[tony8404]

Hello everyone just registered here cause i am in some need of help with this situation. Had a wireless joystick catch on fire and ruined my creative labs inspire 6600's. i also, have a audigy 2 card nothing fancy just as basic as it gets.

With that said, I do not plan on spending alot on this upgrade but enough to get me up to date with the current technology. I wanna go digital, i mainly play games and listen to music but the music doesnt have to sound like im at an actual concert.

Here is what i was thinking of going with for sound card. 1.turtle beach montego ddl, 2. auztech xplosion 7.1 which is better to go with?

As for the speakers, this is where i am having trouble. I am confused on how this digital stuff works. the 2 sound cards that i am looking at have decoders built in right? if so, then does that mean i still need a amplifier, reciever or a decoder unit? cause as far as i know i do not believe speakers have optical or coax inputs right?

the speakers i was thinking about are creative labs inspire 5500 digital, 5700 digital or what other creative speakers do digital? i am for sure not gonna spend more then 120 for speakers. with that said what can anyone recommend some decent digital speakers?

The thing about the creative 5500 and the 5700 is that they come with a decoder unit but with the two sound cards i am looking at seem like they have the decoders built in them already so would i need the decoder unit that comes with the 5500 or the 5700? if not then i will go with different speakers.

another question about speakers.... do speakers have optical or coax connections on them or is that why you need a reciever?

 

[Drewpy]

The soundcards you are looking at have ENcoders built into them. They take the multi-channel sound information from games, and compress it into a Dolby Digital (or DTS) signal. This allows you to connect to your speakers with a single cable. Most other sound cards would require you to have one cable for each pair of speakers (3 pairs of cables for 5.1 audio).

You say the speakers you are looking at include a Dobly Digital decoder, this will allow them to decode the Dolby Digital signal from the soundcard, and play it back. If the speakers have a DD decoder, then they will accept an S/PDIF optical or coax connection.

 

[tony8404]

so in other words.. with the auztech sound card and the inspire 5500 speaker system with the decoder is all i will need then? what if i just buy a dd decoder and some 7.1 speakers? or do the speakers have to be digital themselves?

 

[MaloS]

For best results you should grab a 5.1 card and 5.1 speakers as this involves less ecoding and less data loss in the process. X-Miridian + The speakers you are looking at would make an excellent combo, or you could even stretch to 7.1 You should hear how much performance I got out of my roommate's logitech 5.1s ($40 mind you) with emu-1616 (external soundcard with true 5.1 support).

 

[uraflit]

for just gaming and basic music listening, just get the logitech z-5500... pair it up with an x-fi, and that should be done and done for less than $300 total if you can find good deal on the speakers. slickdeals has them for under $200 shipped once in awhile.

 

[tony8404]

well, i was reading some more last night and came across this sondigo sound card and i am certain thats the card to get. but the speakers is still killing me . i wanna get the creative inspire 5500 5.1 cause it comes with a digital decoder all that for just 99.99 u.s. but then i thought i could just get a cheap reciever and a seperate set of speakers. but then i have to ask what choices are there for digital speakers besides the logitech z-5500 ? also, can anyone recommend a good cheap digital reciever??

 

[Behemot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tony8404 /img/forum/go_quote.gif well, i was reading some more last night and came across this sondigo sound card and i am certain thats the card to get.

I am surprised to hear this, tony, cus this is seems to be the worst performing card on the block. I am sure you had a deep look on specs and features and I wonder what exactly guided you to this conclusion?

Techreport compared all Oxygen HD based cards and Auzentech was actually better. For gaming X-Fi was still the best option. Especially that now X-Fi can encode games into mutichannel digital stream, too - with RedocneXk

 

[tony8404]

for the love of god man. this is insane. as soon as i decide on a card it turns out not good. Okay that is it should i go with a x-fi or the auzentech card or the turtle beach montego?

the speakers is still killing me . i wanna get the creative inspire 5500 5.1 cause it comes with a digital decoder all that for just 99.99 u.s. but then i thought i could just get a cheap reciever and a seperate set of speakers. but then i have to ask what choices are there for digital speakers besides the logitech z-5500 ? also, can anyone recommend a good cheap digital reciever??

