Best 5.1 speaker for PC within limited budget

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ben001

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Buying any electronic product is quit hard for people who really concern about their purchase. I'm kind of person who purchases any electronic items with deep review so that i can get a worthy buy. I've a gaming setup with no external sound card & have an old cheap creative 4.1 speaker(M4500). My 5 yrs old speaker gave me a fair output sound. So, my question : (1).Looking for a good surround 5.1 speakers for gaming, music, movie. i hear music,movies,games with max volume to get a good surround sound experience. Budget $300-350 , love to hear thumping or punchy bass (Kinda Bass lover with high volume). (2). Within such budget, a good PCI-E sound card with a decent 5.1 speaker. These are my option's. Another thing i have a Maximus VII Ranger motherboard which have Onboard sound feature. Thank you.
 

anonymousdude

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I like the logitech z506 and they're only $70 on amazon. They're good for the price.
http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Surround-Sound-Speakers-Z506/dp/B003VAK1FA
There's is also the z906, which is I think somewhere around 350. It has more power output and is slightly better in SQ.

As for a sound card I always advocate trying out the on-board sound first and see if you feel like it's lacking in some way. I say this because in my experience many people are satisfied by the quality of the on-board sound.
 

yeskay

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As I could see that you love pretty good bass at high volumes, I suggest you get this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Speakers: Logitech Z906 500W 5.1ch Speakers ($326.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $326.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-08 08:11 EDT-0400

No need for sound card, as what you've on board is no ordinary audio solution. Pair it with Z906 and you'll feel the difference. Obviously the Z506 is cheaper, as it got weaker speakers and ridiculously low RMS powered Sub-woofer.

See the difference here - http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/compare/logitech-speakers-980000430%2Clogitech-speakers-980000467/

In the end, I would suggest get the Z906, as you're willing to shell out $350 dollarslooking for better performance.

Consider this one has better price to performance ratio:
Logitech Z-5300e THX-Certified 280-Watt 5.1 Surround Sound PC and Gaming Speaker System for $149.95 - http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Z-5300e-THX-Certified-280-Watt-Surround/dp/B0002SQ0AE


Cheers!
 

anonymousdude

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One more thing you need to take into account is the size of your room. I have a pair of audioengine a2's which is 2.0 system. They are 15 W RMS and can fill a room that's about 130 sqft full of sound and annoy the person across the hall with room to spare. The z906 is a better set than the z506 no doubt. I mean you do get what you pay for. However you might not need that kind of power. There's is also the matter if you can tell a difference and if that difference is worth the increase in price.
 

ben001

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Now, I got enough information about purchasing a speaker.Thank you both of you for useful suggestion but i'll go with yeskay .
 

Urumiko

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Just a suggestion, but in my experience PC sound systems from createive etc are not the best,
If you are spending that kind of money you might want to consider buying an AV receiver/ speaker package and connecting your PC to it.
It gives you more options in the long run to upgrade as well :)

example:
http://www.richersounds.com/product/speaker-packages/pioneer/htp072/pion-htp072

If you look on e-bay you can often get bargain speakers too.
 

ben001

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This pioneer setup is not available here in the market right now & i don't purchase such electronic setup from online but the z906 sounds really good only problem i heard that they face a major issue with center speaker ( stop working) where Logitech don't replace single speaker or they don't have any solution for such problem , so it's hard get one with such after-sale service support.

 
computer speakers cannot compete with hifi/theater speakers.

even a budget home theater set is going to royally trump the z906.

i'd recommend the energy classic take 5.1 ($300) or the copycat monoprice 10565 ($220) paired up with an AVR. better sound than the z906 for similar or a bit more cost.

now is the z906 bad? no, its not a bad set however its not going to have nearly the same clarity as hifi/theater sets and its bass is going to be more boom-boom than full-ranged and dynamic. you can certainly get better sound for the money, but if you live in a country where such things are not available, are much more expensive or if you absolutely want 3.5mm hookup then sure go with the z906 it is not terrible.
 

