Near field setup

[TimRawson]

Well... multipurpose main system pretty much set.

However, find that I have more opportunity to listen to music other time/places. One place, while on pc at home. Currently setup in room adjacent to familyroom, but that will change in about a year when as youngest child moves into 'big boy room', but that's another year from now. So... in my equipment shuffling, have a Bryston 2b, 60+ x2. Thinking about picking up a m-audio usb audiophile and some bookshelf speakers.

Another time is at work.... good headphone suggestions?....

Anyway, main question.... What are some suggestions for small bookshelf's? Like the size of NHT superzero's. However, NHT's often require too much volume to sound best, thus not good at quieter volumes - due to inefficiency? Looking at 100-300 in the used arena. Not an immediate purchase, later this spring. Anyone with 'audiophile' pc hookup experience? ( also going to run an optical connection from my pc in the adjecent room to a soon to be arriving arcam dac, or use prepro dac's)

Sorry for the multi faceted post... just curious about secondary audio systems.

[David Meek]

Tim, I'll have to look back through some older Stereophile issues, but at one time (2 years or so ago) they did a review of some VERY nice speakers for PC-use. More on that later....

As far as headphones go, they are one of the most personal pieces of equipment to purchase, so you'll get as many suggestions as people that post. I'm a bit of a traditionalist, so ear-bud type 'phones like the Etymotic Research line don't really interest me. Having said that, the Sennhesier HD-650 and HD-600, the Grado RS-1s and RS-2s are the four cost-no-option models to look at. With good amplification, these'll compare favorably to multi-thousand dollar 2-channel speakers - no kidding. The top AKG's are supposed to be as good, but I've never heard them.

Dropping down in price range a bit (and performance, too) opens the window up to a lot of possibilities - how about wireless? Again the mid-range Sennheisers and Grados are excellent choices, but you've also got AKG, Beyer Dynamics, Koss (I had a pair of their Pro 4AAA 'phones that were my personal favorites for a decade - unfortunately they aren't available any more as Koss has moved out of the upper-end), JVC....

What price range are you looking at? Also, what about a dedicated 'phone amp? One can make 'phones stand up and sing like you wouldn't believe.

[purplepeople]

Tannoy Reveal passives are very small and sound great for the money. I heard some paired to an Alesis 150 amp a while back.

ensen.

[brendon]

Re headphones I have had a pair of good quality AKG Monitor 240 headphones for many years and am very happy with them and they were quite modestly priced.I saw what looked like the identical headphones in my local Hi-Fi store on the weekend but they were not priced.
Brendon