Good speakers for £50-£70?

[Ghost Trayn]

Well, It's time to upgrade my sound system...but which speakers are good?

I know theres a big selection...and I'm not into music much...all I need is a decent sound system for surround sound Counter-Strike.

I've seen some offers, a 'lanseng' or something...two satalite speakers with a sub woofer...

Well, thats the type of set-up I'm after...but who can I trust?

I need LOUD explosions...so loud that the guy who just ate my grenade should hear it in France!

Cheers...

Oh, and my AWE32's a little old in the tooth...should I upgrade to one of Creative Labs offerings., or go with the Sonic Fury?

The Sonic Fury seems to have everything except Dolby 5.1

[rider]

depends how much you want to spend

if you're absolutely loaded
go for Videologic's DigiTheatre DTS [£500]
that'll blow you bollocks off TO france
it's awesome for Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS, stick a DVD player on it and watch your room turn into a battleground with "Saving Private Ryan"
[Videologics' Sonic Fury 2 should partner well]
It has approximately 270watts total output [120watts Woofer/bass and 6x 30watt satellites - all positional]

if you're a low budget person
there's too much of a choice for me to mention any single speaker system - but personally, Creative-Labs's range tend to be iconic imo so I'd look in that area

[[HLnC]Jay-Dee]

i've heard good things about those new creative labs fps1500 speakers which is a 4.1 system and requires a front and back output from your soundcard which yours doesnt have

so u would need something like a sb1024

however u might as well go the whole hog and get the sb1024 dolby5.1 instead which is only a few quid more

then u could get their 5.1 speaker system to go with it that costs about £80 :)

:)

[Ghost Trayn]

So, is the "SB1024 Dolby5.1" any good?
I've seen OCUK selling different versions of this...
But, does anyone know if this is better then the Sonic Fury, the Fury sonds like a decent card, and it's the same price as the SB1024-Dolby5.1

As for the speakers, I'm still kinda confused...does anyone own a set worthy of recomendation?

I'd rather spend around £50 but if the difference is worth it...I'd probably go upto £100.

Cheers.

[werewolf_bite]

hi for surround sound (or 4 speaker surround) from your PC you will need a sound card that supports it as well a set of speakers.

The SB Live 5.1 has an output that works with 5.1 surround speakers and amps.
This is pretty expensive (any 5.1 amp speaker set is going to cost at least £100).

The setup i use is a Creative SB Live Value/Player and FPS1500 speakers which sounds great :)

You could also use the SB-Live 5.1 with the FPS1500's for 4 channel+sub type surround.

[edwardp]

I can highly recommend the SB 1024 live with FPS1500, I have just built a new box and was on a bit of a budget when it came to sound. This was a great combination and for CS certainly packs a punch!

The SB 1024 Live! is good value if you go to http://www.microlanduk.com - £41.13 inc vat plus delivery - u can pick up the speakers for around £45, so it makes a good value high quality combo.

Hope this helps :)

Ed

[KaTmAi]

I don't know whether you can get them where you live, but my mates brother has a set of Boston Accoustic speakers, and they are absolutely brilliant with minimal distortion at high noise levels.

I think he paid around £70, while they are only a three piece set, the quality of the sound is brilliant, and the bass unbelievable :)

Cheers
KaT

[Muttman]

If there the same Boston Acoustic speakers are bloody good.

I got a set with my old Gateway pc, 2 sats and a sub, Can go bloody loud with great clarity.

The Cambridge soundworks speaker range is good too, a friend got the four point surround set about a year ago, and they still sound good.

I'll let ya know what the DTT3500 sound like. :)

[Mozza]

aye
our PC downstairs has Boston accoustics 2 sats and a sub
better quality than our main hi fi..
Also my PC upstairs has a set of cambridge soundworks speakers, up fps1500 or sommit
4 mini sats and a sub, and i got a creative labs SB 128 V2 sound card or sommit
and for some reason when all plugged in i dont get 'full' suround sound, to get sound out of rear speakers i have to leave one of the cables connected to the sub out..
anyone know the prob..

[Boycee]

ok...i got a SB live with my Boston acoustics speakers from me old gateway

....they r the digital media theater.....now the speakers r the best i have ever seen, (worth $299 aparently)

but, they will decode ac3 digital output themsleves (from power dvd)...but i can't find anywhere that sells the rear speaker addon (does it virtual mode without).....

and for games set your live to live!surround speakers...and the output is encoded in doubly pro logic...and thus the bostons decode it again (yes 4 point speakers through a 2 channel output)....and with the rear addons it would cool...if only i could find em..

[Muttman]

Unfortunately you probably wont find them.

I searched for months, even contacted Gateway to be told by the guy on the other end of the phone that he too had been looking for months.

Boston Acoustic site didnt mention them either.

Bit daft if they really dont make them as they would sound awesome. Even more so than they do already.

