Best sounding PC speakers for Music / Games

[doogie182]

Hello!!



After 3hrs looking around the web for advice on which PC speakers would be best for Music / Games i only found a few ideas and i wanted to see what everyone else thought of these speakers or if you all have better advice on other ones? Please also keep in mind i listen to rock music and tend to watch transformers ( megan fox is hott) im a sucker for loud bass also so i can feel whatever im watching or listening to. Any help with this would be great!




Edifier S550 - Can't seem to find any place in the US to buy these though...


Audioengine A5B -


Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 -


Logitech z-5500 -


Logitech Z906 -


Bose Companion 5 -






Thanks Everyone!!!

 

[drew455]

not sure if this is your cup of tea, but $100 in headphones = $300 in speakers, $300 in headphones = $1000 speakers. why spend so much if you dont have to...unless this will be a media pc for everyone to watch/hear.

 

[drew455]

Actually, since you're prolly set on speakers, you would be better off buying a receiver/amp and a set of speakers. I use a pair of Yamaha ns-6490's and a denon receiver. Clarity is amazing. Highly recommend the speakers. They have plenty of bass.

 

[ssddx]

to answer a few of your questions:

Edifier S550 - no comment...
Audioengine A5B - no comment...
Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 - bass is great but speakers are a bit overpowered by it. 3/5
Logitech z-5500 - from what i've heard this isnt a bad set. logitech in general is decent.
Logitech Z906 - not sure on this set but from my experience with logitech, i'm sure its not bad for the price.
Bose Companion 5 - avoid bose as normally you get crappo speakers which only sound good due to other factors. well, at least that is the general concensus i seem to hear...

as drew455 said... a good pair of headphones such as audiotechnica ath-m50's will sound better than cheap speaker sets in the same price range, however the bass they produce while more than adequate for headphones is not going to shake pictures off the wall.

as drew455 said... buying a seperate receiver and speakers can blow most pc speaker sets completely away but you might want a higher budget.at a bare minimum i would set aside $200 for 2.1/3.1 and $400 for 5.1. keep in mind that you might be able to get things cheaper depending on what you buy but its a good starting point.

i myself own a pioneer vsx-30 receiver with 5.0 klipsh quintet iv speakers and a 450w klipsch subwoofer. what i paid is about 3x what i figure you want to spend but i can tell you that home theatre speakers certainly make a huge world of difference!

if you are set on getting standard computer speakers instead of headphones or a home theatre setup (avoid htib sets!) then personally i favor the logitechs as i've had great luck with that brand in the past.

i had the klipsh promedia set myself and while build quality was crazy excellent and the bass was superb... the front speakers were drowned out by the huge subwoofer. the set i have now is more evenly balanced.

 

[cerberus136]

I currently own a set of Logitech's Z-5400 (The predecessor to the Z-550 and Z906) and I absolutely love them. I could not have asked for a better set. You turn these guys up all the way and you can hear them from 2 miles away with amazing quality at that. Seriously, go for one of those 2 Logitech sets, I promise you you will NOT be disappointed.

On another note - I have heard of the Audioengine A5B being pretty good, I thought about getting them myself, but that requires dropping several hundred dollars on 2 speakers...not 5 and a sub. I'm sure the quality is still great, but for a full, epic gaming experience you want that 5.1 surround sound.

 

[ssddx]

5.1 might be good for most movies and most games but is utterly useless for music, general windows sounds and online streaming music of any sort unless you manually set everything so that the rear speakers repeat the front ones (as these are mono or stereo sources normally). in such cases 2.1 could be the better choice.

 

[cerberus136]

5.1 might be good for most movies and most games but is utterly useless for music, general windows sounds and online streaming music of any sort unless you manually set everything so that the rear speakers repeat the front ones (as these are mono or stereo sources normally). in such cases 2.1 could be the better choice.

5.1 setup with the Z-5400 worked out amazingly at the party I threw the other night. If I had fixed my optical audio problem (see my thread that no one's responded too ( ) yet), I think the audio output would have been on par with the several thousand dollar set a local DJ was using :O

In regards to that though, the high end Logitech systems all have a control unit where you can tell it what you are doing and it'll fix the speakers to the correct output for what's being done (ie. movie, game, 2 channel stereo, 5 channel stereo, etcetc).

 

[ssddx]

per my post above..

i stated that you could take the speakers on a 5.1 set and make them act similar to a 2.1 temporarily in windows settings. i guess your logitech speakers have this built in to them.

dont get me wrong, i've had logitech speakers before (sub $200 ones) and they did sound great. in fact, i recommend logitech over pretty much any other pc speakers. however with that said, professional level (and even home audio) speakers should sound better than normal pc speakers. if they sound great to you though, that is all that matters.

in my opinion though, something like the $1500 set i have would be more along the lines of dj equipment...although in pure volume and bass output i'm sure i am way outclassed. but for home use....systems like ours are way more than adequate.

---

as for your post which hasnt be responded to... there are often quite a few posts on here daily and only so many active posters. its easy for a thread to get lost.

throw a link to the thread here....or pm the thread to me and i'm sure to have a look at it. i'm not sure if i can answer your question or not but i will at least take a look.

 

[NoviceNob]

Actually, since you're prolly set on speakers, you would be better off buying a receiver/amp and a set of speakers. I use a pair of Yamaha ns-6490's and a denon receiver. Clarity is amazing. Highly recommend the speakers. They have plenty of bass.

Hey there drew455. You kind of answered a question that I posted earlier. I was thinking of buying the Denon AVR 1912 and Energy Take Classic 5.1 speakers for a new PC build.

My question is HOW do you hook the two together so that I can watch netflix/hulu from the computer AND listen to SiriusXM from the computer too.

Thank you very much for any advice and have a great weekend.

 

[cerberus136]

Hey there drew455. You kind of answered a question that I posted earlier. I was thinking of buying the Denon AVR 1912 and Energy Take Classic 5.1 speakers for a new PC build.

My question is HOW do you hook the two together so that I can watch netflix/hulu from the computer AND listen to SiriusXM from the computer too.

Thank you very much for any advice and have a great weekend.

I'm not going to give advice except to say the Logitech z-5500 has been an amazing set for me so far and is very easy to hook up to a pc

But with that said, you simply need too find an output on the system and plug it into an input on your pc. I know for my Logitech Z-5500 I have an optical audio cord connecting to the optical output on the control unit of the speakers and plugged in the other side on the optical audio input on my PC.

Now I don't know what output's the system you mentioned has so I can't speak for that personally

Hope I've helped!

 

[stillerfan15]

5.1 might be good for most movies and most games but is utterly useless for music, general windows sounds and online streaming music of any sort unless you manually set everything so that the rear speakers repeat the front ones (as these are mono or stereo sources normally). in such cases 2.1 could be the better choice.

Well said - most modern recorded music was meant to be heard on stereo. 2 channels.
Dave

 

[zander1983]

+1 for the Z-5500

I've owned two sets. Sold my first set for a profit and bought my second set the next day.
Only reason I scaled down is due to the place we rented...for some reason neighbors didn't like us...no idea why
The Z-906 is the replacement model for the Z-5500, have not used them so no idea if they continue the awesomeness.

But if you can stretch your budget, a receiver and speakers would probably be better but you will need more space for the bigger speakers.

PS. My Bose Companion 2.1 set is awesome, nothing to complain about.

[EDIT] The Z-5500 has the option via the control unit to play stereo using 4 speakers (left and right) not just the front two speakers.