Speakers

[Oh-Sigh-Ris]

Hi there guys,

Just got me an SB Live 5.1 (thanks Doogie ;) ) and im thinking about getting some new speakers soon to go with it.

So, im asking you guys: What, in your opinion, are the best speakers to get for say..... around $200? No real requirements, except good quality sound of course :D

[TORN]

Upgrade your stereo or get one? :)

[AcurA]

Logitech Z-640... around $250+, slight above your mark... but they are very good! Nice solid base... :)
I love em... still wondering if i shouldn't ave got the big brother (z-680) - major droolage -

[Ragnor]

Definately the Logitech Z640's if you can stretch to $250

They are excellent.. I'm very pleased with mine, heck I'm even going to pimp and tell you to get them from www.starlyte.co.nz..

I made one of those impulse decisions to get them, I emailed starlyte on sunday afternoon, I got a reply sunday evening.. I ordered / paid via online banking on Monday and he had them shipped the same day, I recieved them on Tuesday.. now that's service.

Incidentally I'm running almost the same setup as AcurA, Abit KX7333R, Philips AE, Z640's...

You'll probably find that the SBLive will be a limitating factor on the performance of the speakers... but hey good speakers are a sound upgrade, you'll probably keep them for serveral upgrades of the rest of your system.

The only problem with getting good speakers is that you'll notice the qualilty of all your 128kbs MP3's are not as good a quality as you thought... You will kick yourself for not having more 192kbs quality ones..

Re-ripping your cd's in ogg at a good qualily setting is recommended.

[Sydog]

Yeah go the Logitech 640s. I love mine to bits, much better than my $500 mini system which has been left on MD (Aux) most of the time unlkess I accidently switch functions.

Make sure in Windows it is set to 5.1. Mine wasn't and while I was getting 5.1 in dvds and other things in games and using 5.1 ogg it wouldnt come from the center speaker

[Ragnor]

Originally posted by Sydog
Yeah go the Logitech 640s. I love mine to bits, much better than my $500 mini system which has been left on MD (Aux) most of the time unlkess I accidently switch functions.

Make sure in Windows it is set to 5.1. Mine wasn't and while I was getting 5.1 in dvds and other things in games and using 5.1 ogg it wouldnt come from the center speaker

That's a good point..

Really the soundcard drivers should override that windows settting... with the Philips AE with 5.1 set in the drivers and expand all ticked, Qsound/QMSS does it...

I'll have to check.. It should sound better leaving the expansion of stereo sound to 5.1, in the soundcard drivers hands, rather then in windoze..

Any comments from the the audiophille's here..? or guys with Creative and Hercules cards and 5.1 speakers..?

[Sydog]

Nah, you need to select 5.1 speakers as thats what some games and directshow filters search to select how many channels to output.

With an AC3Filter I have it has to be enabled or else you can't select 5.1 when installing the filter

[Oh-Sigh-Ris]

Thanks for the advice guys, I probably won't be getting them till after equinox but still always good to get the good advice :D

Im currently running my sound through a Teac MC-5 Micro Sound System - it's a nice system, pretty basic (I think it was about $200 6 or 7 years ago) but I couldn't run my sound without them on my old card - it was a hunk of ****. It's got a graphic equalizer for 100Hz, 1 KHz and 10 KHz but i don't really need it now that i have the AudioHQ for SB Live and Winamp's built in equalizer. The other problem is the system is only two speakers :p