Soldato
Why pay 100s of pound for a HiFi when you can get a sound card for about £40 that gives better sound. Well thats how I see it anyway. 
PC with good sound card better than HiFi's
- Thread starter WatchTower
- Start date
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Looks like you're trying to start a fight with that!!!!!
I guess you havent heard a well set up stereo system compared to your tin pot pc speakers then?
Thats like saying why do gamers spend 1000s on a pc when you can buy an xbox for a couple of hundred?
1 word.......quality............
I guess you havent heard a well set up stereo system compared to your tin pot pc speakers then?
Thats like saying why do gamers spend 1000s on a pc when you can buy an xbox for a couple of hundred?
1 word.......quality............
You can get fantastic speakers for you PC if you liked and a get much better sound.
Soldato
*waits for the hi-fi nuts to come in*
Soldato
Obviously your hi-fi knowledge extends as far as your local Dixons 
Associate
yeah they do, my grandparents have a sweet as bang and olufson system from about 15 years ago and its beautiful. You listen to a £400 all in one hi-fi jobbie and then listen to the B&O system and the cheapo one sounds distorted and you will hear things that you didnt realise were there in your favourite music.
Im a little annoyed as ive just gone to a shuttles onboard sound from an x-fi and its poor. Might have to go back to a tower pc.
Im a little annoyed as ive just gone to a shuttles onboard sound from an x-fi and its poor. Might have to go back to a tower pc.
WatchTower, when you say hi-fi do you mean those £100 Alba midi systems from Argos? That is not hi-fi in any way, nor is anything you'll find in the argos catalogue, not even the £400 Sony systems. They're just cheap crap music system, whereas hi-fi means quality seperates.
PC speakers are ALL crap, even the best ones. You wouldn't believe the difference to real hi-fi gear. Also commercial PC soundcards are cheap rubbish and they do not output a quality sound in any way. HI-fi nuts can spend £5000 just on a cd player, that's four times what your whole PC probably cost.
Until your ears have been educated by listenning to something better you won't understand how truely mind numbingly awful the sound coming from your PC is.
That is not hi-fi in any way, nor is anything you'll find in the argos catalogue, not even the £400 Sony systems. They're just cheap crap music system, whereas hi-fi means quality seperates.PC speakers are ALL crap, even the best ones. You wouldn't believe the difference to real hi-fi gear. Also commercial PC soundcards are cheap rubbish and they do not output a quality sound in any way. HI-fi nuts can spend £5000 just on a cd player, that's four times what your whole PC probably cost.
Until your ears have been educated by listenning to something better you won't understand how truely mind numbingly awful the sound coming from your PC is.
Soldato
WatchTower said:Why pay 100s of pound for a HiFi when you can get a sound card for about £40 that gives better sound. Well thats how I see it anyway.
You couldn't be more wrong I'm afraid. I really like my X-Fi card and am more than happy enough with the quality. But compared to my old Marantz separates (which cost thousands, to be fair...) it's absolutely rubbish
You seriously need to go and listen to a proper Hi-Fi before you start making crazy statements like that 
Soldato
in all fairness, you're comparing products which costs 1000s and 1000s to pc equipment which costs a fraction of this.....
Seen as you guys know so much about Hifis whats the best way to go combining a PC with good with a HiFi setup?
rafster said:
That's not the point, no one is denying hi-fi gear is expensive. What we're denying is that a £40 soundcard produces a better sound than top hi-fi seperates, which is what WatchTower was claiming.
Acutally hi-fi gear isn't that expensive anyway. Some great speakers like B&W 601s go for under £100 on ebay regularly, same again for a quality used amp, £30-40 for some stands. Connecting it to a PC is almost a shame, much better to buy a quality used CD player to go with it (another £100), have a proper hi-fi, and forget about listenning to music on the PC.
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aye....
I prefer PC as source by far for the sake of convenience. Having to swap CDs/vinyls is just something I could do without. There are very few reasons why a PC can't sound as good as hi-fis. Sure there are CD players costing several thousands and will most likely be better than the sound out of your typical sound card. But you can connect a quality DAC in the same league as what's inside a high end CD player (some costing several thousands too) to any sound card with bit perfect digital output. Said DAC could be connected to the same amplifiers you'd use in a hi-fi system, and in turn connected to whatever speakers/headphones you'd use in a hi-fi system. The only reason I may not want to use a PC as source is if the PC is noisy. That's the main trade off IMO.
[Sure you can talk about jitters, but I am skeptical that it would make that much difference]
[Sure you can talk about jitters, but I am skeptical that it would make that much difference]