NEW: help choosing 5.1 PC audio vs Home theater

[sunnyimran]

Hello, My PC mobo (ASUS P5QL PRO) has built-in Realtek 7.1 sound output.


Wanna buy a 5.1 speaker system

I need to choose between these 5.1 speakers


EDIFIER R251 http/www.edifier.com/eng2005/product/s0024_01.htm

OR

LOGITECH X 530 http/www.logitech.com/en-gb/speakers-audio/home-pc-speakers/devices/211

OR

HOME THEATER ?
SONY DAV TZ 210 http/www.sony.com.au/product/dav-tz210

SONY DAV TZ 130 http/www.sony.com.au/product/dav-tz130





Q.1 Put you opinion in Logitech x 530 and Edifier R251 which one is best in audio quality?


Q.2 with little high price those above two SONY home theaters available, they are also 5.1 Will they perform better than above two logitech and edifier speakers?

I will currently use it with my PC built in audio.

Later wanna use with LCD TV, DVD and other accessories. In that case will PC speaker be god choice or above home theaters? ( giving priority to powerful quality audio, Please suggest. Thanks

When PC audio on home theater 5.1 -OR- on 5.1 PC speakers, which will be more quality audio?

Please suggest. Thanks

 

[anwaypasible]

@megamer

dvd is still the most commonly bought media for movies. why? well because it isn't worth paying $35 for a movie you know you will only watch one or two times that wasnt that great when you could get it for $15-20 on dvd. The only movies i buy on blueray (i pay $22-23 because walmart has a sale on them for like the first day only) are movies i know for a fact to be truley great.

if you only buy a few movies then $35 might be manageable.. however do consider that i have around 1700 hours of media sitting on my movie shelves. for those of us who buy many movies (we dont have cable) price is a huge concern.

plus i've known for a fact that we're getting shafted. they did it with dvd, now they are doing it with blueray.

@anwaypasible

yes i understand that there will always be some money used for future equipment, research, etcetera etcetera.

however, i know for a fact that they are currently using machines that create cds, doing a very minimal overhaul and producing a certain type of blueray media on them.

also consider that blueray technology is a few years old now so the machine technology already exists so should be readily available. even if they had to buy special "blueray disk machines" if you look at how long-lived dvds are they have at least 8-10 years of solid production without even having to think about upgrades.

lastly... i know i can buy blueray media for about $1 a disk if you go to some blueray websites out there. i prefer to buy off of well known legitimate sources so i avoid these, but if they can make a profit what is stopping the big guns? why is it then that well known brands charge 15x + for the same product? i could see if the r/w speeds were superior but they are not.

---

last:

we started veering off course from the original OP topic. if there is nothing else to add i say this thread should be closed.

if you want to continue this discussion megamer or anway, post a topic up in a PM

you know why they say 'you get what you pay for' ?
because the FTC would be all over your work history for selling inferior products at the higher price.
imagine being sued for having your price tag too high and the product fails like some of those $1 discs.
i would imagine the cheaper discs have problems with the foil flaking off, making the disc unreadable.
maybe the ink doesnt hold the data as long.. or maybe it smears and becomes unusable.

you know why they say 'you have no right to say that' ?
because the original poster came along and wanted more conversation.
you dont close a thread when you think it is 'done' .. it is a waste of time, and it is rude/disrespectful to the original poster.
anybody can flag a post, but it should be the decision of the original poster to close the thread or leave it open.. since it was their effort that started the thread.

if you really dont see the difference between the $1 disc and the expensive discs.. maybe you havent waited long enough for them to age?
maybe you havent handled them enough to destroy them?
would be embarassing to go to court and have the company say 'the $1 discs last about 10 years, and our discs last about 30 years'
and if the information was classified, to say 'the foil on our discs doesnt make the optical sensor struggle to read the data, giving a less stress environment = longer life of the optical sensor'

selling junk for more money can get a business in trouble.
but
selling goods for less money doesnt get the business in trouble UNLESS there is a contract of the 'bluray industry' preventing sales to be no lower than ____ dollars.
and while this might be true for re-sellers ... the same isnt always applicable to the manufacturers and warehouses that hold the products.
another reason the products can be sold for less, in times of liquidation.
liquidation could be because a company has gone out of business.. or because the final product is not up to specifications, saying there was a defect in the manufacturing process.. and because of the defect, the product doesnt deserve to be forced into the price bracket.

i have seen the foil flake off of discs.. and i have seen the plastic scratch very very easily.
these two things make the ink useless, no matter how good it is.
i think the scratch resistance probably costs the most to manufacture, but that might come second to higher quality ink sheets.
maybe the technology is more advanced, like if the disc gets used.. it 'revitalizes' the ink and keeps it in tact?
or
maybe the company has done extensive research with the optical sensors and knows what foil to use to keep the optical sensor from using maximum power to read the data.. saving the life of the optical sensor, and charging you for the information they gathered?

what you are paying and what the business is paying for the discs might be two entirely different things.
your pain might be from the greedy stores who mark up the price.
would be a more difficult argument if the cheap spindle cost $1 and the premium spindle costs $3.50
that would be a mark up problem.. and you would need to know if the business has no choice but to sell for a certain price to keep their license with the disc company.

