Last year I upgraded my PC's sound from the onboard to a SB X-Fi Xtreme PCI-E.My sound system remained unchanged at a scruffy set of 12 year old 5.1 Genius speakers plus a Dell soundbar for the two front speakers. I also wired my Sherwood stereo amp through to the SB input plug so I can listen to radio, play records, cassette tapes or CDs through the PC (and record from those media to MP3). In a moment of insanity I bought a Pyle PT798SBA 7.1 system off eBay and added a 220v to 110v transformer from Trademe. The Pyle receiver includes a 10" sub. The whole thing including the transformer cost just over $300NZ as shipping for the 21kg parcel was only $22US on top of $167US for the system. At the price it was a reasonable chance to take as the loss would be small if something went wrong.Something did. The Pyle amp is now distorting badly on two channels and the balance control turns off the left speakers completely as soon as I touch it. Not worth shipping back to the US as the cost via NZPost would be around $400. A bit of Googling has shown that the Pyle system is not worth taking to a tech here as the consistent description is 'a steaming Pyle of s..t'.Now that I have 7 reasonable quality speakers and nothing to drive them I am trying to sort out what amp and sub to buy locally. A tuner is not needed as my component stereo system has a good Pioneer that feeds to the SB card via the Sherwood amp. I would appreciate any advice on what would be a suitable locally available amp and sub to enable me to get 7.1 running again off my PC at a decent quality. The 5.1 and soundbar had been moved to my workshop PC and that now has no sound as it's old speakers were relics that I dumped. I really notice the poor sound from the Genius now that it is back on this PC.Budget is $1000 NZ for amp and sub or preferably a combo unit with built in sub as space is limited on my desk. I considered 5.1 but having experienced 7.1 it would be a poor substituteThanksPC Specs (home built)Gigabyte 970A-D3 mobo, AMD FX8320 CPU, Asus EAH6870 video, 16Gb DDR3/2133, Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme PCI-E souncard, 240Gb Kingston SSD boot drive, 7Tb of other drives, Asus BD writer. Three monitors, 24" Dell, 21.6" HP and 19" Viewsonic.
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