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I'm talking about for your PC obviously. I want to revamp my current rig with crappy Logitech speakers and am wondering what others do.

2.0? 2.1? 5.1?

Onboard sound or discreet card?

What speakers / sub?

Mine is an odd one.

Bookshelf speakers with Elemental Designs component set installed (CDT made the drivers/crossover) along with a 10" Cerwin Vega sub ported to ~32 Hz. All driven by a little Lepai LP2020+ amp and onboard sound.

It sounds surprisingly good and doesn't have any trouble being loud enough to rattle things while still sounding fairly good. It'll clip due to lack of power on extreme dynamics when cranked up, but that's expected at 7 watts/channel.

HOME:
For listening to and sharing music I have a FiiO taishan-d03k DAC to a Lepai LP-2020A+ amp connected to a Polk DSW 2000 sub and two PSB Alpha B1's. I'm very happy with the setup
Gaming is a Logitech G930. Convenient but sound like turds and not very comfortable. Gaming "surround" sound isn't standard any more so I just use the software stuff. It works well enough for TF2 or Civ X or whatever. I don't play much any more so I'm much more lenient on this.

WORK:
Syba Sonic SD-DAC63057 hooked to either a Nobsound NS-08E or a CMOY headphone amp (depends on what I'm listening to) or the Syba directly driving V-Moda M-100's. I'd like a different amp and/or headphones. They don't pair that well as the M-100's are pretty easy to drive and the tube amp is a bit much. The M-100's with the boom mic were awesome for long raiding sessions when I played WoW years ago. Crank up the tunes and go to town. Very comfortable and sound great even with a Behinger 202 driving (now attached to my soundboard and laptop).

Stereo optical out to a Schiit Modi 2 Uber DAC + a Magni 2 Uber headphone amp. Currently using a set of ~12yr old Sennheiser 595's, but may soon relegate those to other duties, and upgrade to a pair of 650's.

My gaming rig has an old Creative sound card (X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Titanium) that I use to output to some older Logitech G51 5.1 speakers. I'll use my Audio-Technica ATH-M50X's plugged into the volume control box for the speakers when I need to use voice chat (desktop mic otherwise picks up from the speakers). It's by no means a fancy setup but for gaming it's fine.

If I really want to listen to music I have a pair of PSB Image B6's on the desk hooked up to a 150 watt/channel DIY digital amp I cannot remember the name of and a Maverick Audio TubeMagic D1 DAC/Preamp connected to the PC via S/PDIF. Both the digital amp and DAC/pre are a little long in the tooth as far as digital amp and DAC technology is concerned but these are no means the best audio gear in the house. Any real listening I do is on either of my three other dedicated stereos.

The Egg wrote:

Stereo optical out to a Schiit Modi 2 Uber DAC + a Magni 2 Uber headphone amp. Currently using a set of ~12yr old Sennheiser 595's, but may soon relegate those to other duties, and upgrade to a pair of 650's.

How are you liking the little Schitts? I've heard so many great things about a lot of the Schiit gear but I've never had the opportunity to listen to any of it.

I use Creative's Soundblaster-Zx sound card with 70 Watt RMS/140 W Peak Logitech X-540 speakers, 5.1 setup. If your are in a tight space or small room a nice 2.1 setup would be fine.
Logitech does make cheapo basic speakers but their X and Z series are built solid. I've had my X-540 set for over 10 years and they are still performing well although I would not consider these anywhere near audiophile-level quality. It's a discontinued stock item but it must be still in demand since a quick search online shows it selling for 5X (unused) what I bought it for .

I've used Creative sound cards for several years since I did not like the limited audio controls in the Realtek on-board chips. The Creative X-Fi series a few years ago were causing problems in the software drivers and too much bloatware almost lost me as a customer. They've improved since the Zx series came out and setting up the software is not so frustrating anymore. The ASUS Xonar series seems to recieve good reviews from what I've read.

My gaming monitor is a TV, so sound card doesn't matter. It's PC HDMI -> A/V Receiver -> 5.1.
It may add latency, but I don't know what it is.

Doing a Dolby Atmos receiver, but for PC gaming (even though it sounds great) I can't say I recommend it. Needing to replace it for HDMI is a pain in the ass and I don't intend to ever do it again. And using Atmos in win10 sounds great when it works, but on PC I'm not sure how to get it to work reliably.

Still, up until now I preferred receivers. Still hoping they can get a decent multichannel audio connector that doesn't have that problem (or USB Audio 2.0s potential latency issues...nevermind that it hasn't even shown up in the general marketplace.)

