Logitech Z-5500 Digital Soundroom

[Mussels]

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 might move and drop on the floor and get ruined...

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

ok, i will move the unit. wire management... well, i'll get there. I was more interested in getting SOUND out of the beast

As a sidenote/update to the post i made before about auzentech cards: using the dolby encoding feature, the speakers think they are getting full 5.1 audio even if it is not - you cannot use the upmixing features (pro logic, stereo x2 etc) in combination with DD live encoding.

 

[malware]

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 might move and drop on the floor and get ruined...

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

Amen
And you need a women to clean this mess. Seriously, there's too much precious hardware to let it work like that.

 

[Mussels]

Amen
And you need a women to clean this mess. Seriously, there's too much precious hardware to let it work like that.

the woman is too busy playing assassins creed and guitar hero in her mess of a room

actually, as messy as the cables are its not as bad as it seems - the cables are visible because they are in FRONT of the desk. I found it rather hard to connect all the cables if its facing the other way Now that its working, i plan to re-organize it a bit.

 

[Black Panther]

Amen
And you need a women to clean this mess.

The only problem would be: a woman who is able to 'clean the mess' and re-organise stuff with wire management and all will probably be leaving the rest of the house in a mess ohwell: I wouldn't let my husband get started on that one!)

 

[Mussels]

The only problem would be: a woman who is able to 'clean the mess' and re-organise stuff with wire management and all will probably be leaving the rest of the house in a mess ohwell: I wouldn't let my husband get started on that one!)

... Black panther is a girl? and married?

Lol, news to me!

Housemate would just sit down and listen to music or game on here to be honest, she wouldnt bother cleaning it

is there any other auzentech users here with the Z55's? I want to compare notes.

 

[Black Panther]

... Black panther is a girl? and married?

Lol, news to me!

Lol that's why I put the venus symbol in my avatar.
Actually I'm not married but I've been with my partner for 13 years, I refer to him as my husband since we don't have divorce here... but don't get me started on that...

Housemate would just sit down and listen to music or game on here to be honest, she wouldnt bother cleaning it

Husband never touches my pc except to watch a movie together with me. He tried the Crysis demo once... said it was 'nice'... and keeps begging me to exchange the Z-5500 and take the Samsung 350W home system he has instead (NEVER!!!) I have a house-cleaner who comes around like once every week or two but I don't let her touch anything within 3 feet of my rig. That area I do it myself. I got some wires on the floor too and I wouldn't want to have her jolt anything with a watery mop.

 

[Mussels]

Lol that's why I put the venus symbol in my avatar.
Actually I'm not married but I've been with my partner for 13 years, I refer to him as my husband since we don't have divorce here... but don't get me started on that...



Husband never touches my pc except to watch a movie together with me. He tried the Crysis demo once... said it was 'nice'... and keeps begging me to exchange the Z-5500 and take the Samsung 350W home system he has instead (NEVER!!!) I have a house-cleaner who comes around like once every week or two but I don't let her touch anything within 3 feet of my rig. That area I do it myself. I got some wires on the floor too and I wouldn't want to have her jolt anything with a watery mop.

ahh my female twin!

Anyway i have rebuilt teh setup my tweaks and final setup are:

Coax from the PC - using auzens dolby encoding. no audible difference to optical.
Optical from the TV (TV has 2.0 speakers, but gets a 5.1 signal off the air)
Wii/Xbox - connected via RCA to the TV, hopefully they will output via the optical port
Analogues currently empty - possibly for consoles if above fails.

Have also rearranged the desk and (almost) all cabling will post the 'after' pic once the camera charges.

 

[gerrynicol]

is there any other auzentech users here with the Z55's? I want to compare notes.

I have the prelude, connected via both analogue and optical.

 

[Mussels]

I have the prelude, connected via both analogue and optical.

do you use the dolby encoding (or DTS) on the optical? i am after your opinions on sound differences. IMO optical/coax sounds a little better (particularly in games) but i lose the pro logic effects for music listening.

Your thoughts/setup?

Edit: as promised, a pic after the ethnic cleansing of all dust bunnies and cable monsters.

the cables showing below the PC are actually mostly on a shelf, its just the angle that shows them.

