Speakers for gaming and video editing
 

Anyone have advice for speakers (for a pc) that can provide decent sound for both gaming and video editing (with some audio work)?

The best for video editing are a pair of professional studio monitors. Of course, the main thing that make them "professional" is that they have a flat frequency response. Which means, if your mixing audio, and you don't have a good pair of speakers with a flat frequency response, and they put out either too much bass, or too much highs, you can end up cutting out the low end or high end, when your mixing. Another good thing is a echoic free (or whatever they are called) room (padded room).

Of course, video editing, isn't mixing audio, so as long as your not mixing audio, any nice pair of speakers will be good.

A pair of professional studio monitoring speakers, wont "bring down the house" so they aren't good for gaming...

Klipsch's 4.1 (400w) and 5.1 (500w) are some pretty hard punching computer speakers. 400/500W RMS too, not no peak crap. For video editing, I sometimes use my good pair of headphones, but they get uncomfortable after a hour or so.

A set of Klipsch Promedia 5.1s via a Soundblaster Audigy should do the trick! Wow and you should experience playing Unreal Tournemant 2003 with it cranked with UAX enabled....WOW!

I have the Klipsch 4.1s. I like them at full blast but my one peeve is that I have to unplug them when I go to sleep, not just power them down. They buzz.

Logitech Z680s rival the Klipsches, they had a buzz problem but Logitech recalled them so you should have no trboule if you get a set. This is a 5.1 solution

Logitech has a great 4.1 offering as well, the Z560

Both sets THX certified if it means anything to you, both pump 400 - 500 Watts RMS

About the buzzing, you might want to try a power conditioner...

I think you're right. I'll look into that.

The buzz Keith spoke of is different than the buzz problem on the Logitechs. The buzz on the Logitech 5.1s occure while using them and there is an area of silence....there is an audible buzz that eminates from the center channel. My friend bought them thinking he'd be upping my Promedia 5.1s but had to return them in 2 days because the buzz was getting to him. LOL...he ended up getting the Promedias anyway.

Keith, Alex may be correct...are you using any sort of way to obtain clean power from your outlet. Depending on your house and it's wiring you might have very "dirty" power. I had a friend that couldn't go above 65htz on his monitor because of this. I'd try using an APC Universal Power-supply or like I used...a monster power bar. It's a surge protector/power cleaner. It filters or "cleans" the power prior to it entering your electronic devices. It's a sweet peice- 3ft long and like 15 outlets!

I guess I have to strongly differ with the opinions expressed so far on this thread.

When you edit audio for video, you are indeed mixing sound. Monitor speakers are very important if you want the sound to be consistent and play reasonably well on most systems.

5.1 sound systems are not the tool do use for mixing video sound unless you are mixing 5.1 sound. If you do, the relatively inexpensive speaker systems designed for listening to music are not good enough to mix 5.1 sound.

A pair of Near-Field Monitor speakers will help you to mix sound far more reliably than any computer speaker.

And my KRK's can blow my eardrums out with only 60 watts of clean power per side (with no increase in distortion over quieter operation). They are sitting only 30" from my head and angled in. Hence the Near-Field label.

Neighbors 2 houses away can hear them even with the doors closed. How much louder do you need than that?

I have to agree with Mike, I have a pair of MACKIE 624 studio monitors combined with an ESI Waveterminal 192. (Plus I have an audigy attached to some cheesy creative 5.1 speakers for testing, all in the same system). What you want most of all is accurate reproduction of sound. Accuracy that goes at least up to 24/96khz .The klipsch, logitech and other 5.1 computer speakers are designed to enhance certain areas of the audio. The problem is if your audio/game is played on lesser 2.1 cheap speakers,or worse, played back on a home theater system.... it's liable to sound awful.
The Mackie 624 are goind for around 450.00 apeice and have received excellent reviews.
If the Mackies or Maudio speakers are to expensive, Samson has come out with a nice sounding value line for less than 300.00 a piece. fostex has a basic 2.1 system for around 300.00.

the MAUDIO 66 audio card is a good low end card for doing stereo or surround mixing. Audio cards from MOTU, Terratec and ESI-PRO are also popular. They all have professional recording and mixing features not found on the Audigy line of cards. (XLR connections for both microphones and speakers....better sounding audio throughout the dynamic range...., support for software based synthgs, and Disk based synths,like Gigasampler...Vsampler.., Cakewalk sonar) and have very low latency drivers.

If this is more hobby than pro, then look into hooking up your audigy to a nice affordable hometheater system with av/recevier and 5.1 speakers. Both mixing, recording and game playing will be better than any computer oriented speakers.

Yeah, Joe and Mike are correct. Thats what I was originally suggesting.

About hooking your computer upto a home stereo, I have the stereo in my room, right here, hooked upto my sound card (Polk subwoofer, 5.1 receiver, 2 sony bookshelf speakers). After people seen how I did it, everyone wanted me to do it for them (my uncle, cousin...). It's pretty easy, just get a 1/8" stereo splitter from radioshack (I have a 3 way)...and then get a 1/8" to RCA splitter....bam.

"nice affordable home theater system with 5.1......."

So, any recommendations on this?

For GREAT bang for the buck, get a pair of M-Audio SP-5's at musicians friend at this link

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/.../base_id/59391

or at guitar center, etc. They are powered bi-amped near-field monitors and I love mine. You can't go wrong with these at $199 a pair. If you are doing extensive mixing you'll want something like Joe's Mackie's or the 824's but that's a lot of mula.

To get rid of the buzz...I would use an Ebtech hum eliminator, or the like.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/.../base_id/36853

It removes the buzz associated with ground loops which it probably the most common cause of buzz besides cables and power lines all mushed together or the cable from your local cable company being connected indirectly to your computer.

I use the line level shifter/hum eliminator which is better because it also raises the -10dBV output of most computer soundcards to a +4dBu signal a pair of good monitors would like.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/.../base_id/38212