Distec

http://www.klipsch.com/ubb/Forum13/HTML/000656.html http://www.klipsch.com/ubb/Forum13/HTML/000603.html

Just went to home depot and picked up 50' of 16 gauge wire($7.99), and connected 1/8" mono plugs($2.19) each to it. All i can say is WOW, what a difference. Most of the midrange coloration has gone away, and everything is MUCH clearer. It's like buying a brand new set of speakers. Definately worth the time and ~$15 I paid for it. I suggest anyone who wants better sound to upgrade their speaker wire. It definately DOES make a difference. Edit - Meant 1/8" mono plugs

all you need is two of these and you're all set. Creative sells them for $10 each at http://www.soundblaster.com/accessories/cables/ , although i'm sure you can find it cheaper at radio shack.

What is your budget? By the sound of your equipment, you seem to have pretty expensive equipment. Why not go all out and spend a grand on a nice home theater setup? NHT, Energy, Paradigm, etc have some nice 5.1 packages that could easily trounce the promedias. Of course, if you don't have that much, it's certainly possible to set up a 4.1 promedia system. All you need is a 4 channel sound card(such as an sblive/aureal) and a program such as WinDVD/Power DVD, and you're set. Granted, you won't have a center channel, but it's not really necessary in a small room.

quote: Do you realise you just bought the best sound system in the universe for computers and that you will buy the cheapest sound card? I would say best budget "multimedia" system, not best sound system...

http://www.excitestores.com/emerald/ipage?SID=30452;type=products;template=prod-page_sc.pgt;numbers=727 - Says 4.1 and msrp of $300, although they look exactly the same as the v.200. Maybe the webguy got confused....

If i recall correctly, the 2.1 sub only has one 6.5" driver, while the v.2-400 has two 6.5" drivers. That would mean much mroe output from the v.2-400s...

It really depends on how much money you want to spend. If you want to go the "multimedia" speaker route, you'll probably want to get a 5.1 cambridge set and sblive 5.1, totally near $500. If you don't mind speading $1000+ for the theater, then look at some nice bookshelf speakers and a sub. Companies such as PSB, Paradigm, NHT, HTD, Energy, Norh etc(but NOT bose) offer some great bookshelf speakers for the price. You'll also need a quality reciever and a decoder card to go with them, but you won't need to get a sblive. quote: Should I get a DVD player with software or hardware decoding? My old Dell XPS T500 has a software DVD player and it plays movies just fine so I don't know what hardware decoding will get me. A hardware decoder is separate from the dvd player(it goes into a pci slot), and works with any dvd player. You only need a hardware decoder if your cpu sucks(which isn't the case for you), or you want to output sound and video to a reciever. Check out www.hometheaterforum.com and www.avsforum.com if you need some advise on setting up a computer home theater.

quote: I do not know where he get's this from. I went from Boston Accoustics to the Pro Media and the PM kills the BA in all comparisons. In my tests that also included Billie Holliday. Also Nancy Wilson and Diana Krall. I think the Pro Media has an excellent midrange reproduction even after I listen to my Mirage M1's. If they ever make a 5.1 set up I may upgrade, but until then I will stay with the 400. Don't forget, sound is very subjective(to an extent at least). Just because you like how music sounds doesn't mean another will like it. Personally, I find the promedias are very inaccurate for critical music listening. Granted, they are only $250, but there are cheaper, more neutral sounding speakers, although they will probably lack the bass of the pros. I plan on selling my set of pro's and getting some bookshelf speakers. This is already out of the league of "multi-media" speakers, so they promedias can't really compare.

Also, do NOT hook up the atoms to the promedias. The amp was specifically designed for the pros, and its possible that you can harm the atoms. Your best bet would be to pick up a cheap/used 4/5 channel amp and not play them too loudly(you'll know when you don't have enough power; they'll start clipping), and then buy a more expensive one later that will meet the proper power requirements.

Don't forget, it's not just pure db you want to look for, its also the quality of sound that plays a factor. For example, BOSE has products that can play extremely loud on very small drivers, however they sound like crap(and are fairly expensive). Speakers are not like computer parts; you don't buy them based on specs. You should buy them based on how they sound to you, and how much you are willing to pay for them. You should always listen to speakers before buying them, or at least have an option to return if you don't like them if you can't. On a side note, most speakers will play near reference level without distorting, assuming they are powered properly. IMO, four paradigm atoms will sound much better then the promedias musically, although you will still need to add a sub if you want some bass. Of course, some people prefer other speakers companies such NHT, PSB, HTD, Energy, etc, which also produce similiar speakers, and also have slighty different acoustics. Norh is also getting some good reviews with their unconventional speaker designs. However, they are a mail-order only company, so you wouldn't be able to listen to them before buying. But, like the promedias, you can return them within a certain amount of time if you don't like them. Just remember that speakers are very subjective, and you shouldn't buy them based solely on reviews/specs. What sound good to someone else may not sound god to you. Some people prefer the klipsch sound, while others hate it.

