dfn

ok thank you for the advice! I will continue by concentrating on used speakers only, for now, so that I can compare. Then I guess later I'll look at receivers and subs.

Thanks for the response! Taking your advice, I started looking for used speakers and found the following: 4 Paradigm speakers PSB Alpha's & PSB Alpha Mite's PSB Surround Sound Speaker Package How can I tell what is a better deal, really? I don't know much about speakers, so the price-speaker pairings above mean very little to me. Note that I might not be buying the above, but they are just examples. I may not want the entire package they are offering or I may ask to buy separately. At any rate, the above are examples more than anything else - I have not made a firm decision. The only thing that seems certain is that I'll want passive speakers + receiver.

Hi, First post here, and I am a newbie at this stuff, so bear with me... My current setup is just sennheiser 555hd headphones plugged into onboard sound on my mobo. I plan on buying the Forte sound card and want a 5.1 speaker setup that I can use with computer and xb360. Hopefully the forte is a good choice for my headset and whatever speakers I decide to get. What I will use the system for, in order of preference and frequency: 1) gaming 2) music 3) movies My budget is $500 (CDN). And now, my many questions... Should I be looking to "mix and match" 5 speakers and a sub? Or should I buy one package that has it all? If I go passive, then my assumption is I need a receiver since the speakers won't be powered? If I go active, then I don't need receiver, correct? If I buy something like Audioengine A2 speakers, then I'd need the rest of the system to be active/powered as well, and I'd need some way of switching between computer/xb360? My assumption is that it would be better, for me, to buy passive speakers with a receiver so that I can switch between comp and xb360 easily, and potentially hook up other stuff to the receiver in the future. Is this correct? Do I need to worry about magnetic shielding with the speakers? If I have center + front speakers close to monitor? I would appreciate any advice you have, and suggestions/recommendations on what speakers/sub and maybe receiver to buy, for my purposes described above. Thank you PS -- sorry if this is in the wrong forum, but because it didn't deal with speakers alone, I posted here..