I'm on a search for a ok sound system for my computer. I've got around £200/$400 to spend on some speakers and a subwoofer. Can anyone point me in the right direction with some ideas? Not sure exactly what it's called but it's a little unit that has varible bass/treble and so on, what are these called? and i'd like one
I've seen creative soundcards come with these included, but i notice alot of them are "gaming" soundcards, so does anyone know a decent card with the required input/outputs that would be good for pretty much just music/movies and a little gaming? I'll be buying the soundcard separately so that's not included in the budget^^

If any of you wanna contribute some ideas, that would be sweet. Thanks guys

For top tier computer speakers I would go with either the Logitech Z-5500's or the Klipsch ProMedia 5.1's. The logitechs are a little more bass heavy, while the Klipsch's tend to have slightly better sound but more reliability problems. I personnally have used the Logitech's and they are tons of fun.

As for a soundcard I would go with anything thats not Creative. Auzentech and E-Mu seem to be fairly good.

Look for a digital amp that has a S/PDIF input. Digital amps have better quality on digital sources and many times more efficient (realistic efficiency for an analog amp is about 20% compared to 70% or more for digital). Then connect two good speakers for the fronts and some cheaper ones for the rear.

BTW, it is not necessary to buy a "professional" sound card if you are using digital audio. The main difference between cheap and expensive sound cards is the analog circuits, which you will not use when using S/PDIF. Just go for one that supports 24 bits and 96kHz or higher and make sure it's ALSA compliant so you can also use it on a 64 bit PC.

thanks, eascarface, i'm checking some reviews on the logitech speakers, they look sweet.

Tetra, I had a look for some digital amps but they seem to be in the price range of around 350GBP, I don't have anything near that to spend, are they all this sort of price? and also, could you give me some examples of sound cards with the specs you recomended? Couldn't find much really.

your mobo is quite likely able to do digital out if you want to save a few £££

If you do decide on a seperate sound card, this one is VERY tasty:

Newegg.com - AuzenTech AZT-XM71 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Auzen X-Meridian 7.1 Sound Card - Retail

For 24 bit/192kHz and digital I/O, I recommend
Newegg.com - M-AUDIO Revolution 5.1 5.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface High-Definition Sound Card - Retail
It's (relatively) cheap, has good analog I/O, and is ALSA compatible. Note that expensive cards are not that much better than cheaper cards, except for slightly better SNR on the analog I/Os. But it's pretty difficult to tell the difference in analog quality between a relatively cheap card and a professional grade card.

If you want to go with another one, use Matrix:Main - AlsaWiki to make sure the card is ALSA compatible.

As for amplifiers, look for ones intended for surround sound. Most DSP-based digital amplifiers are surround. If the amplifier has digital inputs and has support for decoding compressed streams (such as Dolby and AC3), it's a DSP-based amplifier. These drive the output transistors using a PWM signal from the DSP chipset, which means that the signal remains digital until the very last moment in the output filter. (And for the technical, transistors operate most efficiently when either fully on or fully off. The DSP exploits this by shaping the signal using high frequencies at several hundred kHz, shaping the wave to contain the spectrum of the sound wave. The high frequencies are then filtered out.)
These amps sometimes even have "mod clock" or similar inputs and outputs, which allows the internal oscillator to sync to other amplifiers or EMI-sensitive circuits (such as a HDTV tuner) to minimize EMI issues. (However, HDTV tuners generally do not have the correct output to allow amplifiers to sync. But I have not had an amp cause any problems with HDTV.)

Not too sure about speakers, but you can start out with some cheap ones and upgrade later. (Get some that are good to begin with, of course. Don't go too cheap.) When you upgrade, use the cheap ones for surround.