 

[anwaypasible]

So I got the idea after owning a entry level 5.1 PC audio , that 90% of items to play specially from internet are not multi channel.

so for to time to come , we need some good players / hardware configurations to at least enjoy plain stereo on multi channels although not true multi channel surround, but still better than plain stereo.

I searched several of my favorite audio tracks, little old, could not find them in DTS or other surround.

This all has grown my interest in digital audio. please specify some good links to get more insight of digital audio.

if you want the quick rundown, higher sample rates and higher bit depths will only help improve the sound quality results.
but
if you are wanting more information than that, you would probably want to dive into the realm of sound processing effects.

i have went through the task of learning foobar2000 and why it is better to use kernel streaming or asio for output, and it boils down to a more direct approach to passing the data along to the soundcard.

the sound processors work pretty much like this,
they review the audio data and see the low/medium/high sounds.. then they make the low sounds lower and the high sounds higher, to create a more dynamic amplitude of sound.

they can also look at the soundwaves and see some of the gaps provided by the low sample rate, then try to fill in those gaps with information using simple algebra.
the same can be said for the bit depth, but this is more advanced since there is a lot more guessing work.

i dont know if audio uses more than one type of programming language.
but if it does exist..
then a sound processor would take the junk programming language and translate it to a higher quality one.
for example.. if your digital to analog chip reads 1's and 0's .. maybe it sounds better if you send *'s and .'s
different symbols might change the voltage across the chip, and if you are saving or feeding more voltage.. it might produce a better audible result.
since there is a compiler that acts like a dictionary for all of the audio data, some symbols and characters would have a higher noise floor to represent a recording of higher signal to noise ratio.
this means you could record with a higher noise floor, and then translate the data to lower the noise floor and fill in the gap with artificial digital silence.

it is like you are inside your house and you can hear your PC fan.. and if you wanted to raise the amplitude of the noise from the fan, you could do that by changing the characters and symbols used to represent the soundwave from the fan.
your noise floor is going to be what captures the sounds of vehicles driving by outside of the house.
if you manually adjust the soundwave of the fan, you can make the fan louder and the driving vehicles stay where they are.
this would seem like the fan is closer to the microphone, but you cant fool the time domain.. so the result would be artificial.

but here is why they are supposed to use it.
if you turn off the PC and your room has an ambient noise of like 50dB .. then when you turn the PC back on and record the fan noise, you could seperate the fan from the 50dB of room noise ... or you could remove the room noise altogether.

kinda like recording yourself talk and removing the noise from the PC fan in the background.
people will hear you without the fan noise.. and that means the listener can focus on your voice and nothing else.

this is all easier said than done.. because it takes training and team work with the software programming to accomplish something.
or
buy a piece of software already created that does it.

have you ever come across a 'remove hiss' filter?
sometimes the hiss noise is viewed and the frequency is captured, then it applies a filter for that frequency to remove the hiss.
when it is done, you can hear the rest of the audio has changed a little bit from the removal of the frequency IF the frequency was in the same area of whatever you recorded.
another way to do it is to physically find all of the data that represents the hiss, and the hiss only.
then simply delete it or fill in the character's and symbols with digital silence.

it is like working with metal.
if there is rust somewhere, you can grind the rust off, or you can simply make a straight cut with a saw and build a new piece with a flat edge on the top.. then weld the new piece on and sand down the welds to make it all flat on the front side.
if the new piece is the perfect shape, you wont know the piece has been replaced when it is all primed and painted.
there are probably hundreds of audio effects 'plugins'
i dont think i have seen 100 plugins yet, because i havent browsed 'em all.
but
there are dozens and dozens of them.
some plugins cost like $100 for one.
and some plugins come with those studio mastering programs that allow you to manipulate a recording.
these programs can cost thousands of dollars !!

 

[MEgamer]

the music videos get some high definition attention.. and with that high definition video should be a higher quality version of the audio (something better than the cd version)
but i still dont get that audio in my house.. it is too rare (i dont have HD mtv)

dont bother with HD channels on TV... its all compressed.

 

[anwaypasible]

i got ahold of a rock album with supposedly 24bit 96khz audio quality.
i would have gone 24bit 192khz .. but my receiver doesnt support 192khz

the difference in the cymbols of the drums is pretty clear.
as i have seen the difficulty of the inferior cymbols.
i have listened to the digital radio stations that come with the digital tv subscription.. they are output with dolby prologic audio.
but
the prologic isnt really active, and i think the sample rate is locked at 48khz with 16bit depth.
they certainly dont sound high quality.
some of the audio on the HD channels sounds much better.. but you can still hear it is all compressed digital artifacts.

i am getting a bit excited and overwhelmed about purchasing the things needed to upgrade my home theater to the newest surround sound formats.
and i am hoping some soundcards that decode these new formats hit the market soon.
my amplifier is okay.. the decoder doesnt support the new sample rates.
would want to keep the amplifier and grab a new decoder.
probably thousands of people who feel the same way i do.
some of them might use ebay for their first time to sell their old receiver.. LOL