Looking to upgrade, Need details

Holy thread. I suggest firstly narrowing down your criteria by looking at your room. How big is your room? Do you really need a 5.1 system? How about 2 good channels? Do you have neighbors that hate bass? Are you going to be at a computer desk?
Music or movies or games?
I have owned Z5500 and Z680. I stopped caring about multi channel and haven't looked back.
No system-in-a-box is hifi.
I suggest coming up with a plan. For me its about music, so I have a nice two channel system. I have never been happy with pro logic upmixing for music....

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I didn't even realize the z680s were still available.  In any case I would take a close look at a decent AVR with Infinity Primus P143 as surrounds and P153 as fronts.  You could get P163 or even larger speaker if you felt it necessary.

In any case, I have shamefully warrantied about 8 sets of z680s because I can't seem to help but blow the subs...

A dedicated AVR with a powered subwoofer will cost more but it will be much nicer in the long run.

The Infinity Primus stuff is a great value.

You could look at a theater-in-box solution, but be very careful about the subwoofer quality in particular.  I've blown about 30 subs in the past decade.  I can tell you right now that its not hard to blow the z680 subs.  I can only imagine how nice of a subwoofer or speaker set I could have if I had all my blown sub money back...

Firstly, I would verify that your on-board audio card will do optical 5.1 in games.  I think you may need to step up into something like Assus Xonar cards to get 5.1 over optical in games.  I recall that the only way the z680 and z5500 would do true surround sound was by using the analog connections.  The z906 may be different though, so I would check into that.

 

I just realized that $300 is the upper end of what you wanted to spend.  It would be tough to get a good setup at this price.

If you can up your budget, check out buying some mid-range gear.  Honestly, just about any moderately powered receiver with decent speakers is going to be a big step up from computer speakers.  The market is more or less saturated with 5.1 and 7.1 receivers these days.  You could probably find a good used unit for a "low" cost.

Yamaha, Onkyo, Harman Kardon, Denon are all decent.  I'm sure there are some standout models- just do some research on budget 5.1 receivers (7.1 is not necessary at all, in my opinion.)

I suspect that there are some decent theater-in-a-box solutions out there, but my knowledge of them is a little sketchy.  I have, however, used the z680 and the z5500 a lot- enough to blow out each and every set.  I also blew the sub on an a $800 Onkyo theater-in-a-box solution.  I blew out an Altec-Lansing surround system as well.  If you go with a speaker set like the z906, just be careful with them.  They should work well and provide decent life if taken care of.

 

Decent stand alone powered subwoofers do not blow as easily.  I had an Infinity PS-8 that worked like a champ after much abuse, and still does in my buddies house.

The reason I lean towards AVR + speakers + powered subwoofer is that I consider audio one of my primary investments.  Even though you spend more more on mid-range gear, it is more robust and will provide better sound.  You will be less compelled to upgrade and you won't have to pawn off your existing gear to save enough to buy something better.

If you don't want to increase your budget much past 300, then I would start comparing the Logitech z906 to other complete 5.1 systems.  I think you may have trouble passing 5.1 optical to it for games though (either the z906 itself or the soundcard you have or both may not want to pass it.)  I would certainly look into this.

Logitech z906 + decent soundcard is probably going to exceed $400.  This stuff gets expensive fast...

 

 

Edited by headfinoob - 2/13/12 at 12:24am

If you “don't want to upgrade for at least 5 years“, I suggest either spending a lot more than $300 or putting together a decent 2.1 system first. Heck, I recently asked about upgrading my subwoofer alone and was told I should double my $300 budget!

What headfinoob said about getting an AVR and bookshelf speakers--or skip the AVR and get powered monitors. I think 5.1 aalog out of your existing board will be fine for now as long as you don't hear much background noise (using headphones on the front outs to test)
Edited by Joe Bloggs - 2/13/12 at 12:47am