This is sooo off-topic! lol
I'm lookin to build a pc for my living room. It will have a cd-r/rw-dvd-r player in it with a video-out graphics card, and a soundcard to handle 5.1+ surround sound. As far as speakers, I'm looking into investing in Bose speakers.
2 left
2 right
1 center
1 subwoofer
Is there a sound card that can handle that and will (hopefully) not take away from the quality of Bose?
Thanx for anyone's help :rule:
I bought a soundblaster Audigy zs 2 platinum an dit works great. It supports up to a 7.1 configuration so you should be covered. 
do u use it with bose?
I use my Audigy with a big 75x6 denon receiver on 3 bose cube speakers (with the sub box) and two cerwin vegas(LS-12s). I noticed a moderate increase in sound preformance over onbaord 5.1. I woulnt recomend bose speakers though, im not very impresed with my cube speakers for the price i should have paid (i found the set at a rummage sale for 15$) but the size is more then perfect for my dorm room. I find the sound level and quality falls way behind my big cerwin vegas expecialy when the base hits on music. I dont suppose there too bad for movies and such. If you got the space i highly recomend hunting down a nice set of cerwin vegas, and getting a nice reciver for them. Youd probaly pay the same price, and get blown away with the quality of sound.
Originally posted by mattjoc@Feb 9 2004, 12:31 AMI bought a soundblaster Audigy zs 2 platinum an dit works great. It supports up to a 7.1 configuration so you should be covered.
umm... ya 6.1 is rarely covered by anything let alone 7.1. they still dont have the technology, all it does is [edit]amplify[/edit] the sound.
bose=best speakers you can buy commercially. bose prides themselves off of crystal sharp sound that the speakers produce. you just have to have a nice space to work with the acoustics. a dorm is not the ideal for top of the line speakers, considering how cramped it is [ most dorms are, but not all ]. i believe any sound card out right now will degrate the sound quality. plus why would you want a "home theatre" pc. i honestly think it is pointless. you can get better quality from dvd -> reciever -> speaker, than pc dvd -> soundcard -> reciever -> speakers. but its all in the hardware, but i say if you want a real theatre experience i would save up and shell out the bucks for a top of the line theatre system. Bose, JBL, Infinity...just to name a few.
Originally posted by bunkka@Feb 9 2004, 06:51 AMumm... ya 6.1 is rarely covered by anything let alone 7.1. they still dont have the technology, all it does is [edit]amplify[/edit] the sound.
bose=best speakers you can buy commercially. bose prides themselves off of crystal sharp sound that the speakers produce. you just have to have a nice space to work with the acoustics. a dorm is not the ideal for top of the line speakers, considering how cramped it is [ most dorms are, but not all ]. i believe any sound card out right now will degrate the sound quality. plus why would you want a "home theatre" pc. i honestly think it is pointless. you can get better quality from dvd -> reciever -> speaker, than pc dvd -> soundcard -> reciever -> speakers. but its all in the hardware, but i say if you want a real theatre experience i would save up and shell out the bucks for a top of the line theatre system. Bose, JBL, Infinity...just to name a few.
:pchawk: Yea If your going to spend money on a bose system just save money for a home theater system. But that is just what i would do.
But if you cant get that kind of money , then go with a Sound Blaster audigy
Originally posted by bunkka@Feb 9 2004, 06:51 AMbose=best speakers you can buy commercially.
Umm....
I would be more inclined to say Bose = quite nice... but to be honest... really not anywhere near the best you can buy... Best you can buy for home use are likely to be Bang & Olufsen speakers... But never mind...
SB Audigy 2 Plat... internal or external edition... beautiful sound, digital outs, THX certification... can't really go wrong 
Cheers,
I'm using the onboard nforce audio from my moboard with a lead going to a lifestyle 5 bose system playing mp3s and alike through it is superb.Sound quality is excellent even when it's turned up nearly full whack
(you can't turn it up full it's to painfull on the old lugholes)
Originally posted by o0o The DEEJ o0o@Feb 9 2004, 08:12 PM[...]
I would be more inclined to say Bose = quite nice... but to be honest... really not anywhere near the best you can buy... Best you can buy for home use are likely to be Bang & Olufsen speakers... But never mind...
[...]
B&O aren't actually that good, in terms of audio quality :shy:
Don't get me wrong, they're good, but their focus is more on style, where other companies focus on fidelity at the expense of style.
