I know they'll probably not sound AWESOME ..but..

[Howard]

and the Sony receiver coupled with some decent speakers will blow anything Creative make clean out of the water, plus you can connect your DVD player, TV, Sky, VCR and CD player up to it to, which you would struggle to do within the same budget with a PC.

A half-decent seperates system will blow ANY PC/Mini/Midi/Micro/All-in-one system out of the water.
I think the quality of my PC speakers is excellent, but my hifi sounds so much better. It just has more power and dynamics. Those little 2-3" drivers in PC sound systems and Philips/Sony/whoever all-in-ones you buy from Currys cannot compare with proper full-range drivers found in hifi speakers. They are certainly not bad for the money, but seperates win hands down 99% of the time.

If I had more desk space in here I'd buy a nice amp and some nice little bookshelf speakers for nicer audio from my PC

[Butuz]

And all the people saying that there's no difference between midi systems and seperates at the same price- in my experience, you are wrong.

Rich :¬)

Rofl - bang on! Also aside from being of higher quality build seperates have a discreet power supply for each component wich makes things far better too. Some seperates (eg Cyrus) go as far as to have a totally seperate external power supply unit for each hi-fi unit, which improves sound quality even more.

You get so much more performance spending £500 on budget seperates than you do from buying the flashiest Midi system Aiwa, Pioneer, or any other of the box pushers sell.

Go seperates go seperates!

Butuz

[Agent]

link for speakers dont seem to be working now

[PeteW]

If a jobs worth doing, its worth donig well...

The Sony STRDB790B is the best surround sound bargain at the moment:


http://products.sony.co.uk/productde...438&search=790

I paid £225 for mine from Superfi and it's fantastic. In a reason what hifi review, it beat several £600 stereo amps and is also undoubtedly the best surround amp you'll get for that money

[Agent]

Some seperates (eg Cyrus) go as far as to have a totally seperate external power supply unit for each hi-fi unit, which improves sound quality even more.

Butuz

You can tell the difference between an amp that has a seperate PSU and one that doesnt then ?

[Butuz]

Personally I havent listened to Cyrus seperates with and without the PSU's. I am a valve man not a solid state man. If someone gave me a big block of Cyrus kit i would put them on ebay straight away and buy more valves Same goes for Naim, Roksan, any other solid state system - ebay you go!

But theoretically, there should be an improvement by isolating the signal path from the power section, and apparently, there is according to most Cyrus users.

Butuz