I'm a couch based PC gamer, so my setup runs through my receiver (Sony DN-860) and into a 5.1 surround sound system (Pioneer's midrange 5.1 setup) via HDMI from the video card. For games that use voice communication, I use a SoundBlaster X-Fi 5.1 to get good sound to my Audio Technica ANC9s and attach a Zalman microphone.

Edifier s730 on s/pdif. Originally I was going to get a receiver and speaker setup. That changed when I found the s730 for 250 a couple winters ago. Maybe it's been 3 years.

Cheap 2.1 system for open use and a headphone amp for privacy. There's already a home theater and HTPC in the same room as the office for any serious listening.

Audient id22 audio interface (also used for recording purposes), onto a pair of KRK RP8s, supported by a REL Quake sub.

The Audient is set to be replaced soon-ish for something whose drivers actually understand power management. Anyway, after having setups of multiple types, I've concluded that as long as you're sticking to 2.0 / 2.1, ditching "PC speakers" and going with studio monitors is the best decision I ever made.

A pair of Audio Technica AD700 headphones that used to be connected to a X-fi titanium but are now suffering slightly from a Gigabyte Phoenix motherboard's integrated sound.

If I was to upgrade I'd go for an external sound card (or maybe DAC) and a pair of headphones with a removable cable so a boom Mic or similar could be attached.

I use my built in monitor speakers if I need something audible to more than just me, they're a front-facing pair so pretty reasonable for a freebie.

I'd definitely avoid anything with 'gaming' on the box and go for hi-fi tech again, the durability is worlds apart.

Realtek optical out to a Yamaha RP-U100, powering desktop speakers and a sub of my own design.

The Yamaha gives me what I want, which is a big-ass volume control, easy switching between AM/FM/PC, narrow footprint and an auto-mute headphone jack. I don't do serious listening at the desktop, but it's reasonably noise-free and certainly loud enough for my needs. It's almost 20 years old, so at some point I'm either going to have to go in and replace some caps or go with a new setup.

Audio Technica ATH-M50X headphones plugged into a Xonar DX, or if I want a speaker I've got a Dell soundbar going into my motherboard's Realtek codec.

Shout-out to SoundSwitch for easily switching between the two with a hotkey combination.

Nothing really fancy hardware-wise. Xonar DSX into a FiiO A3 and Sennheiser PX-100-II open-air headphones for headphone listening, and some mediocre 2.1 Yamahas that I've had since forever (15+ years) for speakers.

The headphone amp is being driven off the Xonar's front out, and the speakers off the side out, but I've got things configured to duplicate the front stereo audio to the side out. This is a Linux box; I've got JACK configured as the primary audio stack (with PulseAudio slaved to it), which makes it easy (relatively speaking... it seems nothing is truly easy with JACK) to configure different EQ settings for each output; this allows me to make the crappy 2.1s tolerable, and allows me to switch back and forth between the headphones and speakers without futzing with the EQ settings at all.

TBH the front out of the Xonar was perfectly capable of driving the headphones directly, but I wanted a physical volume knob within easy reach. Hence the FiiO.

I keep meaning to upgrade the speakers, but never seem to get around to it. The existing ones are good enough for YouTube videos and casual music playback; for anything where I want better fidelity I put on the headphones.

Workstation:
Presonus Eris E8 studio monitors.
JBL Nanopatch inline volume control
External DAC (Cambridge DACMagic V2)
Equalizer APO for calibrated room correction, using an omnidirectional mic and RoomEQ Wizard.

HTPC:
Q-Acoustics custom 5.1 package (4x QA-3020, 1x QA-3090C, 1x Q7070Si)
Yamaha RX-V583 HDMI recevier with hardware-level DSP for room-calibration
Samsung Q65Q6F Freesync 4K Television
Freesync-inept Nvidia GTX 980 Reference model - High definition audio device (facepalm)

Updated Aug2018

Speakers setup
PC in signature
to USB
to Schiit Jotunheim (as preamp)
to Audioengine A5+

Headphone setup
PC in signature
to USB
to Schiit Jotunheim (as DAC/amp)
to Senn HD 598

I chose the DAC module with the Jotunheim, and it's pretty great to be honest. Having a single piece of equipment work as a DAC, headphone amp (which by the way, is super powerful), and preamp to my powered speakers is pretty wonderful.

edit: to make it more clear, my setup is my PC to an external DAC/amp combo to powered 2.0 Speakers or headphones.

Old set of Klipsch Promedia 2.1's at one of them. Works well enough and unlike other Klipsch Promedia 2.1's, it refuses to die...

/me knocks on wood

continuum wrote:

Old set of Klipsch Promedia 2.1's at one of them. Works well enough and unlike other Klipsch Promedia 2.1's, it refuses to die...

