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What sound card and speakers to get?

J

Jules

Lifer
Im looking to spend around 150$ or alittle more. Right now i have Sennheiser PC150 and some X-230 logitechs. Any advice on what to get?
 
Don't bother with soundcards. Spending more money on the speakers are a better idea. And be more specific, you want surround? Computer speakers? HT system?
 
Originally posted by: Ichigo
Don't bother with soundcards. Spending more money on the speakers are a better idea. And be more specific, you want surround? Computer speakers? HT system?
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Im going to be hookin up my computer to my 32inch tv so it will be pretty much a HT and a gaming System.
 
def invest in speakers first. well invest most of your money into the speakers, they are really the limiting factor in most situations.
 
Yoyo had that nice Onkyo (can't remember brand spelling >.>) HT system for like $150 refurb, and apparently it was some amazing deal. Wait for him to come into your thread.
 
Originally posted by: Ichigo
Don't bother with soundcards. Spending more money on the speakers are a better idea. And be more specific, you want surround? Computer speakers? HT system?
Click to expand...

I recently did some research on this topic, going back and looking at both technical as well as subjective reviews and tests of popular sound hardware from the Audigy 1 forward. I think it's fair to say the following: a) there is a significant quality difference between onboard chipsets like the AC97 and the add-in products from Creative and others; b) there is little difference between the various products from Creative since the Audigy 2, in terms of fidelity; c) most people are not running with speakers good enough to detect any of this.

So yeah, good speakers first, but then you'll want a good sound card to drive them. In the Creative line everything since the Audigy 2 presents basically the same level of fidelity. You can get an Audigy 2 ZS on eBay for $50 or so. Or you could just go with one of the lower-end X-Fi's, which get down to around $70.
 
You would be much better off getting a nice pair of headphones, more bang for the buck. I'd say X-Fi for around 70, then Sennheiser HD555 headphones from Amazon. Awesome soundstage for games and movies, great for music, and unbelievably comfortable.
 
Originally posted by: MyStupidMouth
Im looking to spend around 150$ or alittle more. Right now i have Sennheiser PC150 and some X-230 logitechs. Any advice on what to get?
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A little over your budget, but I bet this sound good.

link

 
Originally posted by: crossrode
Originally posted by: MyStupidMouth
Im looking to spend around 150$ or alittle more. Right now i have Sennheiser PC150 and some X-230 logitechs. Any advice on what to get?
Click to expand...

A little over your budget, but I bet this sound good.

link
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Sorry, but as YoYo?s signature says bose=crap. Extremely overpriced, nonexistent v4m, etc...

This set in particular ? no specification apart from dimensions, not even bass/treble for £200, even looks flimsy.
 
Sorry, but as YoYo?s signature says bose=crap. Extremely overpriced, nonexistent v4m, etc...
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To be fair, I am thinking YoYo had a bad experience witth Bose. Of course the expense to buy a Bose product is a major factor in considering the company's products. I too do not have the money to buy such expensive products in many instances, including these speakers. A lot of money for speakers for sure. However, I do own a pair of Bose speakers and they perform flawlessy and sound great. I think many times you see people trash a company and the fact is, it's their own user igorance that is at fault. Maybe ignorance is a bit harsh, but it is user incompotence that makes for a lot of unjust reviews of many products.
 
Originally posted by: crossrode
Sorry, but as YoYo?s signature says bose=crap. Extremely overpriced, nonexistent v4m, etc...
Click to expand...

To be fair, I am thinking YoYo had a bad experience witth Bose. Of course the expense to buy a Bose product is a major factor in considering the company's products. I too do not have the money to buy such expensive products in many instances, including these speakers. A lot of money for speakers for sure. However, I do own a pair of Bose speakers and they perform flawlessy and sound great. I think many times you see people trash a company and the fact is, it's their own user igorance that is at fault. Maybe ignorance is a bit harsh, but it is user incompotence that makes for a lot of unjust reviews of many products.
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It's not ignorance or incompetence. Go anywhere on the web, and you will find tons of people echoing YoYo's sentiment about Bose. No other speaker is so widely panned. For one example, type "bose sucks" (with the quotes) in your googlebar and click Go for 703 returns.

Sure, Bose sounds pretty good. And for the same price, you can get far superior sound. In many cases, you will get superior sound for less money. It's like the South Park episode about hybrid cars...Bose owners like the smell of their own farts 😛
 
Originally posted by: crossrode
Sorry, but as YoYo?s signature says bose=crap. Extremely overpriced, nonexistent v4m, etc...
Click to expand...

To be fair, I am thinking YoYo had a bad experience witth Bose. Of course the expense to buy a Bose product is a major factor in considering the company's products. I too do not have the money to buy such expensive products in many instances, including these speakers. A lot of money for speakers for sure. However, I do own a pair of Bose speakers and they perform flawlessy and sound great. I think many times you see people trash a company and the fact is, it's their own user igorance that is at fault. Maybe ignorance is a bit harsh, but it is user incompotence that makes for a lot of unjust reviews of many products.
Click to expand...

