Its been a long time...

halcyon

Splendid
I've been using my X-Fi Elite Pro with Z-5500 speakers for a couple of years now. While I know neither is the best they seem to pair well (subjectively) for their respective prices. My use is pretty much limited to music...don't really watch movies on my rig, I'd rather sit on the couch for that. Anywho...

However, on the audio card end there's some new players on the block, such as the Xonar, Prelude, and Claro+. I'm still satisfied with the bacteria-killing bass of the Z-5500's, despite its laser-beam like sats. The Z-5500's seem okay for personal surround. For critical listening I use an outboard DAC and headphone amp with reasonable headphones (listed below).


Vista64 is the platform and the X-Fi EP works beautifully there. However, is there any benefit to be had by moving to one of the above listed sound cards or does the X-Fi offer all the audible resolution I'm going to get out of the Z-5500's? I know this is not the Hydrogen Audio Forum, and I may ask there as well, but I thought there may still be some Audiophiles that frequent this forum that could offer some opinions.
 

halcyon

Splendid


That's what I figured, the listed cards seem to be better made with little things like solid caps but that's not reason enough to upgrade if there's no audible benefit.




The Committee, consisting of my Wife (General Grump) and daughter (Captain Chaos) are not terribly supportive of my audio needs so and I'd lose the vote 2-to-1, so I doubt there's gonna be any $$$$ going in that direction, maybe $500 but not enough for a more serious upgrade like you've suggested.
 

sportsfanboy

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I hear you on the women front... Have you looked into shure headphones?

Shure makes some pretty nice audio equipment, I had an in the ear set, and they sounded amazing. For my computer, I have klipsch 2.1 pro media

If you don't mind headphones, Shure will sound better than any speaker setup for around 80 to 250 USD depending on what series you get.

Running a Klipsch system will help with the midrange your lacking. I use Klipsch 2.1 for my computer and I'm happy with them. It's no substitute for a good home theater style, but for the computer, they are the best I have heard. Klipsch makes a surround setup as well, but they're pretty pricey.

Edit: Scratch the headphone stuff, I just looked at the Firestone setup, and they seem pretty killer.
 

halcyon

Splendid
I love the Firestone setup, I truly do. ...thinking of getting some AKG K701 as that'd blend the rediculous comfort of the Senn HD595's with the get down and funky aspect lows and highs of the Grado SR325i's pretty well...but they're not cheap @ $450 from HeadRoom.

Anyways, it looks like my next suggested move is to try to upgrade the speakers...whenever I can. I'll be looking at a good 2.1 Set. I've heard the ProMedia's are pretty good but I'd also read there were some quality issues.

Let's change the flavor of the question then, since it seems I'm limited most by my current Z-5500's. If you could drop $500 on speakers-receiver-amp for your PC...how would you spend it? considering that you were stuck with the X-Fi Elite Pro as audio card. I'm going to ask this question in Hydrogen Audio too, so as not to further annoy the folks here.
 

halcyon

Splendid
hmm, wheres astralite when you need him.

i personally would look for second hand speakers, i bought some for a quarter of their original price, still sound great and no break in nonsense.

You're right Stranger, I've not been hanging out around the soundcard forum liked I used to back in '06. Haven't seen Astrallite in a long time. I'm prejudiced against pre-owned items, only going there when I absolutely must. ...I'd have to see/hear something that blew me away to considered pre-owned audio gear, and it'd have to be in near perfect condition.

This looked interesting, the one showcased looks like 2.0, Without digging I'm pretty sure you could either buy a sub, or maybe they offer a 2.1 or bigger. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-9946736-47.html

Also M-Audio is getting good reviews. You can always add a sub-woofer to the setup if you feel it needs it after. http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.family&ID=studiomonitors

SportsNice. I'll have to check deeper into those. At $200 there'd be enough for some kind of sub.

Now that I think it through I wonder if anything I get in my budget is going to give me a noticable upgrade.
 
Those do look nice, though it's hard to ever get computer speakers that can compare with good stereo equipment (I run a pair of B&W 685's with a Denon amp and an SVS sub). Still, for computer speakers, those M audio products look quite good.
 

FrozenGpu

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Dec 8, 2007
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dude just be like, "b1tch its my money, and I need it now!!!"

you know have some cajones, and just do what you want, you know be a man, be batman!!!!!!

:lol: :lol: :lol:
 

halcyon

Splendid
LOL. TBH, as I sit here and really listen to my Z-5500's they don't sound that bad. In all fairness, the Z-5500's also offer some utility with its built in pre-amp with DD decoder. I think I need to look at a receiver and respectable 2.1 system. I'll have to see what can be had for 1K$-1.5$. That'd be an ALL AROUND upgrade and I'd lose no utility.

