This is the first of our Geek Buy series, where we bring you the best buys in town whether it’s a laptop, cellphone or pair of speakers.
Let’s start with one of the best bang-for-buck PC speakers you can get – the Acoustic Energy Aego M. I went down with my pal Marcus yesterday to Sim Lim Square, where he bought himself a pair of these little wonders for a nice S$250.
Though small, these PC speakers produce some of the sweetest music you can expect from a PC desktop setup. You’d expect clarity and tonal range that is beyond the grasp of most PC speakers from Creative or Altec Lansing, which are more interested in producing the “noise” of explosions, gunfire, and other special effects.
With the Aego M, you can actually hear the instruments in a music track – a simple feat that many PC speakers don’t even offer (amazing but true!). I’ll admit the subwoofer in the Aego M 2.1 setup may not offer as much bass, but I’d take that over extremely poor music reproduction, which seems to be the hallmark of most PC speakers.
Sure, S$250 is still too rich for some folks. But hook these up to your PC soundcard (or the iPod through a port at the front), and I’m sure you’ll be hard pressed to find another better set of stereo PC speakers for the price (the Bose Companion 3 is good too, but is going for AU$399 according to its website).
Whewww… I bought my Aego Ms for S$320 I think. Beginning of the year. Has it dropped so much in price? City Elec is still the only shop selling it, right?
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Was actually quite set on Lansing MX5021 due to my gaming needs, but decided otherwise after listening to both.
The popular views on local forums:
game n movies -> MX5021, which is certified by THX (~$210 cash@SLS)
music -> Aego M ($250, they will ask for 250+7% tax, but I managed to bargain away the 7%)
My 2 cents, You get tons of bass for MX5021, but the mid and high are too muffled. Aego M sacrifices a lot on bass, but the details are so refined for a 2.1 PC setup I am willing to do away the extra ommph.
I can hear the passing breeze and distant thunder while leveling my alt rogue in WOW, sounds that were not previously picked up by my old Lansing speakers. The “vroom” effect when my rouge turns stealth sounds a lot sweeter too.
If you are more into sound details rather than bass juice, Aego M should be the choice.
Actually, the AE Aego M’s been a popular chioce for discerning PC fans. It was going for S$300+. Run down to SLS 1st floor if you interested haha.
Another one that has been making the rounds in forums is Audioengine – http://www.audioengineusa.com/ I haven’t listened to them yet, but they seem to have a good reputation.
Ah, so that’s what Marcus settled on in the end. Interesting, didn’t know AE ventured into this space! Only knew them for their hifi bookshelf speakers. Guess they had to join the fast growing PC speaker market to survive.