/me knocks on wood

I imagine quite a few of us, me included, ran Promedia's before they died/we upgraded to 2.0's and an external DAC. No shame.

The Egg wrote:

Stereo optical out to a Schiit Modi 2 Uber DAC + a Magni 2 Uber headphone amp. Currently using a set of ~12yr old Sennheiser 595's, but may soon relegate those to other duties, and upgrade to a pair of 650's.

I basically have this, but with the Massdrop AKG K7XX (sometimes the Sennheiser HD600). Although, I normally just end up with my basic Logitech speakers playing audio.

Optical to a 1998 vintage JVC receiver with a pair of Fluance XL7S bookshelf speakers for the home workstation. It has a discrete card because the motherboard doesn't have onboard audio -- its a high end server board. A pair of Audio Technica ATH-M50X headphones for the laptop (Macbook Pro) for use at the home office, and office office. MEE audio M6 PRO IEMs for travel.

--SS

- home gaming rig: Sennheiser PC 373D
- work MacBook Pro: Apple AirPods

Focusrite 2i2 going into a pair of KRK Rokit RP5 G3's with quad-channel balanced cables that I built myself, and sitting on top of monitor isolation stands. For headphones I use my relatively pedestrian Audio-Technica ATH-M40fs cans. I'm looking into upgrading the monitors to a pair of Yamaha HS8's and the headphones to Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO's but keeping the M40's for tracking.

I also have the HyperX Cloud Revolver headset which I sometimes use for gaming since it has much more prominent low end response, and my laptop can supply it with Dolby 7.1 virtualization.

Basement: Onboard ALC1150 hooked up to an older Kenwood KA-9100 amp, driving Infinity Kappa 6 speakers. A pair of Triad Gold PowerSub 15" sealed subs. Akai AT-93 tuner and GX-260D open reel deck. Pioneer PL-516 record player.

Living room: GTX 970 HDMI to Pioneer VSX-1121-K receiver, 4x Klipsch RB-61 II bookshelves, Klipsch RC-62 II center, and an HSU VTF-3 MK3 subwoofer.

Bedroom: ALC898 onboard to Swan M50W 2.1 speakers.

Focusrite Scarlett 2i2(1st gen) into a pair of JBL LSR308 studio monitors. Sometimes I break out my Beyerdynamic DT990's powered by a Fiio A3 headphone amp(that's underpowered for these) but I mostly use them for listening to music at work.
My primary purpose for the setup is recording and mixing music so I use studio monitors instead of something a little more flattering to music, my DT-990s pretty much make everything sound good as long as it's mastered reasonably well(i.e no limiter crackling,distortion or pumping) and there's not a lot of harsh highs.

Mikael33 wrote:

Focusrite Scarlett 2i2(1st gen) into a pair of JBL LSR308 studio monitors. Sometimes I break out my Beyerdynamic DT990's powered by a Fiio A3 headphone amp(that's underpowered for these) but I mostly use them for listening to music at work.
My primary purpose for the setup is recording and mixing music so I use studio monitors instead of something a little more flattering to music, my DT-990s pretty much make everything sound good as long as it's mastered reasonably well(i.e no limiter crackling,distortion or pumping) and there's not a lot of harsh highs.

Interesting, the Scarlett's headphone output isn't enough to drive those at a decent volume?

morphine wrote:

Interesting, the Scarlett's headphone output isn't enough to drive those at a decent volume?

Focusrite says "For all USB Bus Powered Audio Interfaces look for headphones with less than 250 ohms resistance. To power any higher resistance headphones 250 ohms plus look for an audio interface with an AC Wall adapter."

I think the output impedance of the 2i2 1st gen is ~10Ω.

edit: It doesn't really look like the Fiio is providing you with any extra juice. I suppose it may be cleaner than the Scarlet, but it's definitely not as powerful. Also, most importantly, you can carry it.

AuzenTech X-MERIDIAN 7.1 (32-bit PCI) with a Sennheiser HD-650 headset. Getting this setup working in Windows 10 was an adventure.

Someday I hope to upgrade to a Xonar card, but it would be a sidegrade at best; All I'd be getting out of it is modern driver support.

Vhalidictes wrote:

AuzenTech X-MERIDIAN 7.1 (32-bit PCI) with a Sennheiser HD-650 headset. Getting this setup working in Windows 10 was an adventure.

Someday I hope to upgrade to a Xonar card, but it would be a sidegrade at best; All I'd be getting out of it is modern driver support.

Actually I'd bet you would get quite a bit out of a newer headphone amp. Those headphones aren't terribly easy to drive.