, I know nothing about sound or what makes one speaker better than another technically speaking, however I'm capable of reading reviews on speakers I've been recommended. I've been reading this section and doing a fair amount of searching on Google and I think I've narrowed down my selection between these two:

1. Gigaworks T20
2. Edifier S330D

Now I'd like to stay sub-$150, and both of these fall into that category. I'm almost sold on the T20's, but I was wondering from anyone's personal experience if the lack of a sub is a deal breaker? Are there any other 2.0 or 2.1 solutions in this price range that give superior sound or are a better value?

My friend bought a Logitech Z-2300 set a while back and I was blown away by the bass and the sound, as I've been using a pair of cheap speakers. Being used to 2.0 I'm sure the T20's will be worlds beyond what I'm used to, but would it be worthwhile to get the Edifier over the T20's? I read that the lack of a sub provides overall better sound, since there is no separation.

I'll be using these for music, gaming and movies using the onboard sound provided by my ASUS P5Q. Desktop real estate is a bit high, which is another reason why the T20's are a little more attractive, since I wouldn't need to worry about making room for a sub. I think I covered information needed for ya'll to help me out, any suggestions would be whole heartedly appreciated.

P.S. Is a soundcard needed/recommended to get the full experience out of either set?
 
Behringer MS40 would be a better step up. Since I have not heard the Edifier, no comment there except that they are probably better than the Gigaworks at least.

Main point is that both the MS40s and the Edifier are digital speakers and have better sound than the onboard analogue of your mobo.
 
spaceman said:
Behringer MS40 would be a better step up. Since I have not heard the Edifier, no comment there except that they are probably better than the Gigaworks at least.

Main point is that both the MS40s and the Edifier are digital speakers and have better sound than the onboard analogue of your mobo.
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How do they compare to the T20's? I didn't quite understand your 'main point' so I did a little digging, and are they better sound because they connect via optical or coaxial versus a TRS 3.5mm?
 
I'm really leaning towards the T20's, as I can get them for $70 and pretty much every review I've read rated them very well. Where as I can't find much on the Behringer MS40's.
 
The main point is that they are digital speakers. They have a dac built into them which gives them a cleaner sound than the T20. Whatever though. Go buy creative and be happy. No sense in always making it complicated right?

You are reading reviews written by people who really have no clue about audio though. Most of them upgraded from even worse creative or logitech products and have not heard anything better. Not always the case, but the majority are ignorant.
 
spaceman said:
The main point is that they are digital speakers. They have a dac built into them which gives them a cleaner sound than the T20. Whatever though. Go buy creative and be happy. No sense in always making it complicated right?

You are reading reviews written by people who really have no clue about audio though. Most of them upgraded from even worse creative or logitech products and have not heard anything better. Not always the case, but the majority are ignorant.
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Well that is why I'm asking here :p

In your opinion, the additional $60 for the MS40's is justifiable? If I do go with the MS40's, think getting a soundcard would help?
 
The point is that the MS40s have a sound card built in (DAC) and sound great for desktop stereos. Just plug them into your mobo optical out and a power outlet and you are done.

No problem with asking ?s. We understand that most folks do not know wtf is going on with audio. This is not a avs snooty mctooty fest. Just blood and guts get it done audio.
 
Behringer can be really hit or miss make sure you buy from reputable retailer who gives good warranty. I bought a behringer mixer - a ripped of a mackie design, well, I wanted "good and cheap" - it was a really noisy bastard and the PSU cover fell into pieces - while gigging. I have their 4x headphone amp and this one works fine. Besides, for home use digital connection is pure hype - it renders virtually no benefit. Analog cables are fine.
I doubt MS40s built-in DAC would be better then any motheboard audio let alone a PC sound card. For home Creative's T20s would be a safe, good option - and they come with 2 years warranty, at least in Europe, no matter what shop you buy them from.
 
These are a little older, but, have you looked at the Klipsch Promedia 2.1s and Logitech Z-2300s? Both are well into your upper pricerange, but are very solid speaker systems. The Logitechs, as I understand it, have less than ideal satellites though. The Promedia 2.1 can overheat if you play at really high volumes a lot (we're talking about what should be ear splitting though, so this only is even an issue if you want to have them on walls in a HUGE room I'm sure,) but otherwise seems the better choice IMO. Especially since I'm finding that it has way too much bass anyway and actually have my subwoofer volume dial set to far below the recommended mark. Other than that, I can tell you the Promedia 2.1 has a wonderfully clear sound and I no longer have to use an equalizer with everything to feel like I'm getting at least semi-accurate sound through my PC speakers.

