Insignia $50 Speakers Look And Sound Good! - Page 8

What's the difference betw. M10 and R15, which can be had for $50 when on sale from Outpost?
I'm trying to see if I can get some used RTi4s.

I think the M10 gets updated cabinets. I believe the speaker components are the same.

The Polk R15 and M10 are practically identical and outpost/fry's has the R15's on sale periodically for $40-50.

/// Motu

I've had B1's for about 3 years. Periodically they get rotated out, but they always come back.

Anyone who cares:

Circuit City has the M10s on sale for about $100 per pair.

I have a pair of those. They are very nice sounding speakers, especially at that price. Need a sub, though.

Better than Insignias? I'm not planning on using a sub with them, so I'd prefer something that has similar amt of bass as the Insignias.

Much better than Insignias on the high end, and somewhat better in the midrange. Definitely not as extended in the bass, though (what there is is cleaner). For that you would need something with a 6 1/2" woofer (such as Athena B2.2 or Polk Monitor 30.)
A lot of music sounds good on them without a sub, but the missing bass is noticeable on things with a lot of deep bass content, such as electronica and reggae.

Thanks. Although according to Polk website, the Monitor 30 only has a 5 1/4" woofer.

You are right. This is interesting, apparently Polk uses one or more 5 1/4" woofers in all of their speakers, but nothing larger (except for subs.) The Monitor 30's do have good bass for bookshelves, though.
It is hard to do a direct comparison with the Insgnia's bass response, because no limits are specified for it. Also, there is a midbass emphasis that makes them seem more extended than they are.

I ran test tones and was suprised that the Sigs had strong output to 40, albeit below tuning and with some port noise. There's a screen on the interior port opening, which I'm sure contributes. The woofer was pumping wildly, but didn't bottom, even when really kicking hard.

I think you commented on this before, but I can't find it... would you say that the bass on the B1.2 is almost as good as on the Insignias?

The Athena is cleaner, not as deep, less congested when played loud. Athena wins over time, because pfat bass is attractive, but hard to live with after awhile.

Note, I have the original B1, not the 1.2. I believe the 1.2's cabinet is larger and tuned lower.

Well, I broke off my relationship with the Insignias. They went back to BB. Not sure yet what I'm going to replace them with. It'll definitely be something smaller and less bright. I will possibly get something like a Yamaha SW215 sub to complement the low end a little.

I just got these today and of course, I am impressed for this price. It's on par with my AS-B1s with slightly more bass (and better) but a bit more sibilance.

all the Yamaha subs I've ever heard sounded like complete dog poo. I'd ask around in the subs section for better options within your budget.

That bad, huh? Mind you, this is just for my PC, not any kind of HT setup. It can't possibly be worse than the 6.5" sub that comes with the Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 set, can it?

haven't heard the Klipsch PM sub, but if I were looking for a decent low-cost sub I'd look at the Athena AS-P4000 for about $150 from amazon.com or audioadvisor.com

Over the weekend I set up a surround sound system at my girfriend's apartment using these Insignia speakers matched to a Pioneer 816 receiver. The setup is currently 6.0 as I have not yet added the subwoofer. Also note that I have not yet calibrated with an SPL meter.

Overall the sound is pretty good for $50/pair speakers. I think that adding the sub and calibrating properly will help as well.

My girlfriend has a CRT television so I needed to magnetically shield the front 3 speakers. I ordered bucking magnet/metal cap combos off the internet to shield the speakers. I took off the piano black baffle, unscrewed the driver and flipped them over. Then I used a hot glue gun to attach the bucking magnet/cap combo to the back of the driver. All told it took about an hour to do for all three speakers. I had three of them right up against the television and there was no interference at all!

Also, the speakers look great with the grills off.

-Eric

One small question. Since these speakers are not shielded, what would they do when they are too close to a CRT TV? Would there just be visual interference (messed up colors and such), then when you take away the speakers it's fine again? Or does it cause some sort of "permanent" damage?

Nonshielded speakers would cause a distortion of the color/picture in a localized area where the speaker and the tv come in closest contact. This will generally look like a green or purple "blob" of color. For instance, if you have one of the speakers sitting on the top of the tv as a center channel, the discoloration will be at the top of the tv.

I do not think that it is permanent, and it should go away when you move the speaker. I am not sure about this, however, and I would not try my luck with an expensive HDTV CRT.

If you are interested in knowing more about how I shielded the speakers, feel free to post here or send me a PM. It really was an easy process, and you can do it without messing up the speakers.

-Eric

I just picked up a set. Will being using it to play Guitar Hero on my PlayStation2. LOL

RAWK ON!

I would be interested. I'm thinking of moving mine to the bedroom tv setup.

Thanks.

If it's a direct view CRT, it can cause permanent damage if it magnetizes the set or the shadowmask overheats and warps permanently. In any case, it's easy to see the effect and not much distance is necessary to eliminate the problem.

In order to shield the Insignia speakers do the following:

1) Order these bucking magnets.

2) get a "Torx 15" driver.

3) get a hot glue gun.

4) take the grill off the speaker

5) remove the piano black baffle with the torx 15 driver (note: the baffle is also attached with some glue, so be careful when prying it off.

6) unscrew the driver with a phillips head screw driver.

7) remove the driver and flip it over to rest on the speaker cabinet. Be careful not to damage any of the wire connections.

8) apply some glue from the glue gun to the magnet located inside the shielding cup.

9) cover the back of the driver with the shielding cup so that the magnets glue together. Be very careful to center the sheilding cup over the driver. This can be done by aligning the hole in the shielding cup with the small circle on the back of the driver.

10) let glue dry for a couple of minutes. Note that hot glue gun glue dries quickly, but is not the strongest of bonds. I found this useful for breaking the seal and realigning if necessary, but some might want a stronger bond. I felt this was strong enough for the purpose, however.

11) reattach the driver to the speaker cabinet, once again being mindful of the wires.

12) reattached the baffle over the driver. I used a little hot glue here too in order to prevent any rattle from the baffle during use. I don't know if this was necessary, but I felt that it couldn't hurt.

Overall the speakers look exactly like stock, but now do not interfere with the performance of the CRT TV.

Questions welcome,

-Eric

I've got mine on top of my entertainment center. There's a shelf abve the TV (below the speakers) with my DVD player and receiver, so there's about 12 inches of space between my TV (a 32" CRT HDTV) and the speakers. I haven't has any distortion or interference.

anything more than a couple of inches will be enough to prevent distortion. This is mostly for the center channel setup where the speaker is directly on top of the tv.

Went to Best Buy and bought these speakers after reading this thread. Figured for 50 bucks it`d be something to have fun with. So far I`m impressed with the build and looks of the cabinet. Sound is also decent so far but havent really done any critical listening.I got them hooked to my Panny 55. I`ll try them with my Monster amp this weekend to see how they`ll handle the power. Maybe do a speaker shootout also with my svs sbs speakers and maybe my friend will bring some ascends over.

Im kind of a noob so please pardon my ignorance... If using 3 pairs of these Insignia speakers in 7.1 setup,

1. Would using a different, more capable center speaker be a good idea?

2. If so, any suggestions as to which center channel would work best?

Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks

Most likely not due to timbre-matching issues. You're better off staying with the same speaker for the center channel. But Radient, who appears to be the designer/maker of these Insignia speakers, makes a matching center channel speaker that should work.