I am about to buy speakers for my new computer, which has an Audigy 2 Soundblaster card. My main audio use will be playing music downloaded from the internet, or playing CDs. I am not a gamer, and will only rarely watch movies on my computer (and DVD-Audio disks seem rare). Is it worthwhile getting a 5.1 speaker system, or is a 2.1 just as good for music. Is there any sound improvement on downloaded music from using a 5.1 system vs. a 2.1 system?
You can get great sound from a decent three piece speaker system, and to me personally, most computer 5.1 systems seems more gimmicky then anything else. Unless you were going to set all the speakers up all around you I would just stick with the three piece, especially since you won't be listening to any multi-channel material.