HOT: Digitheatre DTS 5.1 speaker SALE $299 thru 3/10

[hotstuff2000]

These speakers are reviewed here and here and origanally cost several hundred more. BuyPCDirect has a sale running through 10 March only. Manufacturer info here. I have had my eye on these for about 6 months. They really blow the doors off anything else in the sub-$1000 arena, IMHO. They accept optical, coax or analog inputs, support Dolby Digital 5.1 AND DTS and work great for either overkill for your PC or an awesome home theatre speaker system They are from the UK and not well known here, but reviews state they are as good or better than the offers from Logitech, Klipsch, etc.

The coolest thing about this deal is that I missed the last sale in 2002 and emailed them about this product. They actually kept my email address ON FILE AND PERSONALLY WROTE ME to notify me of this sale?!?! Sheesh that deserves a sale right there (!) Anyway I'm getting the speakers with mounting kit for about $350 shipped clear across the country.

 

[nutxo]

mmmmmmmmm


after getting royally screwed by logitechs dishonesty and incompetence these look pretty tempting

 

[Quixotic]

man... why do you have to do this to me? I'm about to graduate... don't wanna have to lug another set around lol

 

[sparkyclarky]

Good, but I wouldn't say that they blow the doors off of anything in the sub-$1000 arena. The Onkyo HT-S650 has great reviews everywhere and comes with a receiver that does DD, DTS, and Pro-Logic II. For $500 you get a much more versatile component system. But, for $300, this is a good deal.

 

[iwearnosox]

Originally posted by: sparkyclarky
Good, but I wouldn't say that they blow the doors off of anything in the sub-$1000 arena. The Onkyo HT-S650 has great reviews everywhere and comes with a receiver that does DD, DTS, and Pro-Logic II. For $500 you get a much more versatile component system. But, for $300, this is a good deal.

You apparently own a giant desk to hold up those 16.5" tall speakers, then?

I have the digitheater dts, actually bought them from the same vendor. They are great.

 

[thomas997]

huh?

the onkyo system uses bookshelf sized speakers..


and this system cant play games in 5.1 just like my current system (midiland 8200 or something) which sucks

can klipsch 4.1 or 5.1 work with surround gaming?

thx

 

[Mani]

I've got these also, and they ROCK. Great for movies but music is just breathtaking.

 

[yhelothar]

wow they have the regular digitheater without the dts for only $90.. GOOD DEAL!!!!

 

[randomlinh]

net necessarily (on the $90 speakers)... i've heard they aren't all that..

 

[yhelothar]

yeah they're pretty good.. they certainly blow speakers like Logitech Z-640 out of the water..
they have very good midrange..

 

[Tbones]

wow it seems like these speakers rock big time after reading all of the reviews and posts. I've been looking for these for the longest time after reading sound surge, ...thanks I just ordered mine right now before they sell out again.

 

[JJMcKay]

Hate to break it to you guys but these are like always going for 300 range. This is not really a hot deal as it's normal price. Sure, the MSRP is like 600 but if you look, all the stores have it for about 300 with a "massive" markdown.

 

[thomas997]

wtf this makes no sense...

why would you spend so much on a sound card with dts decoding, when the thing itself has dts decoding...

 

[Rkonster]

Oh boy, I need to find another 300 dollars.

 

[abaez]

You'd need to find a soundcard with digital outputs right to use the dd/dts on these speakers?

 

[sparkyclarky]

Originally posted by: iwearnosox

Originally posted by: sparkyclarky
Good, but I wouldn't say that they blow the doors off of anything in the sub-$1000 arena. The Onkyo HT-S650 has great reviews everywhere and comes with a receiver that does DD, DTS, and Pro-Logic II. For $500 you get a much more versatile component system. But, for $300, this is a good deal.

You apparently own a giant desk to hold up those 16.5" tall speakers, then?

I have the digitheater dts, actually bought them from the same vendor. They are great.

For high quality speakers, you have to make room, simple as that. And 16.5" isn't exactly huge by any stretch of the word.

