Amped up for desk jockeys
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday August 10, 2009
Finally, a way to hear music through your PC without the tinny sound of computer speakers, writes Rod Easdown. Let's face it, most computer speakers are dreadful. They're OK for the funny videos people send you but when you're in front of a computer eight hours a day, don't you occasionally long for a proper stereo system to reproduce real music?The problem with computer speakers €“ whether they're built into the monitor or the separate satellites you sometimes pay quite a lot for €“ is power.No matter how good these little boxes might look, they're usually driven by a cheap amplifier built deep into the bowels of the sub box down by your feet somewhere that couldn't pop a soap bubble in a strong breeze.It's not just volume. Speakers without enough power are dull and colourless.They reproduce music but they miss its vitality. Give them some horsepower and suddenly the music is exciting, moving and emotional. It climbs to the highest high notes, rumbles along with the low ones and leaps between musical transients like a mountain goat that can smell a feed.Until recently, however, adding power meant adding a great thumping amplifier with a footprint as big as the old cathode ray tube monitor that used to swallow most of your desk. No one wants to go back there.So wouldn't it be great if someone built proper stereo equipment with a footprint the size of, oh, the box you use to file business cards? Say hello to desktop hi-fi.These are components several manufacturers make and, while they may be small, they're genuine audio equipment. They pump out proper power levels, their vital specifications are all good and they sound great.Pro-Ject, a company based in Vienna with a factory in the Czech Republic, was first on the scene. Pro-Ject had been best known in Australia for turntables that almost single-handedly generated a renaissance in vinyl records.There are separate pre and power amplifiers, giving you a thumping 20 watts per channel into normal 8-ohm speakers and 30 watts into 4-ohm ones €“ enough power to fill a small room quite comfortably. Sitting in front of you on a desk, it's enough to blow you away. Certainly, it will drive a small pair of bookshelf speakers very successfully. Best of all, they measure just 103mm wide, 141mm deep and, in most cases, 38mm high.Each component is enclosed in a metal case, which shields the electronics from interference far more successfully than the plastic bodies that encase most computer speakers.Should you doubt the equipment's audiophile bona fides, among the power amplifiers you can buy a single stereo unit ($499) or get a couple of mono blocks rated at 30 watts ($449 each) €“ one for each channel. This is truly the province of the audio purist and it's all in packages you can line up comfortably under your monitor or place in optional design boxes that hold two or four components. Add the pre-amplifier ($399), after which you'll need a docking station for your iPod ($219), an FM tuner ($299, AM is not available) and maybe a headphone amplifier ($219).What, no CD player? First, a CD wouldn't fit in a component the size of these. Second, these systems are designed for desktop use by people who listen to music on their computer through multimedia speakers and have no idea how good it will sound when properly handled.Third, there's one in the computer anyway. Route its sound through the USB box ($199), which can operate without a pre-amplifier and works with Windows, Mac OS and Linux. It bypasses the computer's audio resampling to give you CD-quality sound. It's even possible to hook in a turntable.Because these components are so small, there is no room for the normal hi-fi persiflage, so the controls are basic and the inputs and outputs are limited. Given the environment for which they're intended, this is entirely acceptable. All are available in silver or black.The Pro-Ject range has made such an impact that Tangent is now also on the scene with its Ampster, a well-engineered desktop amplifier that's rated at 20 watts per channel, for $399. It includes a quirky universal MP3 player contained in a mini bean bag. And by the end of the year, Pro-Ject is likely to have desktop amplification rated at 100 watts per channel.
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald
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