Creative X-Fi +T6060 speakers - any good

[Kirth Gersen]

Hi all,

Time to upgrade my venerable Soundblaster live / Altec Lansang 2.1 combo for something meatier, and for a bit of surround sound.

My study is about 3.5m * 2m

I use the PC for Games 1st, Music 2nd, Movies 3rd (I have decent home theatre in the lounge).

I see this Creative combo is up at OCs for a reasonable £97. Any views?

I was thinking of a X-Fi / Logitech 5400 combo, but at double the price and for the size of the room, I'm not sure I can justify it - thoughts?

Thanks

 

[Otaku Punk]

I you have any other equipment that you want to connect up to the speakers (DVD player, Games console etc.) then the z 5400s are the way to go. I have a set and they take all my equipment and produce brilliant 5.1 sound.

If its just your PC you want 5.1 from i'd go for the creatives and save yourself a bit of money. The decoder on the z 5400s (a large part of the price) is only really useful for connecting other A/V equipment. All the features of the decoder can be done with the Xfi for the PCs audio.

 

[Dr.EM]

The T6060's are simply terrible, sorry . My brother has them (he's changing them when he decides what he wants).

I'd suggest either go with the Z5400s (which are significantly better) or go with another 2.1 system for which there is only one real reccomendation and that is the Acoustic energy Aego 2.1 .

If you went 2.1 then you'd probably be better with the M-Audio 2496 card which is a quality stereo card (though no EAX as far as I know). It is available for £50, which is quite a bargain as it's a semi-pro type card really.

Another option if you definately want surround sound on a budget is the Logitech X-530's.

The Creative GigaWorks 5.1 should be good too, I'd guarantee that these with your current Live card will sound much better than an X-Fi with the T6060s.

 

[Kirth Gersen]

Thanks for the advice chaps.

I want 5.1, so it's a case of which one. I can't help but feel that the 5400 is overkill for the size of my room, and all the user reviews I've read talk about people never getting close to max volume possible.

The 530 reviews are all very positive and it is in the right price range as the T6060, so I'm leaning that way.

One question: for this level of kit (ie the 530), what is an appropriate soundcard is the X-Fi overkill?, can I make do with my soundblaster live (it is really old, can it cope with 5.1?), or is there a sensible halfway house?

Thanks