 

[sparkyclarky]

Originally posted by: thomas997
huh?

the onkyo system uses bookshelf sized speakers..


and this system cant play games in 5.1 just like my current system (midiland 8200 or something) which sucks

can klipsch 4.1 or 5.1 work with surround gaming?

thx

You need to get yourself an NF2 with Soundstorm. DD 5.1 encoding solves that problem nicely!

 

[ClakClak]

Originally posted by: JJMcKay
Hate to break it to you guys but these are like always going for 300 range. This is not really a hot deal as it's normal price. Sure, the MSRP is like 600 but if you look, all the stores have it for about 300 with a "massive" markdown.

Maybe you were looking at the UK prices in pounds instead of dollars. These actually go for $360 back then when both icuii and buypcdirect where selling them, and there was actually another company that were selling these for $500. So this is a great price for $299 for these quality speakers.

 

[Merlyn3D]

The reviews don't seem to like the DVD performance, something that I'm proud to say my klipsch 5.1's and logitech z680's both excel at.

 

[iwearnosox]

Originally posted by: sparkyclarky

Originally posted by: iwearnosox

Originally posted by: sparkyclarky
Good, but I wouldn't say that they blow the doors off of anything in the sub-$1000 arena. The Onkyo HT-S650 has great reviews everywhere and comes with a receiver that does DD, DTS, and Pro-Logic II. For $500 you get a much more versatile component system. But, for $300, this is a good deal.

You apparently own a giant desk to hold up those 16.5" tall speakers, then?

I have the digitheater dts, actually bought them from the same vendor. They are great.

For high quality speakers, you have to make room, simple as that. And 16.5" isn't exactly huge by any stretch of the word.

Uh, or buy something that's higher quality and smaller size like the videlogic. They use peerless drivers, if I'm not mistaken. Guaranteed the onkyos are nowhere near that quality.

 

[hotstuff2000]

Originally posted by: JJMcKay
Hate to break it to you guys but these are like always going for 300 range. This is not really a hot deal as it's normal price. Sure, the MSRP is like 600 but if you look, all the stores have it for about 300 with a "massive" markdown.

Well I have been actively looking for these for about 6 months and never seen them below $390. Also I know of no other USA distributor that carries these (at least not online). There was a sale where they were $275, that's what piqued my interest, but I only heard about it after the fact. $300 is definately a sale in my experience watching the prices. Maybe to you $390 is still "300 range" but to me its almost 25% off the already discounted price (they claim 58% OFF in all) and a huge discount for an awesome product
Mine are on the way; however i have two questions:

(1) I don't understand why these "dont work for surround gaming" but I am buying an nforce2 motherboard this week also (as soon as AT reviews the MSI something ILSR and the Abit boards, which they have promised is forthcoming). I will be able to do surround gaming with this setup right? Do I need to make sure I have "soundstorm audio" or will these two boards both include that (hopefully any respectable m/b maker will take full advangtage of the nforce2 APU)

(2) Is there a sound quality difference b/t the regular (non DTS) version for like $90 and these for $300 except for the DTS? I would certainly buy a set of the regular to go along with the DTS if that's the case. Not much is actually in DTS.

Also I dont understand the comment "the reviews didn't like the DVD performance." This thing has OPTICAL input so whatever sound it is receiving, is what will be played back. There is no integrated DVD player, so if DVD audio is lacking, it is due to what your standalone DVD player is outputting to the speakers, not the videologics themselves. There should be no difference in which source is sending the audio, except as far as the quality of the source itself.

Yes, I dont understand the DTS sound card either?!? At least not as a combo for THESE speakers.

Anyway I can't WAIT to try mine out!!

 

[RSXRacer]

This is a HOT deal. These speakers uses Audax drivers which are pretty well known for quality. I've also been looking around for these for the past few months, and they lowest out there that I could find was around $420 on UK sites. It was pretty hard to find any U.S distributors on these, thanks AT for finding a U.S distributor buypcdirect.com for me. I was about to order one of these videologic dts speaker sets from Europe, but luckily I read this site first for a US vendor. I got the dts combo with the dts soundcard. You guys saved me hundreds, thanks!!!

