Anyone use a htib type system instead of pc speakers?

[de8212]

I have the older logitech z-560's and was thinking of getting some kind of receiver/speaker package. It would be mainly for gaming/music and would be hooked up to an audigy sound card. I generally do not watch movies/dvd's.
Any recommendations?

 

[WolverineX]

I own a Philips MX5000D Theatre Setup. I run an optical cable from my soundcard through it and it sounds really awesome. I'll unlikely buy another receiver unless this one quits since 600 watts just for the satellite speakers is more than enough. I bought mine refurbished for about 240. Couldn't beat it for the price...

These should be well enough for you,

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp...yId=pcmcat40200050004&id=1077626340240

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Panasoni...sm/oid/91691/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I'm running a Fluance SX-HTB set, two Fluance SV-6s, an SVS PB-10, an HK AVR-325 receiver, and an old sherwood receiver hooked up to some aura bass shakers.

It's not a HTIB, but it is a HT set.

Unless you're planning on spending $400, I'd go with a computer speaker set. They really do offer good value and don't include any of the extras that you don't need for a computer setup.

If you are looking to get an entry level HTIB, the onkyo 770 set is a nice one.

You can also get a set going picking out parts separately...
Say $200 to $250 for a refurb receiver, $125 for a sub, and then $300 for speakers will get you a basic set.

One of the disadvantages to gaming on a HT set is that you're not going to get true surround sound like you're used to with games on a digital connection. That problem is solved though if you get a receiver with 6 channel direct input and you run 1/8" to RCA adapters straight to the receiver.

Do you have a budget in mind?

(oh, and check out AVSforum if you want more advice)

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
One of the disadvantages to gaming on a HT set is that you're not going to get true surround sound like you're used to with games on a digital connection.

Unless you have Soundstorm or the X-Mystique card.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
One of the disadvantages to gaming on a HT set is that you're not going to get true surround sound like you're used to with games on a digital connection.

Unless you have Soundstorm or the X-Mystique card.

Well, he's got a "Giga-byte 8IK1100", so I think soundstorm is out, and I don't think investing in a $100 and hard to find X-Mystique is a good investment if you already have an audigy2 and you're looking at entry level stuff.... but you're right :thumbsup:

 

[Raduque]

I use an HTIB on my HTPC.

On my gaming rig, I only have 2-speaker audio, but I mostly listen to music, so surround sound isn't THAT important. Untill my amp completely dies (It's about 30 years old, so it might be sooner then I want) I'll probably upgrade to a HT/HTIB-type system for surround sound on my gaming rig.

Personally, I would reccomend sticking with computer speakers, as they are easier to run and setup, unless you actually WANTED to deal with setting up an HT system for your PC.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Hooking up for true surround really isn't as tough as I think I made it out to sound (not directed at anyone in particular, just felt like I would make a suggestion on how to do it pretty easily)

The Denon 1705 is a great budget receiver with 6 channel input.

You can see the inputs in the lower left here.

All you need to do is get three 1/8" to RCA adapters and 3 dual RCA cables and you're set. (Might want to get a little higher quality stuff, but those would work).

Just add a sub like this one and a Fluance set and you have a nice entry level system going with true surround for gaming.

You can also hook up digitally at the same time and have the receivers DACs do the work if you want for music and DVDs (games too if you don't mind surround processing like prologic rather than the real stuff).

 

[biostud]

I have a NAD T750 5.1 reciever hooked up with a couple of Dali 808 (Front), Dali 104 (rear) and a Dali C1000 center .
I use the 5.1 analog input on the receiver as input from my computer (SB Audigy).

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Hooking up for true surround really isn't as tough as I think I made it out to sound (not directed at anyone in particular, just felt like I would make a suggestion on how to do it pretty easily)

The Denon 1705 is a great budget receiver with 6 channel input.

You can see the inputs in the lower left here.

All you need to do is get three 1/8" to RCA adapters and 3 dual RCA cables and you're set. (Might want to get a little higher quality stuff, but those would work).

