why does pc sound suck so much?

[imcerebrix]

that got your attention...

I miss the days of pc speakers with REAL tweeters, sensible amplifiers, and warm mid range drivers with good caps and wire connecting it all. Good quality components.

We live in a world where bose are actually considered to have good dynamic range and clarity in the pc market. typing that just made me throw up a little bit im my mouth. its killing me that its true.

im sick and tired of logitech and creative slapping the longest throw pole piece driver they can find in a bandpass enclosure to ensure it will throw out 20-60hz so heavy that your pancreas is about to rupture. What happened to products with bass clairty? a good balance of punch vs low bass? I don't care if they paid lucas eleventy thousand dollars to get a thx logo slapped on their pile o crap speaker set. thx is a joke, and most people dont even know what "testing" is envolved in getting thx certification of a product. its a joke read up on it. We want good speakers back. please klipsch, can we have energy built pc speakers now? please?


but the problem isnt just speakers. we now have openal upon us. finally, a universally embraced standard for computer audio technology. gone is directsound and i couldnt be happier. so.... where the hell is my openal hardware accelerating sound card? seriously wtf is up with that? didnt nvidia buy up the sound engineers from the only real competitior eax ever faced? wheres the competition?

im not looking for an answer. i just needed to vent. why we sit by and think the current state of pc sound is ok is beyond me. i think the stuff everyone is selling, auzentech included is completely, sub par. we can do better, much better.

 

[GCTonyHawk7]

Hmmm. I donno, I really love my Logitech Z-5500s.

Who's to tell you you can't get a nice audio receiver and hook it up to a quality sound card digitally and use whatever speakers you want from the 'old' days? Computer audio can be whatever you want it to be really. Consumers tend to want something easy to hook up and something cheap that will let them hear their Youtube videos.

 

[astrallite]

iFis are pretty scarce...they were $199 at one point in Costco, had RSX-3s (3.5" mids) and 1" tweeters, 8" sub based on the RSW-8. But Klipsch didn't exactly market the product aggresively and it got discontinued. Ended up being replaced by more expense, crappier iPod speakers which sell much better now, hah.

The Altec Lansing's FX5021 and 6021s have tweeters and mids. I don't know about the 6021s but the 5021s the midbass is way to bloated. They had decent drivers, don't know what the hell they were doing with the crossovers/EQ. The ALs you can get under $200 but they aren't exactly a big name brand.

The new Logitech Z-Cinema is $350 and has 1" tweeter 3" mid and 8" sub (also inferior to the iFi). No idea about the performance of the thing, but Logitech is obviously capitalizing on it's market share by charging an arm and a leg for barely passable "performance" audio. At this price you could get the Audioengine A5 powered monitor...which is obviously world's apart. Although the listed frequency response on the product is 60Hz-22kHz +/-1.5dB is obviously a complete lie, but it's still one of the top powered monitors in it's price range.

Everything in the consumer market is about advertising.