Logitech Z-5500 Digital Soundroom

[DanishDevil]

Set aside 5-6hrs for setup and some listening when you open the box. Trust me. Once you start listening, you won't stop

 

[Mussels]

well what suggestions (not music) do people have? any games or movies in particular? (apart from the aforementioned matrix, i own those on DVD so i can use them)

 

[DanishDevil]

The original Jurassic Park is epic with these speakers. Any episodes of Band of Brothers or something like Saving Private Ryan or Black Hawk Down would scare you half to death.

Just think epic sound. Any war action movie, anything like 300, Lord of the Rings would probably sound amazing on these as well...

 

[asb2106]

weeeeelll.... i do have some MP3's that might like dolby upmixing. have some anime (gundam 00, appleseed) in 5.1 as well, they might turn out shiny

I think you might be underestimating the power of the upmixing that the z5500 can do. I dont bother with 5.1 audio anymore because the z5500 does such a great job of the placement of audio its amazing. A 30 seconds from mars sound that I love has some speaker effects that position the audio around you and it sounds crystal clear from a 128kbs rip I did 2 years ago. I have great confidence in the abilities of the 5500, so much!!

 

[FatForester]

I think you might be underestimating the power of the upmixing that the z5500 can do. I dont bother with 5.1 audio anymore because the z5500 does such a great job of the placement of audio its amazing. A 30 seconds from mars sound that I love has some speaker effects that position the audio around you and it sounds crystal clear from a 128kbs rip I did 2 years ago. I have great confidence in the abilities of the 5500, so much!!

128kbps??? You need to change that! If you think that 128 CBR's sound good, you need to re-rip into VBR V0-V2. I use Mediamonkey w/ the lame_enc.dll or EAC if I'm feeling REALLY crazy. The difference in quality is amazing!

 

[asb2106]

128kbps??? You need to change that! If you think that 128 CBR's sound good, you need to re-rip into VBR V0-V2. I use Mediamonkey w/ the lame_enc.dll or EAC if I'm feeling REALLY crazy. The difference in quality is amazing!

well, like I said, that was 2 years ago. I rip my media now in the WMA loseless codec.

Im gonna look into your suggestion though. That sounds like I sound be doing that!!

 

[Mussels]

most of my MP3's are in the 128-320 range. doesnt help that i didnt rip most of it.

I'll try the upmixing, as the 'mixing' on my 540's is nasty (all it seems to do is add an echoey warbley version of the front speakers to the rears, its not even 2x stereo, its rather distorted)

 

[DanishDevil]

I'm on Dolby Digital (DD ) all the time, and it sounds great.

 

[Mussels]

I'm on Dolby Digital (DD ) all the time, and it sounds great.

how does that work with the x-fi? you cant encode, so you just watch movies only?

(i have never used Z-5500's, so if you're speaking of some mode on it, i have no idea)

 

[DanishDevil]

I honestly haven't used the X-Fi with it. No reason to. You're not gonna use DD with the X-Fi. You're gonna let the X-Fi decode and do 6ch Direct.

For every input, you can select the mode. For digital, you can do stereo, stereox2, DD PLII Movie, and DD PLII Music. For analog, same ones, but if you're using the 6ch direct option, it will bypass any decoding by the pod, and give you what your sound card is putting out.

Hope that helps!

 

[asb2106]

I'm on Dolby Digital (DD ) all the time, and it sounds great.

me too! I use music and movie, depending on how Im feeling that day. And alot of my music is 128 - 192 also, ripped from others, and it does sound great on the DD settings. I like to use the stereo x2 when Im cleaning or doing stuff around the house. Its louder, but it doesnt have the "effect".

 

[Mussels]

I honestly haven't used the X-Fi with it. No reason to. You're not gonna use DD with the X-Fi. You're gonna let the X-Fi decode and do 6ch Direct.

For every input, you can select the mode. For digital, you can do stereo, stereox2, DD PLII Movie, and DD PLII Music. For analog, same ones, but if you're using the 6ch direct option, it will bypass any decoding by the pod, and give you what your sound card is putting out.

Hope that helps!

saw the x-fi in your specs, i guess its on another rig then.