ben001

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Well, thanx for the answer but one thing, do i need a sound card with the z906?. I heard many of the sound cards face driver issue but ignoring that part Creative & Asus are rivals, which one of them you suggest ? if needed. Thank You
 

iam2thecrowe

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You dont need a sound card, but i suggest getting one rather than onboard, even one of the cheaper asus soundcards is better. Asus are good for sound quality, but for gaming and drivers the sbZ series is better (This is only going by reviews) but i own the sbZ, and if you do ever chose to use headphones rather than the speakers, the sbz's built in headphone amp is crystal clear and very powerful. It also has a lot of nifty features for gaming, and a quad core processor on-board, and the EQ is insanely good, doesn't distort at all like on-board sound eq. The Asus sound processing is all done in software (via your cpu) and has no hardware processor.
 

ben001

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Ok, Thank you.
 
generally i suggest trying out onboard first (unless it doesnt have the features you want) as many people are content with their onboard. what crowe said is true however and soundcards are certainly better than onboard - although if the difference matters to you that is another thing entirely. for the z906 though its worth at least a $30-80 soundcard investment if you're not opposed to it.

the Z is nice for its amp, however the amp also will completely overpower lower power requirement headphones and you will be running the volume levels rather low. it is an excellent amp for something a bit heftier though. drivers are better on soundblaster cards as well. its a good card if the headphone amp isnt too much for your future needs. for your speakers though it shouldnt be a problem.

normally i recommend the dg (for cheap) or the dx (for quality) despite asus having some driver issues. the dg is a great budget performer while the DX has the same DAC as the $180 STX just not the amp and a few other features which makes it a good budget performer when you do not need a strong built in amp.

just my thoughts.
 

ben001

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How about Xonar D2X rather than DX ,SB Z or Out of these three which one have better SQ including feature wise overall performance?. Well i don't have that much knowledge in sounds but just want to know about these options. That's all. Thank You.
 

Helperino

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I bought the Logitech Z906 and I have a couple of problems with it. The rear speakers aren't functioning properly. Speaker fill doesn't work either. So there's something completely wrong with it. And I'm wondering if that has anything to do with the onboard soundcard that my motherboard carries. You can read more about it on the thread that I posted.

But what I'm trying to say is, don't entirely rely on your motherboard to have a soundcard that is going to plug and play with a Z906 system. There are more people like me who were forced to buy a separate soundcard (And I don't even know yet if that's going to work, I will get it in the mail tomorrow).

If you can get this set to work though, it's absolutely great.
 

iam2thecrowe

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its often the soundcard/onboard software that is the issue, there may not be anything wrong with the hardware or speakers. Dome are really fiddly to set up right. Dont forget you will only get 5.1 sound from a 5.1 source. For most par it will be 2 channel relying on any built in options the speakers have or sound card software for virtual surround. There are also windows sound settings that must be set up for 5.1. And make sure you use analog outputs rather than a digital one. Digital output will only work for surround if your soundcard can re-incode the multichannel data back to digital (which most are not capable of). SBz can do this however.

try this guide

http://www.techradar.com/au/news/audio/home-cinema-audio/how-to-set-up-your-pc-for-great-surround-sound-1052230
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows-vista/get-high-definition-sound-and-music-from-your-computer
 

ben001

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Yea, I've checked speaker properties but in Enhancement tab i already got two options: Bass Boost & DTS Connect which is already marked, i use a ranger vii Mobo & have my 5 yrs old creative speaker M4500 4.1 (which i want to change for getting 5.1 surround sound effect ) & my OS is Win7 Ultimate. May i know how are Creative speakers? Are they capable to produce better sound? or i should stick with Logitech z506 according to previous posts. Thank You.
 

Eric_28

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I have the logitech x-530s yea they suck i know. i'm looking to upgrade. But as far as rear speakers not working with your on board sound card, I had this problem and it took me hours of reading forums to figure it out. If you have any type of sound manager installed i.e. Realtek hd audio manager this is a breeze to fix if you don't have it i can't stress enough that you should download it. Anyways open the hd audio manager and you will see it has a bunch of options and blah blah blah, to turn on your rear speakers on the Speaker customization tab you will notice on the right side it will show you your connections (front or rear) above that is a folder click the folder and if the front output is enabled disable it and voila your 5.1 sound will work fine.

Hope this helps. Cheers
 
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