"The reviews don't seem to like the DVD performance, something that I'm proud to say my klipsch 5.1's and logitech z680's both excel at. "Merlyn3D ------- From what I heard, these speakers perform magnificently in DVD performance. Most of the reviews that I read rated 10/10 for dvd performance.

 

[sumrtym]

Originally posted by: hotstuff2000

(1) I don't understand why these "dont work for surround gaming" but I am buying an nforce2 motherboard this week also (as soon as AT reviews the MSI something ILSR and the Abit boards, which they have promised is forthcoming). I will be able to do surround gaming with this setup right? Do I need to make sure I have "soundstorm audio" or will these two boards both include that (hopefully any respectable m/b maker will take full advangtage of the nforce2 APU)

They don't have an analog input for the rears. Thus, unless the game is in dolby digital (like Doom III will be) OR you have an nforce board that encodes sound to dolby digital on the fly, you won't get surround sound in games. Make sure your mobo has soundstorm audio and it's not an issue.

Originally posted by: hotstuff2000

(2) Is there a sound quality difference b/t the regular (non DTS) version for like $90 and these for $300 except for the DTS? I would certainly buy a set of the regular to go along with the DTS if that's the case. Not much is actually in DTS.

HUGE difference. The DTS uses extremely high quality front and rear speakers. The sub is much better than that in the non DTS version. I'd stay away from the non-DTS personally (and yes, I own a pair of the DTS).

Forget about a DTS soundcard because it's not needed. These work great hooked up to a standalone DVD player or a computer. Bought one for my parents for their home theatre, one for me for my computer, and a friend bought my first set from me the first time we unpacked them and he heard them (had to order a replacement set for myself).

Here's my honest opinion:

Bass isn't that heavy....very balanced approach. Klipsch bass will blow these away, but Klipsch highs are horrible. If you just care about having 10,000 watts in your car without a thought to sound quality and that crack developing in your windshield, well, then you're the type of guy who'd like a Klipsch. Logitechs don't offer near the sound quality, and for all this, you also get a remote control.

Buy em, you won't be sorry.

 

[Lark888]

$349 now

 

[Quixotic]

Originally posted by: hotstuff2000


(2) Is there a sound quality difference b/t the regular (non DTS) version for like $90 and these for $300 except for the DTS? I would certainly buy a set of the regular to go along with the DTS if that's the case. Not much is actually in DTS.

Also I dont understand the comment "the reviews didn't like the DVD performance." This thing has OPTICAL input so whatever sound it is receiving, is what will be played back. There is no integrated DVD player, so if DVD audio is lacking, it is due to what your standalone DVD player is outputting to the speakers, not the videologics themselves. There should be no difference in which source is sending the audio, except as far as the quality of the source itself.

Yes, I dont understand the DTS sound card either?!? At least not as a combo for THESE speakers.

Anyway I can't WAIT to try mine out!!

Yes, there is definitely a difference. The DTS version is the one receiving accolades upon accolades. The non-DTS version isn't anything special. The speakers and sub differ between the two -- it's not like DTS is the only difference.

As for the comment about DVD performance, according to 3dSoundSurge, the DigiTheatre DTS "uses a slightly lower quality, not perfectly matched drivers for the center speaker and the amplifier quality is not up to the same standards of the excellent Sirocco Crossfire," another model by VideoLogic that is superior to the Klipsch speakers (I won't even mention Logitech here -- often you get what you pay for, and this is exactly the case here). For music quality and DVD usage, I would probably go with the DigiTheatre DTS. For exaggerated bass, I'd go with the Logitech/Klipsch. For gaming, I'd definitely go for the Logitech/Klipsch.

Another great solution for music and bass is the Boston Acoustic 7800. These are going for $75 plus $30 shipping on eBay now, a lot cheaper than when I got them for $200 shipped a year ago. For $105 shipped, they are an awesome buy for the dollar (I would be willing to pay up to $250 for them).

As for the DTS card advertised with the VideoLogic DigiTheatre DTS, you don't need to get it. The only things that make it DTS compatible are the WinDVD 4 software included (that does the DTS decoding) and the SPDIF output on the card.