Improving my setup

[Supersloth]

Hey guys,

So I consider myself a huge fan of music and appreciate great quality sound systems. Problem is, I have next to know knowledge/experience in terms of audio equipment and its quality.

That's where you guys come in.

I'm looking to improve/remake my current hilariously ramshackle setup for anything up to about £300. That setup is:

£40 sony speakers. Can't link as its my first post...

These are plugged into an old 200w cd player (yes double the wattage of the speakers...) which is then fed through to my pc via an aux slot at the back. I have no sound card in the pc.

I would like to continue using the PC as my source of music as I only have 50 cds or so.

Question is, should I simply buy nice new speakers, or will a soundcard/new cd system improve the quality more? General ideas are good but specifics would be even better.

Thanks

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum!

It would help to know more about your PC, but my assumption is that the CD player input is being fed through sound processing on your motherboard (as opposed to being directly passed through to your speakers). If that's the case, then a soundcard will probably make a noticeable improvement. Integrated audio/video has improved a lot, so my experience may be too outdated - but I noticed a huge improvement in sound when I upgraded to a soundcard about ten years ago. Others here know more about modern integrated capabilities, so I'm just trying to get the ball rolling on your question.

So, unless I'm wrong, I'd look into getting a soundcard. Also, does your PC have a CD drive? If so, you could use that or (probably even better) rip the CDs to a hard drive and play them from there (much quieter than having a CD drive spinning).

There are also some nice powered speakers that you can get for a PC or home stereo system. Others here know more about them, but I think that you could get some nice powered speakers, a sound card, and a CD drive for under £300.

 

[bikemig]

Most of the posters on this site are based in N. America. If you want a simple set up, you could do worse than the Denon M39: Denon RCD-M39DAB Micro CD Receiver System with Q: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

You get a CD player, a DAB tuner, a digital input, and a USB input for an iPod plus speakers; that's a lot of functionality at your price point. You'd want a soundcard with a digital output to connect to the digital input on the Denon CD receiver or you could simply get this AE express and play your music wirelessly connecting the AE express to the receiver with a mini toslink to toslink cable: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-MC414B-A-AirPort-Express/dp/B008BEYP26/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1353877201&sr=1-1

 

[Supersloth]

Thanks for the replies

I have a cheapo motherboard so yeah sounds like a soundcard is a good start. I use the cd drive on my pc for cd's as well as playing flac/mp3, thats all fine and dandy.

The Denon looks good. If you don't mind responding, is it significantly better than a similar set of speakers for £150 - £200? my budget is about 300 but obviously if the difference isn't too much i wouldn't mind paying less