Sound Card and 2.1 Speaker combo

blinghound · 9 Sep 2010 at 23:23

Hey all, I am planning to purchase a sound card and some 2.1 speakers soon, and since this is my first time buying, I was hoping for some advice in this area.

I listen to and write a lot of music - so accurate playback is crucial, and I do a lot of gaming as well, so would EAX be important?

I'm looking to buy the card + a high quality set of 2.1 speakers for no more than £500.

Any advice is appreciated

blinghound · 10 Sep 2010 at 15:19

Yjani · 12 Sep 2010 at 07:46

500 is quite a large budget if your not going down the hifi amp/speakers route. Anyway, id be inclined to go for one of the Asus Xonar Essence cards and maybe the Acoustic Enerygy Aego M's. Come well under your budget, plus will give you a couple of hundred to spare for an SSD or something.

Mr.Nick · 12 Sep 2010 at 09:47

I'd Go for separates If I were you, supposed to be vastly superior to Pc speaker's, a common recommendation is the Cambridge Audio A5 amplifier, as for Speakers I don't really know much, but maybe Wharfedale Diamonds?

Marsman · 12 Sep 2010 at 12:31

£500 is a lot to spend on 2.1 PC speakers. If you create your own music, I would look into getting some monitor speakers.

Going for a stereo amplifier and hi-fi speakers, is a great idea from general music listening point of view, but it might not be the best idea for music creation. Monitor speakers are designed for monitoring music, when DJ'ing, or creating music, and good ones should be accurate and neutral.

2.1 PC speakers are a bad idea really, for music creation, and offer no where near the accuracy of good monitor speakers. It would be far better to get some monitor speakers that have a subwoofer connection, and buy a decent sub separately for movies or gaming use.

As for the sound card. M-Audio's 2496 is a good budget card aimed at music creation. Creative X-Fi's and Asus Xonar's are good cards, but they are more aimed at gamers really, or people with a media PC. Having EAX is not so important IMO, not when looking a sound card to be used for music creation.

I think good speakers are far more important than the sound card. IMO it is better to buy a good budget card, like the M-Audio 2496, and get as good a pair of monitor speakers as your budget will allow, than to buy a Xonar Essence, and buy lesser speakers.