quote: I've had these speakers for a year about now and I'm finally starting to get a little more critical. There is no debate that these are a steal at the $250 price point but eventually the upgrade bug bites. I want use some HTD Level Threes, or maybe Paradigm Titans on the front channels. They would be powered by the sub. Only problem is the midrange. It's virtually non-existent when i hook different speakers other then pro's to them. Has anyone tried replacing or modifying the crossover in the pro's??? It would be great to give the pro's a little more midrange but also be able to use the integrated amp for my new set of speakers. Thanks Hooking up any non-promedia speakers to the sub is a big No-No. The amp in the promedia sub is specifically designed to be used with the promedia satellites, and I would highly discourage plugging anything else in there. You will need to use a separate amp for any standalone speakers. If you plan on upgrading to new speakers, then I don't see why you would want to use promedias. The promedia sub is a poor match for anything besides the pro satelites, considering the high 250hz crossover. The crossover for the titans and HTDs is around 60hz-70hz, which is a considerable amount of overlapping, if coupled with the pro sub. You could try using an external EQ, but for the price of a decent EQ you could buy a new sub. My suggestion would be to get some nice canadian satellites(paradigm, NHT, PSB, although you should listen to any speakers you would consider buying), a decent sub(such as the Sony SA-WM40) and a reciever, and you'll be on track to a new home theater hobby. These components will cost more than $500 for a "beginners" setup, but then again the HT hobby is very expensive =Þ

?Enigmus? - It depends on what you want to use it for. If its just for casual listening and gaming, then they're really isn't any reason to spend more money. However, if you want to set up a PC home theater, its certainly possible. You obviously wouldn't spend $5k on it, but a $500-$1000 is definitely plausible if you spend most of your time on the computer. Check out the Home Theater PC Area at http://www.hometheaterforum.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi for some ideas about this. Since most higher-end speakers don't use mini-jack inputs, you would need to do some converting(or get a Live!Drive). You may also need an amplifier to power the speakers. The sub I mentioned has an internal amplifier, although I'm not sure about the speakers. It's not as easy as setting up the promedias, but the added quality is worth it. Marauder - I would definitely suggest demoing better speakers to see what is out there. Bose is considered very low quality for the price by most audiophiles. Expand you horizon instead of blindly accepting what you have. The promedias are a great deal for the price, and are great speakers compared to other multimedias speakers, and some more expensive ones that are cheaply built. I'm not argeueing about that. My point is that the promedias are NOT worth twice their price, as many rave reviewers claim.

The reason why there is no midrange is because of the small 3" driver. All multimedia speakers have this problem, not just the promedias. You pretty much need 5"+ midrange drivers to get good midrange, which would probably make the promedias cost MUCH more. I've had the promedias for almost a year now, and I've noticed this problem after my initial run down. Unfortunately, my room has hardwood floors and sheetrock walls, which really screws up the frequency response. The highs and lows are amplified even more, with no midrange. They sound awful in my room, while they sound decent if I put them in a normal room (i.e. carpeted floors, cheap walls). Of course, my dissatisfaction has led to look for something better. I now hang out at www.hometheaterforum.com where they discuss "real" speakers. It's interesting looking at what others use in their homes, and gives you a new perspective, even though you may not be able to afford anything yet. Not to say that the promedias are bad; they are aimed at the budget computer market, not at high-end audiophiles. For $250, they do put out pretty good sound for games, and are very easy to set up. However, they do not compare to good $500+ speaker setups, as many rave reviewers claim. For example, you can get 4 Paradigm Atoms ( http://www.audioreview.com/reviews/Speaker/product_8134.shtml ) and a Sony SA-WM40 ( http://www.audioreview.com/reviews/Subwoofer/product_48108.shtml ) for ~$500, which would totally blow away the promedias. There are many other great combos such as this one, which many people don't even know about. That's why I wonder why people here would even consider the crossfires, when you can get much better for the same price. The advantage of the promedias is the price point, which is what makes them competitive. I'm sure if the pros were $100 more, they wouldn't get nearly as many sales as they get now.

tekk, I have no idea where u get the notion that busmastering isn't unabled in win98 because it says "fifo", and that dma and udma are totally different things. Please, provide some real proof of this. Show me some websites that prove your point. I have been working with computers for over 5 years now, and know these systems inside out. What you are telling me goes against what I have learned for myself over the years. As for FiFo being an advanced version of bus mastering, I meant to say that bus mastering is an advanced form of FiFo. They are both ways of moving data over the bus, the same with dma.

