Best Bang for the Buck? - 5.1


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I was thinking of getting some 5.1 speakers and I was wondering if you guys had any to recommend? I have a budget of only about $150, but im not that big of an audiophile. I was looking at the Creative Inspire 5300's and they look pretty good, anyone have any feedback on these or others? Thanks!

[Edit] Also I was hoping to be able to pick them up locally, i.e. CompUSA, CircuitCity, etc. So please provide a link if you can. [/Edit]

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hell yeah, they KICK ASS. THat's what i have now and they ROX! CompUSA has them for $99 so $107 with tax included but you can save yourself lots of cash buying them online. Most places got them for like $50 or $60... i'm not sure but i know waay cheaper than the $99 i paid! I was real ****ed! Oh well... they ROCK!!!! :) Get them. I wanna sell mine and get the 5700s cuz those are digital and yeah, you guessed it.. i'm an Audiophile. I'm not selling these cuz they suck or anything, just that i'm impressed by these so much that i can't even imagine how much the more expensive digital 5700s would be which are designed for Audiophiles.

Does anyone know if they have OPTICAL IN? Oh wait, i can simply check the website... :) My Abit MAX AT7 has optical out and i wanna use it.

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I'd get these altec lansings if I were you. I don't have anything against the inspire 5300's, but I wish they had a bit more bass.

http://www.alteclansing.com/product_detail...p?pID=251&sID=1

You can get them here at PC Club for $90. They have locations throughout the nation so you can walk in there and pick them up. You can get the Inspires there too if you want them. That place has great deals ;)

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Go to Comp USA or any local computer store and compare the speakers for self. I was going to buy some 5.1 a few months ago , but then the Logitech Z-560 came out with 400 Watts (130 bucks) and the five 5.1 just didn't sound to good to me anymore

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Originally posted by liar2

I'd get these altec lansings if I were you. I don't have anything against the inspire 5300's, but I wish they had a bit more bass.

http://www.alteclansing.com/product_detail...p?pID=251&sID=1

You can get them here at PC Club for $90. They have locations throughout the nation so you can walk in there and pick them up. You can get the Inspires there too if you want them. That place has great deals ;)

my friend bought it last week. maybe he didn't set it up correctly or what. it doesn't sound as good as i expected.

go for Creative.

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Originally posted by realmccoy

Go to Comp USA or any local computer store and compare the speakers for self. I was going to buy some 5.1 a few months ago , but then the Logitech Z-560 came out with 400 Watts (130 bucks) and the five 5.1 just didn't sound to good to me anymore

hell yeah! i'm thinking to swap my creative5.1 for that thx-certified sound system!

how does that sound when watching dvd?

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The Z-560 sound perfect when watching a movies and playing games such MAX PAYNE you can feel the gunshots and the heart beat sound when MAX PAYNE goes into that slow time function

The speakers are rated 9-10 in every review that I have seen, don't just take my word do search on web for reviews on them

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Well, I've been thinking about it for a while, and I finally broke down since most of my music listening is at my computer. After a little research, I decided to go with the Inspire 5300 and my fist impression is pretty good. They sound great and I got then for $100 - $20 rebate, which is about what I'd end up paying online but I got them immediately. I have a question though. Is there any software or perhaps a winamp plugin for balancing the 5 channels? That would be pretty cool. I think it would make a great plugin for winamp if their isn't one yet. Any ideas?

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i know that if you have an audigy or 5.1 live, it should work, but if you want full 5.1, i know that creative has a 5.1 force thingy called chms or something, but the quality is not as good. (and that may be only on the exitigy and the digital speakers)

im not sure of any software though

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Originally posted by eXistence

Another proud customer of Logitech's Z-560. It's great; like realmccoy said, it sounds really good when playing DVDs and games.

Can you get them in the UK?

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Originally posted by DoubleJ

Well, I've been thinking about it for a while, and I finally broke down since most of my music listening is at my computer. After a little research, I decided to go with the Inspire 5300 and my fist impression is pretty good. They sound great and I got then for $100 - $20 rebate, which is about what I'd end up paying online but I got them immediately. I have a question though. Is there any software or perhaps a winamp plugin for balancing the 5 channels? That would be pretty cool. I think it would make a great plugin for winamp if their isn't one yet. Any ideas?

I don't think it's possible to listen to your mp3's in 5.1 with those. You need a decoder box for that, methinks. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure about that.

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Thats true for the most part. Besides, MP3's are only 2 channel stereo. The speakers I got, along with many others like it, use 3 analog connectors to get 6 discrete channels, however it is not digital. What I am looking for is something that outputs a constant tone to each channel, one at a time, so that the volumes can be balanced well. Most high end stereos have a feature like this and I was just wondering if anyone made some software to do it for computer speakers.

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Originally posted by liar2

well, i have my dtt3500s and i can hear my mp3s in 5.1 because the decoder box decodes it in that fashion.

It is only virtual 5.1, the decoder splits the frequencies in some realistic fashion, i.e. vocals from the center, a reverbarated version of the fronts in the rear. Its probably a lot more complicated than that. My audio driver has a control for creating virtual 5.1. A decoder would be more for actual 5.1 supplied to it digitally. If mp3's were encoded 5.1 then that would defeat the purpose of both the 5.1 for quality and the mp3 for size.

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