Spec me speakers and possibly sound card.

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My motherboard has onboard sound which has been fine up to now. Recently my speakers have started crackling a lot. (They are five year old Creative Inspire 2.1 speakers). I have plugged my headphones into the headphone jack on the speakers and the crackling persists so I think it is time to replace them.

I am currently thinking of either the Gigaworks T20 or T40 speakers.

I have noticed as well that if I plug my headphones into the front jack on my case now I get a lot of hiss which wasn't there before. I know that front mounted jacks can be terrible for this.

I am tempted to get myself a new sound card as well and I was thinking of the Asus Xonar D2/D2X.

Am I on the right track with this?

I have a headset for gaming which I would like to be able to plug in without getting down on my knees and sticking directly into the back of my PC. Are there any decent speakers that have a mic socket as well to plug my gaming headset into?
 
I have the Logitech Z4's, they are great for the price :D Bass is good <3
Though the 'controller' on the Z4 only has a Headphone input and a Mp3 input no mic.
logitech_z4_10_thumb.jpg


These might of actually gone up in price. When i bought them they were £50 but the majority of places sold them for like £65/70 so.
EDIT: Seems (competitor) currently selling them for £10 off, so £55
 
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Bass isn't an issue for me. I live in a flat and the sound insulation is poor. I have had the bass turned down to zero on my current speakers since I got them. :(

On the sound card will I see much difference between the D1 and the D2/D2X?
 
If you want to be able to connect your headset to the front of your case, the D2/D2X will not be much use, as it does not have a front case audio header. You will either have to use a splitter to connect speakers and headset to the same socket, get on your knees and swap them over, or you could get an audio switcher, which you would have on your desk to which speakers and headset can be connected and just switch between them.

The D1/DX does have a front case audio header, quite why Asus never put one on the D2/D2X, I don't know.

I think the T20's are a decent buy for someone who is looking for decent sounding 2.0 speakers, that don't want to have the overbloated bass like 2.1/5.1 systems, and maybe don't have the space to have an amplifier and bookshelf speakers. The T40's I feel are less of a good buy, because their price is very close to M-Audio's AV40's, which are easily superior.
 
Actually I am torn now between the D1 and the DX.

Am I better with PCI or PCI express? I have both slots spare but the floppy power is an issue on the PCI express. It is another cable to try and tidy as best as possible and also potentially generate interferance.
 
Go for the D1 if you have a spare slot. Some people might say, get the DX as being PCIe is more future proof. That is somewhat true, PCI will be phased out one day, but look at IDE, you can still get that on modern boards despite SATA being around for years. No reason why a single PCI slot shouldn't be a part of a motherboard in years to come.
 
Got the DX last week and im very impressed with it, vast improvement over onboard sound. Im running it from the bottom PCIe slot on my asus p6t deluxe v2 motherboard, speakers are creative i-trigue 3330 2.1.
 
Go for the D1 if you have a spare slot. Some people might say, get the DX as being PCIe is more future proof. That is somewhat true, PCI will be phased out one day, but look at IDE, you can still get that on modern boards despite SATA being around for years. No reason why a single PCI slot shouldn't be a part of a motherboard in years to come.

I dunno, PCI's replacement appeared around the same time ad IDE's, 2003-4ish and a lot of mobos today dont come with any IDE or floppy connector. Some mobos today only come with 1 PCI slot, i cant see it sticking around much longer. Its gonna be PCI-E excusive in the near future.
 
D1 - out of stock - ARGH

I know the feeling, I was looking to get the D1 earlier in year, absolutely nowhere had them in stock. Might have been a blessing in disguise, because it made me consider getting an Essence ST, which is when I found out my headphones would benefit from the Essence's headphone amplifier. That sold the Essence to me, and I am thoroughly pleased with it. Had the D1 been in stock, I would have just bought that. Quite what I would have done had the ST been out of stock everywhere, I don't know. When I want to buy something, patience is not my strong point. :p
 
I actually just went with the PCIe version instead.....

...I ordered some cable ties as well to try and keep everything nice and neat.

Still mulling over speakers and very tempted to get the Aegos...
 
The Aego's are the best bet for sound quality. They have a much better balance of sound than Logitech's 2.1 sets for eg, which are bass heavy. Logitech's 2.1 speakers are fine for people with a limited budget, or people who want overpowering bass. Aego's will chew them up for sound quality though. If you can stretch to the Aego's and are looking for 2.1 speakers, you will find no better upto that price IMO.
 
I am thinking of plugging my old speakers (creative I-Trigues) into the sound card and getting 4.2 surround.....The xonar will drive a 4.1 system...

Should I do this?
 
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