5.1 surround sounds speakers for gaming

[Magnia]

G'day, I was looking to buy a 5.1 surround sound system, I needed some recommendations on which one to buy. Here are the details: I will be using it with a XBOX 360, PS3 and PC while playing games and sometimes watching movies. Its for a small room . Right now I am leaning towards Logitech Z-5500 as ive seen reviews of it holding great performance for its price, it's either that or I was looking into buying an AV reciever and speakers/subs. I'm not sure if i need the AV reciever just for games, so help me out here. Anything good around $500 will do. I am completely new to dealing with audio systems and have very little knowledge of how they work and what's best, so please bear with me. Thanks.

I also accidentally posted a similar topic without being a member using the "Ask a question" window on the right and now i cant find it.

 

[gamerk316]

Well, if you want 5.1 on you're 360/PS3, you either need a speaker setup that can decode Dolby Digital/DTS, or you need to go through a reciever. Going the Z5500 route spares you the reciever, as they have the necessary decoders built in.

 

[Magnia]

Great, didnt know that. I'll hold off buying the reciever for a while then. So I should just get the logitech speakers?

 

[gamerk316]

Well, the Z5500's are recommended heavily, and use both digital and analog inputs, which allows for 5.1 through digital (Dolby Digital/DTS) and analog (good for PC's which do NOT have a soundcard and DDL/DTS-C encoding), which covers most of the bases. Best bet is to ask around a bit though, as speakers aren't my area of expertiese...

Remember though, optical only allows vanillia Dolby Digital and DTS (5.1) streams (beside standard 2.0 of course). To get any 7.1 format, you will need a reciever at some point. So if you ever plan on a 7.1 system, best bet is the get a reciever, making speakers with built in decoders less of a priority.