Hi all. Newbie here. Can someone recommend me a set of 5.1 speakers with good bass and treble and clear sound? My budget is around RM400 or less. I will be using the speakers mostly for music listening, lots of classical, choral and rock like AC/DC and Metallica.

Saw a store in Subang selling Altec Lansing VS3251 (IIRC the series number correctly, definitely VS-something) speakers for RM365; would that be a good buy?

I forgot to mention, I will be using the system with my laptop-- Not sure if there are any special connectors required in this case? Usually just plug in the 3.5mm jack and good to go already right? Also, how much is the Edifier R501 market price? Because I tend to favour Altec Lansing sound more than most other brands, but reviews online about the Altec Lansing VS3251 seem to say it sounds better for games than for music listening. Is it?

Ok, since my laptop probably doesn't support 5.1 and I lazy to go find an external soundcard (also, extra cost = that I don't have), I decide to just massively upgrade my current 2.1 speakers (specs here: DENN D-102 admittedly ANYTHING is probably better than this...). So what would you all recommend for 2.1 speakers for music? Budget is RM400 and below (preferably below), and I listen to a wide variety of music-- classic rock (Metallica, AC/DC), punk, a cappella choir (Tallis Scholars), instrumentals, classical music, orchestra, operas etc. So again, am looking for speakers with clear, crisp sound, decent bass and treble. SQ trumps everything including looks. For me, the best speakers I have are Altec Lansing ATP3-- but I can't move it from the house desktop or will kena from the other users (dad). So is there any speaker out there nowadays with better sound than AL ATP3?

Am considering Edifier C3-- sound seems ok to my ears. I can even tell the difference between mp3 at different bit rates with it. Also, the guy in the audio store said that Edifier R501 sound quality not as good as Edifier C3? I dunno true or not since 2.1 would be kinda difficult to compare with 5.1? Comments, guys and girls?

This post has been edited by ArianneG: Oct 16 2009, 10:54 PM

My soundcard-- can't seem to see WHAT it actually is: Device Manager and the DXDIAG command only tells me it's SigmaTel High Definition Audio Codec; not very helpful. I want to know if it's integrated, but can't seem to find out: I suspect it's integrated.

For source file-- whenever possible I get high quality lossless files (FLAC + APE), or mp3 at minimum of 192 kbps (Only take 128 kbps IF there's no other option available) or OGG at quality 5 and above; but they're more or less all encoded in stereo, I think. So for me buying a 5.1 waste of money or not?

I see people commenting on S330 SQ may sound better than C3-- Power of the satellites on S330 definitely more than C3, I can see, but the subwoofer on S330 is smaller (6.5") vs C3 subwoofer driver (8")-- how does that work out?

This post has been edited by ArianneG: Oct 17 2009, 12:33 PM

Guys, what is a good soundcard to go with Edifier C3? I want to listen to music and get the best out of my C3 doing so but scared the integrated soundcard on my laptop isn't up to the job. Got any recs?

Thank you for this helpful post!