I am never happy with my Audio setup.
My main speaker have been up until 2 days ago, Altec Lansing 955.
I have bought 2 Bose Speaker systems, a JBL Digital processor, and more recently the Corsair and now a logitech, and I am simply never happy.
The Logitech are only the 906 setup and so they were only 300 but I reqally wanted the Edifier 5.1 setup that are shown in OCUK but they are sold out.
My Sound Cards have also take na funky journey. I adore Creative cards. Always have, andespecially the ones that you can get the drive-bay I/O box with and I have had all of them from the SBLiveDrive, to the Recon3D Fatal1ty Pro card, that all have that breakout box, however, with this god damned Windows 10, the Recon 3D had afew niggles and to be honest, I did think it was the card being a douche and so I went and got an Asus Strix Raid Pro.
I have had plenty of issues with this, but lately, I think the issues are almost gone... The issues were that the card would occasionally simply mute itself, just for a second or two, but when you are trying to listen to music or watch a video, this does get on your pip somewhat, but as I said, Ithink that this is now over as I have not hd that happen for a good couple of weeks.
Another pet hate, is that in order to swap from speaker tpo headphone and vice versa, you have to make sure that no audio is playing or it will hang or crash the app... This means that if you launch a game and the missus shouts over that she wants to catch up on emmerdale etc, then you cannot simply plonk the headphones in, or switch them over, you have to stop the game, save it if possible, quite the game switch the audio andrestart the game and load up and hopefully you will be where you left it, and this is just stupid. So naturally, thats gettign right on my bloody goat, and so, I have gone back to creative.
The strix has an external volume box thingy and so I went for a SoundBlaster OMNI. This is an external USB soundcard. ok not card, but you knoiw what I mean... The sound quality was the usual Creative and I think about on par with the Recon3D give or take and so for a short while, I was happyish but then I find that with some things, it seemed to lack a little... for example music that had very deep sub-bass sounds AND extreme treble would then kind of struggle to also play the mid-range and the bass and mis would kind of interfere with each other and you could hear that the bass would be losing its crisp-clean pumping and its as if the bass volume would also drop too... It made the music feel a little see-saw-ish??? - Hell I cant quite describe it, but I know what I mean... The OMNI simply didnt handle the extreme rubbish that I want it to play, like the Recon3D did.
This Asus was semi able to, but again, the music did the same fqailings, just not quite as obcious as the OMNI.
This made me also consider that the speakers may need to be replaced and thats why I just bought the Logitech 906Z... I was wrong.
The Logitech does have Multiple inputs including both Coax and Optical digitals, as wel las stereo and 5.1 Analogs, however, after having a play about, I find that the processing on this, is utter rubbish - maybe its me, butI am not one bit impressed with these pseakers.. The bass is quite muffled and too loud and not clear, while the ttreble is nowhere to be seen, or heard. Thankfully the speakers justconnect with bare-wires and I have been able to add a pair of tweeters and this helps massively, but still...
Anyway, today, I saw a creative Z, the red jobbie, and it looks to have the same chip as the recon3D and the card was only £50 and so I grabbed it threw it in, uninstalled all other sound devices and installed this, only to find that there is not enough difference in quality beterrn using the 5,1 Analog wires ,to using the Optical. Bumboils.
Now, cutting this lot down to its bare essentials, I have gone through half a dozen sound devices and a handful of speaker setups... None have gone to waste though, as I have many other PCs so they all get half decent audio this way, but I am seriously wondering...
I love surround sound, and so I know that this can be seens as a negative, but I love it and I play games that require it, so I am looking for the best quality 5.1 setup there is... What is the best quality sound card that you can buy, and what is the best 5.1 Audio setup that I can buy?
Oh, and yes, I have also used a couple of different Amp/Speaker setups and sure, many will argue that this is the better option for high quality and yes, I agree to that somewhat, but I want 5.1, and I really need to be able to use desktop sized speakers.
I dont know why the hell I find it impossible to simply as a styraight forward question, but thats me and my issues, but if you could please put forward your options/ thoughts then I would be extremely grateful.
Thank you very much.
Oh and one other thing that I have wanted to try out properly, is that I have a fair few USB and Firewire audio devices that claim to be pro, but really shine when played through digital, only to finally realise they are just a load of cack. Given the price I paid, I should be annoyed, but when I look at just how much money I have wasted on everything else, I deserve a smack in the gob really.
