Regular speakers / audio system added to a PC?

[GT1999]

I'm thinking with all of the PC speaker setups out there being fairly sub-par, even the Klipsch 5.1's in some people's eyes (pure audiophiles), if there was any opinions on what would be a good regular sound system setup that could be added to a PC? I'm a complete newbie to this...

Price range: $600-$1000 total with a good amp + speakers --- maybe a few different options for price ranges or something would be nice.

Edit: I also need a recommendation on a good sound card, but not too pricey I assume.. to upgrade from my SB Live! Value. I'll use the good sound setup, amp, and stuff with it if possible and I'll be playing mp3s.

 

[andrew2w]

I searched and searched for a good 4.1 setup(granted they are up to 6.1) however, I purchased the Altec Lansing 641. Do a froogle.com search and you can pick them up for 150-200. You will be absolutely amazed at these speakers. I live for music, and this computer speaker system rivals my home theater with Boss speakers and Yamaha amps. I have this hooked up to an onboard sound card in a dell 4450. I repeat these speakers are INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!. Makes Klipsche sound like Logitech. I had even pondered buying a second set so I could have eight speakers and two subs, but I honestly(outside of the eight speaker surround) think It would be too much..

 

[RollWave]

What I just recently did was drop the klipsch 4.1s got a Pioneer Receiver, a pair of Polk Audio RTi38s, and a dayton 10" sub that blows any computer speaker sub outta the water. THe total was about 700 maybe a little over. I have never been happier. As far as speakers, Andrew, I hope you're not talking about Bose speakers as their home theater speaks sucks ass.

 

[GT1999]

Originally posted by: rnp614
What I just recently did was drop the klipsch 4.1s got a Pioneer Receiver, a pair of Polk Audio RTi38s, and a dayton 10" sub that blows any computer speaker sub outta the water. THe total was about 700 maybe a little over. I have never been happier. As far as speakers, Andrew, I hope you're not talking about Bose speakers as their home theater speaks sucks ass.

That sounds like a good system..

Do you know of any good audiophile sites that could give recommendations and stuff like you just gave me?

ie, cabling, setup, brands, etc.

 

[RollWave]

ok well the first place that is handy is partsexpress.com. I got all my cables and sub (10" assembled dayton sub) from there--All dayton branded. The quality as well is price is hard to beat. The speakers I got off of Crutchfield.com which doesnt have good prices usually, but since the Polk RTi38 is a discontinued model they were discounted heavily and are HELLUVA steal at 250. The advantage of buying off a site like crutchfield is if you dont like the sound of the speaker they will pay the shipping back to them (shipping to you is free as well) and they are liscenced dealers of everything they sell as far as I know. That means you get the manufacturer warranty. If you dont buy from a licensed dealer and something happens you're screwed.

The receiver i got was from best buy and was a VSX-812D. This ran about 280 but again I bought from them so I could get a warranty of 4 years. With equipment as expensive as this I didnt want to take any chances.


As far as recommendations I have done EXTENSIVE research into the low end speaker market, what kind of things are you looking into?

What kind of Sound do you like? Treble heavy? Bass Heavy? Neutral?

Are you looking to expand your system from 2.1 to hometheater?

 

[Bozo Galora]

aego

 

[RollWave]

Originally posted by: Bozo Galora
aego

booooo

 

[StevenRFrancis]

A lot of poeple do this, including myself. Check over at AVSforums to find out all the info. Anyway I built a separate comp just for music. Very minimal requirements. One sound card that is popular is the m-Audio Revolution. Sound quality is top of its class if you just need to play music. Also, it doesnt upconvert cd 44.1kHz to 48 like the majority of sound cards out there. And it has digital coax out so you can hook it up to a home theater reciever. As for speakers, almost everyone will tell you to audition them anyway, but check over AVS and they'll hook you up.

 

[Pariah]

Creative Gigaworks S750 + DDTS-100 Decoder + Audigy 2 ZS.

A bit under $700 for the whole setup. About as good as you're going to get in the under $1000 range new. If you would rather go with a 5.1 setup instead of 7.1, you can save $100 going with the Gigaworks S700's. $1000 is a bit low to try and build a decent 5.1+ HT component setup with receiver.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Polk RT28i make great fronts or rears, especially paired with a sub.

RT38s would work very well even without a sub, but if you buy 2 pair from curtchfield.com they'll give you a free Polk sub anyway ($500 total, shipped).

Pair them with a receiver that has analog 5.1 in * (Pioneer 812(?) / 912 or Onkyo 501(?) / 601) and an Audigy 2 ZS and you'll have a sweet setup for music, movies and games.

* The (?) are because I haven't checked whether the cheaper models have analog in. You need analog since only nforce motherboards can send multichannel game audio through the digital output to a receiver.