Yes, I know THX Means bugger all these days, but also you can accept that if it does have THX then you know that its up to a standard. I said its way above your AVERAGE home hifi, meaning the usual tat from the catalog, that mum or dad buys you for xmas kind of thing, not a proper setup.
Yes, I have heard much better and I have owned much better, but not for the price I havent.
My Yamaha Studio Monitors cost me £1200 for the pair, again, you may not think that they are the best there is, but at the end of the day, they are studio monitors, the type that studios use, and if studios recommend them, then they give out the exact same sound that the producers want me to hear... Plus, the decider on this, was that the speakers were the very same set that were used by 43% of the best studios in the US, although we know that statistics are 99% made up.
So, yes, I do know what high quality should be like, so dont judge my answers too quickly... I am only going by a price limit here...
I currently do not have a good home HiFi, and no, I dont class a little plonky tower as a true HiFi, I am just going by what the masses call them, I only have a crappy Sony thing, again, its in my living room, and I am in my Lan Room, so I cant be bothered to give you the model, but then while it was the best sounding system that I could find in any of the local shops, it is still a pile of poo, but as far as cheap systems go, its just fine.
I have already said, although I said it recently ( few days? ) it might not be this very thread, but I have not all that long ago, nabbed my fathers HiFi ( True HiFi as in seperates ) as that has Optical inputs a swell as various other inputs, and that has a pure Digital mode, and I tested my Audigy and NF7S on it, along with its own CD Player as a comparison... I didnt do the tests perhaps as I should have to answer in this post as I could have, however, what tests I did do, prooved completely to me, that the PC with the Audigy and the JBL Dolby system playing a CD directly, was nowhere near as perfect sounding as the HiFi on its own, in spite of his system being close to 15 years old.
I also ran a CD and a few other things like MP3s and games through his AMP/Speakers and compared them again, to my JBLs ( Those were what I was using at the time you see ) and again, the Amp and speakers made so much difference its untrue.
The main reason I did the tests however, was mainly to see what the Digital vs the Analog on the NF7S was really like and I alos compared it on the Audigy too, and I found that the Optical / Digital was way above what the analog was.
So, yes, I do know even with a respectable Seperates system, that the quality and output can beat a fairly respectable PC speaker system, but again, going back to my reasons, the speakers on the PC are Amp & Speakers, that cost me a fraction of what my fathers setup cost him.
Its also ease of use isnt it to use the PC to play music... Hell, I dont give a stuff if its an MP3 or a real CD, I cannot really tell which is which unless I actually compare them, and even then I really wouldnt give a stuff cos the MP3s are for people like me... idle.
I agree with one thing... Its all getting silly.
I dont use a HiFi on my PC cos I like to have surround sound in games, so for me, and for many many many others, a HiFi no matter how good it sounds, will quite probably not be an option. We need to get as good quality as possible, but stay within a sensible budget.
For me, the Altec Lansing 955s are just fine and the output is astonishing, and often painful, yet it keeps its clarity throughout its range, and above all it cost me bugger all ( Cheers InsanCen ) and even the 251s which I still have, I love cos they rumble the floor... you must remember that I play mostly games and only put a few MP3s on when I am doing other stuff and so I cannot sit down and listen to music as its supposed to be listened to, so I would never appreciate music properly. So, this is I suppose another reason why I currently prefer the PC to play my stuff more than a stereo.
I am waffling again arent I?
Anyway, trust me, I know what a good system sounds like. I know mine isnt the best, but there is no way a HiFi that sounds as good as my PC anywhere near the price.
So, £ for £ I think that a PC speaker setup could be better than a home Stereo yes.
Oh, to be fair though, I have also paid loads of money out for piles of utter junk too, both in HiFi gear, and in PC speakers.
If I'd had more money and bought them both new I would have been very happy with the upgrade (I'm even more happy given the used prices I paid).
Well, I don't go all generic either to be honest, I do think that if amping provide the last few percent, then cables provide the last 0.x %.
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