 

[gerrynicol]

I mainly just use the optical for movies, and the analouge for games/ music.
For games I use direct and for music I use the PL2 effect.
Nice screen btw, is does that do 1080P??

 

[Mussels]

I mainly just use the optical for movies, and the analouge for games/ music.
For games I use direct and for music I use the PL2 effect.
Nice screen btw, is does that do 1080P??

1360x768 - so its a little above 720p. Then again, 1024x768 is a native res, which i find very handy as a backup for those pesky non widescreen games

 

[Master_of_Time]

mussels, I really hope you're happy! Cheers man and finally - welcome. Advice from me - don't go over 85% volume... To set them up properly I think you should use FLACs for clear sound. I used 20Mbit/s FLACs and only then I was able to really tune the speaker properly. Movies - Saving Private Ryan, all of the LOTRs, and Heat (the part where the team robs the bank and as they exit it the police arrives and... well, you should find out what happens yourself ) Have fun with the beasts. I'm sure you will.
EDIT: If you have a lava lamp keep it away from the sub. You'll get a sh1tload of bubbles.

 

[Mussels]

Lol to the bubbles.

What is this FLAC you speak of? isnt it an audio codec?

 

[Master_of_Time]

Yes, FLAC is an audio codec - Free Lossless Audio Codec. Here is the page: flac.sourceforge.net/ If you have the K-Lite/ K-Lite MEGA Codec Pack installed you should have no problem playing FLACs in Win Media Player or Media Player Classic. About the bubbles - it took me 4 days to remove them by heating and rapid cooling with a peltier...

 

[twicksisted]

wow you guys must really play yours loud hehe... I dont really crank mine till I watch a movie or something... and then I find it get eye-wincingly loud and I turn it down a bit... I guess my games room is a bit small

 

[Master_of_Time]

Hehe, what's the point of having that much power and not make you neighbours hate you and pray that you go to hell sooner... They annoyed me with rap, techno and r&b for over 10 years at insane volume levels! They didn't expect payback but I'm having my revenge thrown at them with full force. (I'm evil! ) Oh yeah, I enjoy the music. I don't only use it for destruction but sometimes I seem to forget that...

 

[Mussels]

wow you guys must really play yours loud hehe... I dont really crank mine till I watch a movie or something... and then I find it get eye-wincingly loud and I turn it down a bit... I guess my games room is a bit small

i too am in a small room.

I tend to not play mine very loud at all, i wanted quaity at low-medium levels. these speakers sure do deliver for gaming... even compared to 5.1 on my old logitech X-540's, its totally different - the power behind the rear speakers makes it really shine, i can hear every gunshot and TELL what corner they're from.

I'm going to make a summary of things i've learned when combining these with an auzentech and write it up soon, so that prospective buyers know what they're getting.

Edit: and here it is. Once a reviewer... always a reviewer.
**********************************************
Z 5500 impressions on auzentech.

Setup: two strands of wires connect the speakers to the sub, making extensions/replacements fairly easy. The only thing that dictates positioning of the unit is that the cord from the sub to the central control unit is only about 2 feet long. (it is not advised to keep this unit on top of or extremely close to the sub, as it may fall over)

Analogue - behaves like any normal PC speakers, except with a crapload of power. THe power of the satellites and independant controls (turning rears up on their own, for example) really makes these shine - many speaker setups arent perfect, and boosting the rear volume made up for the fact mine are further behind me than they should.

Optical/Coax - for PC use, both behave the same. I have noticed no quality change, digital is digital i guess.

Optical/Coax with Dolby Digital Live! Enabled on my Auzentech X-plosion:
Everything is locked to Dolby digital 5.1 - as far as the speakers care, you are always getting 5.1 sound. This disables the upmixing features built into the unit, such as stereo x2, and dolby pro logic.
Downside is 2.0 audio cannot be upmixed, but 4.0/5.1 audio (such as from games) comes out in digital glory.


Preffered setups of myself and other members of the forum:

Config #1 (non auzentech users)
Analogue for games and music
Optical/coax (depends on soundcard) for movies - passthrough, no encoding or decoding on the PC.

