What to buy?

J

jamesriley94

New member
Hi,

A week after I was born, my grandad put £150 into some form of bond. Not much I know - but I never even knew about it until my mum found the original bond purchase while clearing out the house...
So I got a lovely check today that due to interest is now £356.

I feel my free deliveries on Scan and Aria may be getting used ;)

Basically I'm going to uni, and currently use for sound a hifi with 4 bookshelf speakers plugged in. This set up is far too much to take to uni, so I was intending to buy speakers anyway.
I also have headphones - http://www.ebuyer.com/318437-turtle...orce-bravo-px3-headset-ps3-xbox-360-px3-bravo

So I'd like a new smallish speaker set up that would be good quality and small enough to easily take to and from uni. The headphones also arent great so I could probably do with getting some nicer ones.

Now if I'm buying these, I may as well get a soundcard too...

Now I know next to nothing about soundcards, and nothing at all about what makes good speakers or headphones.

So please could people recommend me all these 3 things to buy please? :)

I'm also happy to get cheap speakers if it means spending more on very good headphones and soundcard...

The use will be gaming and music/films.

Budget wise - I'd like to set at £180 - (half of the money received) but this is flexible entirely really - just dont want to spend masses unnecessarily.

Thanks in advance for the help :rolleyes:
 
As far as headphones and speakers are concerned I would suggest going with Bose because the sound quality from Bose speakers is excellent but I know they can be very expensive especially for a college student on a limited budget. With your budget in mind I found some good stuff from Razer. The Razer Ferox speakers are small, easily transportable and good looking and at $59.99 not a bad price.
razer-ferox-gallery-1__store_gallery.png


The Razer Blackshark headset caught my eye because they are similar in design to David Clark aviation headsets that I have used for the past 15 years.
razer-blackshark-gallery-4.png

they run $119.99

The total for both of these is $179.98 US dollars. I plugged this into a currency converter and came up with £113.36 GBP (1 GBP is approximately 1.58669 USD).

I would think that the onboard audio for your motherboard (Realtek® ALC898 8-Channel High Definition Audio) would be good enough and would advise you to skip the sound card and spend your money on something else.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the reply. The Headset isnt available in the UK however - and I've been told not to get a gaming headset if you're listening to music through them.

As for the speakers, I was thinking more of a proper system for it, but just smaller than my current one, such as: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microlabs-S...5GUW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1346428573&sr=8-4 for example.

I dont need the speakers to be portable so to speak, just want to be able to put them in a box and load them into the car when I come home, rather than my current system of a hifi with the 2 45cm tall bookshelf speakers.
 
Something like that would be good - depending on price and quality.
However, that looks like USB and so if I did buy some form of soundcard I couldnt use that I dont think? So I think it would need to use audio connections?

As for headphones - I do want full size headphones yeh. But as said, I have no idea what makes them good - and I would need to buy a microphone of some sort in order to use them for gaming if I did by an audio headset.
 
Most of the high end headphones either come with a microphone or you can get one as an accessory. I know that the Bose quite comfort and Beats by Dre have microphones.

The speakers are powered by USB and are Bluetooth. The speaker contains a built in hardware processor so there will be no need for a sound card. The SBX-8 and SBX-10 will be available in the UK from early July for £80 and £130 respectively, while the flagship SBX-20 will arrive in August for £180.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/30/creative-sound-blasteraxx-speakers/
 
the term headset and headphones and w/ or w/o mics is being used quite a lot here so let me just clear it up and say,

"over ear earphones" without a mic are called headphones and "over ear earphones" with a mic are called a headset. That is to say there is no such thing as a headset that doesn't have a mic.
 
ruairi.C said:
the term headset and headphones and w/ or w/o mics is being used quite a lot here so let me just clear it up and say,

"over ear earphones" without a mic are called headphones and "over ear earphones" with a mic are called a headset. That is to say there is no such thing as a headset that doesn't have a mic.
Click to expand...

