Inexpensive speakers for console

[Riddleofsteel]

I wasn't sure which forum to post this in. I am looking for decent speakers to hook up to a pc monitor with an xbox 360 as the source. The tricky part is, I am using HDMI. The monitor has built in speakers but I wanted to use external speakers. If the monitor has audio-output am I in luck? Thanks.

 

[ashmedai]

This is the right forum.

Under that configuration, you would need an audio passthrough jack on the monitor, yes. Some televisions have this for headphone use. It's generally not ideal to feed speakers with.

I know the PS3 can output video over HDMI and audio over optical TOSLINK. It's possible the 360 can similarly output the audio separately while still using HDMI. This could provide the simplest solution. Actually, if you can do this, it's a better solution as well - it avoids the distortion which would be introduced by the additional cables and the passthrough circuitry of the TV. I haven't tried this with my 360 though, as it goes through a receiver and the audio is split off that way.

If you want speaker recommendations, we'll need more info. Budget, what channel configuration you're after, and so forth - but you should look around this section a bit first, as there are plenty of speaker recommendations here.

 

[Riddleofsteel]

Okay, I will need a receiver recommendation for use with a ps3 and 360. Does the 360 have the ability to go through a receiver while using HDMI? I just want 2 speakers, I live in an apartment so booming audio throughout the night might make me unpopular. Thanks.

 

[pre1014]

price range for a receiver? are you looking for anything special or just one that does HDMI switching? will you be hooking anything else into it that you would want to be upsampled? what is the resolution of the monitor being used?
I understand that you will only be running stereo, but would you want decent surround options for the future?

- If you get the toslink audio out for the xbox (or you already have it if you got the elite) you can run HDMI to the display direct and then have either optical s/pdif or analog RCA go to your receiver/speaker - its what i used before i had a receiver that had HDMI inputs.
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=205001845&listingid=27886636&dcaid=17902
I wish they would just sell the audio dongle by itself.

With the above you could get a receiver that doesn't have HDMI inputs....The PS3 already has a optical s/pdif out on the back and won't need an extra cable purchase. I would recommend getting a receiver with HDMI switching at least to avoid the need to get that dongle and for plain ease of use.