£50 speakers or £50 headphones?

[MadduckUK]

Logitech Z-4 2.1 Speakers With Remote Control - 40W RMS - Ebuyer

Logitech Z-4i White 2.1 Multimedia Speaker - 40W RMS - Ebuyer

id go for 2.1's like these. a 5.1 set for 50 would annoy me i think

[ChristopherW]

I used to have a 5.1 kit. Never really used it.

I migrated to a decent 2.1 setup - studio stereo monitors + a big (BIG) sub, for my music tech uni work primarily (was the excuse) but they also work very nicely for gaming! Far nicer, more powerful sound than my prosumer 5.1 system I had last time. Even downmixed movies sound great, I haven't really felt the need to watch something in 5.1 for a fair while.

I might buy three more of the monitors I have currently and rig up a proper six channel system though next year


I'd always go for £50 cans over £50 speakers. I have the HD650s (which are a little more than 50 quid ) but if my budget was £50 I'd still go for the cans over the speakers unless I was DESPERATE for some kind of out-loud sound.

[crazy]

tbh right now im leaning towards headphones, it just seems at that price range, headphones are of better quality than speakers (please correct me if im wrong)
atm i'm really hooked on the idea of 5.1 headphones (please let me know if they're rubbish in general).
so can someone please recommend any?
thanks for all the suggestions so far

[moogle]

i had some sharkoon majestic 5.1 from scan, wasn't all that. i returned them because the mic was absolute ****eness.

[TooNice]

£50 is not really enough to get quality surround speakers to be honest. You can find headphone with better sound quality for £20. Personally, I rotate speakers with headphones because I find headphone to be fatiguing for long hour, but if you find headphones more comfortable, and you do not need to share your sound in your room, then I think it's a relative non-brainer. Otherwise, I suggest that you go for those 2.0 Gigaworks if you do more music listening than anything else.

Between the Medusa and Sennheiser, I suggest going Sennheiser. Surround headphones I've tried so far have failed to impress me.

What sound card do you use? If you are still using an onboard sound card, then you would get better sound getting a slightly lower priced headphone to the Senns and a budget sound card. While Creative sound cards may not be viewed as the height of audiophile component, the X-Fi implementation of CMSS with value headphones can get all the immersion you'd get from surround headphones, with better quality in my opinion.

[crazy]

primary uses will be gaming/movies
using onboard sound atm but might upgrade to x-fi soundcard in the future

[dancingmatt]

Movies as well as games - well, do you use your PC for watching DVDs? And if so, do you have a surround setup already?

A good surround setup is an absolute must have, as far as I am concerned. People spend so much money on bigger tellies but if you don't have at least 5.1 then you are missing out on a proper film experience.

Obviously £50 gets you better headphones than surround speakers, though - but I am quite pleased with my 7.1 Creatives and I got them on offer for a bargain £70 about 4 years ago.

DM

[Biscuit]

Logitech Z-4 2.1 Speakers With Remote Control - 40W RMS - Ebuyer

Logitech Z-4i White 2.1 Multimedia Speaker - 40W RMS - Ebuyer

id go for 2.1's like these. a 5.1 set for 50 would annoy me i think

I used to have some Z-4s but wasnt to impressed, bass was muddy and inaccurate and the crossovers where set too high. Not bad for the money i guess but wouldnt be my choice.

Movies as well as games - well, do you use your PC for watching DVDs? And if so, do you have a surround setup already?

A good surround setup is an absolute must have, as far as I am concerned. People spend so much money on bigger tellies but if you don't have at least 5.1 then you are missing out on a proper film experience.

Sorry dancingmatt but i dont completely agree with you there. Wether a 5.1 system actually improves the film experience depends on a few things:
size of the television - if a tv is below 30", its barely even plausable to have stereo as your brain depicts where the sound should be coming from anyway. Admitadly you do get the extra enviroment sounds with 5.1 however these are usually hardly noticed unless the screen is big enough to draw you into the action. The way i have been taught is that is best to get a balance between size of the screen and the sound set up in the room, although it is a matter of personal preferance.
Gaming is a completely different story as as your are involved/interacting with whats going on in the screen and 5.1 can help you play better as its easier to hear enemies sneaking up on you etc.

Personally i would go for speakers, however, if sound quality is importaint to you then i would either get a set of headphones or save up another £30-50 for speakers.
Experience with 5.1 headphones has been pretty poor, although some people like it, i didnt feel like i was surrounded by speakers in the same way as with a proper 5.1, just felt like a slightly awkward set of headphones.
As people have mentioned the brands to go for are sennheiser and beyerdynamic. I'm getting a set of beyer DT-770s soon for my TV studio work mainly however for a home user they might sound a little poo as they dont have the 'warming/softening' effect that most home stereo headphones have.