New speakers vs old?

eddiew · 29 Aug 2011 at 18:16

Guys, query!

I have a set of age-old Creative 5.1 speakers. They're a little bit dusty and the grille has broken on the sub, but otherwise they are in complete working order. However I have had them since ~2002, and they were 2nd hand even then

So the question - is there a reason to replace them? Would I hear a difference by buying some brand new speakers? Is 7.1 actually noticable vs 5.1? (If you'd say yes, any recommendations on something below £100?)

They're coupled with an X-Fi Fatality, which I think is pretty good as soundcards go ^^

Thanks for any input!

Uriel · 29 Aug 2011 at 21:54

Which age old Creative speakers?

eddiew · 30 Aug 2011 at 08:30

Uriel said:
Which age old Creative speakers?

I honestly don't know... no conspicuous model name, all I know is they're 5.1 with a separate volume control. I will see if there's a label on the back when I get home from work!

[Damien] · 30 Aug 2011 at 10:31

Is the volume control a silver one with an LCD on it? If so it might be the Z-5500's. I don't know when they were released though. Might have been later than 2002. They're good speakers though.

Marsman · 30 Aug 2011 at 11:04

Z-5500's are made by Logitech.

eddiew · 30 Aug 2011 at 18:53

They turned out to be Creative Inspire 5300's. Moderate-good reviews, from a quick googling. But old... what scored 7-8/10 back in 2002 might be a 3/10 now for all I know! ^^'

DarkBahamut · 30 Aug 2011 at 21:28

My personal experience of the audio market is that performance comes from money, not time. Unlikely say, CPUs or GPUs where a £400 part will happily get beaten by a £60 part 4 or 5 years latter, in audio if something cost £100 10 years ago, you'd probably need to spend £130+ now to even match it.

This is made even worse by the fact that the PC audio market for 5.1 all but stalled 8 years ago. After creative released the Inspire range in 2001/2002 (which i owned a set of from new - the 5700s), Logitech brought out the Z-5500s in 2003 (i think?), then 8 years later replaced them with a worse product at a higher price.

In short, unless you have decent money to spend, you are probably better off sticking with what you have. You probably need £200-250 minimum to see a real upgrade.

eddiew · 31 Aug 2011 at 08:53

Fair enough, thanks for the advice

There's really nothing wrong with these speakers, I was just curious as to whether tech had moved them on at all in the invervening decade ^^