I WILL be running through the auzens encoder, but having the stereo x2 and DD PLII music sounds like a good thing

 

[gerrynicol]

Im getting a bit confused here, I thought that (on optical) the DD movie/music 2 was just upmixing, and only when you play a DD signal(i.e movie) it will play true surround. Am I missing something??

 

[twicksisted]

Im getting a bit confused here, I thought that (on optical) the DD movie/music 2 was just upmixing, and only when you play a DD signal(i.e movie) it will play true surround. Am I missing something??

You can have true surround over optical or analogue.
think of it this way (flow diagram):

Computer > Soundcard > ADC / DAC > Z5500 headunit > DSP chip > DAC > Speakers

The sound signal comes from the computer, into the DAC or ADC convertors on the headuint and finally to the speakers.
ADC = Analogue to Digital convertor
DAC = Digital to Analogue convertor

Direct Input = no processing on DSP straight source from the soundcard (true surround or whatever effect you have selected on headunit of Z5500)
Optical = Detects what is sent to it from the soundcard, be it surround, DTS, dolby etc... also have option of adding your own effects or upmixing

If you use your soundcard to do the processing (upmixing, dolby DTS etc...) then you will put a direct signal into the headunit of the Z5500 and have surround over optical or analogue.

Or you can send a signal to the Z5500 speakers and headunit and push it through the ADC / DAC convertors and DSP chips and upmix or add effects.
Using Optical has its benefits as you dont have to select the input or DSP setting, though the downfall is that if you have a sound playing for undfer a second it wont be audible as thats how long the headunit takes to detect a signal and start the audio playing

 

[Mussels]

Im getting a bit confused here, I thought that (on optical) the DD movie/music 2 was just upmixing, and only when you play a DD signal(i.e movie) it will play true surround. Am I missing something??

you are correct. i just got confused because he said dolby for everything

oh and....

THEY'RE HEEEEEERE.

Courier called to confirm i was home, as they're somewhat heavy to lug here if no ones ready to receive 10am right now, so i'll have alllllll day to mess with them. Quick! suggestions on what to listen to!


and here they are!

Lol to the warning label 'magnetic - keep 2 feet away from TV and PC's' - since i use both, does that mean 4 feet?

 

[Mussels]

in accordance with the rules

1. PC, wii, Xbox, playstation 2, MP3 player (why not)
2. 2.1.0
3. S-0115B
4. R750
5. optical for the PC - others for the other stuff
6. No boost 22 here.
7. No idea, just got em!

second skin is cool my keyboard can make the same purple color

edit: how do i enable pro logic on optical? i cant seem to figure it out.
edit 2: it didnt want to enable until i actually had music playing. working peachy now - 5.1 MP3's. also windows volume had no effect for a few minutes as well.. all working now.

Now i just need the housemate to wake up, so i can crank the volume...

 

[twicksisted]

edit: how do i enable pro logic on optical? i cant seem to figure it out....

Optical is auto sensing, so you feed it a signal and it automatically senses what it is... for pro logic you need to feed it a pro logic signal from the soundcard....
If you use 6 channel direct, then you can apply DSP effects.

 

[Mussels]

Optical is auto sensing, so you feed it a signal and it automatically senses what it is... for pro logic you need to feed it a pro logic signal from the soundcard....
If you use 6 channel direct, then you can apply DSP effects.

it does work over optical. it just needs to sense a 2.0 channel signal first.

 

[Mussels]

a story in one of the reviews (tweaknews) listed on page 1. worth reposting

Excess is good because the power is always there when you need it.


But excess can also get you into some rather weird and bad situations also. Take me for instance, I am happily testing the system volume levels out in the Tweaknews office by gaming and listening to a little Lil' Jon & the Eastside Boyz and I thought all was well..........until the next morning.


At 9:00am I was woken up with a rather loud knocking at my suite's front door. Opening the door revealed the building's property manager handing me a noise violation complaint that was filed and the manager's office by my next door neighbor. This would sound perfectly right seeing I was easily hitting 130+dB when testing the system at higher volume levels but there is one interesting thing I have to inform you about my neighbor...........