I think I'd probably prefer a headset as it's all in one - but I dont want to sacrifice audio quality for the sake of the microphone.
Could you recommend any music headsets?
 
there are soo many choices for headphones and speakers you'll just have to shop around and look on the tubes and the tinterwebs for reviews; go on a e-tailers site and narrow down what you want until you find a few then look for reviews and choose.

as for sound cards buy a amplified asus one it wont disapoint
 
Plantronics do some good headset, i got the 780's gaming set, sound is awesome albiet it doesnt actually use the 7.1 surround sound it says. (well i cant see how it works with only 2 speakers)

i paid about £40 from amazon for them
 
At the moment, I'm thinking:
Speakers: Microlab Solo 1C
Headset: Corsair 1300
Soundcard: Creative Recon3D fatal1y (as there's an offer on: http://www.ebuyer.com/340550-creati...3d-fatal1ty-professional-series-70sb135600001 )

Few questions:
Would the corsair headset reap the full benefits of having the soundcard?
Am I better spending a little more on the ASUS D2 or D2X?
Am I better getting better headphones?

The headphones recommended so far I think are probably a little too expensive - or do I need to spend that kind of money to really benefit?
Thanks for all the advice so far
 
Found this on another forum compairing the onboard audio from your motherboard to a xonar. http://www.overclock.net/t/1236188/realtek-alc898-vs-asus-xonar-dx.

As far as the price of your headphones/headset, it will depend on how big of an audiophile you are. Quality of sound and price go hand in hand. The more you spend the better quality sound you will get. For most people Corsair 1300 would be fine. But if you want high quality sound go for something a little better/more expensive.
N
 
Josh Weston said:
I know that Pexon swears by the Beyerdynamic headphones. May be worth a looksie.
Click to expand...

I know he does :P

As for the link SEBAR - some say there's no difference, whilst others claim there is. I think I'll probably get the headset first, then decide if it's worth spending more on a sound card
 
Boom! Here I am. loloooloool. 420 XD

Disregard all previous info on..... Bose are over priced and under-specced and don't start me on Razer, Corsair and Plantronics.

Go for some sub 100 quid headphones, look on Amazon at AKG 200 series, Beyerdynamic DT770/880's, Denon 1100, Sennhieser 555/595 etc. or Thomman.de and look at Superlux, practially OEM Beyer/Sennies/AKG at a fraction of the cost, just not finished as well. Soundcard wise a Xonar sub 50 quid will do nicely, if you have the extra cash left over, 100% get an Essence sound card, no need for an amp or DAC with that bad boy if you are running sub 100 Ohm headphones. If you are spending good money on some nice cans PLEASE for the love of god, DO NOT buy anything from the gaming companies when it comes to audio products. When it comes to mics, the bit-rate used in most games and VOIP servers is under 100 kbit/s so any lapel mic or simple desk standing mic will do just fine, unless you are a singer or a 1337 COD commentator get a Blue Snowballlololol.... really, don't.
 
Thanks for all the info :)
First off - not wanting them or anything - but I found noctua headphones!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sennheiser-...8CW2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346439237&sr=8-1

Anyway...
I think I do prefer the Beyerdynamics - just cause I like the name :)
What is the difference between:
- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyerdynami...L5SM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346439168&sr=8-2

- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyerdynami...BLTC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1346439168&sr=8-3

- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyerdynami...NAAI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346439168&sr=8-1

And which of those would you recommend?

As for the sound card - Would I see any difference between:

- http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-xonar-dgx-51-pci-express-sound-card

- http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus...ound-card-dolby-dts-cakewalk-ableton-live-pmp

Thanks again :)
 
DT770 professional 80 ohm and the D2X, if not the Essence its not much more the D2X is a good card, but its overpriced. The 598's are beautiful headphones man, they look ace, sound even better, shame they are built like poo, like most Sennies.
 
I switched to using no speakers after I purchased my Astro A30 wired headset a few years ago for gaming - they have awesome sound depth, are reliable, multi functional with lots of adapters, and simple to use. They are expensive but worth it in my opinion. http://www.astrogaming.com
 
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