My main speaker have been up until 2 days ago, Altec Lansing 955.
I have bought 2 Bose Speaker systems, a JBL Digital processor, and more recently the Corsair and now a logitech, and I am simply never happy.
The Logitech are only the 906 setup and so they were only 300 but I reqally wanted the Edifier 5.1 setup that are shown in OCUK but they are sold out.
My Sound Cards have also take na funky journey. I adore Creative cards. Always have, andespecially the ones that you can get the drive-bay I/O box with and I have had all of them from the SBLiveDrive, to the Recon3D Fatal1ty Pro card, that all have that breakout box, however, with this god damned Windows 10, the Recon 3D had afew niggles and to be honest, I did think it was the card being a douche and so I went and got an Asus Strix Raid Pro.
I have had plenty of issues with this, but lately, I think the issues are almost gone... The issues were that the card would occasionally simply mute itself, just for a second or two, but when you are trying to listen to music or watch a video, this does get on your pip somewhat, but as I said, Ithink that this is now over as I have not hd that happen for a good couple of weeks.
Another pet hate, is that in order to swap from speaker tpo headphone and vice versa, you have to make sure that no audio is playing or it will hang or crash the app... This means that if you launch a game and the missus shouts over that she wants to catch up on emmerdale etc, then you cannot simply plonk the headphones in, or switch them over, you have to stop the game, save it if possible, quite the game switch the audio andrestart the game and load up and hopefully you will be where you left it, and this is just stupid. So naturally, thats gettign right on my bloody goat, and so, I have gone back to creative.
The strix has an external volume box thingy and so I went for a SoundBlaster OMNI. This is an external USB soundcard. ok not card, but you knoiw what I mean... The sound quality was the usual Creative and I think about on par with the Recon3D give or take and so for a short while, I was happyish but then I find that with some things, it seemed to lack a little... for example music that had very deep sub-bass sounds AND extreme treble would then kind of struggle to also play the mid-range and the bass and mis would kind of interfere with each other and you could hear that the bass would be losing its crisp-clean pumping and its as if the bass volume would also drop too... It made the music feel a little see-saw-ish??? - Hell I cant quite describe it, but I know what I mean... The OMNI simply didnt handle the extreme rubbish that I want it to play, like the Recon3D did.
This Asus was semi able to, but again, the music did the same fqailings, just not quite as obcious as the OMNI.
This made me also consider that the speakers may need to be replaced and thats why I just bought the Logitech 906Z... I was wrong.
The Logitech does have Multiple inputs including both Coax and Optical digitals, as wel las stereo and 5.1 Analogs, however, after having a play about, I find that the processing on this, is utter rubbish - maybe its me, butI am not one bit impressed with these pseakers.. The bass is quite muffled and too loud and not clear, while the ttreble is nowhere to be seen, or heard. Thankfully the speakers justconnect with bare-wires and I have been able to add a pair of tweeters and this helps massively, but still...
Anyway, today, I saw a creative Z, the red jobbie, and it looks to have the same chip as the recon3D and the card was only £50 and so I grabbed it threw it in, uninstalled all other sound devices and installed this, only to find that there is not enough difference in quality beterrn using the 5,1 Analog wires ,to using the Optical. Bumboils.
Now, cutting this lot down to its bare essentials, I have gone through half a dozen sound devices and a handful of speaker setups... None have gone to waste though, as I have many other PCs so they all get half decent audio this way, but I am seriously wondering...
I love surround sound, and so I know that this can be seens as a negative, but I love it and I play games that require it, so I am looking for the best quality 5.1 setup there is... What is the best quality sound card that you can buy, and what is the best 5.1 Audio setup that I can buy?
Oh, and yes, I have also used a couple of different Amp/Speaker setups and sure, many will argue that this is the better option for high quality and yes, I agree to that somewhat, but I want 5.1, and I really need to be able to use desktop sized speakers.
I dont know why the hell I find it impossible to simply as a styraight forward question, but thats me and my issues, but if you could please put forward your options/ thoughts then I would be extremely grateful.
Thank you very much.
Oh and one other thing that I have wanted to try out properly, is that I have a fair few USB and Firewire audio devices that claim to be pro, but really shine when played through digital, only to finally realise they are just a load of cack. Given the price I paid, I should be annoyed, but when I look at just how much money I have wasted on everything else, I deserve a smack in the gob really.
That's great. 