As for accuracy of DACs, if you're worried about that, time to get a new DAC anyway. What if you ever want to listen with headphones? If your soundcard sucks so badly that you'd consider speakers just for the sake of having a built in soundcard, you're still better off getting a better soundcard. One thing of note here though is that you CAN have two soundcards in the same system. If one is better for gaming, you can use it for games and the other for music for example. Personally, I've decided to go the route of getting an external DAC for music so I can use it with my laptop as well and just plain for convenience (easier to move plugs around) as well as to get it further away from the biggest noise source of all (my computer -- well, ok, I have a window A/C and that would be worse, but it's on another circuit and far away so that's a non-issue.) Actually, if you do a little research, you can get a decent sounding soundcard for surprisingly cheap. For example, the actual chipset itself is absolute crap, but the Chaintech AV-710 originally sold at around $15-$20 or so and had a Wolfson DAC (and similarly M-Audio's AudioPhile cards are based on the same chipset but the actual card itself is better with higher quality capacitors and such. Of course, they cost a fair bit more by comparison.) The Envy24 drivers suck beyond belief, but your system probably won't crash if you use the last good set of drivers like 4.73b (and stay away from Vista since VIA could never be bothered to create drivers that don't resample the audio to 48KHz in everything.) Chaintech no longer makes this card, but it can be located via FS/T forums (such as HardForums') eBay, and so on. I'm willing to bet that there are newer soundcards with similar traits before and since as well. So really you don't have to be limited by cost in this area. Also, if you are a fair hand with a soldering iron, one thing I'm considering is called the "Alien DAC" which is fairly easily put together if you don't mess up as much as I apparently do and the parts should cost around $50 or so. I'll have to buy one which means $60+, but it's supposed to be very good for its cost quality-wise. The only catch is it has a line output, so a CMoy may be necessary for headphones (mind you, speakers should be fine since they'll have their own amp built in anyway.) I have been kind of leaning towards the idea of putting the two together in the same box even.

Personally, I wouldn't buy anything Creative. But that's just me. Frankly though, it's not a bias against them due to personal reasons but the fact that they seem to be incredibly happy screwing over their customers. Maybe that is personal, all I know is I just don't particularly enjoy supporting any company willing to do this. I only got this Audigy 2 ZS Platinum when I did because it was the best for gaming (which is all I did back then) and really it was a gift from someone else more than anything else. These days you don't even have to go Creative to get an incredible gaming soundcard though.
 
I've been eyeballing the S330D's myself but it seems Edifier is a Canadian company so there aren't a ton of reviews out there and the only place I can find to buy them is NCIXUS.com. They are by far the sexiest of your options...

s330d.jpg
 
Oh wow, thanks for the heads up and suggestions. Ideally spending less would be better, though I have no gripe for spending more for a solid set that will last me for some time. I haven't found my motherboard's built in sound to be anything less than desirable, hell it made my speakers sound so much better coming from my laptop. I'm not specifically looking for speakers that have a built in DAC, nor a souncard. Just looking for a nice set of speakers to listen to my music, playing games and watching a movie here and there. I don't turn my volume up to ear splitting sounds, as I've learned to value my hearing by working in a manufacturing environment.

I have a 5.1 surround sound system for a TV, I would be using it for movies and music, but I'm lacking a TV so I don't want to set it up until I've purchased one. I mentioned it in the OP, real estate around my PC is quite high, more so once I get a 24" monitor. That's why the T20's were attractive, as they were small and sound good. My friend has the Z-2300, I heard it used it games and a little music, but I haven't heard any other systems to compare it to. The Edifier S330D looked attractive as I've seen it recommended by several people around the forum here and some other forums. Also I read from people who own it quite enjoy the sound from it.
 
FatFed said:
I haven't found my motherboard's built in sound to be anything less than desirable, hell it made my speakers sound so much better coming from my laptop.
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Yeah, many laptops use something better than the typically really cheap Realtek AC'97 chips used on most motherboards and even cheaper parts used around that chip. I would definitely recommend picking up another soundcard. If nothing else, it can even give you better gaming performance with some (though I will admit that many like the external soundcards can end up using the CPU a fair bit in the process anyway, kind of defeating this particular purpose.) There are some pretty cheap cards out there that can give you at least acceptable sound quality and better gaming performance. Heck, probably anything selling for $20 on Newegg will give you better results than an onboard SPU, lol.

