Setting up a 2.1 system for my basement

molten_dragon

Hi everyone. I'm new to the forums and looking for a little bit of advice.

My wife and I just bought a house, and it has a large (~40'x20') finished basement. We want to put together a rec room down there, and one of the things I definitely want to have is the ability to play music. We intend to use my wife's old laptop to store and play the music, and I'd like to have a decent 2.1 speaker system to play it on.

Neither of us is an audiophile, and we don't want to spend a ton of money. I'd like to keep it under $300 if possible. However, I also don't want to use something like a cheap set of computer speakers either. I'd like something that sounds decent and is powerful enough to sound good in a very large room.

I'm considering getting a set of PolkAudio M10 bookshelf speakers and a PSW100 subwoofer. I'm not sure what else I'll need though. I'm assuming I need some sort of amp or receiver as well?

Basically, I'm looking for suggestions on what to buy and what kind of setup I'll need for a decent-sounding mid-priced 2.1 speaker system.

SRTer

Polk Audio Monitor 60's for you my friend. This is where your price range puts you with desire for music. However, there is no sub included with this $300. I think you should wait on the sub because the 60's will give ou some good bass until you find more money for your setup.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290207http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882290207

A audio video reciever (AVR) will be needed or you can buy a amp and run a cord from your headphone jack on your laptop that comes out to RCA's and hook that into you amp. It's a little crude but it will work perfectly.

molten_dragon

Any specific recommendations on a receiver or amp?

SRTer

molten_dragon wrote: »

Any specific recommendations on a receiver or amp?

I like any Pioneer, Denon, Onkyo with Pre-Out for a amp. This should cost you around $400-$600 new and much cheap if you buy used on the board from someone or Audiogon.

Adcom, Parasound, ATi used for low prices. Emotiva for low prices new.

This should be enough to get you started without killing the bank.

TNHNDYMAN

With your budget limits, pre-outs and newer amps are probably out of the question. Look for a nice vintage Kenwood or Pioneer from the late 70's and use the headphone out jack of comp to a rca connection as SRTer suggested. CraigList for a local sale would be best bet.

chadam44

Get the Monitor 60s, a cheapish USB DAC to convert the audio from the Laptop to an analog source, and then some sort of receiver that will power the speakers and accept the analog signal from the DAC. If you get a powerful enough receiver, you may not need the sub as the Monitors will go fairly low.

Lietuvis91

For your purposes of mainly playing music monitor 10 would be awesome. You shouldn't really need a sub.

Speakers like M60s or M70s do a pretty darn good job at music, no doubt, but by design they are still more geared towards home theater.