Speakers

BKtje

Im wondering if any one can give me some advice on what speaker system to get.
Basically im looking for a 4.1 system (4 sattelites and a sub). I got an Creative SB Live! Value! card (am told it only handles 4.1).

I was thiking of the Altec Lansing 641 system till i saw the price, £280 sterling. (€460) + pp. i dont mind spending a fair amount on it as my pc is now my stereo but that is just slightly too much

Im lookin to spend about €300-350(more or less) total (incl pp).
I want 4 sattelites and a sub. Any one have any ideas/tips on what to look for? I'd be much obliged

Thanks,

EDIT: Just been told how ****e my card is hehe, can anyone recommend a decent card as well , ta

BKtje

right decided to get the sblive 5.1.

Anyone have any opinions on the Cambridge Soundworks DT 2500? it seems to be pretty decent but none of the shops ive tried had them..

astrofool

the inspire 5.1 5300 have been good for me, not too expensive, and good build

BKtje

Yer was looking at them
seem to be pretty decent and i could at least order them hehe

if my other 2 fall through i think ill be getting them

JustHalf

What's so bad about your card? (except for the CPU usage)

BKtje

ive no idea tbh but a m8 of mine said it would give decent sound but if i plan to get good speakers i'd need a good sound card or the sound would be waisted with the speakers.
or somemet

astrofool

sb live is a very good card, only the audigy really tops it, cpu usage is very low with it as it has a powerful dsp (1000 mips) compared to most sound cards (400+)

JustHalf

On CPU usage... that was dealing with XP. Myself and Gerry (and possibly Llatsni, if I can rope him into it) will be testing it on our different SBLive! cards under Win2K.

phaxx

I have the Creative Inspire 5.1 5300 system, as of a week ago, and I love it. I'm borrowing a friend's SB Live! Platinum with the Live! drive for a few days to try it out, it really is fantastic, and well worth the €166 I paid for them. (http://www.itdirect.ie)

BKtje

im going for the Cambridge Soundworks DT3500 purely cos i know someone who will sell them to me cheap. Getting the audigy cheap too, just hope postage and packaging from nl doesn kill me hehe

JustHalf

B-K-DzR, your signature is 250k in total.

What's your problem?

BKtje

didnt realise it was that big, my apologies..

phaxx

It's still a bit big, 32k, when the limit is 15. Do we really need an animated Kurt Cobain?

BKtje

hehe okie, hold on. ill see if there are ne others
didnt know limit was 15 tho.

JustHalf

Originally posted by JustHalf
On CPU usage... that was dealing with XP. Myself and Gerry (and possibly Llatsni, if I can rope him into it) will be testing it on our different SBLive! cards under Win2K.

With my Athlon system (using the minimal Creative drivers) my CPU usage on DirectSound3D with 32-voices and 22khz dynamic sound was 38.9% (!!!)

Using SBLive! 1024.

Same drivers, slightly older card (SBLive! Value) on Gerry's machine showed 8.9% usage in the same test.

I'm going to blame it on my VIA chipset, where all the rest of my problems where. I can't blame it on the drivers or the card. I'll try moving the card to a different slot to see if that changes anything.

I'll post up a full breakdown of results soon.

The specifications of our machines can be seen here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41211&highlight=live

Both running Windows 2000 Professional SP2. Gerry's machine was running at 930MHz with a 155MHz FSB.

marauder

Before you go for the Cambridge Soundworks DT3500, some advice
I have a set and for the most part they are pretty nice, especially with the surrond sound speakers on the stand behind you. One bad thing though is that the subwoofer is not powered and is therefore underpowered.

I also have a set of ACS495 speakers on an older system and let me tell you , you know what the subwoofer kicks in baby yeah

po0k

I've had woeful problems with my SBLive Player 1024.
As a result i vow never to buy anything from Creative again.
Can't get the surround mixer to work, after 14 months of trying.
Feckin Creative driver's plainly refuse to see my card too. Bloaty shíte.....

leeroybrown

I've got a set of Creative Inspire 5300 5.1 speakers.

Lovely speakers, and a nice kick fromm the subwoofer. Definitely worth what I payed for them ~€150.

leeroybrown

I havn't heard an Audigy hooked up to a decent set of speakers yet, but looking at the amount of DSP real-estate on it it obviously has a hell of a lot more on-board processing power than the 5.1. The Gold plated connectors is a nice touch too.

po0k

The card itself seems to be fine, the drivers install, but the entire surround mixer and related apps don't work.
I keep getting a 'Failed to Load Plugins' message everythime.
Creative Tech Support are feckin useless too.