Need Advice for Upgrading PC's Speakers System with $400 Budget

[ncad]

Hi There, I'm currently looking for upgrading my old Creative Inspire T7900 7.1 Speakers System to a decent PC speakers.

I mostly use my PC for gaming like 70-75% of the time. The rest 25-30% is for watching movies and listening to music.
I'm a bass lover, so I want a system with big, tight, punchy quality bass. But I also want the clarity of mid and highs frequencies from the speakers.

I already have Creative Sound Blaster ZXR Sound Card on my PC. And I have budget up to $400 for upgrading my PC's speakers.
Currently I have a few candidates after searching the internet:
1. Logitech Z906 -> 5.1 system
2. Audioengine A5+ -> 2.0 system
3. Hivi Swan M50W -> 2.1 system

Right now I leaning towards Z906 because of the surround system and big bass. But after researching on the net I found mixed reviews. Some says good, some says bad. What I learn is that because the lack of tweeter, the Z906 sound quality for music is lesser than the competing systems but still have decent quality.

While the A5+ and M50W is better for music, some says that the sound's detail is far better than the Z906 and still have punchy bass for gaming and movies.

I live in Indonesia and the speakers price from local shop are:
1. Logitech Z906 for around $300 ($400 from logitech store)
2. Audioengine A5+ for around $460 ($400 from audioengine store)
3. Hivi Swan M50W for around $255 (I can't find the official retailer price)

My room size is about (4 x 5 x 3) Meters (WxLxH). So I Need some advice from the Expert before I buying one of these speakers.
Thank you for the answer and sorry for my bad English.. Best regards.

 

[ssddx]

given that you have $400 +/- to spend i'd personally look at the hi-fi speaker or home theater market for speakers ad you'd likely catch a better deal with more quality.

i am not sure about your prices, but the price of the z906 here is just a bit less than what you could spend on a fairly decent 5.1 speaker system and receiver such as the energy take classic 5.1 (or the cheaper variant the monoprice 10565) which would blow away a z906. while not bad for pc speakers (the predecessor model the z5500 was better) you can certainly beat the z906 for around the same price.

for the budget you could also pick up some bookshelf speakers, a sub and an amp as well.

the m50w is not too much better than the Klipsch promedia 2.1 set so seems a bit overpriced to me.

not sure about the a5, but i know the a2 was very temperamental on positioning and if not in just the right position it would sound not all that stellar. also, without a subwoofer you'd be just a tad lacking on any thunderous bass if you wanted any of that.

just a few thoughts anyways..

 

[ncad]

I have considering Sony BDV-N9200W Home Theatre System, it's around $680 from the local sony retailer store. For my room size and mostly of gaming purpose, is it overkill to buy N9200W for my room?

 

[ssddx]

when i said "home theater speakers" i meant more along the lines of you getting some speakers and hooking them up to your own amp or receiver. most of the time you get more choice by doing this although i'm not sure how available seperate speakers and amps/receivers are in your country which is why i just posed the idea.

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you really need to be carful with the "home theater in a box" sets (HTIB) as sometimes the cheaper ones do not accept a 5.1 input (and even if they have hdmi or a way to do it sometimes they just limit you to stereo). this means if you consider one you'd need to be rather picky and choose wisely.

also many of the HTIB sets tend to have rather shoddy build quality compared to what you can buy as seperate speakers. most, even rather expensive models are all the cheap plastic housing you expect on speakers of a much lower price tier.

do they sound good though? they can. i've heard a few sets which honestly did not sound bad at all, though i'd still recommend seperates.

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is it overkill to go with a 5.1 system or home theater speakers? your room size is 4m (13'-1") x 5m (15'-4") x 3m (9'-10"). this is not all that different than the room in which i have my pc, home theater speakers and television. photos under build in my signature if you wanted to see a spatial estimate or see how i have things laid out.

i use a klipsch satelite speaker set myself (275w , 1100w peak) paired up with a 450w klipsch subwoofer and pioneer receiver. i've used such a set for at least 4 years and can say that it fits this space perfectly. satellite sized speakers are best for small to medium sized rooms.

before i had my home theater speakers i used the old logitech x530 set (compare to z506) which worked good as well. both systems were loud enough, meaning i didnt have to push either to maximum. the home theater speakers certainly are much clearer and having a larger sub makes quite a bit of difference too.

generally in a room the size of yours you could also get away with using bookshelf speakers which are meant for mid sized rooms. tower speakers would be complete overkill as they are meant for full sized rooms.

not sure if locally available but the sets i was recommending (energy classic take 5.1.......... or monoprice 10565) i do know are available at stores which ship to indonesia. they are fairly low priced sets ($200-300usd in the usa). they would need to be paired up to a receiver (or amplifier...).

an alternative if you did not care about surround sound (despite your idea of using the z906 which is surround) would be to get a nice pair of bookshelf speakers paired up with an amplifier. you could even get a subwoofer depending on how high up the chain of speakers you go.

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just some thoughts of mine at least..