Prologue

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I participate in a number of web-based audio bulletin boards focusing on multimedia and the most common question asked is "What's the best??". Now folks don't know so of course they ask; however the best judge of a speaker system is YOU. That being said, many people haven't got any clue on where to start and quite often these people get taken by the quickest salesperson on the floor who want to make the commission on the sale. What I'm hoping to do with this article is to show prospective buyers a way to get what they want on their terms. If you're going to spend hard earned dollars on something then you deserve to get the best choice for YOU.

Multimedia speakers have come a long way. Today's offerings are considerably closer to midrange sound systems than they ever have been and the trend will only continue in that direction. Digital music, convergence, and the Internet have all but guaranteed that the PC will become a general purpose multimedia device. Once upon a time PCs were only used to do work, then to play games, and now have become powerful multimedia devices. As an example, I have a DVD in my box and watch movies on my PC in full Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. If I want to, I can output the video signal via a S-Video link to my TV. I surf and do work daily to my musical selection of the day and in fact this article is being written to the smooth jazz strains of the Clayton Brothers. With this increased quality comes increased price but it's a misconception that you have to pay a lot of money to achieve quality sound, despite what some manufacturers or salespeople would have you believe. My first really quality set of multimedia speakers was a 2.1 system costing $100 and it produced more detailed sound than speakers costing twice as much. Similarly, I have to say that today's crop of multimedia speakers are quite capable of matching or exceeding many mini-systems and Home-Theater-In-A-Box ensembles for considerably less. Your average RCA or Bose HTIB setup costs less to make than some of these systems, produces poorer quality audio and costs the consumer more. What you want to do with your speaker system will also affect which soundcard you purchase but I'll only touch on that in passing within this article.

Know your budget

Here's an overview of what to expect for your money:

$100

Potentially entry level but good quality 2.1 products can be found at this price point. 4.1 and 5.1 products are definitely budget oriented with mediocre audio quality at best.

$150-$200

These will be high quality 2.1 products and good to high quality 4.1 and 5.1 analog products with no AC3 decoder included. Some trade-offs may be made in a given system, usually in dynamic range (less deep bass or less clear highs). 5.1 systems at this price point that also include a decoder box might be a cut slightly above those at the $100 level and are definitely more into providing connectivity convenience than audio quality.

$250-$300

You can find high quality 4.1 products at this price point but shop carefully to avoid paying for "a name brand". It is entirely possible to have products from the $150-$200 category almost match up to or even surpass systems in this class depending on the manufacturer.

$400+

Systems in this category are of very high quality but are now almost competing with home audio products and in some cases surpassing them (Home-Theater-In-A-Box ensembles at this price point are a good example). This is a relatively new market with only a few participants and because of this, some of the products still need refinement.