FIFO is an acronym which stands for first in, first out, which is a technology based on busmaster. You can say its a more advanced version of it, since it uses DMA(direct memory access). Of course, windows 95/98 doesn't automatically enable DMA with any of the drives; you have to enable it yourself. You do get a substantial performance increase when enabling DMA. It is still considered busmastering though.

The only problem with these additional features is that they have to be programmed for. Very few games actually incorporate these features, which makes them fairly useless. I believe the GF2 has enviromental bump mapping, although I'm not 100% sure.

As I said before, bus master drivers are motherboard specific. However, these drivers will run in both windows 95 and 98(and NT I believe). Without these drivers, windows runs in ms-dos compatibility mode, which obviously kills performance. Of course, windows will usually install basic bus master drivers, which are slow, but much better than ms-dos compatibility mode. The Geforce was the first card to come out with T&L. The G400 came out a few months before the geforce. The next generation card, the G800, should have T&L, but the g400 does not. Matrox' website does not advertise its T&L, and I doubt you could find any evidence that shows the G400 with T&L. I haven't experienced any problems with install shield conflicting with DX7. When was the last time you formatted your hard drive? I find that windows will start randomly crashing and going extremely slow after 4-6 months of use, and a reformat is usually needed. I would never think of running windows for more than 6 months without reformatting. The Piix4 works perfectly on my computer. I don't see how the earlier versions can be any faster than the later ones. It may not install because your motherboard may be too old, or might not be using a BX/LX chipset. This is what version I'm using: If you could tell me the specs on your computer, it would be helpful...

IMO, intel BX chipset has been the most stable I have encountered. Athlon motherboards have had some problems(especially with power). However, why would you get a KX chipset mobo when AMD is switching to KT? I would say the Asus A7V or the Abit KT7 would be better choices(especially for raid). The monitor looks nice, although i still drool over a 21" Trinitron =Þ First of all, the g400 does NOT have T&L(not that games use it anyways). The rest of the features you mentioned aren't used either, so it doesn't make sense buying the card just for these unused features. Secondly, the v3 drivers are probably the most stable out of the bunch(excluding 3500). You can get the voodoo3 2k for around $80, which is excellent considering you can get it with PCI and it performs just as well as the G400. Nvidia reference drivers are pretty damn stable, and I haven't had any problems with them at all. Of course, if you are using beta drivers, I seriously doubt you will get any stability. For the best price/performance, and would say the Geforce MX wins it. It also has optional dual head(like the G400), with geforce DDR performance for around $120. I had the sb64 about two years ago, and dumped it for the MX300. The sb64 just doesn't have the features cards have now, such as 3d sound, multi-channel sound, EQ, etc. The MX300 has been very stable for me with the latest reference drivers. Netgear makes good NICs, and the 3COM 905 series is great also. I don't know why anyone would choose rambus. $400 for 128mb for negligible performance gain isn't worth it. Not to mention you can't use Rambus on Athlon motherboards =Þ Busmastering drivers are platform specific. Drivers that work on the BX won't work on apollo, etc. Busmastering drivers are used on all versions on Windows. I have not heard or seen any evidence of the 50% increase in speed using busmastering drivers in win95, and frankly it doesn't made sense to me. There is no reason why later versions wouldn't support this(since win95 drivers work in win98), and it doesn't make sense to slow down access time. If you can show some evidence for this, I would be interested in it. My system has been rock stable. Here are the specs on my system: Celeron II 566mhz @ 850mhz Abit BX6 rev 2 192mb Generic PC SDRAM Voodoo3 2000 (overclocked to 166mhz) Diamond MX300 USR 56k modem Standard case with 250watt PS Maxtor 18.2 GB HD and Quantum 9.1GB HD(have had lots of problems with the Quantum; its sitting in my drawer at the moment) Pioneer 10X DVD and Aopen 40X CDROM The only crashes I get are from program bugs(such as from diablo2). I can leave my computer on for weeks without crashing it using win98 SE(months using Linux).

The IBM Thinkpads are pretty much the best ones out there. Nearly every labtop comparison review on the net says the same thing. All the other labtops are unstable or breakdown a lot. Too bad the thinkpads don't have a touchpad, although touchpads aren't really that great either.

The Geforce 2 GTS Ultra was just announced. www.tomshardware.com benchmarked it, and it was nearly twice as fast as the voodoo5 5500 at high resultions. I think this card will even give the voodoo5 6000 a run for its money. The downside is that it costs $500