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Speaker and Sound card recomendations

Z

Zolty

Diamond Member
I am working on a video editing pc for my GF.

I am curious to hear recommendations for a sound card / speaker set up, Most of her projects will be 2.1, so no need to go with anything with more channels. I would like to keep it under $500, and as studio quality as possible.

If you would like to comment on the PC I would also like to hear it, I had 5 TB that I was going to throw on Raid 5, but I got veto'd due to cost, so I am going to have 1TB of storage mirrored. And she is going to use externals for storing projects she is not working on.

She is using premier pro 2 at the moment if that matters, and she isn't doing any HD video quite yet, although she is doing some 480p work, that her 3 year old $200 emachine handles fine.
 
I'm confused, if this is for video editing, where would the speakers and sound card come in? I'd suppose if you were doing the recording with the PC, a good sound card would be useful, but speakers for video editing? Could you please clarify that?
 
She primarily edits video from live band performances, sound is a fairly important in that regard. We record onto a Korg D888, and then mix the tracks down to something more manageable. So the process of making the main mix for our shoots is why the speakers are important, if I am not going to hear a difference between onboard and a sound card then I don't think I need a sound card.

The other option is to use the optical out and just pump it to a receiver, but that seems costly.
 
Ahh, okay. I was just trying to see what kind of use they'd see. To most people, speakers are speakers and soundcards are soundcards and they'd be hard pressed to tell much of a difference. However, in that regard, if audio quality is a requirement, then it makes sense to look into some of the more professional offerings. It probably wouldn't be anything you could get off Newegg though.
 
The most professional solution would be a pair of bi-amped studio reference monitors connected to a pro soundcard or recording interface, but for that your looking at a minimum of $500
 
DarkRouge > I am not sold on newegg, I just like their wishlist system and return policy, if you have a suggestion for a specific product by all means post it.

GuitarDaddy > Could you make a few specific recommendations? $500 isn't a hard limit, I would say $1000 is the absolute highest we would go, but I would have to convince her that it's worth it.
 
Well, I'm not the most knowledgeable about audio either. I get my advice from one of my friends who happens to be an audiophile.
Anyway, as far as the speakers go, he suggested these Aego M's when I set a hard limit of $200, and he still complained it was too low. Still, I wasn't about to pay $300 more for professional equipment without knowing I could actually hear a difference. I quite enjoy these, although they're discontinued now.

As for where you can buy them, I bought these at AudioAdvisor.com. I had a very pleasant experience with them. Their pre-sales advised me to call them, which I did, and he managed to expedite my order to get shipped the same day. They also have what appears to be a 30-day money back satisfaction guarantee, which I liked. I wasn't entirely sure I would like these speakers, so I ordered from there since they had that kind of safety net.
 
Originally posted by: Zolty
DarkRouge > I am not sold on newegg, I just like their wishlist system and return policy, if you have a suggestion for a specific product by all means post it.

GuitarDaddy > Could you make a few specific recommendations? $500 isn't a hard limit, I would say $1000 is the absolute highest we would go, but I would have to convince her that it's worth it.
Click to expand...

These would do the trick

Card

Monitors

That would be just over $400 and thats about as low as I would go.


 
Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
Originally posted by: Zolty
DarkRouge > I am not sold on newegg, I just like their wishlist system and return policy, if you have a suggestion for a specific product by all means post it.

GuitarDaddy > Could you make a few specific recommendations? $500 isn't a hard limit, I would say $1000 is the absolute highest we would go, but I would have to convince her that it's worth it.
Click to expand...

These would do the trick

Card

Monitors

That would be just over $400 and thats about as low as I would go.
Click to expand...

I have those monitors and the M-Audio 410, which is pretty much the same as that card. I use it for a low-end home recording setup, and its pretty nice. Those monitors; however, are not gonna cut it on the low end. I'd pick up a 8" or 10" sub. Some good, cheap subs can be had over at partsexpress. Here's a link to the one I use, 10" Sub and it definately puts out the low end.

Also, I got those monitors for $50 cheaper than that link, so shop around. If you want an external sound card, I would recommend the M-Audio 410 or you can go with Presonus's Firebox. M-Audio gives you ProTools compatibility, if you wanna go that route.
 
How about a pair of these KRK RoKit RP5 G2 bi-amped studio monitors for $150 each? This latest iteration was released in June.

They get great reviews and, unlike the Bx5a, have a dedicated knob for high frequency level adjustment, plus a RCA input FWIW.
 
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