Shuttle Surround Sound

[Lead_Head]

Hi all,

1st proper post in Small Form Factor so be gentle

I'm going to be getting a shuttle in the next couple of weeks and it will be in my bedroom as a music system + general PC with a bit of games action too.

Now......

I would love to have surround sound in my room.

What speakers are good, bad and the damn right ugly.

What should I avoid? Any brand names reccommended?

I know that you get what you pay for, but there is a compromise.

Cheaper is better, but I would like clear bassline, with the capability to hit the high note too, whilst still providing mid-bass tones...

Any suggestions? What online retailers? Or even high street.

Kind Regards

Nick

[edit]: Oh, and what about wires? Where do I stick em?

[Bindibadgi]

Nforce 2 shuttle and some digital (optical) speakers unless shuttles have SPDIF?

[billysardar]

I'm getting a new Shuttle SN45g and with it I have chosen to get a set of Creative Inspire 6.1 6700 speakers. They also sell 5.1 ones - the 5100, 5300, 5500 and 5700. The 5300 aren't one the creative web site any more - I think they were replaced by the 5100's. These are budget 5.1 speakers but from reviews that I have read, they are good quality. I have chosen to go for the 6700's because they are more powerful, and have an extra rear centre speaker, and only cost £20 more on ebuyer.

[Bunjiweb]

I have the Creative Inspire 5300s and they are highly reccomended for the price..... Although you can get the 5700s v cheap these days so go for them if you can afford it, or the 6700 - even better.

Ben

[billysardar]

From ebuyer.co.uk:
5100 OEM: £39.25
5300 OEM: £47.90
5700 Retail: £186.25 (probably about £20 less for OEM)
6700 OEM: £58.86

You can see that the 6700 are more like the 5300 with an extra speaker than the 5700 - just look at the price. (They also have longer speaker cables.) I'm not sure why they're called 6700 and not 6100 or 6300 - probably because there aren't going to be any different 6.1 speakers from creative.
So if you're thinking of getting a budget set of speakers, go for the 6700 ones. And also, it's not really thinking of anything other than creative except for videologic, who make some good speaker sets.

[Stoo]

Also bare in mind that you don't just have to go with the "PC" speaker brands, places like http://www.homecinemaheaven.com , http://www.unbeatable.co.uk , http://www.empiredirect.co.uk etc all have home theatre speaker/receiver kits

[Lead_Head]

Cheers for the feedback guys!

Hexus comes up trumps again!

I think I will get the 6700. As like you say, they have longer wires (do you know how long btw)?

£60 aint bad, for 6 speakers!

Nick

[billysardar]

Have a look on the creative.com website to find out.
I think they're all 2m except the rear sides (5m) and the rear centre (7m). But you can get a pair of 5m extension cables from creative.com for £7.

[billysardar]

Stu, the home cinema kits seem to be all very high-end, but you cant get many really high end pc sets so...

[St3v3]

I think that all the shuttles only support 5.1 sound and not 6.1 sound. So getting a pair of 6.1 ch speakers is gonna leave you with no sound in one. I got an SN45G and the sound quality is amazing.

I'm just on to modding this now to make it quieter

[billysardar]

St3v3, that's right, but the 6700's upmix the rear 2 channels to make use of the centre mid channel. It's also worth getting 6.1 speakers in case you get a 6.1 sound card in the future.

[St3v3]

;o didn't know that, thx for the info

[Lead_Head]

Yeh, as said. It utilises the 6th speaker.....

I think I've found a 2.1 speaker setup I like by Creative. The I-Trigue 2.1 3300's....

They look very sleek, and are quite powerful (43w RMS).

Found them for about £68!

Nick

[aeonf242]

Creatives are nice, it's a shame they keep on bringing out new stuff you want to upgrade to all the time!