Are my Razor Mako's dying?

[Seaclam]

I have enjoyed my 2.1 Razor Mako's for 2 or 3 years now, but I'm noticing distortion now-a-days. They used to be one of the best out 2.1 systems out there, but now they are discontinued. I started noticing it a bit on my old system with a creative X-Fi Elite Pro card, but it's worse on my new system using a Creative Fatality Titanium Champion card. Here's the thing, when I plug headphones into the front I/O panel, the sound is excellent with no distortion. When I plug headphones into the same jack on the card as my connection to my speakers, the sound is again, excellent with no distortion. And this is telling the card not to use headphone settings. So, to me it's sounding like perhaps the amp in the Mako's might be dying, because I can plug into the same jack/same settings otherwise with a pair of headphones and get great audio. I'm going to do some more tests, like borrow another set of speakers and another mini-cable, but if it turns out it's the Mako's, what are peoples thoughts on the Corsair 2500's. Another, much more expensive option would be an AudioEngine 2.1 speaker setup with like their 5 series small desktop/bookshelf speakers and their sub. Any thoughts?

 

[Seaclam]

Ok, I brought out my old Altec Lansing MX5021's(2.1 system), which in their day were highly regarded. Made the connection using the same mini-cable as for the Mako's and fired them up. Played stuff that was distorting on the Razer Mako's. WOW!.......no distortion! So I'd say the amp(s) in the Mako are dying. Sad, considering they were expensive and highly rated. Now discontinued......I now wonder why? So, that now leaves my with the question: new speakers for gaming and music, which I do on an equal level. I care about fidelity for my computer music. I used to have the Logitech Z5500's, which were powerful and 5.1, but the sound for music was the worst. Great for games though. That's when I went back to 2.1 gaming and music as I was not impressed with the music fidelity abilities of 5.1 systems. I'm looking at the Corsair 2500's, which gets great reviews, even one that says they are better then the Mako's. The other option is to get one of the AudioEngine speakers, although I think the powered 5 model are too big for my desktop. More like the passive 4 model, but then I would need to get an amp. Anyhow, any thoughts on the Corsairs or Audio Engines? Don't recommend Bose, I can't stand them. They sound overprocessed.

 

[13thmonkey]

amps rarely degrade as they are solid state, they work or they don't, either the power supply to them is not giving a clean signal, or the cable is damaged, can you make it worse by wiggling the cable probably at the plug end.