Audio Nirvana: Cards to Speakers

The right combination of speakers and sound card can yield amazing PC audio. We tested five speaker sets and four cards.

The right speakers and sound card can turn your PC into an audio tour de force for games, DVDs, and music. Great sound can pump up a dull movie, as well as notch up your adrenaline when you battle bad guys.

We took an acoustical tour of five speaker sets and four sound cards, from the modestly priced to the top-of-the-line. And because many computers now come with integrated 5.1-channel audio (capable of driving five satellite speakers and a separate subwoofer), we added in an Amax AMD Max 3200+ system that has integrated NVidia NForce2 audio, to see how it stacked up against our four sound cards.

We piped an eclectic selection of music, and the audio from a DVD movie, from the sound cards and the integrated NForce2 through a 5.1-channel Altec Lansing speaker set; for our speaker-set tests, a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum card (a standard in many high-end desktops) drove all of the sets.

Our conclusion: The combo of Creative's $200 Sound Blaster and Klipsch's $400 ProMedia Ultra 5.1 speaker set was the best by far. Together they created astounding audio that rivaled some home theater systems we've heard. The pairing delivered well-balanced bass and treble tones, with the bass distinct and solid.

We heard some surprises, too, such as unexpectedly well-rounded audio from the tiny, ultracheap, two-channel JBL Duet and great sound from Altec Lansing's inexpensive 5.1-channel 251.

As for the NVidia-based integrated audio, we thought it sounded pretty good--until we heard the sound boards.

Music Starts On The Inside

If your PC came with integrated audio or an older card, upgrading to a new card is probably your best first step to better audio (although integrated audio that supports 5.1-channel surround sound comes in many current systems--via the NForce2 chip, for example--many older PCs with integrated audio may lack this capability).

To get satisfying sound out of games and DVD movies, you'll want a card that can handle at least 5.1 audio (also known as six-channel surround sound, where satellite speakers provide center, front-left, front-right, rear-left, and rear-right channels, plus a subwoofer--the ".1" in 5.1).

Midrange and high-end cards increase the number of speakers supported to 7.1 (adding two side speakers to the mix). They also have more powerful digital-to-analog converters (DACs), which take the digital format your audio is stored in and change it into an analog signal that the speakers can understand.

Lower-end cards like the $40 Philips PSC605 Sonic Edge 5.1 use 16-bit DACs, while higher-end models like the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum and M-Audio's $100 Revolution 7.1 use 24-bit DACs, which generate a broader spectrum of sound.

To our ears, however, a 24-bit DAC does not guarantee better sound. Playing a Beatles track in our tests, the 24-bit Audigy 2 ZS Platinum and Revolution 7.1 produced superb vocal tones. But Mad Dog Multimedia's midrange $60 Entertainer 7.1 DSP sounded flatter than the Philips card, despite its 24-bit DAC.

Better cards also have built-in support for true surround sound. To replicate at home the lifelike effects you're used to hearing in the theater, you'll need two elements in place: A 5.1 or 7.1 speaker set whose speakers are appropriately spaced around the room to achieve a sense of fullness, and a surround-sound decoder such as Dolby Digital EX--which both the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum and Revolution 7.1 support. Sound cards like Mad Dog's Entertainer and Philips's Sonic Edge lack a Dolby Digital decoder, which means you'll need speakers that have a decoder built in (as the Klipsch and the Creative GigaWorks S750 we reviewed do).

All of the cards we tested came with software that lets you fine-tune your audio--adjusting bass and treble, for example, or optimizing your sound for stereo, 5.1, 7.1, or headphone setups. Philips's software makes it especially easy to test that you've hooked up your speakers correctly, while M-Audio's has helpful presets for configuring popular speaker systems.

Our pick, Creative's Audigy 2, has a few unique features that account for its relatively high price tag. Its input/output hub mounts in an open 5.25-inch drive bay on the front of your computer and adds FireWire and MIDI ports, a handy volume control, and the infrared receiver for the included audio and video playback remote control. (You can buy the Audigy 2 ZS without the hub for about $100.)

External Options: Sound To Go

Sound for your computer doesn't have to come from the inside. External audio processors that connect via USB can do the same duty as PCI sound cards. Such a product is especially useful if you want better sound for your notebook or if your desktop PC is out of PCI slots.You don't have to give up features, either. The $100 Philips PSC805 Aurilium and the $129 Creative Audigy 2 NX both feature a 24-bit DAC, just like the best PCI sound cards. While the Aurilium supports 5.1 speaker sets, the Audigy 2 NX can handle a 7.1 speaker set. The Audigy 2 NX also can read the six-channel DVD-Audio music format, a boon for audiophiles.

Features Comparison: Audio Cards Add Punch (chart)

A Multiplicity Of Speakers

Home theater PC setups have gone from two to six or eight speakers. But more doesn't always mean better--even if you can find the room to properly space out all of those speakers.

The number of units that's right for you depends on what you mostly listen to: Games and movies--whose audio follows the action playing out on screen--sound best with 5.1 or 7.1 systems. Music, on the other hand, can be very pleasing with a simple 2.1 setup consisting of two speakers and a subwoofer (4.1 and 6.1 speaker systems are sold, but we recommend either 5.1 or 7.1, as surround sound seems to work best when you have a center speaker to enhance the other satellites).

Based on the speakers we tested, you can't always use price as your guide to sound quality. Playing music, the $100 Altec Lansing 251 analog 5.1 speakers produced bass and treble tones that sounded almost as good as those of the $500 Creative GigaWorks S750 7.1 speakers. However, the Creative set did a superior job with our DVD of The Matrix Reloaded--not surprising given that the GigaWorks speakers have built-in support for Dolby Digital decoding. The $100, 2.1-channel Logitech Z-3 left the well-defined vocals on an acoustic track disappointingly flat, even when compared with Harman Multimedia's $60 2-channel JBL Duet speakers.

Nothing approached the audio quality of our pick, Klipsch's $400 ProMedia Ultra 5.1. This 5.1-channel system produced round, rich sound on all of our test tracks, and even made low-fi guitar on one instrumental track sound full-bodied.

Too bad that setting up the Klipsch was not as pleasing as listening to it. The Altec Lansing and Creative speakers had intuitive, color-coded wiring, and we pieced those systems together in a few minutes. But the ProMedia Ultra 5.1 took longer because the wires weren't clearly labeled.

The ProMedia Ultra 5.1 and the GigaWorks S750 come with external control modules for adjusting volume and fine-tuning the speaker alignment, along with jacks for headphones and a microphone (the Z-3's external control has only volume adjustment and a headphones connection). But we found these external modules more of a hassle than a convenience, since their additional wires further complicated the spaghetti-like mess of cables we already had around our PC.

Features Comparison: Speakers Yield Big Sound (chart)