Better for gaming - Z5500 or this Onkyo HTIB?

[viivo]

I've narrowed it down to these two choices which fall within my budget. This will be for a gaming PC only.

Here's the Onkyo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16882120081

Which would give me the best listening experience for gaming and the occasional movie?

Thanks.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

The Onkyo set should be better. The easiest way to hook that up for computer gaming would be a digital connection that can encode DD or DTS. Do you have that from your integrated sound or soundcard?

 

[viivo]

Yes, I have a HT Omega Striker 7.1 (onboard Dolby and DTS encoding) currently connected to a old Philips HTIB with the optical in.

The only problem is I have to switch between 2 channel and 6 channel since Vista doesn't do it automatically so I lose sounds in games that don't support it. I heard that analog would help with that, but I know very little about it.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I haven't switched from XP yet so I don't have enough knowledge about how vista deals with the 2 channel 6 channel issue you're talking about.

If you do connect via analog, you'll probably need to be able to set a crossover control with your soundcard since 8 channel direct probably bypasses the receiver's bass management. Is there an option for crossover control in the HT Omega's controls?

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

x2 for the Onkyo

 

[QuantumPion]

I used to own a similar Onkyo HTIB for my home theater. The quality was so crappy that I sold them within a week.

Right now I use the Klipsch promedias for my PC which I love, I wish they still made them.

I used to own an older logitech 4.1 set before the klipschs and I thought the quality was acceptable for the price, but not amazing. I would go with logitech over onkyo in any case.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: QuantumPion
I used to own a similar Onkyo HTIB for my home theater. The quality was so crappy that I sold them within a week.

Right now I use the Klipsch promedias for my PC which I love, I wish they still made them.

I used to own an older logitech 4.1 set before the klipschs and I thought the quality was acceptable for the price, but not amazing. I would go with logitech over onkyo in any case.

Yeah, for $400 I would get the Marantz 3001 if I didn't care about HDMI, and then get the recession buster speakers and build my own enclosure for $200 or so (with materials) and spend about $350. If you wanted a sub I'd get the Boston Acoustic MS100 and be at $400. You could also do the same with Polk for the same price. The Mirage Nanostat's would be better as well, but no sub again. If you didn't mind starting off with a smaller system and building up, you could do Polk tower 50's+Polk sub+the Polk center (which I can't find on amazon) for about the same price.

If you need HDMI you can do the Onkyo SR506 for same price about.

If you still wanted to buy an Onkyo HTIB though go here.


EDIT:
Personally I would avoid the Onkyo HTIB (I was looking at one at CC closeout as well, but have since decided it wasn't even worth the money). Also Newegg is great for PC stuff, but you can find better deals on most other things from them (sometimes TV's are good as well). If you are able to up your budget at all, go with the Polk tower system. If $400 is the limit and you don't need/want a sub, then go with the Mirage. If you need/want a sub I'd go with Polk, then Boston Acoustics.

There are many other options available, just gotta spend time looking.

 

[cheesehead]

Get a used receiver - say, an old Sony - with coaxial digital input. You can get one on Craigslist for $60 or so.

Spend the remaining money on some proper speakers. You won't get much for the kind of money you're spending, but you might be able to afford some Insignia B-2111s.

Or do what I would do - just get the speakers used, too.

 

[Christobevii3]

If you are wanting a low end kenwood receiver for this I have one I will sell. The ht-omega striker sounds awesome over dts/ddl.

 

[bigsnyder]

I had a great "quad" setup with an old marantz quadraphonic receiver and some cheap bookshelf speakers.

 

[Tiamat]

Read this. If you cannot set up the multichannel system as noted by Dolby, then you may want to divert your funds to a stereo setup with higher quality components.

 

[Aharami]

i recently bought the S5100 and although I'd love to tout its awesomeness, I cant, because even though it is good, it is not awesome. The sub is kinda lacking, which is surprising since it is a decent sized sub