Heres a non-computerrelated question. But hopefully someone here would be able to advise me if these are a good set of speakers?

Heres the specs:
* Total RMS power: 505 watts RMS
o Satellites: 317 watts RMS (2 x 62 W front, 2 x 62 rear, 69 W center)
o Subwoofer: 188 watts RMS
* Total Peak power: 1010 watts
* Maximum SPL: >115 dB
* Frequency response: 33 Hz — 20 kHz
* Amplifier: Ultra-linear, high-capacity analog
* Signal to noise ratio: >93.5 dB, typical 100
* Input impedance: 8,000 ohms
* Drivers:
o Satellites: 3” polished aluminum phase plug drivers
o Subwoofer: 10” high-excursion ported driver with 6th order bass reflex enclosure
* Surround sound effects
o Hardware decoding for Dolby® Digital, DTS®, and DTS®, 96/24 soundtracks
o Dolby Pro Logic II (Movie and Music modes)
o 6 Channel Direct
o Stereo x2
o Stereo
* Supported digital formats:
o Dolby Digital
o DTS and DTS 96/24
o PCM (uncompressed stereo): 44.1 kHz / 16 bit through 96 kHz / 24 bit
* Source Inputs
o Digital optical for DVD or CD players, PlayStation®2, Xbox®**
o Digital coaxial for DVD or CD players or PC sound cards (requires coaxial cable, sold separately)
o 6 channel direct (3 stereo-mini connectors) for 2, 4, or 6 channel PC sound cards OR
o 6 channel direct (3 stereo-mini connectors) for 3 stereo analog mini audio sources, like CD and DVD players, Playstation 2, Xbox, or 2 channel PC sound cards (some devices may require stereo mini to dual RCA adapter, sold separately)
o Analog stereo-mini (on side panel of control center) for portable CD, MP3,or MiniDisc® players



I hope that someone can advise me if these are decent, and if not, recommend a good set of surround speakers.

Oh, and in case you didn't notice, i don't know alot about audio stuff.

Thanks in advance for any help.

When shopping for speakers, I pay attention to RMS wattage, price, design, and reviews. Reviews of speakers are always the deciding factor, because they can have the best tech specs in the world and still sound horrible! The reviews of that set of speakers on Newegg is rock-solid. 5-star ratings are all over the place, with a few 4-star ratings by those nit-pickers. ;)

Pretty expensive speakers, though, so you'd better have a good sound card to plug them into, and you'd better have very forgiving neighbors! 505W RMS!? :eek: Wow! Don't turn the volume all the way up or you'll go deaf!

Creative Labs Audigy2 ZS PCMCIA lol.
Thanks for the advice!

The difficult thing for speakers to reproduce has always been the low frequencies.
These claim to go down as low as 33 Hz [20 Hz is the (almost impossible to achieve) ideal I believe].
You have pretty good hearing if you can hear 18 kHz. Only the lucky few can hear 20 kHz.
To really judge them they need to show you the results of a test of output volume for equal input power over the whole frequency range. It shoud be almost flat [equally load at all frequencies]. Usually they tend to tail off badly at the high [modern designs combat this quite effectively I believe] and even worse at the low end [still nearly impossible to combat].
Way back, speaker designs that made a serious attempt to go that low [without being highly inefficient and using huge amounts of power to do it] were HUUUUUGE in size.
To try to make speaker cabinets smaller and still reach the lower frequencies they had to become more inefficient. That's why those speakers use so much power input. The power output in the form of sound may not be so great considering the input, but they're doing quite well according to the figures.
A sound level of 65 dB was always considered loud. They're claiming 115 dB. That should be enough to cause "Temporary Threshold Shift" at the least and permanent deafness if not careful. [Nor sure what SPL means.]
Signal to noise ratio: >93.5 dB needs to be "greater than" [ the > symbol] 65 dB. That's the amount by which the useful sound exceeds the useless noise. When the sound is much louder than the noise, the noise cannot be heard, even though it exists in the background. It is "sub-liminal", which means it's below the limit of that which can be percieved.
A 10 inch bass speaker is not bad at all. Serious stuff.
And built into a bass-reflex cabinet. This means that the sound coming from the back of the speaker [which is 180 degress "out of phase" (when the front is making a compression wave, the back is making a rarefaction)] is not wasted by being deliberately damped or absorbed, but is used by being reflected [the "reflex" part]. Especially the bass frequencies. Bass-reflex cabinets have historically been used as a means of boosting the output of lower frequencies where they naturally tend to tail off.
I have two of those I made in the 70's. They only have 8 inch speakers. I made other cabinets with 12 inch speakers, but they were just plain "baffles". [Don't know what "6th order" means.]

Ye Gads! More info than I expected, thanks for all the info! I'm getting them in a few days.

Geez, Sylvander! You've been holding out on us! :D Very impressive info. I shall have to try and remember all that... :eek:

I used to be really into speakers/microphones, hi-fi and sound recording.
Forgotten most of what I knew, but the basics remain.
My son does it now.
See his bands' new website here www.redbeesociety.co.uk/
They are still in the process of building the site.
They've recorded all the songs for their 1st full CD and a member of "Teenage Fan Club" is busy mixing it at the moment.
He's in Boston as I write this, for his friends' stag weekend.
These young folks certainly get about these days! :D