Hi-Fi Speakers on Pc.

bomber456 · 14 Sep 2006 at 00:13

hi, im looking to change my sound set up on my pc. im wanted to get an amp and speakers.
at the moment i have a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum Ex.
i would like to know suggestions for speakers and how will i link it up to my pc.
ive noticed on my external thing for my audigy it has digital out/in connections. is this where i would connect my amp to or not?
also i was wondering if its better to get 5.1 or just 2.1?
also are the Acoustic Energy Aegis Evo 1 good, as im liking the look of them.

Thanks for your help.

Kamakazie! · 14 Sep 2006 at 00:45

i am doing the very same thing though i am probably gonna use onboard sounds and S/PDIF passthrough.

Basically you will really want and AV Reciever if you are going for surround sound. Connect the speakers to the receiver and then use either the Digital Optical or Digital Coaxial OUTs on the external dongle of the sounds card to connect to the Optical or Coaxial IN on the receiver.

Now i am not sure if the Audigy 2 is the same as the XFi in that if you want surround sound in games, you need to connect the card to the receiver using the analogue connection, if it is, just using the digital connections will mean you only get surround sound with audio that is already encoded in Dolby Digital or DTS. Games and music will use PCM to transfer to the receiver (stereo sounds only).
This is basically the reason i am not getting an XFi... i can't be arsed with the hassle of 2 connections to enable 5.1 in games (especially since i currently only have a 3.1 setup).

Hope that has made some sense.

EDIT: AVForums is a very good place to find out more info on this subject.

fini · 14 Sep 2006 at 01:00

Don't go 5.1 - you'll get soo much more for your money with 2 channel.

Those speakers are quite nice for the price, you'll be wanting to hook them up to something like the Cambridge Audio AZUR (340A).

If you can afford to, maybe also upgrade your soundcard to something better - though I'm altogether too tired to remember which are decent.

fini

bomber456 · 14 Sep 2006 at 01:08

not quite sure what to do.

would getting a stereo setup be better than paying £200 odd for the logitech z-5500 5.1 pc speakers?
im sure having hi-fi speakers makes music much better (which i listen a lot of), but i also play games and like having 5.1.

thanks.

DreadNiK · 14 Sep 2006 at 13:39

I have a 5.1 system with stereo hi-fi as my front speakers, and it makes music sound amazing...using an x-fi the surround upmixing to the satellites fills out the sound nicely, along with the small sub that improves the bass.

I just have an adaptor that splits the 3.5mm analog into 2 (L + R) RCA connectors...

Having problems going to 7.1 on my Xtreme Music, see my thread on that.

If your wanting to use digital, I don't know about that, but I can tell you it is perfectly possible to have 5.1 that includes stereo hi-fi and works great, just buy the 2.0 hi-fi system, and add a cheap 2.0 pc system for the rear speakers, and a cheap 2.1 for the centre/sub (or a sub and centre seperately depending on your outputs)

Dr.EM · 14 Sep 2006 at 14:10

I'd just stick with your card and use the analogue outs. I have the same card here connected to £600 worth of amp and speakers (stereo only) and don't have a problem with it.

DreadNik makes a good suggestion, use high quality Hi-Fi component fronts and a cheap 2.0 set for the rears just for game use (perhaps Creative I-trigue 2.0 2200 would do or Creative Gigaworks T20 2.0). As for the centre, if your lucky you might find a monoblock amp cheap enough and use a matching centre speaker with it. I wouldn't worry too much about it yet though. However, you currently have a 5.1 system? You could just use this for the rears and centre (i'd mute the sub myself as the Hi-Fi fronts should provide better bass).

For you amp and speakers, I reccomend going second hand usually. You can usually get more for your money this way. That said, if you like the Acoustic Energy Aegis Evo 1 speakers sold here, I don't doubt they are good for the money. Go on the bay and find a stereo integrated amplifier for them. Look for older NAD and Rotel units aswell as Denon and Sony models. Some real bargains to be had with second hand amplifiers, older ones are still very much the same as the newer versions but sell for so much less.