New Speakers for ASUS Essence

[dustyjamessutton]

Considering I just got my ASUS Xonar Essence soundcard, and the speakers I have now are limiting the sound it can output, I'm in the market for new speakers. I would prefer a 7.1 channel surround setup. The PC is in my living room, and it's a bachelor pad, so speaker size and placement is not an issue. I have a budget of about $8,000 I can blow on new speakers. I was looking at Klipsch and Legacy.

[Captain Ned]

If you really have such a budget don't buy a thing until you've listened to it in a showroom somewhere.

[dustyjamessutton]

There is a Best Buy in Boise. Do they have a good speaker selection I can listen to?

[Captain Ned]

There is a Best Buy in Boise. Do they have a good speaker selection I can listen to?

Not likely. You're playing in the serious end of the market and you'll need to find a real dealer where you can listen to stuff in an environment closely akin to your home. Not sure if such a critter exists in Boise, though.

[dustyjamessutton]

Well, there is an RC Willey. Not sure if that is more high-end. And then there is some privately owned stereo shop I need to go check out. I may just need to go to Salt Lake City or Portland to hear any good ones. Of course that cuts into my budget.

[Skrying]

Boise is plenty big enough to have a dedicated home theater retailer or high end audio dealership, I would imagine anyway. I would check out a place like there. $8,000~ is well into the market that you're looking at nice receiver and speaker setups. Best Buy won't be of any real help.

[morphine]

Just don't fall in to the "high end cables/power plugs/shelves/etc" scams, please.

This forum here will probably be able to help you better than we can.

[Zoomastigophora]

You can also ask around in the High End Audio, Computer Audio, and Speakers sections of Head-Fi. With a budget like that, you're playing around in the serious high-end realm so it's best to get recommendations from people who actually have gear of that calibre.

[stars1]

You'd better go to local shop, check the sound quality before order

[ludi]

When you walk into a high-end audio shop with $8,000, don't tell them you're planning to drive the system from a computer soundcard unless you enjoy giving 55 year old audio fanatics a concurrent coronary embolism and a cerebral aneurysm. It can be amusing, but once the targets recover, you'll get a 30-40 minute lecture on the finer points of noise floor and dynamic range before getting another word in edgewise.

[WarBastard]

Have a look at the McIntosh site
Here
Also for speakers you can try the Infinity speakers
Here