Worth it to get decent speakers with a cheap sound card?

Iron Goldfish

Iron Goldfish

Iron Goldfish

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11 Nov 2006
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At the moment I'm just using cheap Logitech speakers with onboard sound. I'm getting a cheap sound card (this one: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-040-CL) because I hear it'll make things run a little smoother than with onboard sound.

I have about £60 to spend on a Christmas present for myself and I was thinking of getting some decent-ish speakers (these: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SP-032-LG).

Worth it? Or would the cheap sound card make the speakers a little redundant? I can't really afford to get an expensive sound card aswell...
 
I'd personally try to get an Audigy 2 card second hand, it should work out cheaper and is a very respectable card (my brother has the one you linked, he gets delay on the sound in Quake 4 since it misses a certain feature, can't remember what. I'm a little wary of it because of that anyhow).

Those Logitechs are reasonable for the money, but you'd definately find it's worth going to the Acoustic Energy Aego M 2.1, after all you should save some money on the sound card (an Audigy 1 would suffice too :) ).
 
Friend of mine has those speakers and although i don't know too much about these pc-orientated speaker setups, they don't sound too bad.
With the Aego M 2.1 for you should be in for a nice surprise if basic speakers and onboard sound is what you've been used to.

Good luck!
:)
m
 
with decent speakers your going to hear more of the bad quality of onboard sound. every crackle and fuzz will be presented more clearly and fuller.

i think any sound card is goign to be better than on board though.
 
This is like a hi-fi question.

Decent speakers cannot add musical or audio information if it isn't there, nor can they remove spurious noise.

If the signal to the speakers from the source is high quality, then a competent but cheap speaker setup will sound very good, but a classy expensive one will sound even better.

Get the source right first, then get the speakers right.

When I first started looking at hi-fi back in the late '70s the accepted wisdom was to spend half your budget on speakers and split the rest between amp and record deck. For ages now that has been reversed to spend up to half your budget on the source and split the rest between amp and speakers
 
Thanks for the help. I've thought about it and, remembering that I get paid next week :p , I might spend a little more on a sound card if it's going to be worth it. I use my PC for gaming, music and watching DVDs, so I'm looking for something that can do all those decently.

So what do you suggest? I'm looking to spend around £50.
 
for £50 in my book no question - m-audio audiophile 2496.
Only has phono in/out and spdif in/out (so no mic input/headphone output) and is a 2 channel stereo card but IMO you can't get a better sound for 50 quid.

:)
m
 
Yes, the M-Audio will be good so long as you get the Aego M 2.1 set. Anything under that and the card won't be taken advantage of (ie, a cheaper one would sound the same with cheaper speakers). With smaller budgets money is best put toward the speakers i'd say. When you start spending a lot the sound card will become more important (I am using an Audigy 2 with £800 worth of Hi-Fi, although I really should upgrade it, it still sounds ok. The "card" I want to move to is a 10x10 studio card and is £300 so won't be doing that just yet ;) ). The M-Audio will leave the option of upgrading to Hi-Fi setup too in the future.
 
Alright, think I'll go for the M-Audio and Aego M 2.1. :D Thanks for the help.

I've never actually used a mic, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Though if I do end up using one in future, are USB mics any good?
 
Wise man!!
Let us know what you think once you've got it all connected.
Remember that very low bitrate mp3's might not sound fantastic, being exposed by your superior (comparatively) system. I like to rip my cds to flac (a lossless codec) and store these on the pc; takes up a lot of hard drive space but sound quality is improved over lossy codecs eg mp3s.

Good luck with your purchase!

:)
m
 
A USB mic simply contains a preamp and ADC which would normally be on the soundcard. It depends how good your soundcard is, but i'd expect most the time the USB mic would technically be worse (since it is a very modest outlay for many more parts than a non-USB counterpart) but in reality the only real differences come from the capsules used. I have some Panasonic capsules which are excellent quality and I use them in my mics (powered from phantom power on mixer, balanced output; they are for studio type work), they are still only £3 to buy here :)
 
Right, I have the sound card and it's all installed and everything. I was wondering if I could connect my current speakers to it to try it out (can't have my new speakers til Christmas :p ) . They only have the green plug thingy though. Is it possible, or shall I just wait another 7 days?
 
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