I'm looking at upgrading from my z-5 speakers. I want to create a sound solution that is weighted slightly more towards playing music (Soilwork, Trivium etc..) while getting good quality sound from games. I will likely make it a 2.1 system at some point with a sub that I already have if compatible but would be satisfied with just 2.0. Poking around this is what I had in mind: Sound Card - Creative Z or Zx I'm big on aesthietics so I am a little hesitant about this card as it is red and I enjoy all the black in my system, not to mention the red LED :/. 150-200 is about how much I am looking at spendng on a sound card. I went with creative because I had a zen mp3 player and a pair of their aurvana ear buds that I still use to this day, they're 6-8 years old and work flawlessly. All black card would be preferable. I'm not keen on spending the 250 for the zxr. I'm open to other suggestions. I won't purchase the headset until I have settled on a soundcard. Speakers - Creative Gigaworks T40 series II Headset - Sennheiser PC360 (This is only because the gf hates the sound of online fps play with a passion)
Might want to take a look at Corsair Gaming Audio Series SP2500 High-power 2.1 PC Speaker System. http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836852001
The soundcards are fine..I think I'd go Asus now, but I have an older Xfi PCI-express that's still going strong many years in. I'd look to a 2-speaker set of larger, powered, monitor-type speakers . Especially for music, unless you need a lot of base. I have a pair of mAudio AV40s which are amazing. http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/StudiophileAV40.html Much better than any computer-acc. manufacturer 2.1 set I've ever had (including base). There are a couple other options like the Audioengine A2s and other things in that price range. I also don't recommend a headset. Get decent heaphones and a mic - clip on or boom. There's a couple of Audiotechnica sets that are great value. I have the ATH-M40fs - great sound for the price.
That headset is pretty amazing. It has the same drivers as the Sennheiser HD555's, just with an added mic. And a great mic at that. It is the best headset I have ever heard, and is better than the good majority of headphones too. Those Audio Technica's are ok, and good for the price, but I like how the Sennehiser's sound way more. I used to own a pair of HD555s, I use a pair of ATH-M40fs' when I run sound in various venues, and I own a pair of PC350's that are modded and closer to the PC360's. It would save a good bit of money though going with the ATH-M40fs' and ModMic: http://www.modmic.com/ Here is a tip on speakers Ryld, dont ever buy computer speakers. In my entire life I have never once heard a computer speaker that was good. As for those Creative's, well, Creative is not known for their awesome speakers lets just put it that way. These are far superior speakers and cheaper too (what Rbstr listed): http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AV40/ These may also sound pretty good: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ErisE4.5/ Connect your sound card to the speakers with this cable: http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=102&cp_id=10218&cs_id=1021815&p_id=5599&seq=1&format=2 And if you have some wire around use that, or buy this and cut it to length to connect one speaker to the other: http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=102&cp_id=10239&cs_id=1023903&p_id=2749&seq=1&format=2 With a setup like this you can still use a sub, just use the center/sub output from your sound card. You would take a Stereo 1/8" to dual mono 1/8" cable, and then take whichever end has the subwoofer signal on it and go into your sub with that. Either using another 1/8" to RCA or 1/8" to 1/8" depending on what type of input your sub has. The crossover is usually set in your sound card's software, so the setting on the sub can be turned all the way up so that you dont lose any frequencies somewhere.
I recently built a PC sound system geared towards music. I used a Creative Z sound card. This card is really amazing, noticed instant difference in audio quality compared to my onboard. Also, it's got a quad-core sound processor, so it doesn't hog your CPU, and ends up being good for gaming as a result. For speakers, I got the M-Audio BX5 D2 studio monitors. Love em. No subwoofer yet, but I plan on getting the accompanying subwoofer sometime down the line. An important note to remember is, good sound systems improve the quality of electronic, acoustic, and percussion instruments dramatically, but the distorted guitars used in heavy metal sounds the same as a subpar sound system, because, well... it's distorted. That's just the nature of the sound (I listen to metal myself) Still worth it, though. Once you get your new sound system, test it out using the Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon Theme. You'll be blown away.
Reading on the Z vs. Zx seems to indicate that they are the exact same card. The only difference is the module that it comes with has mic and is an extension cord for your headphones. Would it not be better to just plug the headphone into the card and not have to deal with any problems the cord/module could cause? Thus rendering the module obsolete and the Z being the better option of the two? Which in that case I could just with an OEM model Z and lose the cover and LEDs unless the cover actually serves a purpose? I'm definitely going to stay away from anything corsair related for my computer. Don't want to have to return the speakers in 6 months :/ Thanks for the advice on the speakers Rbstr + Enigma. I think I will go with the M-audio AV40 or those preSonus ErisE4.5 speakers. You seem to get TON more speaker for a similar price to the gigaworks t40. Hard to believe they can get away with selling those speakers like that. But I suppose without you guys I would have picked them up. The AV40 will probably win out as I feel like I would be hard pressed to notice a difference between the 2 even with the extra bells and whistles on the PreSonus speakers... Unless the price is the same. Any idea when the PreSonus speakers will be available to buy? How much of a difference does the open vs. closed headset make? or is it all personal opinion? Have you had any problems with the sounds card yet rubius?