[geordie139]

I can certainly recomend the creative DTT3500,i was lucky enough to win them from Lineone and they sound f****** awesome. Im running them through a SBLive 1024 which i got brand new (oem)for £15 from a local firm goin bust. I've found the best way to connect these was using the yellow digital out on the SBlive to the Digital DIN on the amp via an adaptor supplied with the speakers. I haven't got a DVD rom yet but watching div-x films it does appear to produce 5.1 decoded by the speakers on board processor(i may be wrong here,if i am let me know) and both music and games sound excelent with explosions you can feel through the whole house!!!!!

[sprocket]

Get a decent set of headphones like £120 Sennheiser. I have a sonic vortex card and one of the Soundworks 6 speaker set ups, never turn the sound on since I got the headphones 6 months back :E

No comp sound set up is ever going to be like a real hifi for sound for many reasons (like a 60hz bass note needs 2 meters to propogate fully or the fact that a comp is a very hostile enviroment for audio frequencies).

Had a set of Bose speakers back along, they were nice but cans roolz, imho.
:cat:

[Col]

Originally posted by sprocket
Get a decent set of headphones like £120 Sennheiser.

I second that too having just recently picked up a tasty pair of Sennheiser HD580's (£200 RRP :eek: ) which are awesome, well worth the £80 i paid for them. :E

What headphones have you got then Sprocket?

[nippa]

yeah headphones are good but they are never gonna be as good as a sweet sub woofer which shakes the room.....the cambridge sound works digital 3 piece is a very good setup for the price(£50-£60)...will beat any mid range hi fi system for sound......even gives me yamaha seperates & gale speakers a run for their money(bass wise).....personally i woudnt bother with 4.1 not that good i tried the fps 1500 and the fps 1000...and they did give a slightly better effect than 2.1 but u have to have the back speakers at shoulder height which is a pain cause u need proper stands...and it starts to look like a friggin a hair dressers with poles everywhere........

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Creative_Labs_Speaker_Systems_22.html

3rd from the top...u wont be dissapointed

[harps]

err, my microsoft branded philips digital USB speakers with sub are great, they were £99 about a year ago when i purchased, so they're probably cheaper now.

[Ghost Trayn]

Woah! Another post comes back to haunt me :eek:

There was a 3 month gap before Geordie dug it up!
What are you like Geordie ;)

I've got the DTT2200's linked to a SB Live!5.1 ... Sounds good, the bass can get a little muffled, but I blame that on bad MP3's! Other then that, Counter-Strike rOcKs! You just have to hear the Colt w/silencer... ooooooh!

I'd definately recommend it... sometimes I think, £130 quid just to hear loud gunshots is a little expensive! So I load up CS, empty my clip and I start feeling better :E

The local MSquared sell the DTT3500's, every now and again the price drops to £160... then goes back to £250. If anyone wants them, keep an eye out!

[Hellraisermk2]

I went out for the DTS2500 this week and was just about to purchase when I had a money saving idea. Above my PC is 1000 quids worth of stereo equipment, which my little fragile brain had forgotten about... so down went the DTS system and in came a simple lead for 7 quid. Ahhh surround sound through my stereo... why I didn't think of it before I do not know... but 7 quid is better than hundreds.

If you have a stereo nearby... have a look at the connections it has and see if you can't hook it up. Cheaper, and in my case, better than any speaker/sub system you could buy

[sprocket]

Just looked Col, I got the HD570'S and love em to bit's, I bought them as someone told me that when duelling, cans give you a much better positional information on your opponent, very very true but I'm still crap :(

Hehe, I did feel as guilty as hell tho when I bought the cans and then drilled a hole through the left hand side to mount the mic on for BC, heehee.

I went through a stage with comp audio of buying the "best" speakers, then buying the next set of "best" speakers two months later but tbh was never happy with any of them, in audio terms they are all rubbish being realistic. The headphones have totally stopped this urge and I'm very happy now :)

:cat:

[[HLnC]Jay-Dee]

Originally posted by geordie139
I haven't got a DVD rom yet but watching div-x films it does appear to produce 5.1 decoded by the speakers on board processor(i may be wrong here,if i am let me know)

well divx usually just has the stereo track to keep the file size down so it is probably just the same sound coming from all 5 speakers

[Norphy]

imo you can't beat the Creative FPS1500 for value, for only £52 odd from most good places the sound is excellent. As for a sound card, I would of said SB Live! a while ago but since getting this Gametheatre XP a while ago I'd say go for that or a similar card like the Videologic Sonic Fury. The sound is much cleaner and crisper in my opinion and there is no hiss like there is with the creative card

[Boycee]

Yes i have the bostons that decode ac3 and pro logic (which is live surround) Prob is that they decode then put into virtual, until i have the rear speakers, which are no where to be found, gonna bring some back from america if i can.

Otherwise, i'll try put some normal speakers into it, see if it 'switches' into full mode

[Boycee]

also nice to have the 2 spare analog outs from me live! coz they go into 2 amps for dvd watching on the TV :P