Advice on 5.1 PC speakers

Unperson

Unperson

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 2, 2000
Messages
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I'm looking to get a good set of 5.1 speakers. I bought some cheap Logitech speakers last year (Logitech Z-640, ~$40 I think from a local computer show) as my first 5.1 set coming off of headphones, but now i'd like to get something that sounds nicer.

Here are a few details about how they will be used:
  • Mostly for gaming
  • Some music listening (mostly use the car for this :-D)
  • The occasional movie
  • Sound card is SB Audigy2 ZS
  • digital input shouldn't matter too much
  • real speaker wires (not RCA plugs) are a plus
  • sound quality is more important than power (the satellites on my current speakers are only 7W rms :eek:

That's about it.

I'm looking to spend under $250 shipped. A couple of sets I looked at were Logitech Z-5300 and Z-5500. Are these sets comparable as far as sound quality goes? I know the 5500's are a lot louder, but do they sound that good to be worth double the price? (I probably wouldn't take advantage of the decoder, but the "real" speaker wires they use are an attractive feature IMO) I know people like to bash Logitech but perhaps they're good for the price? I know my brother's Z-680's sound pretty good..

I was also looking at Klipsch but at ~$400 they are quite a bit more than I am looking to spend.

Are there any other brands or specific sets for this price range that would be worth looking at?
 
Going the multimedia route, probably the best all-rounder unit is the GigaWorks S700.
 
i'm sure with some looking around, you can find the klipsch for about $300. They have a seperate tweeter/midrange drivers in the satellites. So it will definitely sound better than the logitechs. The dual 8in woofers will most likely give you deeper and more defined bass. It wont give you that farty BOOM that all logitech woofers give. From what you are telling me, you are going to hook em up to the a2zs. So the built in decoders for the z5500 wont matter.

I really feel that the Klipsch will be best for you. However, if budget is a main issue, the z5500's are pretty much unbeatable for the price that they go for.
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Xeero said:
i'm sure with some looking around, you can find the klipsch for about $300. They have a seperate tweeter/midrange drivers in the satellites. So it will definitely sound better than the logitechs. The dual 8in woofers will most likely give you deeper and more defined bass. It wont give you that farty BOOM that all logitech woofers give. From what you are telling me, you are going to hook em up to the a2zs. So the built in decoders for the z5500 wont matter.

I really feel that the Klipsch will be best for you. However, if budget is a main issue, the z5500's are pretty much unbeatable for the price that they go for.
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I'll keep on looking. The Creative and Klipsch certainly look nice (and I know how good separate tweeters are -- I use component speakers in my car) but unfortunately I'm trying to keep it somewhat low. The best price i've found on the 5500's is $207 shipped from Amazon, which is about 33% less than the Klipsch (and much more affordable being that I still have tons of christmas shopping to do!). And i'd really like to have these for my time off for the holidays so I can get some hours logged in gaming :-D

I'm almost wondering if my best bet is just to just go with the 5300's? They are 1/2 the cost of the 5500's and 1/3 the cost of the Klipsch (~1/4 the cost of creatives). ARGH! Maybe what I REALLY need to do is listen to them side by side but that's kind of difficult since none of the stores that have them on display have them side by side...
 
It kinda depends on what your standards are. I replaced my z5300s with a separate receiver / bookshelf speaker 4.0 (currently) setup which sounds leagues better, but then for the money it should. The z5300s just sound like absolute crap in comparison, but for the money they're OK, especially for movies and games (they do movies and games much better than music, they're just flat horrible for music). I haven't heard the 5500s or the Gigaworks, though, so I can't give you a useful comparison there.
 
AdamW said:
It kinda depends on what your standards are. I replaced my z5300s with a separate receiver / bookshelf speaker 4.0 (currently) setup which sounds leagues better, but then for the money it should. The z5300s just sound like absolute crap in comparison, but for the money they're OK, especially for movies and games (they do movies and games much better than music, they're just flat horrible for music). I haven't heard the 5500s or the Gigaworks, though, so I can't give you a useful comparison there.
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This is almost exclusively for games. I mainly listen to music while driving, and for movies I have a halfway decent Kenwood home-theater-in-a-box system on the TV. I'm guessing one of those bookshelf speakers probably cost as much as the entire 5300 set, no :confused: Of course, you get what you pay for. However I think probably just about anything sounds better than my current speakers (Z-640)
 
look for older gen Klipsch Promedia 5.1s, i think i a saw a set for $100 on the fs/ft a while back, and they do sound spectacular - budy has them and they rock. And i think if you go to pricewatch.com or keep an eye on the fs/ft thread you'll be able to get them for cheap
 
I wouldn't hate the z5300s for games. But then you don't really need much for games, it's just cues. Pretty much anything in the price range would do the job for games, I reckon.
 
AdamW said:
I wouldn't hate the z5300s for games. But then you don't really need much for games, it's just cues. Pretty much anything in the price range would do the job for games, I reckon.
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Yeah I think i'm starting to lean heavily toward the 5300's. Not a whole lot to risk for the price of ~$100, I can always give them to a friend or family, or sell them if I don't like them. They certainly can't be worse than the Z-640's I have now, pumping out a whole 7W RMS per cone! One of my friends has the Z-3's and they sound decent for games (and even OK for music). I can always invest in some nice new speakers for my car :D (have infinity reference component in the front and infinity reference 2-way coax in the back -- maybe put the comps in the back and get kappa comps in the front)
 
my recomendation is to skip it haha, once you've heard real speakers, even Promedia's sound just craptacular. Get pair of stuio monitors.
 
Elderblaze said:
my recomendation is to skip it haha, once you've heard real speakers, even Promedia's sound just craptacular. Get pair of stuio monitors.
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I agree that PC speakers < good speakers. However I'm not looking to spend $thousands, especially not right now. I've heard "real" speakers but I have neither the money nor the space to use them on my PC (well I could probably afford them, but i'd rather buy other things). Also I'm specifically looking for a surround system (5.1 or higher) since I will be using them almost exclusively for gaming.

Now if a 5.0/5.1 set of studio monitors + amplifier could be had for the same price as an inexpensive multimedia PC set, i'd be all over it and just find a way to fit them on my desk :D

Probably what I will do however is next time I go to BestBuy and/or KompUSSR, run the speaker sample things, so I can hear them.
 
i just got a set of the 5300e's, and they sound very nice to me compared to my older 4.1 system. The bass can be overpowering but i just adjusted it to my liking and i love em...
 
On the Klipsch 5.1 systems, and even the Ultra, the weakest part of the system are the sats. (And before someone asks, yes I do have a set of the Ultras) The sub performs well for a Multimedia unit, and prolly better than that Kenwood HTiB system. The sats, however, are a bit impotent. I swapped out the sats with the Quintet IIs and thing got ALOT better.

On the other hand, the sats on the GigaWorks S700 are based off the designs of the CSW Newtons systems, and are the strong points of the system. Strong, solid mids (as per the history of these systems, as far back as the MegaWorks 510D), detailed highs from the titanium supertweeters. Plus the 10" sub performs almost as well as the Klipsch Ultra's dual 8" unit. (The Klip goes only slightly deeper, but not by much)

Also have the G500 ProGamer here, which is the replacement for the older MegaWorks line, and is a solid performer. The bass unit only goes down to about 40Hz, but isn't overwhelming. Nice budget system for about $200. The amp is clean if you want to use it with headphones, tho not good for heavy load cans.

The Z-5500 is a better performer than the Z-5300, and I think worth the price difference, especially considering the quality differences of the bass unit.
 
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