Hi guys, long time no chat 😀

I am finally getting back to wrapping up my 98SE/2k setup and am having second thoughts about the audio situation.

Although I have both an SB Live Audigy 2 and an Aureal Vortex 2, I decided the Vortex 2 made the most sense because I have a handful of DOS games that I'd like to make use of the SB16 emulation it offers, where funnily enough the SB card does not.

I'd purchased a great condition set of Klipsch Promedia 5.1 speakers for use with the Audigy but since I have opted for the Vortex, those actually are set up on my new dedicated gaming rig instead (they really do sound quite good given the satellite size - even all these years later), and for the time being have a quad speaker set of Altec Lansing speakers with included little subwoofer. These also sound 'fine' (I picked up the 2.1 version for $10 as well to have some spare stereo speakers on hand) but I've been a lot more into high-end audio over the last 5+ years and these Altec Lansing speakers don't produce very high frequencies - confirmed by their specs.

Despite being on the low edge of middle aged now, my hearing is actually still really good - I can still hear about up to 20khz, and these Altec sets seem to cut off around 15khz so they just don't sound crisp compared to setups which can do 20khz.

Digressing a bit - my other 2 setups here with modern PCs consist of a pair of HSU bookshelf speakers powered by a Klipsch Powergate stereo DAC/amp and sharing the home theater 15" HSU subwoofer (Toslink from PC to amp), and on the Razer laptop I gave in and bought their Nommo Pro 2.1 speaker set based on reviews and size (yes I am mildly ashamed but they do sound pretty great after toning down the bass from default).

With that all in mind - my question for you all is basically regarding end-game speaker setup for the retro PC. I know that surround audio is great for feeling more "in the game" in supported titles and with the SB Audigy you get EAX and 5.1, vs Aureal's 4 channel sound but jumping back and forth between these much nicer speakers and the 4 speaker (4.1 ish I guess since it has the built in sub) on the retro PC, my ears are angry with the muddiness on the retro rig.

If the audio goal is to have the best/clearest reproduction I can afford on this retro PC (not to use period-correct or even retro-ish speakers), what would be the ultimate audio set up for it? I am not aware of any 4-channel amplifiers, especially with a subwoofer output (would need to do some sound processing to reroute lows to sub), the 5.1 AV receivers I've seen that still have multi channel analog inputs don't seem to be able to do this processing either so 4 channel input = 4 channel output only, and I don't see any high-end 4 channel PC speaker sets these days.

This is making me wonder if perhaps just a really good stereo setup (like the HSU bookshelves + sub on my main rig) would be the best overall?

Thoughts?