Get that Ear-Busting Dorm Room Sound System

Features | August 28th, 2008 by Staggs

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College students are getting ready to settle into their campus residence, and I’ve noticed a lot don’t have that great sound system to piss anyone off. Why not, you’ve probably got a couple of neighbors: next door, accross the hallway, even the people on the floor above or below you can be neighbors. You know you’re awesome if you’re playing loud music, with ear-busting bass and some crazy music (Lil’ Wayne, maybe?) and you’re neighbors want you to turn it down. But, why turn it down when you can just party harder and invite all of your friends for a party.

What is good on a college budget? Its no new fact, college students are broke, in-debt, and dirt cheap. If you ask any student to go out to eat, they’ll probably say “I can’t, I’m broke!” But, with a little saving, and some bargain shopping, you’ll be able to find a good, simple sound system that you could simply plug into the headphone jack of your laptop. Here’s what else you can look for:

Subwoofer: The system must have a separate subwoofer. It is important because a subwoofer will get vibratations resonating and moving around so you feel the music, as well as anyone else around your room. The small size of the room makes it a great enclosure, so the sub sounds really good if placed well. This alone will get your neighbors bleeding from their ears.
2 speakers, not 5: Since an average dorm room isn’t exactly big, you’ll need to conserve space. There really is no room for 5 speakers to be placed around the room without breaking some dumb safety rule. Keep it at 2, with 1 subwoofer.
Wattage: A lot of people just figure that if a sound system looks good, it must be. If it has huge speakers it must be loud. No! Fucking wrong! A speaker’s rating goes by watts of power. If a speaker has more watts, it will be louder. For a dorm room system, anything over 100 watts is plenty. Over 200 watts is great. 300 watts and you’re looking at serious RA intervention and possible headaches when played loudest. So look for watts when you buy your speakers.

Logitech provides a great subwoofer

There are plenty of things to look at, but the simpler and more powerful will always get the job done. If you see something touting weird technological features, don’t bother. You’re looking for something that’ll be loud, and something that plugs into your laptop or desktop. Here are some systems you may like that we’ve heard this past year in our dorm.

Klipsch ProMedia 2.1: Personally owned, have always been a fan of Klipsche because of their simple design and great sound. They make a lot of crazy expensive, and less expensive products, but these speakers are by far the best college speakers I’ve heard for the price. Check out other reviews on Buzzillions.com.
Logitech Z-2300: These speakers have bass, and good sound quality. Actually, the subwoofer drowns out the speakers really quickly. Definitely a system if you want to send bass to your neighbors; but you’ll have to sacrifice actually hearing the words and music of songs. Check it out at Buzzillions.com.
Theres plenty of others…

Don’t get hasty and simply buy the first sound system you see. If you really want some quality, be prepared to pay a little more. In sound equipment, keep in my that you get what you pay for. We also believe that Bose stands for Buy Other Sound Equiptment, so don’t fall for them although they do sound good you are paying for the name.

Update:We took our own advice this year, and have definitely made our neighbors mad. Take our advice seriously if you want to be that jackass you know you’d love to be. We aren’t responsible for the trouble you could get into, but we hope you have fun doing this.