There's no way in hell I'm waiting that long, so it's time to look into other systems. For a little while, I had nothing I liked more than the Promedias. Then I found the M-Audio Av 40s. They're powered monitors, used for budget home studios and whatnot. Reviews are very favorable, they should sound as good if not better than the Promedia satellites (probably better due to the MDF cabinet and 4" drivers). I'm going to order those first.
That's dandy, but they have no sub. I can't have no sub. So I've found the Polk PSW10. It's a small subwoofer, ported, with a 10" driver. For comparison, the Promedia sub was ported with a 6.5" driver. I found it via Yahoo! Answered. I asked the question and told what I wanted (at least 30hz, powered, $100 to $150) and the only answer turned up this sub. It's exactly what I need. It's $230 new, but on Amazon it's a lot less, so that's what I'm getting for a sub. I'm gonna have to connect it strangely though. The M-Audios have the amp in the left speaker. Then the right speaker connects to the left one through regular speaker wire, they both use clips for connectors. Well I'm running the left speaker into the sub's speaker-in (it uses speaker clips for input and output, which are for use with amps that don't have a dedicated sub-out) and then going from the sub's speaker-out into the right speaker. That's up until I get the preamp.
I looked on Amazon and found the Gemini PA-7000 preamp. It's $80, and it completes the setup. The setup will be somewhat complex just for a computer speaker system, but it works. It's going from the computer's 3.5mm headphone jack to the preamp's AUX input (using a converter cable for 3.5mm to RCA, which comes with the M-Audios), then one of the preamp's outputs (the preamp I'm using has two) goes to the M-Audios and the other goes to the sub. I do realize that a preamp is going to be somewhat unnecessary, but I want it for several reasons. One, using one will make the most sense for setting up that sub with these speakers. Setting it up the way I will before I get the preamp will be just a bit awkward. Two, I like the idea of having tone controls that are just that available (it has a knob for bass, midrange, and treble). Three, I like that you can plug in multiple sources. If we ever move or if I just move the setup for any reason, I can plug in various sources (like a DVD player and some game systems) and have it work like that. Without the preamp, I'd have to change the cables manually whenever I changed sources. Plus, after the addition of the preamp, I basically have a pretty nice bookshelf system at my disposal.
So in conclusion, I'd like to thank Klipsch for making it difficult to get a pair of Promedias. If they hadn't, I'd have gotten those instead. Don't get me wrong, they're a great pair of speakers and I still have nothing bad to say about them. But if they hadn't made it so hard to get a pair, I never would've had the brilliant idea of getting this setup. I'm ordering the M-Audios soon. Plus, the Promedias are still the best 2.1 system I've heard in that price range. The promedias are still $150, which isn't a lot to pay for a good computer speaker system. At the least, the system I'm getting will end up costing $330, depending on the prices I can get on the sub and preamp when I go to buy them. Good thing I'm getting it in pieces. Expect a blog post for each part as I get it and the whole shebang after I get the preamp.
Update: Looks like the preamp only outputs through TRS and XLR. This may add complication.
Double update: I remembered that the M-Audios also do TRS. All is well, but I'll need some converters to make the sub work.
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