AV receiver or PC Speakers for 5.1?

Gimpymoo · 25 Oct 2019 at 20:50

Looking to get one of the kids a 5.1 setup for Christmas for their room.

They already have a PC in the room and all the music/video etc goes through the computer anyway.

My question is, do I go the route of active PC speakers with optical in/get a soundcard and run to a 5.1 set of PC speakers.

Or, get an AV receiver and speakers?

PC speakers would be cheaper and maybe less faff but a seperates system would offer best quality I feel and offer a future upgrade path and could create a second zone for music with suited speakers.

Thanks.

brakeinup · 27 Oct 2019 at 15:17

How big is the room?

Gimpymoo · 27 Oct 2019 at 16:10

brakeinup said:
How big is the room?

Small

9ft x 6ft

TV is mounted at cabin bed height.

brakeinup · 27 Oct 2019 at 16:48

Do you really need 5.1? That room size could be restrictive. You could do it with something like the Cambridge Audio Minx 5.1 system as the speakers are small, but would depend on your budget, AVR etc.

I did do 5.0 for a short while with an AVR connected to the PC. Cables everywhere but as I couldn't set it up optimally due to room restrictions I went for a pair of Wharfdale 220's. Headphones for gaming, AVR and the 220's for music. Sounds great to me. Audio from the PC via HDMI. Although I do have a Atmos setup in another room so movies are done in there.