MiSTer FPGA Forum

Hi,
I am looking for any recommendations for PC Speakers for my Mister and MT32/Pi. I am am currently using my Monitor speakers and they are a bit tiny. The sound sounds tinney? I did not want a huge speakers as they are on my desk. I am looking for a sub $50 setup 2.0 system. (no subwoofer, unless you guys think I really should go this way) Would be cool if USB powered but I could plug in wall. I like to have a volume control on it. What do you guys think sound good from the Mister?
Thanks
Superdude

I would go with a subwoofer, simply because going the extra mile with the MT32/Pi and then not taking full advantage of the sound possibilities doesn't make sense to me.

I use the Logitech Z333 2.1 speakers and I am very satisfied. They have great sound and come with 2 features that I like.
The speakers have a seperate volume knob that comes with a long cable so I can adjust the volume independent from the souce and they have cinch inputs aside of a 3.5mm audio jack.
This means I can take the sound from my monitor while having plugged the 3.5mm jack into my SC-88 Midi module.

On the cheap end this is what I've used at work and at home for some quick sound.

https://www.amazon.com/Creative-USB-Pow ... B0791H74NT

They are really good for the price, personally, but that sub $50 price point is a tough one to get anything actually good sounding in my audiophile-biased opinion.

https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-3-5mm-C ... B003CP0OT2

We've used these at work for a few, they are okay.

For the high-ish end of things, these are my speakers at my computer (and for my development MiSTer) upstairs, and they are well outside of your budget, but just for reference:

https://www.amazon.com/Vanatoo-Transpar ... B01N33WUJ9

And I love everything about these speakers, so if you ever consider leveling up when it's in your budget, I'd consider these.

If you really don't want to have an external subwoofer box I can recommend Creative Gigaworks T20. I got them a few years ago because I needed a reasonably compact solution (I travel a lot) which would still be able to deliver decent bass. They cost ~100USD normally, though I suppose you can find them on sale (like in this link) or used too.

Otherwise, if your budget really is tight, I'd look at some lower-end Creative or Logitech 2.1 ones, and try to accomodate the sub somewhere. Without it the sound will really be rather puny.

aberu wrote: ↑Wed Apr 13, 2022 2:12 pm On the cheap end this is what I've used at work and at home for some quick sound.

https://www.amazon.com/Creative-USB-Pow ... B0791H74NT

They are really good for the price, personally, but that sub $50 price point is a tough one to get anything actually good sounding in my audiophile-biased opinion.

https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-3-5mm-C ... B003CP0OT2

We've used these at work for a few, they are okay.

For the high-ish end of things, these are my speakers at my computer (and for my development MiSTer) upstairs, and they are well outside of your budget, but just for reference:

https://www.amazon.com/Vanatoo-Transpar ... B01N33WUJ9

And I love everything about these speakers, so if you ever consider leveling up when it's in your budget, I'd consider these.

I gave the Creative Pebble (1.0) plugged straight into a usb adaptor and I can say they're pretty damn good speakers. Creative now sell a sound bar (again, USB powered) for £40 which is great for extra bass but leads to a lot of degaussing on my CRT

Thank you for your replies. I took a little bit of advice from all of you and got this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NWLWM9B

Its a Pebble (great sound but no bass) added with a subwoofer (added bass as suggested) and is 50 bucks shipped (cheap) and is powered via USB from mister. I have no idea if this will be good or not. I am just hoping for adequate sound. Will post a review if wanted.

Perhaps relevant to this topic, I'd rec the Anker Soundcore Motion Plus as a portable pick.

I wanted to put together a portable MiSTer setup with decent-to-good sound, as game audio is very important to me. Soundbars, it turns out, are all way too large for a portable use case, not to mention expensive. Just inappropriate all around. So I turned to bluetooth speakers. Past experience has made me skeptical of BT device audio quality, but started researching anyway.

Two major requirements became clear:
- aux jack input, meaning a 3.5mm headphone jack port. this feature is apparently being phased out of newer BT speakers.
- stereo support, meaning discrete left and right channels built into a single unit. many BT speakers are monaural unless paired with a second.

Also, ideally:
- built-in EQ support, because MiSTer won't have any
- long battery life
- USB-C charging

Best low/mid-budget BT speaker turns out to be a bit of a religious topic in places that discuss such things, such as Reddit's r/bluetooth_speakers. After reading for a few days I ultimately went with the few-year-old Anker Soundcore Motion Plus, which is usually available for $110 or less, met all five of my requirements, and comes in imo attractive blue and red colorways.

It has a companion app (for better or worse, would be nicer if app not needed) that lets you EQ it, and as the internet will rush to say, you'll definitely want to EQ it to get the best sound. The app is a little squirrelly but can be dealt with, and you can find suggested EQ settings to try on Reddit and YT.

My early impression was that it was still definitely "just" a BT speaker, sounding more "muddy" playing pop songs, for example, and "tinny" at other times, than I am used to. But after EQing, the clarity and bass are overall good enough for my "portable retrogames" use case, and I am unaware of other similarly affordable candidates that could hit all my requirements while also sounding better. And bonus: It is really nice to finally have a convenient BT speaker I can carry around my home or even take out for adventures.

Overall I am happy with performance and price point. Now I just need to get cracking on the portable setup's several other design challenges.

I've been considering a pair of these for my MiSTer...

Klipsch R-51PM Powered Bluetooth Speaker: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FKCP7PZ/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZVPMR58/

I've hemmed and hawed about pulling the trigger for some time. It'll sound great with my MT32-PI, but it's difficult to justify the expense to my spouse.

Those are definitely sufficient for Actraiser, lol.