Gridfan wrote:PC desktop speakers are dime a dozen. While you can get good sound with some of them they are usually very thin sounding.
Agreed. I've had several different kinds and the dime a dozen ones are underwhelming. There are good ones out there, but that's not the option I've been focusing on.
Gridfan wrote:What you want is a "Receiver" (I think that's what they are called), some of these should have a amp able to drive bookshelf speakers and similar.
My research tells me a receiver and pre-amplifier and amplifier all packed into the same unit are now called "an integrated amplifier" but add a tape deck and a bunch of years and that description also applies to my old "compact home stereo system". Not knowing which terminology to use for what vendor makes the searching take longer, but browsing categories helps.
Gridfan wrote:You mention wanting Bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi and now we're no longer in normal Home Stereo land, now it's Hi-Fi or House Sound System stuff. If you want something good here you'll have to cough up the big cash.
Eh. I'm not really a big fan of wireless solutions for stationary things that are in perfectly reasonable range of wires, but those are common features of a lot of the receivers I've been looking at, so I thought if it didn't add too much to the price tag, it wouldn't hurt to have the option, in case I ever find a use for it. They're a footnote, not a requirement.
Gridfan wrote:You might want to get a cheap but good PC speaker package (2.1 setup, with two "desktop" satellites and 1 sub and usually the amp tucked inside the subwoofer box), hook that up to the PC (onboard Realtek sound should be fine if you don't have a soundcard) and get some cables and hook your tape deck to the line in on that.
That's pretty much what I was thinking, except it didn't occur to me that the amplifier might be in the subwoofer. That does sound like something I should browse around for, since I do already have decent speakers I was planning to keep using.
Gridfan wrote:If you like your old speakers you could get a nice second hand amp, drag a cable from your PC to that one, hook your speakers to the amp, then get a sub and hook that up to the amp. The tape deck you hook up to your PCs line in.
(BTW! Checking out stores selling returned stock or demonstration models can be a nice way to get some good hardware cheaper.)
The tape deck part is going to be the tricky bit there. My tape deck is built into my old stereo, which has no line out. But I hardly ever play tapes, anyway. Maybe I could run a line from the stereo's headphone out to the PC's microphone in, but I'm not sure exactly how bad an idea that is. I'd rather just piggyback the speaker outputs from the old stereo and the new amplifier and unplug the power to old one when I'm not using it.
Gridfan wrote:You can buy bluetooth stuff for your PC, and WiFi dongles. So if you need WiFi and Bluetooth you can make that happen.
Now if you want to play music from your phones Bluetooth to your speakers. Why would you do that? Bluetooth is not lossless and it will degrade audioquality (the wireless iPhone earpods has the same issue) Assuming your phone has a jack connections, you can actually hook that up to your PC.
Well, I have no idea why I would do that. I really haven't thought of any reason for it. That's half the reason I mentioned it, to see if anyone else knew why they're so common in the mid-range receivers and integrated amplifiers. It seems to be the way things have been going lately that the technologies that used to make no actual sense turn out to be the ones you're expected to have, but I was hoping for a better explanation than that.
Gridfan wrote:Also keep in mind that you could put a remote app on your phone and control your PC's music playback through that instead. It depends on the app/software an what media player you use on your PC, but you can get it to work. And no quality loss.
See, that makes way more sense. Which is probably why people aren't doing that, right?
Gridfan wrote:Your old 8ohm speakers should be fine, unless the cardboard/material in the speaker is degrading or the rubber seals are cracking those speakers will last many more years. Assuming you like the sound they make.
Yeah, that's the plan. That's pretty much the firmest part of what I'm calling a plan, anyway.
Gridfan wrote:The stuff you are looking for (basically Receivers) can get very expensive. For the same cost you can easily get a good soundcard + PC speaker package + a WiFi Dongle + a Bluetooth dongle + a commercial remote software/app for your PC and mobile.
Yeah, I noticed that. I've been limiting my searches to the $100-$200 range, and that cuts out a few of the better rated manufacturers, but there are still some decent options with good reviews, and that's just shopping new items on Amazon. Once I know what I'm actually looking for, I can probably find it cheaper.
Gridfan wrote:Also, do you dislike headphones?
Not at all. They're just situational. I have a decent pair of Sennheisers I like and I wear them a lot, but they're not always feasible. For example, when I'm brushing my hair, moving around the room, sitting across the room, or even in bed, I want the music audible without headphones.
And thanks for bringing up the things I hadn't considered. I'd rather ponder them now than find out about them later.