Mid-range Speakers for Audigy?

[Davegod]

I've chosen a Audigy PCI OEM card to upgrade the onboard SB128 I have atm, but not sure on speakers. Did a little research, and worked out a choice between the following:

Labtech Arena 515
Labtech 2515
Altech AVS 500
Creative FPS 1600

Theres basically no price difference for me, after factoring in the audigy prices & postage etc. Main priority is for gaming, though CD & mp3 music (plus the occasional DVD) a consideration.

Any reccomendations or other pointers appreciated

- if anyone thinks its not worth upgrading the sound card i have please say, i have the one onboard the GA-7VTXH mobo, probably the best of the SB128's (4.1 supported, AC3 connector for hifi [though dont have surround hifi] etc).

 

[InsaneMorphius]

Dave,

The upgrade to the Audigy is worth it. But the speakers you've choose would do a dis-service to that card. Do a search for the Logitech Z560's. They are about $150 give or take a few bux, but are definetly worth the money. They have the same 400w as the Klipsch, hit just as hard, and sound superb.

Hope this helps

Morphius

 

[Davegod]

hmm... i kind of knew the speakers would be lower quality to the card, but cost is an issue.
im not really an audiophile, im paying GBP£48 for the OEM Audigy (approx USD$60-$70; half the price of standard retail version) and gave myself a budget of about £100 (though could go higher, thats just what i consder reasonable to pay for sound).

I did a bit of searching and couldn't even find the Logitech Z560's in the UK :\ By the way currency conversion mysteriously warps between UK & USA when anything computery is involved, i'd expect they'd cost me around £120 = $170+ , totalling approx USD$240... admittedly thats pretty damn good sound, but, ouch.

 

[bacillus]

I can certainly recommend the audigy/Inspire 5300 combination!

 

[InsaneMorphius]

Cost does seem too much for those,

Maybe the creative's there not all that bad!

 

[AndyHui]

I've got the Audigy and the Creative Inspire 4400 4.1's.

I decided to go for the 4400s instead of the 5300s since there are no differences to the speakers, except for the centre channel.

 

[Davegod]

cheers for the responses

they dont seem to sell the inspire 4400's in uk, not even from creative EU online shop
dont think theres any games that support 5.1, not really much need to pay the extra for that imo... and they push me well out of budget anyway

i heard before that the labtech 2515's were pretty good for the price... teetering between those and the Creative FPS 1600's :\

 

[mbt]

I'm not sure if the FPS1600 are all that good... try to find the older but better (i think) Cambridge FPS2000 Digital, or Altec Lansing ACS56.

The Cambridge Inspire line is good too, I heard.

 

[jordo]

the creative inspire 5300s are a good 5.1 system that can be had for about 90 USD. They are specifically made to work with the audigy line of soundcards. the only downside is that they do not have digital connections (hence the low price) so your s/n ratio isnt going to be as close to 100 as some more expensive sets.

 

[Davegod]

"w00t"

my preffered e-tailer today started doing an audigy + inspire 5300 package quite a lot cheaper than where i was looking at them seperately, so looks like I'm going for that

cheers

 

[AgentSmith]

ah.. those were the days when i was all so hyped up about the audigy, even got those inspire 4.1s. thought it would be an inspiring set, well actually they are for the money involved.. thats all now have fun

 

[gizbug]

So all of you like the Creative 5100 over the new Logitech 560's?

 

[Piano Man]

Umm, the audigy is no audiophile card. That 24bit/96Khz that it touts is a lie. Its actually 16bit. However, its a good 16bit. THe Logitech's Z560's would be great for that card. I myself just got the Cambridge SoundWorks MegaWorks 510D's and I love them. But they cost $283 shipped. You can probably get the Logitech's for $150 shipped if you look hard enough.

 

[yohan]

I've listened to Labtec, they're cheap indeed, but the quality isn't worth it.

For Creative, better choose the Inspires

For Altecs, even the 2100 is far much better than the AVS 500s. I highly recommend 2100!

 

[dude8604]

I have Creative Inspire 5700s with my Audigy. They sound good, but they cost me ~$250 from newegg.com about 3 months ago. The sound quality is very good though. Btw they are 5.1 channel speakers. It sounds like this would be a little over your budget though.