5.1 speakers for a PC

[grimed]

Are there any 5.1 PC speakrs that sound good and will last?

I am going to try one moer Reciver out my house to see if it will work but I would like to use powered ones like the logitech ones.

I already have a 1350 wat power supplly would like to cut back some on the power usage.

That is why I would prefer to stay away from a reciver.

I didn't have much luck wth logitech 5.1 speakers they did not last long 1 day on the sub.

With blue ray players comeing with PC's and how many just use there PC to watch movies I figured that you could find a decent 5.1 speaker for a PC.

 

[fralexandr]

How far do you sit from your pc? how loud do you play things?
What's the breakdown for usage on the 5.1 set (gaming/movies/music)?
What's your budget?
Which logitech 5.1 did you have, and what'd you think of the sound?

If your sub didn't last very long, it was either a faulty unit, or you were playing things louder than it could handle.
"Home theater" "grade" 5.1 active sets are EXPENSIVE.
for example bluesky makes a nice one, but $$$
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...g&matchtype=&gclid=CPLTnqLLvbwCFZRsfgodezsAEg
http://abluesky.com/wp-content/uploads/bs10051a.pdf
page 6 shows 3 pairs of RCA, usable with RCA -> 3.5mm
sets like these can output ridiculously loud volumes without distortion, and while sounding clean.

I don't think there's anything that really replaced the klipsch 4.1 promedia/logitech z5500 in the ~$200-$300 range.
Many of the klipsch had problems with heat, but they're impressive sets (if a bit muddled sounding).

There are receivers with class D/T (pioneer and maybe sony) amps that are more efficient than the common A/B amps.
A ~200-300 pioneer receiver + a 5.0/5.1 speaker set (energy/martin logan mlt/etc) on sale, or the monoprice premium 5.1(aka energy take replacements) would make a pretty good ~$500 set up.

 

[Morbus]

I own a Creative 5100 5.1 sound system.

It's 12 years old, and works like it did when it was new: well enough and not bad at all.

It cost me 70€ at the time, and the newer equivalent is also around that price.

 

[DesiPower]

My computer is in a 12' x 13' room, and I have a make shift 7.1 setup. I have a 12 year old Altec Lansing 4100 system, I use that for rear and middle channels (has its won sub woofer). Have a set of Logitech X-230, used for front speakers (again, has its own subwoofer). Bought a cheap refurb Audiosource soundbar for $30, used as center speaker. Bought a sony subwoofer off of Craigslist for $50, using it as main subwoofer. system rocks

 

[moonbogg]

I have Logitech Z5500 5.1 and its been like over 10 years or something ridiculous like that. Still perfect. They have an updated model now.

 

[sdifox]

Room dimension, configuration and budget?

 

[Carson Dyle]

If the amplifier/speaker efficiency of both the powered (active) PC speakers vs the receiver and passive speaker combo are comparable, then there's nothing to be saved in energy costs by using powered speakers. Just because you don't have a receiver doesn't mean that you don't have amplifiers powering all those speakers. The amplifiers are just inside the speakers instead of separate.

The advantage of the receiver setup is that it's much more flexible. You could start out with some inexpensive speakers and later upgrade them, or upgrade the receiver. Another advantage is that you can probably easily find a used A/V receiver on Craigslist for pretty cheap.

 

[alcoholbob]

And most active speakers don't have built in 1 button room correction measurements and the active systems that have room correction start at like $2k/pair of speakers and use windows based eq apps.

 

[grimed]

I have a Pioneer reciver that i know woked I just didnt like the way it sounded replaced it withe the new sony model that has 140 watts per chanell.
saw it in the spare romm but my wife stacked a buch of stuff on it.

I will try to dig it out and hope it still works latter on this week

 

[Iron Woode]

I am still using my Logitech Z640 set-up and its over 5 years old and still sounds good.

 

[BurnItDwn]

One way to cut down on power usage is to use the reciever, but get more efficient speakers. Some speakers with 95+ DB efficiency will give you plenty of volume, and your reciever will use like 3 watts.