I currently am using the logitech X540 which i bought for £40 3 years ago , there working well but i am tempted to upgrade but would like to know if its worth it or not. I have a budget of ~£120 and a xonar dg sound card, reason i feel like upgrading is i recently found out that whilst i thought my speakers were defective apparently they are not true 5.1 as the centre and sub channels are mixed, would i benefit from better speakers or should i just forget about it.
Contemplating new speakers
- Thread starter PhoenixSP
- Start date
For £120 you're not really going to notice a huge difference to be fair. I have the same speakers which I use for games/movies and they're good but to make a big enough step quality wise you'll be looking at spending quiet a bit more than your budget I'm afraid.
I'd forget about it TBH. The only speakers worth considering that are guaranteed to be better, are the Z5500's or the Edifer S550. Both are way over your budget, and for £300, you'd be better off looking at an Onkyo 5.1 setup anyway. You could get another set of 5.1 speakers under £100, but that would more than likely be a sideways move.
would these be any good ?
Samsung-HT-C450N-5-1-Theatre-System
they are in my price range and have a bit more kick than the x540's and im hoping they are true 5.1 , also they will have the possibility of hooking my ps3 and pc up to it so i can have 5.1 sound for my ps3 instead of the astro mix amp i was planning to buy.
Samsung-HT-C450N-5-1-Theatre-System
they are in my price range and have a bit more kick than the x540's and im hoping they are true 5.1 , also they will have the possibility of hooking my ps3 and pc up to it so i can have 5.1 sound for my ps3 instead of the astro mix amp i was planning to buy.
When you say your current speakers have centre and subwoofer channel mixed, how do you mean?
The Samsung kit you mentioned has a digital input, but you would need an optical splitter in order to connect PC and PS3. You would also need a sound card capable of encoding to 5.1 in real time. Cheapest one would be the Xonar DS, which does DTS. As to the actual sound quality of the speakers themselves, I've no idea sorry.
The Samsung kit you mentioned has a digital input, but you would need an optical splitter in order to connect PC and PS3. You would also need a sound card capable of encoding to 5.1 in real time. Cheapest one would be the Xonar DS, which does DTS. As to the actual sound quality of the speakers themselves, I've no idea sorry.
the logitech x540's have a mixed sub and centre channel so you get little bass as the bass is taken from the centre channel, very bad advertising by logitech in my opinion, because the theatre system has dts built in wouldnt this allow me to use my current xonar dg as the output using a optical input changes to switch between the ps3 and pc.
The problem with the DG is, it's a budget card. Although it's a very good budget card, features are cut in order to keep the cost down. It doesn't have any real time 5.1 encoding capabilities that the more expensive Xonar's have.
The DG can pass on 5.1 audio from a DVD, for eg, to this Samsung kit to decode, but with games, you will only get stereo. The reason is, SPDIF (coaxial/optical) isn't capable of carrying multi channel audio, unless it is encoded. DVD's have a pre recorded 5.1 track, so that can be sent as it is to be decoded. With games though, the sound happens in real time, so needs to be encoded with either Dolby or DTS, so that it can be sent as 5.1.
The DG can pass on 5.1 audio from a DVD, for eg, to this Samsung kit to decode, but with games, you will only get stereo. The reason is, SPDIF (coaxial/optical) isn't capable of carrying multi channel audio, unless it is encoded. DVD's have a pre recorded 5.1 track, so that can be sent as it is to be decoded. With games though, the sound happens in real time, so needs to be encoded with either Dolby or DTS, so that it can be sent as 5.1.
.Cornwall to Brum is a bit of a travel 
If I were you I'd suggest saving up for separates, they cost more initially but are almost guaranteed to sound better and upgrading in the future is easier. Second hand you can pick them up for around £200 or if you want to get inventive you could look for a second hand AVR, bookshelves, centre and sub, bit more effort but you'll probably get better equipment than buying a kit.
If I were you I'd suggest saving up for separates, they cost more initially but are almost guaranteed to sound better and upgrading in the future is easier. Second hand you can pick them up for around £200 or if you want to get inventive you could look for a second hand AVR, bookshelves, centre and sub, bit more effort but you'll probably get better equipment than buying a kit.