Just add a sub like this one and a Fluance set and you have a nice entry level system going with true surround for gaming.

You can also hook up digitally at the same time and have the receivers DACs do the work if you want for music and DVDs (games too if you don't mind surround processing like prologic rather than the real stuff).

You can get 1/8" -> RCA cables out of the box. Not that saving $3 is much compared to overall price of the system

 

[Fisher999]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
The Denon 1705 is a great budget receiver with 6 channel input...

I don't know if you're an audiophile or happen to like great sounding music de8212 but if you go with a HT receiver with the 6 channel RCA inputs it gives you another advantage.

You could eventually purchase a DVD player which is DVD-Audio and/or SACD capable (they are really inexpensive now) and use those 6 channel input jacks to play DVD-Audio or SACD discs. That' the main intended purpose for HT receivers having the 6 channel input jacks.

The availablility of DVD-audio and SACD discs has increased but they are still expensive however.

Greg

 

[WolverineX]

How does running an optical cable from your sound card to the receiver not wield true surround?

 

[de8212]

Thanks for all of the info/links everyone.

That denon looks nice but it is a bit pricey. I was hoping to do the whole thing for ~400.00.
The fluance speakers seem like a good deal but I don't know if the front towers would work in my situation do to the setup of my desk. I may take pic when I get home.

Does anyone have pics of their setups?
Thanks again for everything so far and keep the advice coming in.

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: WolverineX
How does running an optical cable from your sound card to the receiver not wield true surround?

I think it might be because the reciever's decoder only decode DTS and DD digital streams, and the digital stream comming from the computer is neither of these. On the other hand I would have thought the digital stream was "corrected" in the computer. But I was wondering about this statement myself.

 

[Raduque]

Originally posted by: WolverineX
How does running an optical cable from your sound card to the receiver not wield true surround?

I believe it's because recievers only do DD or DTS through the optical (or coax digital), and the PC surround formats are analog. That's why you need the minijack->RCA cables.

Unless you have one of the 3 or 4 soundcards that can output a DD stream on the optical for everything (movies, music, games, even Windows sounds) like the nForce2 Soundstorm or Audigy4 (I think), the reciever is only going to understand the stream as Dolby Prologic/II at best.

Now, you can do a passthrough on the Optical connection, which lets a DVD player send DD or DTS to the reciever for true surround sound in DVDs.

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: de8212
Thanks for all of the info/links everyone.

That denon looks nice but it is a bit pricey. I was hoping to do the whole thing for ~400.00.
The fluance speakers seem like a good deal but I don't know if the front towers would work in my situation do to the setup of my desk. I may take pic when I get home.

Does anyone have pics of their setups?
Thanks again for everything so far and keep the advice coming in.

My setup is around $2200, so I guess that's a bit out of your price range

 

[Fisher999]

Originally posted by: Raduque

Originally posted by: WolverineX
How does running an optical cable from your sound card to the receiver not wield true surround?

I believe it's because recievers only do DD or DTS through the optical (or coax digital), and the PC surround formats are analog. That's why you need the minijack->RCA cables.

Unless you have one of the 3 or 4 soundcards that can output a DD stream on the optical for everything (movies, music, games, even Windows sounds) like the nForce2 Soundstorm or Audigy4 (I think), the reciever is only going to understand the stream as Dolby Prologic/II at best.

Now, you can do a passthrough on the Optical connection, which lets a DVD player send DD or DTS to the reciever for true surround sound in DVDs.

GREAT POST !!!

DEAD ON !!!!

You save me some time explaining !!!-

 

[maluckey]

I run my computer through through my pre-amp, then my modified Adcom GFA-555 Power amp, then into my Polk Audio Monitor 12's. I shake the entire house when gaming. Nothing beats your bones rattling with each in-game explosion.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Raduque

Originally posted by: WolverineX
How does running an optical cable from your sound card to the receiver not wield true surround?

I believe it's because recievers only do DD or DTS through the optical (or coax digital), and the PC surround formats are analog. That's why you need the minijack->RCA cables.

