Good quality, cheap USB powered speakers?

[McNutter]

Hi there,

I'm looking for some cheap USB powered speakers that give good sound quality. Can anyone recommend any? I don't want to spend £££ on some 7.1 system that takes up loads of space and add £££ onto the power bill. Which is probably the opposite of what most people on this forum want...

Any suggestions?

Thanks for any input.

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

Hi there,

I'm looking for some cheap USB powered speakers that give good sound quality. Can anyone recommend any? I don't want to spend £££ on some 7.1 system that takes up loads of space and add £££ onto the power bill. Which is probably the opposite of what most people on this forum want...

Any suggestions?

Thanks for any input.

there are not any. there are usb powered ones like Insignias and i think logitech makes a pair but the sound quality is crap. i suggest getting headphones if you want usb powered, something like a logitech G35 or G930.

 

[Ya93sin]

With the USB you can only give so many Watts of power, so the sound quality will always suffer because the speakers can't be very powerful at all.

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

you would have to find a VERY energy efficient USB sound system to work and sound good. the reason i suggested the headphones was because of what Ya93sin said. USB can only push so much power. but can deliver enough power to power a nice set of headphones such as mentioned above by me.

 

[nepas]

IIRC Usb only has the power of 5v,so that is something you will need to remember.If you can find any speakers that are good at 5v I will snap them up.

 

[Edgeyforsure]

http://discoazul.co.uk/x-mini-sound-speakers-2nd-generation.html

i have one for my laptop, and believe me it sounds AMAZING, better than some of the speakers you have to plug inthe wall, the bass is so good that once turned up it vibrates itself and jumps around lol

 

[Ya93sin]

I really can't believe that it would be better than speakers using mains electricity Though it may sound good

Just go for some decent headphones, you still get surround sound support on the good ones

 

[Edgeyforsure]

when i say better than ones plugged in the wall, obviously its going to get its butt kicked by any large speakers of £70+

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

I really can't believe that it would be better than speakers using mains electricity Though it may sound good

Just go for some decent headphones, you still get surround sound support on the good ones

If you look at how speakers in general work, the more electricity going through them means louder sound. then it comes to the amp (i use amp as a broad term for the whole sound card/receiver) to regulate that electricity (meaning cleaning it) and then sends it off to the headphones/speakers.

So more electricity means better sound. i say this because no company is going to have something plug into a wall without a good amp, and those amps will almost ALWAYS be better than the ones in a USB design.

 

[MeltedDuron]

USB itself can only supply 2.5 watts of power, even with a really efficient amp design it would be impossible to drive reasonably sized speakers. Take a look at this review from Tom for a nice smallish set of speakers. They're amazing for the money but it's hard to advise you without a budget.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmwPW-pbxx0

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

Its pretty much like powering a speaker system with a headphone amp would be the best comparison. it will sound decent at low volumes, but as you turn the volume up physics states it will need more power, so your volume WILL get louder but will distort.

In fact USB has ability to offer WAY better sound than 3.5mm jack (audiophile analogue nuts will argue me to the death on this). reason being is that USB is digital and digital ALWAYS has the ability to sound better. unfortunately no company has decided to make a decent pair a music headphones USB powered. (i said headphones because 2.5w is plenty of power for a nice pair of headphones.