I went to a party last weekend and the guy there had his laptop hooked up to some kind of box thing with all these controls on it. It was connected to his headphone jack by a rca jack that had about 4 plugs on one end. He then had 2 massive speakers hooked up to this box. It was high quality booming sound I want a setup like this to hear my games boom but dont want to spend $200 on 5.1 computer speakers I want what he had becuase it's better and multipurpose what was his box thing? an amp? how much would one cost? any recomendations on one do they make these box things to work with spdif outs? because my abit nf7-s has an spdif out on it's onboard sound seriously I dont know where to post this thanks for your time everyone common sense isn't very common

Heh... I want to do the same thing.... But it is going to cost alot more than buying a good set of PC speakers. Its about $260 to $300(AU) for top of the line PC speakers. But it is about $450(AU) for a bottom of the line Amp (or AV reciver, Reciver, whatever you want to call it.) and then you have to get cords which will cost $8 for cheap crappy ones, then you have to set your self up with some speakers which can also cost you a bundle. But even with a bottom of the line Amp and average speakers I think you will still get superior sound to any PC speakers. Lucky I have been given a pair of reasonable speakers, a sub woofer and found the cables lying around the house which makes things cheaper. But for the moment my Logitech Soundman S-20 speakers are doing ok for my growing music collection..... What was the question again? LOL ; P Heh sorry for the mile long post, I just love my music. Mattwizz3 : ) AMD K-7 600MHz & Asus K7v 256Mb SDRAM 80Gb WDC, 8Mb Buffer 128Mb ASUS Radeon A9550 Cyber Drive CD-RW DVD Combo

Hi sounds like the party dj is using a graphic equaliser, simple trick of getting better sound out of stereo input to amp'd speakers. ask any 70 's metalhead how to do it. and yes it blows most 5.1 away except for eax/ thx effects :D i dont know where you can buy a modern day equivalent except from a car mod shop http://www.electronixwarehouse.com/car/accessories/equalizers.htm

cool, thanks guys im at school right now but ill post back when i get home I think ill just get a cheap amp at goodwill or a garage sale just to try it out are amps and recievers the same thing? whats the difference? will a sucky amp make my sound sound as crappy as the amp is? common sense isn't very common

amps are old.. recievers are new... but they do the same thing..mostly.. amps used to have just a few inputs and outputs and volume.. now recievers have multiple hookups and outputs for cd, dvd, tape, you name it there is a hookup for it ... but... you can still do it cheaply... probably for less than 200.00.. there are some cheap recievers that may have 2 or 3 inputs and 4 speaker outputs out there, u just have to find them.. good luck at goodwill I doubt you will find anything quality.. I have a friend that had a reciever he bought from radio shack for about 150.00 a few years back. brand was optimum.. something like that .. and it still works like a charm... if you have a store around you called rex audio go there.. they have good quality stuff and you can bicker the prices down with them..I got a jvc reciever there over 5 years ago and I still use it to this day.. paid about 170.00 for it and if you could find the same one it still would sell for about 150.00... they have great speakers there too.. also.. check out thoes rent to own places for stuff... they have massive speakers for pretty cheap.... good luck.. Shuttle AN35N-Ultra AMD 2000+ 1gb 2100ddr Gainward Gforce 5600 Ultra 128ddr 120GB of 7200 HD space UV Clear Acrylic Blue case AXIO Aluminum 600watt PSU Leadtek Winfast Tv2000xp

A receiver is a multifunction device that contains an Amp, Tuners, A/V controls, Inputs for playback decks, Etc.

oh yea I have an awsome 5.1 surround sound speaker set I want to sell.. it's the logitech Z640's if anyone is interested.. I used them for about 5 min... they sound great. Shuttle AN35N-Ultra AMD 2000+ 1gb 2100ddr Gainward Gforce 5600 Ultra 128ddr 120GB of 7200 HD space UV Clear Acrylic Blue case AXIO Aluminum 600watt PSU Leadtek Winfast Tv2000xp