Oh dang, didn't notice they were a pre-order item. Sweetwater has great customer service, so you should just call them up and ask when the Presonus speakers are expected in. Comparing the specs between the two monitor speakers, the Presonus would get you a little bit lower frequencies and the high end should sound a bit more pronounced. The LF driver is also a kevlar composite instead of polypropylene coated paper, so it should be a bit more rigid which will lead to a tighter low frequency response at higher SPL. The difference between closed and open headphones is usually that open design has a much larger sound stage and feels more realistic. However you also can hear things going on in the room and whatever you are listening to will bleed out as well so other people will hear it. I have the Sennheiser PC350's, which are the same as the PC360 but it is a closed back design. Most people did not like how this altered the sound since those drivers were designed to be used as an open back, so I did some modding and tripled the amount of air space inside the headphones, added some damping, and ported them to the outside. So they are closer to how the PC360's are designed now. The PC360 was the successor the the 50's and tried to solve all the shortcomings of the older model.
Yes, they're the exact same. The next level up would be the ZxR ($250), which is significantly better than the Z/Zx. No problems yet with my card. It's been phenomenal.
I'll give em a call tomorrow to see. So... why not just get some HD555/558 and grab a mod mic and do the whole tape mod thing? If it is the same driver seems like the best option (read: stupid to spend 200$ more). Do the ATH-m40s have the upper hand on sennheisers in this range?
I have an Asus ROG xonar and it's great also a SB X-FI titanium which remains good too. I guess the creative Z is what replaced the X-FI line, it's very good. Can't really tell the diff with the ASUS Xonar tho. For the best audio u can go with a 2.1 hi-fi system, like Yamaha and connect ur PC via Optical, alternatively i bought the Klipsch pro media 2.1 for my wife and they are quite good too, very nice sound. I've heard very good things about Edifier as well, like the Edifier C-3 http://www.edifier-international.com/products/edifier-multimedia/c3 or S730 http://www.edifier-international.com/products/edifier-multimedia/s730 (which is more expensive), i'm not really fan of creative or logitech speakers for music myself.
If you connect to speakers or a receiver with optical or coaxial S/PDIF then there is no real point in owning a sound card since all decoding of the audio is done in the receiving end of that digital connection. The only thing that would be done in the sound card at that point is EQ and effects processing into the audio stream. Which can be important sure, but it isn't usually worth almost $200 for a couple little features to most people.
I don't have the space to hook my pc up to a receiver or the desire to go that all out with the sound system. If I was planning on 5.1 I would think about it, but I'm not, so I won't. I will be more than happy with the sound card+headset+new speakers. Yes? Good Route?
You can go that route for sure. The quality of the mic will not be nearly as good as ones built into the headset from Sennheiser, but it is still good enough for gaming voip.
I think that is the route I am most comfortable with. I would rather have better sound more often then a little worse sound with a mic all the time seeing as I am not playing a game with VoIP all the time.
I prefer the sound of the Sennheisers and the open back design in headphones, but since you are wanting them to use when you need it more quiet you may want to get the Audio-Technica ATH-M40FS' since they are closed back. Another possibility to lok at would be the AKG K240's: http://www.amazon.com/AKG-240-Semi-Open-Studio-Headphones/dp/B0001ARCFA AKG is also a professional company that is known for good sound and good build quality. These ones are in that cheapish price range you are looking for and are semi-open, kinda part way between the option of the Sennheisers and AT's
I'll have to see if I can find some way to gauge the amount of sound that comes out of closed vs. open back head phones to see if they will be suitable or not.
Very little to nothing at all comes out of closed back headphones, especially ones like the ones that fit around your whole ear. They have some noise cancelling properties too since the headphones fit snugly and keep sound from getting in. Open back has something like 90+% of the sound that you hear also coming out the back and bleeding into the room, there are also no noise cancelling properties at all on any open back headphones. Semi-closed can vary a lot, but usually is mostly closed with a much smaller opening to the outside. Almost like a ported design on a speaker cab in many cases, only it is a big port (in comparison to driver size). The amount of bleedout can vary. If you look at those AKG's you will see the whole outer area of the side is closed, and the middle is closed, and it has small circles in a ring pattern in the middle area that are open. With a design like this you could probably get anywhere from 20% - 70% bleed out of whatever you are listening to. My guess would be on this model you will be somewhere in the upper percentage range because those holes look like they are lines up right on the back side of the cone
Don't forget about the comfort of your headphones if u use them for music + gaming + etc... Having nothing on your ears still remains the best option for me, by far. For the 2.1 i'm not so sure Enigma, maybe it's because my yamaha is 15 years old but i heard much of a difference between stock sound card and the X-Fi or ROG when i plugged it, but maybe it's because it's jack based and not optical... too old. Now 2.1 systems are small and they are worth around 400$ which is the price of the sound card + headset for the same result. Something like this, for example, would give awesome sound : http://www.amazon.com/Denon-D-M39S-...qid=1384881416&sr=8-1&keywords=Denon+D-M39DAB if what Enigma says's right and u don't need a sound card, it could be a good alternative. It also depends on the acoustic of your room as well.
Anything with a regular jack uses analog output from the sound card, so the card does all the processing which is the proper way to do it. When using optical that means you are in digital form, so the sound card does nothing really like I said. The sound card at that point is simply encoding the audio into whatever bitrate and sample rate you are telling it to and then passing it out of the computer for later decoding and processing. But regular onboard does the saem thing so no difference. Your yamaha being 15 years old and not using optical means your sound card is what is doing all processing which is why you hear a proper difference.