Best all-round immersive setup?

RedvGreen

RedvGreen

RedvGreen

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Hi all,

I'm after recommendations for the best immersive setup:
+ soundcard
+ speaker system

Ideally I'll be gaming (3d sound would be good) but also music use.

I currently have a set of Creative G550W 5.1 speakers, are they still one of the better systems even though they are easily 5-6yrs old?

Thanks
 
For immersion you'd be better off going down the route of high end headphones, a good headphone amp and a sound card capable of Dolby Headphone (for games and movies).
 
I'd keep the speakers, unless you are willing to pay £300 possibly for something better. Z5500's might be worth looking at if you can find them for around the £200 mark. They are due to discontinued, so their price has gone through the roof. They are certainly not worth £300, and neither is their successor really, when you consider they are £300+, and people have said the Z5500's are better. For £300 you can get an entry Onkyo 5.1 kit, which will be much better, and offer a wealth of connections.

Sound card might be worth getting. What are you using currently?
 
Auraomega said:
For immersion you'd be better off going down the route of high end headphones, a good headphone amp and a sound card capable of Dolby Headphone (for games and movies).
Click to expand...

Don't agree with that, sorry Auraomega. 5.1 over headphones, is not as good as having a 5.1 speaker setup. The Gigaworks are pretty good, as far as PC speakers go. That obviously depends on having the speakers set up correctly, and not all placed in a line on the desk like some people do. High end headphones will offer superior sound quality though.

Edit: For music, headphones would certainly be the better choice. Surround sound simulation can be turned off, and heard as plain stereo, which is best. 5.1 speakers, while great for game and film, are not as good as stereo for music. IMO, at least.
 
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I find blocking out ambient noises makes for a much more immersive experience; 5.1 speakers are great but don't have the same effect for me and usually cost significantly more for the equivalent headphones in terms of sound quality.
 
Currently I am using onboard sound - I used to use x-fi fatality (pci) and xonar (pcie) but this was under Vista which did not like these cards at all. I ended up selling them and going to onboard.
 
I'd second the Headphone option. I have a decent home theatre setup which is all well and good when you have nobody in the house, but if you are playing at night etc with the headphones you can still enjoy the sound at full volume. Also if you are after immersion, the headphones win every time.
 
well for immersion nothing come's close to my gigaworks s750's blows everything else out off the water and any other surround kit i've heard including my mate brand new sony set up which cost him just shy of a grand :eek: and are defo above other giga/megaworks speakers as i own the megaworks 650D as well and they are so much louder and clearer both using x-fi x-treme music's btw highly recomanded best pc speakers ever made only problem is you'll have to get a set second hand and even then your talking £150+
 
I really like the Harman Kardon ones. They're not just hype, they sound bloody good. Go to one of their stores and have a listen :)
 
Harman/Kardon make some quality audio equipment, I think their PC range look ugly, or maybe I should say 'an acquired taste', however if they sound even a patch on my amp then they're good.

You can get bang for buck in any price range, we still need something more than 0 - ∞. ~£300 is probably a good place to start, I did the same: £140 headphones (Beyer DT770s), £120 amp (Zero), £20 sound card (Xonar DG, only useful if you like Dolby Headphone), £10 cables (digital optical/coaxial). In my experience the DT770s are an amazing pair of headphones (the DT990s are the same headphones with open backs), however most people usually prefer one type of headphone over another, the amp on the other hand is hands down the best amp I've heard for less than around £250 and throw in the fact it's also a pretty damn good DAC makes it an absolute steal.

You should read my review on the DT770s and Zero amp (link in sig), will have other things up there soon but wanted to get my 2 favourite pieces up first ;)
 
Use a RME RayDat as your I/O (32 Channels) to decoders>amps and you can get as immersive at 24/96 as you want !!!

That's what I use into an 8 Channel amp....headphones better ? - Sorry, I Don't agree on that one. They key is having a quiet room in the first place.
 
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