I'd give you names, but I can't remember any off the top of my head :shy:
a month ago i bought an Athena home theater system, and it has beautiful sound, bose are completely overrated for their price, my set up is the point 5 series you buy the sub seperate, i got the as-p300, and a yamaha 480w reciever, im runnin a optical cable from my ps2 to my reciever, and i get an incredible movie experience, ps2's are not best to view vid. from bad sound, but optical cable improved it 10 times. after buy speaker wire system total was around 1050 bucks much cheaper then bose and they are incredible
Originally posted by Gladiat0r@Feb 9 2004, 09:40 PMa month ago i bought an Athena home theater system, and it has beautiful sound, bose are completely overrated for their price, my set up is the point 5 series you buy the sub seperate, i got the as-p300, and a yamaha 480w reciever, im runnin a optical cable from my ps2 to my reciever, and i get an incredible movie experience, ps2's are not best to view vid. from bad sound, but optical cable improved it 10 times. after buy speaker wire system total was around 1050 bucks much cheaper then bose and they are incredible
what kinda magnets do athena run their coils around? yes dont get me wrong bose charges a gripload of money for their speakers. but they use the best technology [ not that other companies dont use it as well ] and they use the best materials to get the job done. I have never used/heard athena speakers in action so i wouldn't know, but bose has been around longer than athena. but hey its all about how much money are you willing to spend on the system. I would just save for a complete system not a pc system. Dont get me wrong its less expensive but pcs are not ment for the euphoric sound you would get with a complete set.
-bunkka :canadian:
OK here goes. If you want very good audio using your computer I recomend M-Audio. Revolution 7.1 internal or their pro division has a couple of different outboard options. Creative also has choices as mentioned. Monitor wise the Bose systems have a dissadvantage design wise when stacking them up against higher end systems because of their design. Most of their systems lack specific driivers for specific frequencies. They use active equalization in most cases to make up for this. There are several diffent high end systems out their that will outperform them hands down. A couple off the top of my head are M&K and B&W. But ultimately your ears will tell you whats best for you.
Now as far as your computer being the heart of the system. I currently recomend against that as the software and hardware just don't seem ready. I'm not even sure if there is any software that would alow you to Line double or quadruple to lets say 480P off your computers internal DVD. Of course if your display in your home theater is not ready for such signals than using your computer could be an option but I would still recomend it just supplement the system as another input for audio and video.
Now what was I saying.....
I think these are the specs bunkka that u wanted on my coil/magnet for my sub, this is the 300 watt, 100 watt continous sub they make a more pwrful one but this is what i had money for, 100 watt continuous may not sound like a ton but it definitely shakes my floor house when turned up and it has very rich clear bass
anyways if mrUPallnite if ur interested you might want to consider hooking our system through a reciever this is your best option with the bose, youll be able to hook everything u have dreamed of having through it , my reciever has S video and digital inputs and out puts youll be set with all the connections you can get, your best option is to run from a digital out put to on sound card or any digital output u got to receiver with low distortion then youll be sure to have awesome sound the receiver has all the codecs you need and youll be set for good times, ive got everythign running through my reciever w00t!
downside, good recievers can be kinda spendy around 400 for good one and above
http://www.athenaspeakers.com/asp300specs.htm
8" High Excursion Design
Injection Molded Cone
Rubber Surround
1" Voice Coil
20 ounce magnet
Originally posted by Gladiat0r@Feb 10 2004, 06:18 AMI think these are the specs bunkka that u wanted on my coil/magnet for my sub, this is the 300 watt, 100 watt continous sub they make a more pwrful one but this is what i had money for, 100 watt continuous may not sound like a ton but it definitely shakes my floor house when turned up and it has very rich clear bass
anyways if mrUPallnite if ur interested you might want to consider hooking our system through a reciever this is your best option with the bose, youll be able to hook everything u have dreamed of having through it , my reciever has S video and digital inputs and out puts youll be set with all the connections you can get, your best option is to run from a digital out put to on sound card or any digital output u got to receiver with low distortion then youll be sure to have awesome sound the receiver has all the codecs you need and youll be set for good times, ive got everythign running through my reciever w00t!
downside, good recievers can be kinda spendy around 400 for good one and above
http://www.athenaspeakers.com/asp300specs.htm
8" High Excursion Design
Injection Molded Cone
Rubber Surround
1" Voice Coil
20 ounce magnet
That is a very good setup to have (Y) I would love to have that if i had the money
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