Unless you have one of the 3 or 4 soundcards that can output a DD stream on the optical for everything (movies, music, games, even Windows sounds) like the nForce2 Soundstorm or Audigy4 (I think), the reciever is only going to understand the stream as Dolby Prologic/II at best.

Now, you can do a passthrough on the Optical connection, which lets a DVD player send DD or DTS to the reciever for true surround sound in DVDs.

Yeah, I'm not sure if the Audigy 4 does it, but you're right about soundstorm.

The X-Mystique does it too and has gotten some very positive reviews at HT sites like AVSforum. It's not really available in the US yet afaik. I think you still have to order it from Korea. I have my eye on it though for when it become available in the US.

de8212, I have pics of the Fluance set in my sig.

As for a $400 set, I think that onkyo set is about as good as it's going to get.

If you need true surround for games, I think it's going to be very hard to find a receiver for much cheaper than that denon that has 6 channel direct input. If you want something better than your z-560s in this range, I'd say stick to Klipsch promedias then.

I had a set of z-560s for a few years and sold them back for only $40 less than what I paid for them. They were one of the best computer purchases I've made. My gf has her own set too. I only started looking at HT stuff about a year ago.

Oh, something else to think about would be that if you want a nice 5.1 set eventually, but would be willing to have an incomplete set for a while, you could have a very nice set in the end. For example: get the denon and dayton 10" sub from parts express for now and use your z-560s speakers hooked up to your receiver. It's not going to sound much better at all, but then as time goes on you'll be able to add a nice center channel and then replace the z-560 speakers as you go along (just a thought).

 

[de8212]

Thanks for the pics, Yoyo. Still not sure what I am going to do. I'll get a pic of my current set up hopefull tonight. I think if I went with towers my desk would block most of the speaker. That may not matter since those are some good sized speaker.

Any other pics?


EDIT:

One thing I am considering is replacing my old Onkyo 575x receiver that my HT is running off of. Then I could use the 575x to hook up to the pc. But it's not 6.1. You said I would need a 6.1 receiver for surorund, right?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I was wrong on the XMystique not being available in the US. :Q

Thread from today

 

[WolverineX]

Ah, thanks for the answer. So that X-Mystique converts the signal, right? If so then I think I know what will be my next purchase. I was always a little confused why my receiver switched over to pro logic since I always have it set at dd for watching movies. Thanks again guys.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: WolverineX
Ah, thanks for the answer. So that X-Mystique converts the signal, right? If so then I think I know what will be my next purchase. I was always a little confused why my receiver switched over to pro logic since I always have it set at dd for watching movies. Thanks again guys.

What it does is encode a Dolby Digital signal in real-time from all sources, so you can get true DD sound in games over a digital (optical or coaxial) cable, whereas with most other sound cards, it would just be stereo sound.

Edit: This goes for any surround sound signals that aren't pre-encoded to Dolby Digital or DTS. DVD's can be passed as DD/DTS because they already have a sound track encoded as such. Games generate sound on-the-fly of course, so that sound has to be encoded into Dolby Digital if that's how you want to output it. The other big use for realtime DD encoding is for WMV-HD stuff.

 

[WolverineX]

That makes sense. Looks like I'll snag one in the future. Thanks for clearing that up synthdude.

 

[SynthDude2001]

No problem. I'm going to pick one up myself, as soon as I upgrade to an Athlon 64 system. One of the reasons I've stuck with an nForce2/Athlon XP system this long is because of the integrated Soundstorm (which also does realtime Dolby Digital encoding)...didn't want to have to downgrade my sound capabilities just to upgrade my CPU...

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: WolverineX
Ah, thanks for the answer. So that X-Mystique converts the signal, right? If so then I think I know what will be my next purchase. I was always a little confused why my receiver switched over to pro logic since I always have it set at dd for watching movies. Thanks again guys.

What card are you using now? Are you hooked up digitally? As synth said, if you're hooked up digitally, DVD movies should be giving you real DD sound already.