Where are we going today?  It’s time to move beyond the year end wrap ups and goals for the new year for now.  I have recently bought two sets of PC speakers.  One retails for $30 and the other originally $200.  

I have never had the opportunity to compare items like this side by side so, I purchased them blindly.  The set on the right was purchased to give me consistent sound on my work setup.  In that case, the monitor had built in speakers but I was always having it changed to the built in sound and I was hoping that using the headphone output would be more reliable.

The set on the left, I purchase as sort of a luxury.  I had a set of speakers that was originally purchased in 2005 attached.  They worked fine, I was hoping to upgrade because I stream music and podcasts while I work.  Plus, I am also eventually going to send the old ones back to the Linux machine I setup so I can continue to play around with that setup (as soon as I get another monitor).

First and foremost, I cannot easily tell the difference between the expensive audio and the ones that were on there.  Yes, it also has a subwoofer and I think that I hear a richer and more balanced sound largely when I play music and I happen to be listening.  It doesn’t really happen when I have it on in the background and I am working away.

I did also test the set on the right before I plugged everything in for the final setup on my work side.  I thought that they sounded fine and everything works like I hoped it would.  I was considering buying a second set until I ran across the the Klispsch speakers.  I had seen them at Costco about a year ago and thought I might appreciate them on my computer audio since I play them a large part of the day but I couldn’t justify the price.  These were used (returns I think) and about a third of the original cost, so I thought why not.

Two years ago, I wrote about Amazon Warehouse and my opinion has only been reinforced with my continued trial of that business unit.  I bought another item from Amazon Warehouse where it works, however the on/off switch always gets stuck in the off position.  I have to manually flip it up each time I want to use the device. but it is not worth sending back as it does work. This is two in a row that there was some sort of defect or I didn’t get the deal that I thought I was getting.  I would say buyer beware when buying used items from Amazon Warehouse.  These particular speakers came in better description than described and were from a third party vendor, not Amazon.  But, I was already resolved to send them back immediately if there was some sort of defect other than cosmetic.

I do think the more expensive pair does a better job of more clear sound at higher volumes.  I can hear the subwoofer in the background along with the music which still sounds good.  That being said, I rarely have the volume up high enough to hear that difference.  I am perfectly happy with the performance of the more inexpensive speakers even though I do know what I am missing now.

End Your Programming Routine: I think it is hard to appreciate the subtle differences of more expensive PC audio.  I saw them advertised for use in gaming as well.  That may be a better justification as you are spending larger amounts of time in front of the computer than having it on in the background.  My recommendation, save the extra money and space and buy the cheaper set.