I need 2.1 audio advice!

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Wendig0

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Aug 6, 2006
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I want high quality 2.1 or 2.0 ch speakers for my computer and xbox 360.

I'll be using them for basically everything like music, gaming, and movies.

Now I've been stumped on how to connect both my 360 and pc with the quality. I have one of these things http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/119M57WD6CL._AA160_.jpg that make it so you can connect to different outputs of audio into one input but I'm not sure if that would degrade the quality of the sound on either of the devices. Or I could just have my 360 run to my soundcard and back out through my speakers right? Or basically find a set of speakers with two inputs.

Oh and I also need a good soundcard for those speakers, would a xfi be overkill for just a 2.1 set up?

My budget for both the sound card and speakers are about $250. Now the soundcard doesn't have to be anything really super good just a decent and better than onboard audio.
 
thats a tight budget.... the logitech Z-2300 and a cheap sound blaster. they z680's secondhand would work great as they will connect to all your devices at the same time.
 
thx for the reply!

Um, well I decided instead of getting a higend 2.1 I just might as well get a mid-highend 5.1 system.

I am limited to newegg.com really but i think I'm going to get a x-fi gamer and the logitech thx z-5300e. And I'm going to have the 360 send an output to my sound card and have that go out to the speakers so I get closer to true 5.1.
 
I know it's about $80 over your budget, but you may want to consider just getting the high end logitech Z-5500 and skipping the sound card. If your onboard audio has coax or 5.1 you can plug directly into these and get true 5.1 (they have a dolby digital and dts decoder). Onboard sound is better than it used to be, upgrading to a soundblaster might only get you EAX. You will also be able to plug in your xbox and get true 5.1 without any hassle. I don't think going through a sound card is going to work.
 
clague said:
If your onboard audio has coax or 5.1 you can plug directly into these and get true 5.1 (they have a dolby digital and dts decoder).
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What he means is digital optical or digital coaxial (you'll see the term "S/PDIF" being used in both cases). Optical uses fiber-optic cable with Toslink connectors, while digital coax just needs a standard 75 ohm RCA cable. The 360 gives you an optical out.

The Z-5500 idea isn't bad. $299 with free shipping from PC Connection, or $292 from Newegg. You'll get dual inputs, and you can use the optical out from your on-board into one of the inputs, with the 360 in the other. The X-Fi XtremeMusic (the lowest-end X-Fi you should consider buying) isn't available from Newegg, and will set you back about $85 from Buy.com.

I don't believe the X-Fi can decode Dolby Digital from the S/PDIF input, so that's obviously a problem for the 360. Unless I'm mistaken, you won't be able to get true discrete surround from the 360 with the Z-5300es. You'll need a different sound card that can decode AC3 from the S/PDIF input. I believe the Oxygen HD 8788-based cards can do this.

Someone else should confirm this before you go any further.
 
Yeah, I would go with the logitechs just because you need to connect both your PC and Xbox. The digital and coaxial comes really handy :)
 
Wendig0 said:
actually I think i'll go for the z-5500... They have a coaxial input and an optical input right? If that is true that I can run my 360 at 100% true 5.1 surround sound and my computer by the coaxial output onboard sound.
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If your board has a digi-coax out, then you're all set. If it only offers optical out, there are inexpensive adaptors you can use to convert the optical to coaxial. You should also go the analog route (the three 1/8" terminated cables) from the Karajan module as well, which is the only way you'll be getting surround from your PC while gaming. For movies, you'll want to switch to the coaxial out and allow the Z-5500s to act as the decoder. The digital output will suffice for stereo playback otherwise, and you might actually want to switch back and forth depending on what you're doing.
 
phide said:
You should also go the analog route (the three 1/8" terminated cables) from the Karajan module as well, which is the only way you'll be getting surround from your PC while gaming. For movies, you'll want to switch to the coaxial out and allow the Z-5500s to act as the decoder. The digital output will suffice for stereo playback otherwise, and you might actually want to switch back and forth depending on what you're doing.
Click to expand...

I don't really get what you're saying here. The coax out should be able to do everything the karajan module/analog can do right? The coax is more true 5.1 right?

Also, I'll be able to connect my pc by coax and analog at the same time right because the 5500 supports 3 inputs. But will I need to tell my pc which one to use at the time or would I just have to unplug one of em?

edit: Thanks for the help so far, I would of ran into some problems in the future with out you guys :p.
 
Yeah, I suspected the lack of clarity there might bite me in the ass.

For PC gaming, without any form of real-time encoding (Dolby Digital or DTS), you can't get discrete surround from the digital output. There are ways to do it without buying specific hardware, but I don't advise that anyone go down that route. Ergo, you'll need the analog connections for true discrete surround for PC games. For movies, you just need to pass the encoded Dolby Digital/DTS stream via the coaxial output. Alternatively, you could decode the streams with your DVD player if it supports that, and send the decoded signal through the analog outs, but there's no reason to.

So, you'll have the three inputs into the Z-5500s set at all times. The three analog cables, the digital coax from your PC, and the digital optical from your 360. You use the Z-5500 remote to switch between the inputs, and the control pod will automatically detect a Dolby Digital/DTS stream and decode it. No sweat.
 
Sorry my post wasn't totally clear, I had to go to a meeting and didn't have time to really think it out. But it looks like my idea got across!
 
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