My bad experience is that through hearing their HT speaker products, I'm not impressed at all with what you get for the price. I wouldn't feel strongly about them negatively if they were not perceived by the public as the ultimate in speakers. If they were marketed as what they were, a set with very high WAF and reasonable sound, then I'd be all for them. The general public has the notion that they are uncompromised in design and represent the ultimate in speakers.

I?m not saying it?s a bad idea to spend that much on speakers. I just think there are MUCH better choices out there. I?ve dropped several thousand on my own sound system and without a doubt I have a much better system for myself than a Bose system. If I needed really tiny speakers and wanted to have a brand name that my neighbors would recognize, then I might have gone with Bose. I was more concerned about how things performed, as I think a lot of people feel on this forum. If you want more details about what make people think this way about Bose, read the article I linked to in my sig. I did not write it and there are a couple issues with it, but it gets the major points across that make many people irritated with Bose products.

I?m not saying my suggestions are for everyone and I know some cases where Bose could be a good idea. I don?t think this is one of my cases. You can go ahead and call what I?m doing ignorance or ?incompotence?, but I?ve demo-ed my fair share of speakers in person and I know what kind of products and sound you can get for a variety of price points. I?ve never been impressed by what Bose gets you for any given dollar amount. I?d tell you to go out and demo a speaker system from another company like Paradigm, Klipsch, Monitor Audio, Def Tech, or whatever against a similarly priced Bose system, but that?s often times hard to do based on what Bose does in their marketing strategy. If you?re happy with your own system, then that?s great. I just think that you can get a much better system for the price.
 
Originally posted by: crossrode
Sure, Bose sounds pretty good.
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What's that supposed to mean after you trashed their company (and product) after referring to what you read on Google? Do you trash other products you don't own? Do you trash products because you are incompotent as an end user? I ask becasue I see a lot of this going on.
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For the price you pay, you should do better than "pretty good" is the point.
 
bose esp in computer audio is simply inferior for the money. big brand name with doubled to tripled price basically. meaning a 200 dollar bose system sounds like a 100 dollar logitech/klipsch system😛 stick with klipsch/logitech/cambridge soundworks, they all have good bang for buck. bose is mostly about scamming the ignorant.
 
My bad experience is that through hearing their HT speaker products, I'm not impressed at all with what you get for the price
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I would certainly agree Bose products are expensive. I purchased a pair of the company's speakers for $49.99 at the Fry's Eletronics sound room one afternoon. So my experience with Bose is a good experience. Of course I have seen the outrageous price the company generally asks for Bose products. Ridiculous agreed. There are many other products out there with much better price/performance ratios.

Just for shi!z, this morning I was reading a review of a MB I purchased last week and waiting to receive tomorrow. The reviewer wrote that the RAID function sucks! The MB does not support RAID. Go figure. I did not intend to personally attack you.
 
Yeah no problem. I just wanted to be clear that I do have some reasoning for my opinions and why I have that linked in my sig. Just seeing a $400 2.1 Bose computer speakers set mentioned in this thread seems odd. I wasn't going to say anything about it since everyone is entitled to their own opinions and all, but your comments about anti-bose sentiments being based on ignorance and incompetance rubbed me the wrong way.

For that much money I'd be looking at Klipsch iFi, a pair of powered monitors, or some bookshelf speakers + amp for an alternative to the companion 5 set. I have honestly only heard the companion 5 system for a very short period of time on some source material the store was playing, so I don't have the whole picture on them. That said, I think if I added a matching x-sub to my office system, I'd have a superior system for about the same price.
 
I have two sets of older Boston Acoustic computer speakers I use. One is a 5.1 with 75 watts. It is surround with a seperate bass. I have a Creative Audigy 2 plain on there. Sounds pretty good on xp, but since I started running Vista the Creative drivers are less than desirable. I think I lost my surround mode with Vista 32 and Creative drivers for Vista.

The other set is a 2.1 Boston Acoustic desktop set. Not sure about the wattage, but they sound better than average stuff out there I see today. Had this one a while. Of course, my Boston Acoustics speakers don't have the raw power of my 100 watt Marshall tube amp with the two Celestion speakers whn I crank it on with my strat! LOL! 8)
 
I think you should go with some form of Creative X-Fi. Maybe a used set of Logitech Z-5300e. I own a Z-5300e but I'm not so sure if I have room or need for them anymore since I just got turntables and a mixer into my room.
 
Originally posted by: MyStupidMouth
Im looking to spend around 150$ or alittle more. Right now i have Sennheiser PC150 and some X-230 logitechs. Any advice on what to get?
Click to expand...

For one thing, the $150 or a little more may not allow for much of a upgrade from what you already have. I can't make specific suggestions for your situation because I already own the Logitech x-230's and a Creatibe SB Audigy 2. Those two items are around $100 and very close to what you have. Perhaps a 5.1 or 7.1 audigy speaker system with a lillte more wattage is the way to go. I can tell you if you plan on upgrading to Vista anytime sooon, the Creative drivers for Vista at this time are pathetic. Maybe just some more wattage would be a good upgrade for that money.

 
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