I have a 5.1 surround sound system for a TV, I would be using it for movies and music, but I'm lacking a TV so I don't want to set it up until I've purchased one.
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Well, these usally aren't particularly ideal for music, though something mastered in 5.1 to begin with (there isn't much, but I've run across one or two artists who at least tried their hand at it before) might be better. Usually though, most 5.1 systems don't really go overboard for sound quality. The main thing they are usually trying to offer is a surrounding strong sound that tries to overwhelm. (Really, at this point I'm considering it to be something of a gimick and don't regret even a little bit giving up my 5.1 speakers for these 2.1 speakers even for a moment. I originally got 5.1 in the theory that it would make gaming more accurate by hearing whether something is coming from behind me or not, but in the end I found that I couldn't tell by the sound and always had to go by visual cues anyway. For music and really even for movies, I'm finding that a really good and clear sounding 2.1 system beats out a 5.1 system for me any day. Even speech isn't a problem for me since the sound is clear enough that I don't need a seperate channel dedicated to it. Of course, a really good 5.1 system that doesn't try to upmix stereo sources may not be so bad. I know I'd probably like the Promedia 5.1 as it would probably sound pretty similar to my 2.1 other than the subwoofer.) So I would definitely recommend taking your choice for speaker systems seriously for your music listening at least. The rest might not really matter by comparison.

I mentioned it in the OP, real estate around my PC is quite high, more so once I get a 24" monitor.
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High? You mean you're low on "real estate"? Well, I will admit the Promedia 2.1's satellites aren't the tiniest things I've ever seen. By that picture though, I think they would actually be around the same size range as those S330s. I like how the Promedias come with stands that you can adjust though. I think they have a fairly directional sound so I had to adjust them upward somewhat to accomodate my rather low and small desk (I had to basically put together something myself from spare parts, so my current desk isn't exactly huge.) Lol, I'll be honest with you, I wasn't considering space a LOT so long as they were designed to be able to sit on a desk for the simple reason that music listening has become such an important part of my life now that I would rather move things around even if I had to. I will admit though, I'm using a 19" screen since this is all I need as long as it has a good resolution (I have surprisingly good eyesight for someone who has been staring at computer screens all of his life, lol.) Overall though, I'm not really having a problem with them right now. Mind you, my desk is set up fairly efficiently other than a bit of mess of junk lying around so space isn't as bad of a problem to begin with.

My friend has the Z-2300, I heard it used it games and a little music, but I haven't heard any other systems to compare it to.
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Yeah, the problem with those is that you really need to replace the satellites to get the best out of them. So you probably can't really compare based off of that anyway. They are supposed to have a great subwoofer, but the Klipsch Promedia 2.1s have better satellites by far. Lol, I suppose an ideal setup might be to take the Promedia 2.1 satellites and put them on the Z-2300 so you get the best of both worlds. Of course, at $300+ you can maybe do better than these anyway.

The Edifier S330D looked attractive as I've seen it recommended by several people around the forum here and some other forums. Also I read from people who own it quite enjoy the sound from it.
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Well, it may be that it has potential. I can only tell you that once I turned the subwoofer down I found my Promedia 2.1s to be wonderful for music, gaming, and so on. I'm not one to be brand loyal -- in fact, I hate brand loyalty -- so I will admit that the Promedia 2.1s and Z-2300s are both sets designed quite a while ago and it is entirely possible someone could come along and come up with something that is a better bang for the buck. You might want to see if anyone has compared them more directly. Also, there are some stores you can demo things like these in. It might be a little trickier finding them since many stores prefer to put up something like the Bose sets for such price ranges as people coming into such places often don't really know anything about sound and will just get the Bose because to them they sound incredible. Still, when picking things involving sound, you really can't tell what suits you best without trying it.


PS. A little tip if you ever do try the Promedias. I found that the best thing for me with the bass was to basically just turn the subwoofer volume down and up until I could get it to that point where the subwoofer can't be heard over the speakers but at the same time the speakers don't overwhelm it. I think one problem many have had with this set is that you have to really turn that knob down a lot more than many people like doing, lol.
 
I may have worded that a bit strange, but the sound from my motherboard (ASUS P5Q) is way better than my laptop and I don't see myself needing a soundcard, unless it's entirely recommended.

I know 5.1 isn't ideal for music, however I can use the receiver to disable the rears and center so it will sound normal, right? I also got this for free from my Dad when he was cleaning out stuff, so who am I to say no? :)

Yeah that's what I meant on real estate :p My desktop is far from cluttered, it's just small and with my PC, monitor and laptop all sitting on it, there isn't much room. Granted I could move my PC onto the ground to free up a lot of room, but...

I did a quick search online for the Klipsch Promedia 2.1 and the cheapest I found them was at Amazon, used for $119+$17 shipping, otherwise it was upwards of $140-160 without shipping.
 
I believe Edifier is a Chinese company and the only retailer that is selling to North America is the Canadian based retailer, NCIX. Their US site is NCIXUS.com and I purchased the S330D from there and paid 31 dollars for FedEx 3-4 day shipping.

I should get them on Thursday and I hope they sound good. They have good feedback on ncix.com in case you want to read the user comments.
 
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