 

[Behemot]

huh, you good to go with whatever suits you. I just thought you might have noticed something special that I have overlooked perhaps... As for speakers 5500 for $99 is dirt cheap and most likely best value - if you need digital inputs.
A little box with digital and some analog inputs and analog outputs is effectively a "receiver". Or sort of.

But if you have this budget of about $250 (?) you better off get x-fi xtreme gamer card for about $90 and some relatively decent 5.1. analog speaker set for $160 perhaps something like THX certified Logitech - Z-5300E 5.1- BB used to have them for $149 some time ago. They are more powerful then any "digital" setup available at this price. To me there is actually no benefit in going digital between sound card and speakers, but you may have your reasons..

Good Luck

 

[infinitesymphony]

tony8404, you have a few things confused...

Computer speakers like the ones you're considering have built-in amplification--that's what makes them "computer speakers" and not just "speakers." They're designed to take analog output directly from a sound card, amplify it, and reproduce it on the speakers.

Sound cards don't have any built-in decoders. However, signals like Dolby Digital, DTS, etc. are often decoded using software decoders like the ones included with Windows Media Player. Basically, your computer is doing the work, not the sound card.

"Digital" speakers can be a confusing prospect. Here's the deal: some "digital" speakers accept both digital and analog input. If you choose to use the digital input on the speakers, it means that you're not using your sound card to do the D/A conversion; you're using whatever chip happens to be built into the speaker system instead of your fancy new sound card. So, ideally, you don't want "digital" speakers.

If you want a gaming card, you can't do any better than a card from the X-Fi series. Steer clear from the super-budget X-Fis, though, as they use inferior chipsets (XtremeAudio and XtremeGamer regular). The ones to look for are the XtremeMusic, Platinum, Elite Pro, and Fatal1ty. Unless you're an uber-gamer, you'll probably find the XtremeMusic to be the best fit as it's the cheapest.

Edit: The XtremeGamer Fatal1ty might be a good deal... It looks to be only slightly more than the XtremeMusic (which is getting harder to find), and it includes more hardware acceleration features like X-RAM.

 

[tony8404]

would i be better off with The XtremeGamer Fatal1ty or the auzentech xplosion for sound card? also, will the creative inspire 5500 digital speaker system be a good buy since it comes with a stand alone digital decoder? or would the logitech z-5500's be better?

 

[tony8404]

i have heard nothing but bad things about The XtremeGamer Fatal1ty sound card

 

[infinitesymphony]

From what I've read, the XtremeGamer Fatal1ty is the same card as the XtremeMusic except for the addition of X-RAM. However, the XtremeMusic is more widely-reviewed, so you might consider choosing that instead.

Actually, it appears that nearly all of the X-Fi cards have the same audio specifications, with two exceptions: XtremeAudio (worse) and Elite Pro (better).

See this thread: http://www.overclock.net/sound-cards...er-x-fi-3.html

Considering that Creative is the company who invented EAX, it's advisable to buy one of their cards for gaming. I'm also not sure what components are in the Auzentech card as they're not available in my region, but I do know that the X-Fi line-up contains the very respectable CS4382 DAC.

Regarding speakers, I'm assuming you didn't read my previous post carefully enough.

You don't need digital speakers, and you probably don't want them, especially if you're planning on a sound card upgrade. You might consider mentioning a price range for speakers... Are you planning on paying the full $300 MSRP for the Logitech Z-5500s?

 

[tony8404]

well, i went and got the Creative Labs SoundBlaster X-Fi ExtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series Sound Card....

What do you think of that card??? i just went and got it.

As for the speakers... now your talking. Right now i have the creative labs inspire 6.1 6600's. are they still good speakers or is it time for new ones?
I was thinking since i have that card now, if i went ahead and purchased creative labs inspire 5500 digital system which is 5.1 with a stand alone decoder will that be a good choice? there only for 99 dollars now.. they also, have a 5700 series as well. or should i just get 7.1 speakers for around 80 and then later get a ht receiver and be done? for the speaker price range maybe 150 limit on that.

 

[infinitesymphony]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tony8404 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Right now i have the creative labs inspire 6.1 6600's.

You should stick with those. The 5.1 systems you mentioned are downgrades. Your next step is to save up and buy standalone speakers that require a separate amplifier/receiver.