Hey community and hi ex
Just a general question, is a wireless sound-system worth it's price? Are there any disadvantages? Which is a good 5.1 (or better) you would recommend?

Wireless systems are extremely expensive and are not worth it unless you already have an amazing (100$ and up) soundcard and a high end receiver (which is even more expensive).

Edit: Just did the math, the soundcard / 5.1 wireless speakers / receiver combo I came up with was about 800$ after tax and shipping. Yeah, definitely not worth it.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Aug 4 2010, 5:43 pm by Excalibur.

What's the difference between an average HD onboard soundchip and a good dedicated sound card?

Ok, thanks, I agree :S

Whats the range on something like this? How far until the sound system is no longer able to pick anything up? Also on a semi-but-not-really-i-guess-lol-wuts-going-on note, what would be the range of a pair of headphones?

......The quality of the sound? Nude that's like HURR WHATS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PORSCHE AND A TOYOTA LOL

Too unspecific. Do you mean noise? Do you mean frequency precision? Timings? Lack of "improvement" effects?
I'm asking because I'd argue that unless you're audiophile you wouldn't recognize any of the quality degradations mentioned above. So maybe you do know an aspect I didn't think of?

(you shouldn't assume I ask stupid questions, because usually I don't)

Pretty much like WLAN. About 50 meters.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Aug 5 2010, 1:15 am by NudeRaider.

The entire point of a high end soundcard and a receiver is to push high quality speakers to their maximum potential (Anything wireless is usually expensive both because it is wireless and because it is high quality). This is usually what an audiophile is looking for. A cheap wireless speaker setup, especially at 5.1 would be near impossible.

Devo is definitely no audiophile. He just wanted to get rid of the cables.

I've talked to him and he dropped the idea because he'd still need cables to power the speakers which defeats the purpose of wireless for him.

Sound cards have actual hardware acceleration on them, usually in the form of some processor. Onboard usually uses the CPU to do this (which is software). The effect is noticeable in games like Oblivion when playing on a low (by current standards) end processor like my Athlon x2 4200+. Often times you will need to play:
background music x1
footsteps x10
attack sounds x10
battle cries x3
injuries x10
ambient sounds x2
As you can see, when fighting 10 enemies it gets pretty demanding pretty fast, such that a CPU handling all the visual data can't be bothered to handle the audio data. Workarounds include limiting the number of sounds that can be played, but that leads to attacks making no sound.

On top of the speed advantages, sound cards get to boast better audio quality, and probably pump out more power/better signal from the analog outputs. Most have digital and even optical now.

I'm going to get a sound card eventually when I have some disposable income from a salaried job, but the nice thing about sound cards nowadays is that they are all old tech, much like speakers and cases. If you buy one, you'll never have to buy another.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Aug 6 2010, 12:59 am by rockz.