I might have to bypass the Committee, it could be done.

Thanks.
 

quantumsheep

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Dec 10, 2005
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Right, to get a decent upgrade from the sound those z5500s get there's no point in upgrading the soundcard. Any half-decent PC soundcard can get the best out of them, and i'd say that x-fi of yours is half decent so that idea's outta the window.

If i were you i'd start looking at second hand markets (Ebay is brilliant for stereo gear). If you wanted to go new a decent starting point for your budget would be Cambridge Audio 640A amp, 640C CD player (Keep current DAC, it's OK!) with some B&W 686 or 685 speakers. Second hand you can get even more for your money. If you were to go secondhand you could get yourself an Arcam amp and CD player and possibly some Monitor Audio RS6 speakers which're brilliant and really compliment the Arcam gear.

If you want to stick with 5.1 (Which i don't advise for music as generally AV amps don't cut the mustard with music) i'd get an Onkyo amp (Probably the 585?) and then a set of 5.1 speakers, like KEF's 1005 ( I think that's what they're called). However a very wife friendly alternative is the Yamaha YSP-40D soundbar (Or it's little brother). It gives off a BRILLIANT sound and you'd be suprised at how effective it actually is at delivering a believable surround experience, as well as brillianlty clear vocals. However it really needs to be complemented by a decent Sub and that'd take it a little beyond your $1500 upper limit :(

My advice is to get yourself to an independent audio dealer and just have a chat with them and see what they've got to offer and do a couple of auditions! Buying audio equipment is time consuming but very rewarding.
 

quantumsheep

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To get an amp good enough to do them mofos justice you're going to need to be spending upwards of £3k at least. My Audionet amp would be just about the starting point! I'm very tempted by some B&W 8 series speakers (Looking at the 802Ds, they retail for around £8000!) as an upgrade from my Wilson Benesch ARCs as i want a "bigger sound", but money is tight :(

I agree with the comment that "good speakers don't require one [a subwoofer]", but only to an extent. Some speakers, like my own Wilson Benesch ARCs are very well complemented by a subwoofer that's set to "woof" (Can't think of any other word :lol: ) at a fairly low volume as they're not too good at generating bass due to their size.
 

sportsfanboy

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Well that's my point, good speakers (no offense)don't require a subwoofer, they are full range. If you added a sub woofer to a good set a B&W speakers for music, you would be ruining the experience. Adding a sub for Movies is another story.
 

quantumsheep

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I'm just wondering, what do you define as "good speakers"? My ARCs cost me about £3k ($6K) and give me a frankly brilliant sound, it's just i recently moved to a house with a larger listening room and they don't "fill" the room quite as well as in my old home. The reason they're not too good at bass is that they're bookshelf size and designed for smaller rooms where having a large amount of bass would be overwhelming to the point where it detracts from the quality of the music.

I also beg to differ on the point about a sub ruining the listening experience with a good set of speakers. Some manufacturers (Such as Wilson Benesch) make bass drivers (Or subwoofers if you prefer) that're meant to complement music systems as normal speakers, no matter how effective, are not quite as good at delivering the true lows. Then again, to get a subwoofer that doesn't overwhelm the sound you need to be spending a LOT of money, that Wilson Benesch Torus (http://www.wilson-benesch.com/torus/torus.html) is about £10,000! But for that money you get an incredibly versatile sound that does no end of wonders propping up the bottom end.
 

sportsfanboy

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Quantum...you might have a point on a really nice expensive sub-woofer, however, like I said a good pair of speakers doesn't require one. I don't know how else to put it. If you think your setup sounds better with one, than your not wrong, it is a matter of opinion. I'm just saying that full range speakers, true full range speakers are just that, and do not require any help, because all the bases are filled. I'm willing to bet your speakers fall under that category.

To answer your question, I wouldn't add a sub-woofer to any of the 8 series B&W speakers. I would add one to the 7 series (which my good friend owns) or lower.

 

halcyon

Splendid
The thing I like about a good sub is placement options. One can have smaller, less obtrusive speakers and put the sub out of the way and have that non-directional sub-bass radiation (just a fun term, I know its not technically accurate) coming from seemingly everywhere.
 

futurelic

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The proof is in the listening like someone posted earlier

comparing systems with the same material is the best way to get what you like

for my ears:
The audiophile cards sound clearer even with the low power computer speakers than the gamer cards while listening to music.

the same mp3 material on a usb drive sounds better than mp3s on a cd on a car stereo