best sound card?

[matty-hodgson]

Yeh, buy yourself a tight leather outfit and then march up to your ex-gf demanding another chance...

OMG!!!
you don't realise how much i'm laughing right now..
that may possibly be the funniest thing i've ever heard!

[matty-hodgson]

...or the best speaker system your budget will allow.

these X-540's are nice.. very sharp and sleek
very good sound quality if you ask me.
£52 is a decent price for them like.. very good bass from the subby aswell

[SiM]

TBH £52 is not going to get you a good multichannel speaker system... IMO You will need to spend at least £200 on a surround sound amp and another £200 or so on the speakers... plus the cabling is quite expensive too (although its questionable if expensive cables actually make a difference)...

To summarise, put your money back into your piggy bank and ask again in a couple of years

[matty-hodgson]

TBH £52 is not going to get you a good multichannel speaker system... IMO You will need to spend at least £200 on a surround sound amp and another £200 or so on the speakers... plus the cabling is quite expensive too (although its questionable if expensive cables actually make a difference)...

To summarise, put your money back into your piggy bank and ask again in a couple of years

i've just ordered a all leather outfit on ebay..
too late

[SiM]

i've just ordered a all leather outfit on ebay..
too late

Don't forget to buy the other accessories too!

[matty-hodgson]

Don't forget to buy the other accessories too!

like..?

[SiM]

like..?

Guess!

A leather whip you fool!
Young Matty, you are too innocent... you have a lot to learn

[matty-hodgson]

Guess!

A leather whip you fool!
Young Matty, you are too innocent... you have a lot to learn

you expect me to trail a whip over there aswell?
she'll be like..

Her: "wtf has happened to you?!"
Me: "Poontang?"
Her: "are you okay?"
Me: "i'm gay "
Her: "are you wrecked?"
Me: "take me back, please!!"

[SiM]

you expect me to trail a whip over there aswell?
she'll be like..

Her: "wtf has happened to you?!"
Me: "Poontang?"
Her: "are you okay?"
Me: "i'm gay "
Her: "are you wrecked?"
Me: "take me back, please!!"

Btw Bill welcome to the Hexus forums
Please ignore the random spam in between the real posts. Its spill over from a general discussion thread where Matty was asking how to get his girlfriend back! You look like you are a very knowledgeable guy, so I don't want all this playful spam to scare you away from Hexus

[Bill_Bright]

Your satisfaction with the audio of your system will depend on your expectations. But considering a good speaker systems for a home audio system for listening to music or watching movies can easily cost £1,000 or more (much more!) for just one speaker - NOT counting the amplifier to drive them, you can't realistically put your expectations high with anything but the best speakers intended to be connected to a PC.

I own about 600 CDs, have some nice Logitechs connected to my M-Audio Revolution HD 7.1 and it sounds great! But it does not compare to my main system in my living room or even to my so called "premium sound" in my car - which sounds pretty good too. Still, with a good card, and some good speakers, like the Logitech Z-5500, or some competing model, you can easily loose yourself in some good tunes, movie, or a good game.

[matty-hodgson]

yeah, welcome to Hexus
this place just talks a load of random crap about 90% of the time, the rest is just non-random crap

[Bill_Bright]

No problem - 24 years in the military, not much can bother my ears.

[TooNice]

I do not fully agree that a sound card would make no perceivable difference until you spend reach a certain range of speakers. Speaker/headphones first, yes, but source (DAC) is a close seconds in my book. I subjectively abide by the followings:

Headphone/Speakers > Source DAC* >>>>> Amp == Source file >>>>> Interconnects

* That's your sound card (unless you have a dedicated DAC). In my experience, the source is ultimately secondary to the speaker/ headphones, but at the lower end make nearly as much difference. I would definitely recommend spending £50 headphones and £50 on a sound card over £100 headphones and onboard sound card for instance. Speaking of which, good pair of headphones gets you more quality for the buck than speakers in general. You said you had £70 to spend right? Grab one of those, and a pair of those or those (the two headphone sounds smilar, depends if you prefer headband or not). One of the cheapest path for audio bliss assuming you've never heard any 'serious' hi-fi setup.

[SiM]

What if you are using digital sound output using onboard and the amp does all the decoding? Does having a separate sound card make a difference then?

[Blackmage]

What if you are using digital sound output using onboard and the amp does all the decoding? Does having a separate sound card make a difference then?

Good question.

I thought a sound card decoded the music sent it over the spdif and the audio equipment played it back.

I think with the new lossless sound it sends the data over the digtal link and the equipment(
amp) does the decoding and playback.


Could be wrong though.

[SiM]

With films and onboard spdif, you can passthrough AC3 or DTS sound directly to amp... so it shouldn't matter if you use onboard or not? Music (mp3 or CDs) might be slightly different though? Anyone know anything about this?