Best Speakers for my new X-fi Titanium hd?

meusli · 13 Mar 2011 at 21:42

Just bought this sound card and I am now on the market for some new speakers that do this card justice. The sound card is used for home entertainment, music and heavy games usage. The home entertainment option is sorted via a optical cable linked to my home surround sound in the front room.
The speakers I was looking into would be the Edifier s550, through these I will play my music and games. Are these a good option for this sound card or would you recommended a alternative?

meusli · 14 Mar 2011 at 16:45

I am now looking at the Edifier R1600T's for proper stereo and then maybe buy two more at a later date? Man this is hard!

Kanpai · 14 Mar 2011 at 17:51

What about Logitech Z-5500's? Or the new replacement ones coming out http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18251044

meusli · 14 Mar 2011 at 18:00

Thanks for the reply.

I looked into the Z-5500 and they were the ones I was going to originally get. It turns out that the Edifier s550 are better for the same price so I would rather stick with them. The new Z-906's are interesting even though they look cheaper than the z-5500 but until someone buys them the quality is a little unknown.

Andrew Moore · 14 Mar 2011 at 18:06

When these all arrive I will gladly have a look into what sounds nicer between the S550, Z5500 and the Z906.

S550 is the top spot at the moment, only time will tell

Boozebeard · 14 Mar 2011 at 18:37

The titanium HD can only out put stereo, unless you use digital which would be a waste =/

meusli · 14 Mar 2011 at 18:47

Andrew Moore said:
When these all arrive I will gladly have a look into what sounds nicer between the S550, Z5500 and the Z906.

S550 is the top spot at the moment, only time will tell

Hi Andrew, I noticed in another thread you have a pair of r1600t's and would also like you to throw them into the review mix as an alternative. If it's not too much trouble.

Boozebeard said:
The titanium HD can only out put stereo, unless you use digital which would be a waste =/

Why would it be a waste? I have read a few reviews and they don't mention this.

Boozebeard · 15 Mar 2011 at 14:45

Ok, this is what I understand of sound cards, It may not be 100% accurate technically but I believe the basic principle is right.

The main property of a sound card is to work as a DAC (digital audio converter) it converts the digital data the pc makes into analogue data for your speakers. This is one reason why higher quality cards produce higher quality audio as they convert it more accurately.

If you use a digital connection from your sound card then the sound card doesn't convert the information, it is instead converted to analogue by the dac on what ever device you have connected it to, which will not be as high quality as your dedicated sound cards dac.

Marsman · 15 Mar 2011 at 14:52

The Edifers only use analogue input for 5.1. Titanium HD is stereo analogue card. To connect it to a 5.1 speaker system, you would need to use SPDIF. Z5500's have SPDIF input, as well as 5.1 analogue.

MikeHunt79 · 15 Mar 2011 at 14:55

Boozebeard said:
Ok, this is what I understand of sound cards, It may not be 100% accurate technically but I believe the basic principle is right.

The main property of a sound card is to work as a DAC (digital audio converter) it converts the digital data the pc makes into analogue data for your speakers. This is one reason why higher quality cards produce higher quality audio as they convert it more accurately.

Correct, but it's often down to the output stage as well as the DAC.

Boozebeard said:
If you use a digital connection from your sound card then the sound card doesn't convert the information, it is instead converted to analogue by the dac on what ever device you have connected it to, which will not be as high quality as your dedicated sound cards dac.

It's not quite so simple I'm afraid. It all depends on what DAC your soundcard uses and what DAC your external device uses. You can even get external DAC's which can offer better sound quality than a soundcard, but they are often pretty expensive for what they are...

As for speaker recommendations, you can spend anything from £5 to £50,000, but on an X-fi you probably won't have to spend vast amounts of cash as it's nor really high end.

Marsman · 15 Mar 2011 at 14:58

Buying a £150 sound card, to go and connect speakers via SPDIF, is a waste of money really. The reason why a sound card, such as the Titanium HD costs more money, is because of the quality of it's DAC and analogue components. If you use SPDIF, you will not be using those components. You might as well be using a £20-£50 sound card. When using SPDIF, the sound quality is entirely down to the speakers DAC and analogue components, not the sound card. The sound card is only used to send the data, thus a £150 would sound the same as a £20 one.

Boozebeard · 15 Mar 2011 at 14:59

MikeHunt79 said:
It's not quite so simple I'm afraid. It all depends on what DAC your soundcard uses and what DAC your external device uses. You can even get external DAC's which can offer better sound quality than a soundcard, but they are often pretty expensive for what they are...

As for speaker recommendations, you can spend anything from £5 to £50,000, but on an X-fi you probably won't have to spend vast amounts of cash as it's nor really high end.

Oh yes sorry. I kind of wrote that wrong, I was thinking along the lines of the kind of things he's been looking at. Of course you can get external devices with extremely high quality dacs (much more so than sound cards).

One thing to note about z5500's. I have read on these forums that they may actually convert income analogue to digital and then back to analogue again, so even if you connect them via analogue you're still not getting the advantage of your sound cards dac. I don't know if this was ever confirmed though and I don't know if the new z906 are the same.

Marsman · 15 Mar 2011 at 15:17

That's a good point Boozebeard. I have also seen that said of the Z5500's. Either way, it's a waste of what is potentially a very good sound card, to connect the Z5500's or their successor to the Titanium HD.

If it were me, I'd be looking at either a stereo amp and passive speakers, or powered speakers. 2.1 speakers is another option, probably Aego's at minimum. £50 2.1 speakers with a Titanium HD, would also be a waste.

Andrew Moore · 15 Mar 2011 at 15:24

meusli said:
Hi Andrew, I noticed in another thread you have a pair of r1600t's and would also like you to throw them into the review mix as an alternative. If it's not too much trouble.

Hello!

As the R1600Ts go they are very good. But the issue you face with them is that they are a completely different when compared to the S550. I love the quality of the S550. I think that they are leagues ahead of the Z5500 and as such if I was looking for a nice 5.1 set up for my PC I would buy those. If however I was after listening to music more so than anything else then I would probably opt for the R1600Ts because there just isnt a PC speaker set that can match a set of dedicated bookshelf speakers for music quality.