HT digital receiver help deciding

T

tony8404

Weaksauce
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Mar 28, 2007
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Here is the dilema, I am going to get a sondigo sound card for sure. just cannot decide to go either with a digital pc speaker system or get a seperate ht digital receiver.

I was gonna go with either the creative labs inspire 5500 or 5700 digital systems. but now i was thinking i could go with a ht digital receiver and just use the speakers i have now until i get money to get better ones. the speakers i have now are creative inspire 6.1` 6600's will those be good speakers to use with a ht digital receiver and the sondigo sound card? also, what would be a good ht digital receiver to get that is decent and good price ? or anyone know of a place that has good deals let me know thanks.

Or i could also, go with the logitech z-5500 or does anyone know of any other digital pc speaker systems??
 
Well a HT recevier will always give you better sound and more features. If you have the cash and you seem to like the 8788 based cards -why not go for the X-Meridian? It has all the same digital support as the Sondigo but it also has AWSOME analog quality. You can also upgrade the card easily with better Opamps etc. Just a thought. I would say go with the recevier though...;)
 
Depending how much money you want to dump into this, the 5500's might be the best way to go. It's got extra inputs too. I ended up going separates off an X-Fi with a Pannasonic XR55 and 2.0 Ascend Acoustic 340SE fronts. That system was under the $1000 price mark and I love it. However its just 2.0 and takes up a lot of space and has a lot of cable mess. I live in an apartment so this is sort of a big deal. Don't get me wrong the quality is amazing and it does everything I'd ever want, but I think if I would do it all over again I would just get the logitech 5500's.

While separates do sound better, I think the size/complexity/mess is a bigger issue than the price difference. More remotes egah!

Oh and by the way I used old cheap speakers for a long time after I bought my Panny XR55 and before I bought my Ascends. Big mistake. Buy better speakers first and a better receiver second. If you are using a digital output only, buy the soundcard third. Of course if you can buy them all at once...

If you have an HDTV and this is going in a formal HT by all means get separates, and if you want to get it done with every bit of performance to price ratio I'd recommend what I got. All digital receivers like the Panny XR55 run cooler and take up much less space. Ascend Acoustics makes great speakers under the 1k price range as does SVS.
 
someone had told me that the sondigo was not a good card. they said the reviews were bad or something but i never saw that. they said that the auztech xplosion was better. but maybe i should go with the sondigo i thought the specs looked great
 
The Sondigo is based on the newer 8788 audio controller. The X-Plosion is based on a older Chipset. Read some reviews for yourself.
 
I have both X-Plosion and X-Meridian(uses the same chip as sondigo), imo the chip on sondigo/X-Meridian is a better choice than the chip on X-Plosion because for me X-Meridian solves all problems on my X-Plosion before.
 
would it be a dumb move on my behalf to get this card....

Creative Labs SoundBlaster X-Fi ExtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series Sound Card

cause i went ahead and got one today.
 
If you like to play games there is no other choice. If you got the $97 @ newegg deal then I'd say you made a good purchase. The front panel audio should come in handy.
 
No digital support for anything other then pre-encoded movies, provided your using the proper software.;)
 
so you guys are saying with this card that i can only get digital from movies? not games or music ? it does have a jack that is for digital out. wouldnt i just have to connect from the sound card to a ht digital receiver and if i have to get a cable that goes from the sound card to the jack in the receiver?
 
Movies and 2 channel music. If you want 5.1 for games you have to use the analog connectors, which work great.
 
Creative has lousy Digital support. I think this is another reason alot of people seem to be moving away from their products to devices that offer newer digital formats and features. If your looking for total high quality digital support, Creative is NOT the answer.
 
yeah i see what you guys are saying about creative. i really wasnt gonna get the card i got yesterday but it was spur of the moment plus i really want to game more then anything with them so i figured the card was acceptable even though its creative. but for the speakers..... now were talking ! last night i connected my 6600 6.1 inspires up to it and didnt sound bad but couldnt tell it was kinda late at night. but i am starting to eye logitech. just cannot decide on the 5300's or the 540's? would like the 5500 but i have to figure a way to con the wife. any suggestions on pc speakers other then the ones i mentioned?? i would like to stay 5.1 6.1 or 7.1 nothing less... i have seen creative's 7.1's and you can get em around 80 u.s dollars
 
Well I would suggest that the 5300's are pretty powerful and alot cheaper then the Z-5500's
BUT HT gear is better:D I always find my wife doesn't care what I buy aslong as she get's something of similar value...Do you understand?;)
 
do you think there is much difference between the 5300's and the 540's? not talking about more watts but more of sound quality highs mids lows crisp and clear, good bass...yeah i just called her up and was asking her if there was something that she might like and i get a no. lol. but i am taking her out saturday night which we have not done in a very long time... i think she knows i want speakers. this will be tough if i want the 5500's but for the 540's will be easy but the 5300's is pushing it
 
alg7_munif said:
I think that Onkyo SR504E is a good receiver for its price.
Click to expand...

I have an SR503 and like it a lot. If I had to choose again, I would go with the Panny XR55 for space considerations. I use analog 5.1 out 90% of the time. I just figure the DACs on my sound card are better than the one on my receiver. I could be wrong, though.
 
Actually alot of people are starting to find this in the receivers. Especially older ones, that the quality of the DAC on their soundcards are better then the quality of the DAC in the receivers even on higher end models.
Speaking of Onkyo I was looking at a HTiB they make. I usually woudln;t even look at HTiB ,but based on reviews and the quality of Onkyo gear I was seriously considering it.
 
tony8404 said:
do you think there is much difference between the 5300's and the 540's? not talking about more watts but more of sound quality highs mids lows crisp and clear, good bass...yeah i just called her up and was asking her if there was something that she might like and i get a no. lol. but i am taking her out saturday night which we have not done in a very long time... i think she knows i want speakers. this will be tough if i want the 5500's but for the 540's will be easy but the 5300's is pushing it
Click to expand...

You mean X-540 and Z-5300? Z series is always better than X series.
 
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