Are KEF-IQ30 adequate for my bedroom? And how can I amp them?, Need help since it's my first sound system. Options

[eduardokbb]

Hello Hydrogenaudio community!

This is my first topic and I hope I didn't placed it in the wrong section. If I did, please move it to the right section and I'm really sorry for that inconvenience, but I had not find a better place. Oh, first of all, I'm not very good with english, so you'll probably find some minor [or not so minor] errors, even though you'll be able to understand what I'm trying to ask!

Well, I live in Brazil and it's a 3º world country, electronics are extremely expensive here and I'm not one of the riches that can afford the most expensive components. This year I decided that I would save some money to buy a decent sound system for my bedroom. I'm still saving the money, but I don't really know if the speakers and sound card I decided to buy are the right ones to go.

My idea is to buy a pair of KEF IQ-30 for stereo speakers and for the sound card an Asus Xonar Essence STX. I'm going with the STX instead ST because it has an integrated headphone amplifier, it's a mini pci-e card (the ST is just mini pci and its getting a little obsolete), and it's a little cheaper. The headphone, after a lot of research is an ATH-M50W.

Below is a picture of my desktable

The desk has 130cm x 60cm. The KEF IQ-30 would replace my low quality Philips speakers. The Philips speakers are connected to my Philips micro system that is said to amplify 26W rms 8 Ohms, but I really doubt they can perform that.

The question is, will this KEF speakers be good there? The bedroom itself measures something like 10m². How may I amplify the new IQ-30 speakers? I mean, my Philips speakers are connected to their Philips micro system and the system is connected to my computer's motherboard. The thing is that the IQ-30 speakers will demand some power that my Philips micro system will not be able to do. I need a cheap provisory solution to that. Something to connect the speakers to the Asus Essence Sonar STX and to amp them. It's provisory because, in the future, I'll buy a Denon 3312, but I don't have money to buy everything together. I would appreciate if someone could help me with that, I just don't know what to do. I need to amp the IQ-30 for a 10m² room and to connect the speakers to the sound card.

Oh, and I'll take this topic to ask you another thing! Since I'm upgrading to an off-board sound card and getting a really nice sound system (at least the best I can afford), I'm thinking about having a good recording microphone. If you can see my desktable in the picture above, there's a webcam placed near the monitor. That is my recording device and it really sucks, it's even worse than me Philips speakers, haha! My idea is to buy a Shure SM58 and directly connect it to the Asus Sonar Essence STX mic input by using a XLR to 6.3mm jack cable. I'll handcraft by myself a support base for the microphone and screw it in my desk. Will this work? I mean, connecting directly the mic to the soundcard.. and if it does work, will it sound good? Oh, and about the handcrafted support base... well, my desk is a cut door with table legs screwed at it, so if the support doesn't work well and my table get damaged, it will be cheap to get another table, haha!

I would really appreciate your comments about my ideas because I'm really lost in this audio world. Thanks for your attention and sorry for poor english, but I gave my best! Thanks!

This post has been edited by eduardokbb: May 21 2012, 21:18

Reason for edit: testing . . .