Help me make a sound decision

[racketboy]

Ok here's my situation:

Right now I have a $300 Pioneer AV receiver. Nothing fancy, but it does it's job well. My speakers are only some Sonys that came with my wifes old Sony CD changer shelf system that died. They sound ok, but not a lot of bass (not that I want a lot). I thing I like about having my receiver is that I can hook a couple game systems, a DVD player and some other stuff up to it an switch between them with ease.

Now here's where things get complicated. Right now I live in CA. I'm going back to school in 3 months in FL. Then after I graduation (hopefully) 9 months later, I'll probably move back to MI. Now when I move from CA to FL, my wife and I are only taking our two cars (Camry and Corolla) and filling them with our "important stuff" UHauls and such are way to expensive for traveling across the country. So anyway, I have to cut back on what big stuff I take with me.

The receiver (and speakers) would eat up a lot of car space. And I don't really want to sell them because I probably would only get a fraction of what it's worth to me.

So I'm wondering if I should just leave it behind for a year (at my in-laws') and just use my PC as my main AV device. So I'm looking for recommendations on what I should do.

Do you think I should leave behind the reciever? (I don't really want to buy a new one in FL either)

Should I just by some nice PC speakers?

Need some recommendations for speakers around the $100 range.

How should I hook up all my equipment without a reciever.

Here's what I'm looking to have at FL:

My PC (taking with me)

17" or 19" CRT monitor (buy in FL)

21" - 25" TV (buy in FL)

My Dreamcast

May buy and extra DC in FL. (one to hookup to TV, another w/ VGA box)

Possible Gamecube (buy in FL)

I will be using my PC for movies, TV recordings, music, and gaming (few PC games, mostly emulation)

I'd also like to be able to display movies from my PC on my TV screen.

I probably threw too much info out there, but hopefuly I can get some advise.

 

[racketboy]

Here's the speakers that I'm looking at after some quick browsing

I can get them from Amazon or NewEgg for $140

 

[it290]

Well, I have a couple of pairs of Logitech speakers (similar to that, but only 2.1). They work pretty well and fill up the first floor of my (large) house pretty well when cranked to full volume; the bass response is excellent for such a small sub as well. So if you're going to be living in a small(ish) place, I'd say that's more than enough. It all depends on what you want. Personally I would never leave my (big) hi-fi setup behind, but it does take up a lot of room. I'm a sap when it comes to having a lot of components all over the place though. If you get those speakers, you can get an AV switcher as well so that you don't have to plug and unplug stuff all the time. That's what I do in my gaming room (with a set of Altec Lansing 5.1's), and it works great. You won't need the receiver if you have amplified speakers.

 

[racketboy]

thanks for the info. We'll probably be in a 1-bedroom apartment.

any good recommendations on how to get the consoles and displays to play well together?

 

[it290]

Well, like I said, if you buy an AV switcher you'll be fine. I have two Genesis units, a DC, Cube, Saturn, NeoGeo, PC, and Atari 2600 all hooked up to the same TV using two switchers and a VCR, and it works great. The standard switches I've seen have four (composite or svideo) inputs and cost about $25, so if you use one of those you'll be in great shape. Depending on the placement of your PC you may want a seperate set of speakers for that alone (for PC gaming, for music it shouldn't really matter where your speakers are in a one bedroom place).

 

[racketboy]

yeah, I'm hoping I can find a nice large table for cheap while I'm out there and have the PC and the TV somewhat next to each other

 

[Pearl Jammzz]

My bro recently got their 60 dollar (aroudn that cost) 5.1 setup. It's pretty nice. Not the best by any means, but certainly will do the job.

 

[racketboy]

now that I think of it, I'm not really gonna have much stuff with surround sound. I'm ripping all my DVDs to xvid with 2 channel mp3 audio and leaving my DVDs at my in-laws. And I don't have any music or consoles that support surround sound.

Should I just get the 2.1 setup?

Heard good things

Maximum PC picked it as their fav 2.1 setup and all the other reviews applaud it.

Never had more than 2 channels, so I'm not quite sure what to do

 

[racketboy]

now is there something that will allow me to switch what sends sound to my speakers?

Like say my PC or stuff coming out of my AV switchbox?

I don't really want to lose any quality in the sound.

Would be able to feed the sound from my PC to the AV swithbox and then to the speakers without losing any quality?

 

[it290]

Yeah, you shouldn't really lose any quality; those things are passive devices, so they don't do anything to the sound. Just make sure your cabling is decent and you'll be good to go. The thing that makes the biggest difference with PC sound quality is your soundcard; having a soundcard that uses a breakout box and/or optical out will make a huge difference. Although I find the output quality from my PC to be pretty acceptable, I can't use it for recording stuff because of the noise level. You have to keep in mind that a regular soundcard is inside a big box with a bunch of other components.. it's not shielded, and so interference is unavoidable.

As for the 5.1 vs 2.1 thing, IMHO there's not a huge difference for most stuff. But keep in mind the cube does support 5.1 (dolby pro logic II), so if you're planning on picking one of those up you may want to stick with the 5.1.

 

[Pearl Jammzz]

Eternal Darkness or Rogue Squadron in 5.1 is amazing...u can hear lazers and such going by your head. I would suggest getting a 5.1 setup.....u can get a good one for relatively cheap.

 

[racketboy]

I have a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. Pretty nice card.

Well I'm thinking I might just get the 2-channel one for now. Apparently the speakers are actually the ones from their top-level $350 5.1 setup.

This is just kinda a temp solution for 10 months or so. After that, I'll be going back to a "real" hifi setup.

Now I guess my main concern is making everything hook up nice with the least amount of complexity as possible. I would go with just a dual monitor setup, but I'm just gonna get a cheap TV to get a bigger screen for less money.