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I have a set of z-5300e's, and my friend has a set of z-5500's. The z-5500's are definitely better; they can go about 1/3 louder and have digital input (although you need a soundcard that supports 5.1 digital). The build quality of the speakers is a little better.
However, unless you are an audiophile or have the luxury of being able to blast your speakers loud I would just settle for the z-5300e. On my z-5300e's, it becomes painful to turn the volume past 2/3, but it annoys the neighbors at like 1/3 :-S (damn neighbors).
if i could afford it, id go for the Z5500 just for the digital input...itll bypass the onboard's crappy DAC and use its own internal DAC which should result in a much cleaner sound...i say should because i dont know how good is the internal DAC of the z5500...but im pretty sure its better than the crappy on board audio which would also pick up hell of alot of noise from the other PC components...
however, this depends on ur audio priorities... music, gaming, movies? if music has highest priority then a real good 2.1 speaker should be ur choice as music sounds better on stereo rather than 5.1 (unless ur listening to DVD-A).... why? coz music is recorded in stereo. movies and gaming is where 5.1 is there way to go.
Errr so do you mean that music on a 2.1 would sound better than a 5.1 of similar quality?:?if i could afford it, id go for the Z5500 just for the digital input...itll bypass the onboard's crappy DAC and use its own internal DAC which should result in a much cleaner sound...i say should because i dont know how good is the internal DAC of the z5500...but im pretty sure its better than the crappy on board audio which would also pick up hell of alot of noise from the other PC components...
however, this depends on ur audio priorities... music, gaming, movies? if music has highest priority then a real good 2.1 speaker should be ur choice as music sounds better on stereo rather than 5.1 (unless ur listening to DVD-A).... why? coz music is recorded in stereo. movies and gaming is where 5.1 is there way to go.
mAD-mAN-
Cant you just enable 2.1 mode on your 5.1 and that be the same thing and why do you have to do that anyways?
yeah stereo is almost always better for music (unless its DVD-A as mentioned above). like when u encode ur MP3s etc...notice how the encoding option is mostly on stereo? ive personally never seen an option to encode MP3s to 5.1 on any software ive tried.
u COULD enable it to 2.1...ive tested it with my edifier 5.1 speakers and yeah it sounded better in 2.1 mode.. in 5.1 the sound was really off...soundstage and imaging went haywire...worst part is i listen to metal and there isnt much soundstage in metal to begin with!
but im not too sure if a dedicated 2.1 speaker of $XXX would be better than a 5.1 (in 2.1 mode) speaker of the same $XXX value. but i do believe in dedicated items... like a dedicated 2.1 would be better... or a company dedicated in audio would be better than a gaming company doing audio (i.e audiophile headphones vs gaming headphones).
simple logic also tells me that when u pay the same amount or more for less... there should be a reason to it. that "less" would usually be better :P
EDIT: forgot to mention that my 5.1 speakers is purely for gaming and movies.... for music i only use my headphones which are the Beyerdynamic DT990 '05 and a self modded headphone using KSC-75 drivers (the Franken PhilKoss)
These three things is waht you should be going for:
THX, DTS, EAX
which ever one supports it gets my vote. Assuming your audio card can utilize the above mentioned three.
Its about sound quality and not volume. If you want volume put earphones on and kill your eardrums
These three things is waht you should be going for:
THX, DTS, EAX
which ever one supports it gets my vote. Assuming your audio card can utilize the above mentioned three.
Its about sound quality and not volume. If you want volume put earphones on and kill your eardrums
wurn
EAX is a sound card feature, not a speaker feature. I would agree on THX, except their standards have fallen and now it seems to be available to any speaker manufacturer if they pay the license fees. I mean, there's a car with THX certified audio, and now there's 2.1 speakers with THX certification. The whole point of THX is to have the superior cinemata presentation. The main thing was that when it came out long ago, it was the new standard for ultimate surround sound...
DTS is really nice, but only needed if you have a sound card that supports it (like an x-fi).
DUDE, some speakers dont support EAX, trust me on this. As for soundcard supporting all three mentioned, Audigy 4 does and is cheaper i am sure than the X-Fi thingy
[QUOTE="wurn"]These three things is waht you should be going for:
THX, DTS, EAX
which ever one supports it gets my vote. Assuming your audio card can utilize the above mentioned three.
Its about sound quality and not volume. If you want volume put earphones on and kill your eardrums
Baselerd
EAX is a sound card feature, not a speaker feature. I would agree on THX, except their standards have fallen and now it seems to be available to any speaker manufacturer if they pay the license fees. I mean, there's a car with THX certified audio, and now there's 2.1 speakers with THX certification. The whole point of THX is to have the superior cinemata presentation. The main thing was that when it came out long ago, it was the new standard for ultimate surround sound...
DTS is really nice, but only needed if you have a sound card that supports it (like an x-fi).
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