Cornwall to Brum is a bit of a travel
If I were you I'd suggest saving up for separates, they cost more initially but are almost guaranteed to sound better and upgrading in the future is easier. Second hand you can pick them up for around £200 or if you want to get inventive you could look for a second hand AVR, bookshelves, centre and sub, bit more effort but you'll probably get better equipment than buying a kit.
They have free delivery
There are awesome STUDIO MONITORS and are that powerful they require 1 240v plug EACH...and the are BI-Amplified...and have independent gain controls on each...
Cornwall to Brum is a bit of a travel
If I were you I'd suggest saving up for separates, they cost more initially but are almost guaranteed to sound better and upgrading in the future is easier. Second hand you can pick them up for around £200 or if you want to get inventive you could look for a second hand AVR, bookshelves, centre and sub, bit more effort but you'll probably get better equipment than buying a kit.
So aim for separate speakers and amp ? think that would push me far past my £200 limit, its why im going for the z5500 as tho its big there's only a few speakers with the sub being the largest component. Going to have to fit it all in my student accommodation so space probably wont be a luxury
Separates are the way forward, second hand you should be able to get a kit for £200 but new they start at around £300. I got my sound system for peanuts compared to the original price. The H/K AVR was £350 new and the speakers were more back in '79, yet for me it cost around 1/10th of that price because I kept my eyes open for a bargain and I'm currently trying to delegate and get myself another pair of those speakers for rears then I'll find a centre speakers and I'm done - no need for a sub with these bad boys!
nice setup , very big speakers XD , and i think i see a logitech x540 centre speaker on the monitor 
. problem is i wont have the room for big speakers like those and have no idea about compatibility, brands etc. Any insight would be welcome however.
. problem is i wont have the room for big speakers like those and have no idea about compatibility, brands etc. Any insight would be welcome however.They are beastily And as I said I have the same speakers as you for surround, at least for now (waiting on reply for another pair of these big'uns).
As long as they are hifi speakers you just need an amp to power them. That's it. The only thing you should keep an eye on is the max wattage output shouldn't exceed the maximum the speakers can handle, if the amp is above then you'll need to make sure you keep the volume lower, shouldn't be an issue anyway, I can't have these on max without the house shaking and my amp is only 50w
Good budget AVRs are Onkyo and Yamaha, Harman/Kardon might go for cheap if you keep an eye on them, their lowest price amp is more than the other 2 brands however they just don't seem to sell as well.
Speaker wise, go for bookshelf style speakers, modern ones are smaller and produce good sound... just make sure you check dimensions on retro speakers as mine are bookshelves believe it or not
And as I said I have the same speakers as you for surround, at least for now (waiting on reply for another pair of these big'uns).As long as they are hifi speakers you just need an amp to power them. That's it. The only thing you should keep an eye on is the max wattage output shouldn't exceed the maximum the speakers can handle, if the amp is above then you'll need to make sure you keep the volume lower, shouldn't be an issue anyway, I can't have these on max without the house shaking and my amp is only 50w
Good budget AVRs are Onkyo and Yamaha, Harman/Kardon might go for cheap if you keep an eye on them, their lowest price amp is more than the other 2 brands however they just don't seem to sell as well.
Speaker wise, go for bookshelf style speakers, modern ones are smaller and produce good sound... just make sure you check dimensions on retro speakers as mine are bookshelves believe it or not
think i will have to give up on the onkyo's when they start describing a £215 ex display receiver as a budget concious item i give up, (i understand they go into the 10's of thousands though). main reason i was considering the z5500 was they were rather small and was the whole package, i would have to wall mount any speakers as i haven't the room for them on the desk or anything. THe x540's are just about the right side tho i could go a liitle bigger , are there certain sites your allowed to recommend as i dont think oc uk sells hifi speakers.
They don't, for second hand stuff there are a couple of audio forums which sell second hand stuff, and there is the bay as well where I've got some of my stuff from in the past. It's worth keeping an eye out on Freecycle and the like as well as very occasionally something decent goes on there (I saw an amp on there a while back here). I'd ignore the ex display things as that sounds like a shop which are bound to price it higher than an independent seller online. I got my AVR for £60.50 as opposed to £350 for it new, so bargains do exist