She is completely deaf........No joke, she can't hear a thing. Nadda...Zilch....


What I guess caused her to file the complaint is that I cleared 13 pictures off of the adjacent wall where our two suites attach. And yes, that wall was the same wall where the subwoofer was placed. From what I was told, I vibrated that wall so badly that almost all of her paintings, photos, trinkets or whatever vibrated and fell down.


So what's the moral of the story? This system is so loud it will piss even deaf people off.......

 

[gerrynicol]

thats awsome all hail the z5500

How are you getting on twith them Mussels hope your not stretching them out too hard today, you might want to break the sub in for a while before letting all hell loose lol.

Edit: and yeah, it will only play DD or Por logic when it is fed the proper signal(over the optical).

 

[Mussels]

thats awsome all hail the z5500

How are you getting on twith them Mussels hope your not stretching them out too hard today, you might want to break the sub in for a while before letting all hell loose lol.

Edit: and yeah, it will only play DD or Por logic when it is fed the proper signal(over the optical).

atm just playing sup com, which doesnt support 5.1.

I did decide that high volume is unsafe, hehehe.

 

[Mussels]

http://www.auzentech.com/site/support/cmi_connections.php

^ VERY IMPORTANT LINK FOR AUZENTECH USERS.

Ok, simple abbreviation: To make the dolby live encoding work, you must set the Cmedia application to use "SPDIF output - dolby digital live"
In the windows control panel 'SPEAKERS' must be the default device, NOT digital output.

This is letting me use analogue games (such as rainbow 6 vegas 2) in full 5.1 DD (as recognised by the Z5500 head unit) over optical. It is damned sweet!

 

[Black Panther]

THEY'RE HEEEEEERE.


Lol to the warning label 'magnetic - keep 2 feet away from TV and PC's' - since i use both, does that mean 4 feet?

Yay for you! You're going to have fun today!

The 2ft magnetic warning applies only to the sub. The satellites are all shielded and you can put them as close to your monitor/pc/TV as you like.

I had a look over at the logitech forums, the guys there say that the 2ft warning is only for safety reasons just in case and that people put the sub next to their pc with no problem..... They do say that if you put the sub next to the monitor the monitor turns purple though. Not that that would be an ideal place lol. Anyway, if you've got space in the room I wouldn't risk it, mine is in fact like 3 ft away from my pc.

 

[Mussels]

Yay for you! You're going to have fun today!

The 2ft magnetic warning applies only to the sub. The satellites are all shielded and you can put them as close to your monitor/pc/TV as you like.

I had a look over at the logitech forums, the guys there say that the 2ft warning is only for safety reasons just in case and that people put the sub next to their pc with no problem..... They do say that if you put the sub next to the monitor the monitor turns purple though. Not that that would be an ideal place lol. Anyway, if you've got space in the room I wouldn't risk it, mine is in fact like 3 ft away from my pc.

I'll take pics of the setup, once i tidy a few things (my PC is literally hanging in pieces, a fan stopped working earlier so i fixed it with the system running...)

^ there we go. high res (ish) showing where teh front speakers and sub are. The leftmost speaker was too far to the right blocking part of the screen because i moved it putting the panels back on the PC

Enjoy my glorious junkpile of a workstation!

 

[Black Panther]

Wow... nice stuff you got there. Great monitor!
(The only thing is that it might need a teeny weeny bit of wire management )

Seriously though if I were you I wouldn't keep the control pod on top of the sub. Or else fix it with tape or something. With the vibrations it will move and drop on the floor and get ruined... It will move even if you have the volume not on high.

(And... one thing that's bad with logitech is that they don't supply individual spare parts)

I just took a small video with my photocamera showing the sub at slightly less than 2/3 general volume. If I manage to upload it anywhere I'll post a link, you see the 'logitech' logo at the centre of the sub vibrating.

Edit: Here's the link for uploaded video.
(Lol it's short and very amateurish - first vid I uploaded on youtube doubling up my photo-camera as a video-cam. Put it on full-screen to view best)

You notice I keep the bedroom 'cupboard' doors open on purpose otherwise they'd pick up a vibration of their own!