Hi folks. I know that I am really the only person who can answer this question, but I'd love to hear some opinions. I have Logitech Z-4 speakers and Sennheiser HD555 headphones. I do not have a soundcard (Using Asus P6T SE Mobo with onboard sound). I have to choose between buying either A set a Logitech Z-5500 speakers for 150 euros sent to my door. Or An Asus Xonar Essence ST (or STX) soundcard to use with my Sennheiser HD555's. Which costs about 180 euros Now the thing is that the Logitech speakers, although secondhand, are at an okay price and I trust the seller as I know the person. That tempts me to buy them, but from a practical standpoint there is the disadvantage of their loudness (I share my house with other people), so I may not even get to use them as often as I want to. Also, my primary use is for music and the logitech's may be a bit bassy for that perhaps. The Xonar Essence on the other hand, coupled with my halfways ok HD555's should provide pretty good sound quality and also listening discretion, for late night listening or whatever. Also, I can upgrade my headphones in the future to achieve higher quality. If I get the speakers on the other hand, upgrading the soundcard would prolly yield less dramatic results as they lack the finesse to express the subtle improvements (perhaps I am wrong on this). Anyone have any opinions/comments? Thanks for the input.
The z4 isn't a bad speaker system, and unless you really need the surround sound it's probaly not worth upgrading. A decent sound card, like the Xonar Essence ST with your already awesome headphones should sound amazing (although I dont have any first hand experience here). If I were you I would get the sound card.
Agreed. In fact any Xonar will be a nice upgrade, but if you listen to a lot of high quality music, the Xonar Essence is welcome. Your Z-4 are a nice pair of speakers. Of course they are not fantastic in the world of speakers in general, but they are a lot better than half the computer speakers you can find. I find it shameful that Logitech decided to discontinue them, and release low-end speakers under the Z series (they are really bad).
That advice sounds spot on Thanks, I think you're right. My only concern about buying a soundcard is that it seems that to some the difference in quality is imperceptible. I have all my music ripped in FLAC, which is lossless so thats as good as it gets. A lot of my music is old stuff though, like Bowie and Pink Floyd and stuff, so would the actual recording quality become a bottleneck I wonder? I'd just hate to fork out and end up sitting there saying, "Yeah, I think I notice a bit of a difference, maybe".
If you have all your music in FLAC, then I'd strongly recommend you to upgrade to Xonar Essence ST/STX. You'll notice the difference for sure.
Agreed, but even 360kbps MP3 you should notice the difference. Plus it will give you room for speaker upgrade in the years to come.
Thanks for the help everyone. I'll go for the Xonar Essence I think. Just one more tiny little niggle. ST or STX? ST is better I think.
They are both the same, you pick if you want is in PCI or PCI-E version. Seeing more and more motherboard with less, or none PCI slot, I would recommend going with the PCI-E version if your current computer has one free (NOTE: you can fit it in any PCI-E slot, 1x, 2x, 8x 16x, it will work).
Haha, well if it's good enough for a ficky pucker it's good enough for me Thanks for the advice my friend.
