New speakers suggestions. 5.1 or 7.1?

[sohaibrazzaq]

I am tired of my old 2 channel speakers so i think its time to buy new speakers, now the problem is i am very confused either i want 5.1 or 7.1 speakers. My soundcard does support 7.1 channel but i guess buying 7.1 channel speakers will just increase already huge wire clutter and installing 4 or 5 sattelites on wall and routing wires for them is a bit too much. My big question is that will there be a huge audio quality difference between 2 setups? I regularly watch HD movies on my PC but my main concern is gaming. I am currently looking on two following speakers:
Creative Inspire 7900 (7.1):
http://asia.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=4&subcategory=789&product=10321&listby=
& Logitech X-540 5.1:
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/home_pc_speakers/devices/234&cl=roeu,...ction=features

And who do you personally think is better in making good speakers, logitech or creative or someone else. I have heard good things about logitech but i am using a creative card already.
Please comment.

Regards,
Sohaib

[redwudz]

I took another route. I output my audio from two computers to a surround sound amp via coaxial signal and then to my 5.1 speaker setup. No PC speakers.

The problem with most PC speakers is that all the room adjustments need to be done in software, where with a regular surround amp, it's much easier to tailor to your room acoustics. JMO.

And though I've heard both 5.1 and 7.1, I haven't been able to tell much difference. I do use two 50W subwoofers and that's been a great addition.

[dullrazor]

I took another route. I output my audio from two computers to a surround sound amp via coaxial signal and then to my 5.1 speaker setup. No PC speakers.

thats a good idea too!

to answer your question NO there will not be HUGE Audio Quality difference between the 2 systems you are looking at, a subtle difference perhaps but a HUGE difference, No.

Which creative card do you have?

Unless your games and movies have 7.1 soundtracks it's really kinda unecessary, my opinion.

It seems like $100 bucks or so is your budget, i'd take a look at this company.
http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?ID=studiomonitors&do=products.family
(the bottom of the page has the models in your price range.)

You can probably find these setup at a guitar center or sam ash, so you can go listen to them.. dont forget to bring a couple of your favorite cds. These are probably going to give you an easily noticable difference in audio qauility compared to logitech and creative.

If the main concern is gaming and you want it loud and your card has the proper outputs, you could start off with buying 2 speakers and add your sub and more speakers later, this is more money of course but it will sound better and louder.

another consideration would be to check craigslist and ebay for some used near-field monitors (smaller studio monitors)
look for genelec, yamaha, they have some pretty killer tiny speakers. jbl, event, mackie, dynaudio, too name a few..
you get a good near field monitor that's self powered (amps built in) with like a 5" or 8" woofer its going to bump preety darn good for a house.
http://stason.org/TULARC/entertainment/audio/pro/10-4-What-is-a-near-field-monitor.html
questions welcome.

[sohaibrazzaq]

Thanks for the input.
@dullrazor
my soundcard is x-fi xtremegamer, and about the budget, max i can spend on speakers is 150USD. I play games, lots of em and i play games that are 5 years old to latest released so i really need multichannel and i don't want speakers that use more then 150 Watt at peak. (power issues)
Guess i should buy 5.1 then

[dullrazor]

i play games that are 5 years old to latest released so i really need multichannel and i don't want speakers that use more then 150 Watt at peak. (power issues)
Guess i should buy 5.1 then

absolutley 5.1 then yes you are right maybe we can hear from someone that has one of those systems.

i don't mind my little stereo logitech r-10's that are plugged into my computer (intel board/audio).
they sound preety good on mame. my speakers are at least 2 or 3 years old.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

I took another route. I output my audio from two computers to a surround sound amp via coaxial signal and then to my 5.1 speaker setup. No PC speakers.

This is how I've got my HTPC running. Probably more expensive than what a lot of folks would want for an office or bedroom PC though.

In 'upgrading' from 5.1 to 7.1 I found that 5.1 & 6.1 sources are matrixed and really sound no different.
Nobody puts out anything with 7.1, not even BluRay....
Plenty of DVDs and BRs have 6.1 though!

I do use two 50W subwoofers and that's been a great addition.

Agreed. My 5.1 receiver had 2 sub outputs so I figured 'what the hell' and got 2 12" 100W subs. Actually had one and decided to get another identicle model to pair with it. Definitely made a difference, which was even more pronounced after re-adjusting the settings on the receiver.

[ocgw]

I feed the coax to my HTPC too, but for gaming surround sound I use the excellent Turtle Beach 5.1 surround sound headset, they don't have a simulated surround sound, they have real descrete ingame surround sound, there are actually ( 8 ) speakers in the ear muffs, (4) in each cup, I can hear guys sneaking up behind me

http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/efhpa2/home.aspx

in addition to the Creative labs Inspire 2.1 music speakers of course, so my HTPC is hooked up to a 5.1 channel surround sound system thru coax spdif, and the other 5.1 channel headset thru analog, and the 2.1 thru analog lol

ocgw

peace