[wirercx]

Hi there! I haven't been around here in a while, but a question has come up since I had last been here.

I used to have all those logitech computer speakers. They were nice at the time, but I finally decided that they weren't good enough. So, I had a few gift cards laying around for best buy and went out and bought myself a Yamaha home theater 5.1 kit. Came with a Yamaha HTR-6030 receiver and pretty good speakers/sub. Link: Yamaha - 600W 5.1-Ch. Home Theater System - YHT-390BL

But I have been looking around lately at some studio monitors and other stuff. I'm just wondering what the best solution is for a computer audio situation. I mostly listen to a lot of music, minimal gaming, movies here and there.. But I almost always have music playing. I want to get the most out of my computer audio.

Are studio monitors the best way to go? - They have caught my eye if you can't tell haha
If so, Do they need a separate subwoofer?
Do they need an amp?

Any other suggestions are greatly welcomed!
Thanks!
Wire

Also, I am using my optical-out on my motherboard to feed into my amp. Doesn't sound too bad considering it's optical. Should I invest in a better soundcard?

[Apokalipse]

I'm not that knowledgable about speakers in general, but studio monitors are supposed to be very good.

Originally Posted by wirercx

Also, I am using my optical-out on my motherboard to feed into my amp. Doesn't sound too bad considering it's optical. Should I invest in a better soundcard?

Well, the digital signal will always have to be converted into analogue at some point (because sound is an analogue wave), so you can't really compare analogue outputs with digital outputs.
Whether optical sounds better depends on whether your external DAC is of higher quality than the DAC that your internal sound card has.

If you're using the motherboard's onboard sound, then it wouldn't be hard to beat the DAC it uses (they tend to be cheap, and low-end or mediocre)
There are some internal sound cards that have quite good DAC's though.

If the external DAC is identical to the internal DAC, then the external DAC will probably sound better, due to the fact that the internal DAC will have interference from the rest of the components in the case (especially if you've got things like high-end video cards). Though if the internal card is shielded, it will not be so much of a problem (a lot of Asus's sound cards are)

[EricB]

I use studio monitors with an acoustic research sub

[Oreo]

Definitely get Studio Monitors - I have the Berhringer Truth series - i think there really very good, M-Audio - Tannoy, Genelec, Mackie, Adam, DynAudio all do amazing Monitors (there's one more thats good that ive forgot of..ricanflow will tell you what it is )

KRK are also supposed to be good, Many people love them, some don't.

In all honesty though all monitors will be better than them Yamaha speakers, you can't go wrong.

[EricB]

Originally Posted by Oreo

Definitely get Studio Monitors - I have the Berhringer Truth series - i think there really very good, M-Audio - Tannoy, Genelec, Mackie, Adam, DynAudio all do amazing Monitors (there's one more thats good that ive forgot of..ricanflow will tell you what it is )

KRK are also supposed to be good, Many people love them, some don't.

In all honesty though all monitors will be better than them Yamaha speakers, you can't go wrong.

I use have some krk 8 monitors on my kids computers. they were loud. they were so loud my neighbor bought them from me

[Oreo]

Event ! that's the other good brand

Yeh eric i should imagine the KRK 8's are loud... i only have 6 and 3 quater inch woofers on my behringers i think there 135watt per speaker (75w woofer 50w tweeter, not to sure) and heck they go amazingly loud and the amp limit light never turns on I would like to hear how much louder them KRK's are.