Help with first decent speaker setup.

[tailschao]

Let me fist say that this will be my first proper speaker setup ever, and everything I know I have found out within the past couple of weeks from a combination of numerous Google searches and Jello's Excellent Home Theater Thread
So, some of these are probably stupid questions, but please bear with me.

Recently I've been thinking about getting some decent speakers for my room. I've pretty much decided on a pair of Axiom M3's. I'll only be using them for music, so surround is not needed. I'll probably add a sub later. I've got a budget of £300 BTW, so if anyone in the UK knows of anything better I can get for the price, please say. Good audio Equipment seems to be notoriously difficult to find in Britain

Now: Receivers.
As far as I know, the purpose of a receiver is a Switcher, Decoder and Amplifier. Am I right?
The only audio source will be my X-Fi Soundcard in my computer. Won't that provide all the necessary amplification and decoding? As I will have only one audio source, and any video won't be going through the receiver, I don't really need a switcher either. So - what purpose will a receiver serve if i do get one?

Assuming that I don't need one, how would I go about connecting the 3.5mm jack on my soundcard to the (I assume Banana Plug) inputs on the speakers?

One More thing, will it be safe to mount one of them onto a plasterboard wall using this? It's an exterior wall, but there's a layer of a hollow sounding material that I assume is plasterboard before the actual brick. The speakers weigh ~6KG each.

Thanks

 

[Tiamat]

B&W should be easy to find in Britain, as well as many other excellent english speakers!

Receivers - They are switchers, processors, amplifiers, preamplifiers, AND Fm/AM

If the only audio source is your computer soundcard, it acts as the SOURCE. The soundcard does not provide anything else. Amplifiers are power sources, the soundcard does not have that.

In your case, you do not need a receiver. If you feel the soundquality coming out of your analog outs on your soundcard are sufficient for you, all you really need is an external amplifier.

Here is what needs to happen (at the simplest):

(Typical is: Source -> Processing -> Preamp -> Amplifier -> Speaker)
Source -> Amplification -> speakers

Computer -> Amplifier -> Speakers

Computer connects to amplifier using a 3.5mm stereo to RCA L/R connector you buy from radio shack. You then buy an RCA Interconnect L/R to L/R at whatever length you need. This connects to the back of the amplifier.

Your speakers need to connect to an amplifier via speaker cables which may are may not be terminated in banana type plugs.


When i was in your position when i got started with audio, all of the external amplifiers that provided sufficient power were too expensive. So, I got an integrated amplifier. This is a stereo amplifier with a volume control knob and source selector. I got 40 Watts per channel (usually good enough unless your speakers have very low sensitivity) Cambridge Audio integrated amp. NAD makes good integrated amps as well. They typically go for 400-500$US.

If you want to take a chance, try this amplifier: Sonic Impact Gen 2 T-Amp
or Sonic Impact Super-T Amplifier

These have very small power, but are good enough if you sit 3-5 feet away from the speakers. If your room is larger than say 18'x12'x9' then you may want to consider a normal integrated amp in the 450$US range.


Sorry, I dont know anything about your construction/mounting question.