what speakers?

Pugwash

I have a creative sound blaster live value sound card and want a nice pair of speakers to hook it up to

my budget is €300

what would you recommend?

your opinions would be much appreciated

phaxx

Creative Inspire 5300:
http://uk.europe.creative.com/products/product.asp?prod=250&page=10

Available from ITDirect for €166. (That's what I bought mine for, two weeks ago)

I really like 'em, very loud and thundery.

If your budget will stretch to it, get the Inspire 5700 system - it's digital, has an amp and a remote.

Offy

Altec Lansing 885a from Dell, cost bout IR£180. 60 watts RMS, Newer model coming soon, double the watts for bout the same price.

Mailman

If you've got an original SB Live then you only have 4 speaker outputs in which case you are better off with an FPS 1600 or FPS2000 from Creative.

Nothing will be sent to the subwooffer on a 5300 if you are using an original Live card.

phaxx

Originally posted by Mailman
If you've got an original SB Live then you only have 4 speaker outputs in which case you are better off with an FPS 1600 or FPS2000 from Creative.

Nothing will be sent to the subwooffer on a 5300 if you are using an original Live card.

Ah, that's a good point - I turned off the sub here for a bit to see what it was like without it, it sounds so very very empty... I missed my thundering.

astrofool

it will still use the subwoofer, the third connector is more for the centre channel, after all the fps2000 has a sub as well

Mailman

I have access to a wide range of Creative Sound Cards and Speakers and I know that LFE is sent through center speaker.
The 5300 and 510D are designed for the Live 5.1 and Audigy.

Don't purchase either if you are using a 4 channel SB Live - it's not worthwhile.

You'll only see how the 5300 really behaves when you run an analog Dolby Digital AC-3 stream through it and disconnect the center channel connector, both center and LFE will disappear.

If you want to go 5.1 then sell the 4 speaker SB Live and buy a surround 5.1 kit from creative which includes a 5.1 speaker kit and 5.1 sound card. It's cheaper that buying them seperately.

If you are a gamer and DVDs aren't your thing then just keep your current card and get a 4 speaker kit. EAX doesn't really use the center channel.

astrofool

i guess my ears must be lying to me then when I use the 5300 with my "old" sblive gold

Ideal is with 3 inputs, but they'll work with 2 fine, just won't be AS nice as it could be, speaker quality is alot better than the fps series.

Most other sound cards don't have 3 outputs still...

phaxx

Dragging things a little off topic, but I'd like to say at this point how superb the 5300 is.

*floor shaking*

I bet they can hear/feel this a few houses away, not to mention next door.