Where to begin?

I have an antiquated yet tenacious Dell Dimension 8300 w/ integrated sound, but I am soon to get a decent laptop. Where should I begin looking toward a versatile and reasonably priced sound system suiting either machine. It should preferably include tweeters, midranges, and a woofer considering many of my audio files are in FLAC ~1,400kbps.

After dedicating a reasonable amount of personal research and receiving recommendations via other tech forums and an electrical engineer scholar, there are substantial red flags indicating 2.1/5.1 PC designated audio systems ranging from $50-150--exempli gratia: Creative Labs, Klipsch, Logitech, & Sony--are inferior to more costly monitor/bookshelf systems. If this is further corroborated, it seems increasing my budget will reciprocate favorably. Thanks for your consideration.

 

To be honest, you are not going to get an audiophile quality system for $50 - $150, not one that's going to take advantage of FLAC files.

I would recommend that you have a look at getting an amp, preamp, DAC, and some bookshelves or floorstanding speakers. Unfortunately, they may be far out of the budget you are thinking of.

 

Thanks. Now I can confidently eliminate the option of inexpensive PC audio systems. Advancing toward monitor/bookshelf systems, it seems I will need assistance with kindling this research. Regarding monitor/bookshelf systems, I have been recommended to companies such as: Polk, PSB, KRK, and Swan. Regarding amps/DACs, I have been recommended to companies such as: M-Audio and NuForce.

 

I suggest that you take a look at some of the stuff at Head-Fi.org - Headphone forums and reviews for audiophiles, in the high end audio sub forum. There are also other forums which are able to give you better advice on high end audio as well. Seeing as this is a dedicated laptop and notebook forum, it's kind of difficult to find people who have good knowledge of audio.

I recommend that you REALLY do your research when buying expensive equipment like this. If possible, listen to speaker sets and other pieces in store, as what other people may love, you possibly won't.

I have heard good things about M-Audio amps, as for the speakers, I am pretty sure they are all reputable brands, you just need to find which type of sound you like best.

 

Unless you specify more precisely how you want to buy, there's not way anyone can help you without suggesting an overwhelming array of speakers, types and configurations--there are just too many alternatives to building a sound system at this point.

One of the best (and easiest) places to start is with a budget. That alone can considerably narrow the field that at this point, is quite extensive (speakers systems alone can cost anywhere from $50-50,000!)

The one thing that I can tell you for sure, is to plan to spend at least half your budget on the speakers. No matter how sophisticated and expensive the rest of the components are, the sound will never be as good as the final link. That being, your speakers.

 

I guess it depends on what you're after.

I maintain a FLAC library at home on my main audio system, which is transcoded to 256K MP3 for my iPhone/etc. I also have some purchased higher-bitrate files, and my living-room system does make the most of FLAC/better data.

However I suspect my budget is slightly higher than yours in terms of 'making the most of', so my current experiences are probably not relevant.

My best recommendation to get clean sound out of a PC is to look at professional audio cards/modules within your price range. e.g. the Focusrite Saffire 6 USB is a decent ~$200 entry-level audio interface. Then marry it up to a decent pair of powered monitors. At the entry budget end, there's options like the ~$150 M-Audio Studiophile AV 40 for example. The combo will give decent sound at a reasonable price. You may be able to extend your budget by buying used - e.g. recently discontinued, higher-end items for the same prices as above. Obviously you'll need to do some research yourself for that.

One other thing - There are considerations with USB: Many entry-level interfaces are designed with bus-powered operation in mind, and this results in some sonic compromises. This is one of the reasons I'd recommend a firewire module, but many modern machines now no longer ship with firewire. If your machine has firewire and you are at the ~$200 level in terms of a sound module budget, I'd recommend the T.C. Electronic Konnect 6.