Che Guevara Wrote:What I'm really trying to avoid is wasting money on one component because the system bottlenecks it. But lets say you had $300 to buy a soundcard, subwoofer, two speakers and an amplifier that had at least 2 inputs. What would you buy?
$300 is barely enough to buy the absolute cheapest equipment in existence for all of that. You're talking about buying an entire 2.1 audio setup including the amp and audio card. For that budget I would seriously consider looking at used equipment on ebay. I've actually gotten all my equipment through ebay so far because I'm so poor....
I also think you should bump that up to $400. $100 for the audio card, $100 for the subwoofer, $200 for a pair of active speakers. Hell I would recommend spending at least $300 for a good pair of active speakers actually but I guess you can't afford that. You might also consider dropping the sub from your setup. For $100 you really can't get anything but a low end sub (which tend to produce very muddy bass that I don't like) even used. I would prefer reinvesting that money into better speakers/amp but it's up to you.
I paid $600 for my entire 5.1 setup including a/v receiver used on ebay and it was a steal at that price (about half of what I would have paid to get all the parts new). And that's for minimalist parts. Yeah, home theater setups are expensive. No wonder so few people have them even though they're amazing.
"Normally if given a choice between doing something and nothing, I’d choose to do nothing. But I would do something if it helps someone else do nothing. I’d work all night if it meant nothing got done."
-Ron Swanson
"I shall be a good politician, even if it kills me. Or if it kills anyone else for that matter. "
-Mark Antony
-Ron Swanson
"I shall be a good politician, even if it kills me. Or if it kills anyone else for that matter. "
-Mark Antony