Config #2 (auzentech users)
Optical/coax w/ encoding for all use - you lose the upmixing, but you free up the analogue ports for another PC/console (or 3x stereo ports for 3 consoles, as in my case)

having coax and optical works well because you can use one on the PC (coax most likely) and save optical for another use - DVD or blu ray player, or in my case to my TV to output its off-the-air signal in 5.1 sound.

 

[twicksisted]

I use DTS & DTS Interactive.... over optical.
DTS is similar to dolby but uses less compression of the audio signals, so you get a better signal overall.

Quite happy with this on the Asus Xonar... I leave it on DTS & 6channel output.
when I want to watch a downloaded movie which is stereo, I select 2 channel and DTS Interactive which upmixes it to 5.1 (excellently too I might add).

The only thing I would change is that I wouldnt have bought a PCI-E Asus Xonar soundcard as its too long to fit in the top PCI-E X1 slot due to it hitting the ram (I have 4gigs taking up all slots).

I would have bought a PCI soundcard instead, as right now its sitting in my 2nd PCI-E X16 slot

 

[Mussels]

I use DTS & DTS Interactive.... over optical.
DTS is similar to dolby but uses less compression of the audio signals, so you get a better signal overall.

Quite happy with this on the Asus Xonar... I leave it on DTS & 6channel output.
when I want to watch a downloaded movie which is stereo, I select 2 channel and DTS Interactive which upmixes it to 5.1 (excellently too I might add).

The only thing I would change is that I wouldnt have bought a PCI-E Asus Xonar soundcard as its too long to fit in the top PCI-E X1 slot due to it hitting the ram (I have 4gigs taking up all slots).

I would have bought a PCI soundcard instead, as right now its sitting in my 2nd PCI-E X16 slot

does the xonar do encoding? Or do you just game etc with upmixing?

edit: as another finding, when using DD or DTS passthrough (thats how i have my media players setup for AC3 files) no other sound works. watching HD anime works in 5.1, but then i lose sound in everything else such as winamp and firefox.

 

[DanishDevil]

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

It was in this rig, but I just got it running, and my speakers have been at school with me. I've sold my X-Fi, and will be running off both analog and Optical from my motherboard until/if I buy my Auzentech X-Fi Prelude.

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

That right there my friend is the line that pushed me over the fence to buy these speakers

Once a reviewer... always a reviewer.

You should do a user-submitted review on TechFuzion...

----------

Mussels, you're updated on the first post.

 

[Mussels]

You should do a user-submitted review on TechFuzion...

Maybe... but i like TPU more. I also like the idea of keeping all information posted in this thread for other users, as we can have a list of everything people need to know - at it seems, several people still dont quite grasp how digital (optical and coax) modes work completely, and i'll haunt this thread til everyone knows how to get the best sound from these beasts

 

[twicksisted]

does the xonar do encoding? Or do you just game etc with upmixing?

edit: as another finding, when using DD or DTS passthrough (thats how i have my media players setup for AC3 files) no other sound works. watching HD anime works in 5.1, but then i lose sound in everything else such as winamp and firefox.

Heres a link to its specs:
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1989&l1=25&l2=150&l3=0&l4=0

I rather use the Xonar to do all the encoding (rather than the headunit of the logitechs), as the circutry is better.

 

[Mussels]

Heres a link to its specs:
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=1989&l1=25&l2=150&l3=0&l4=0

I rather use the Xonar to do all the encoding (rather than the headunit of the logitechs), as the circutry is better.

ah nice DTS encoding too, not just dolby.

pity its so long...

 

[twicksisted]

ah nice DTS encoding too, not just dolby.

pity its so long...

you can get a pci version... also, I think that its just my bad luck for having my top PCI-E X1 slot at the same level as the ram which is why it wouldnt fit unless I only have 2 sticks of ram (I have 4 sticks)

 

[DanishDevil]

The placement of PCI-Ex1 slots on motherboards is really irritating me. I wanted to still be able to use my PCI-Ex1 TV Tuner when I moved Intel, and that severely limited my choice of motherboards. I think everybody needs to be pushed to move PCI-E. Whether that comes from motherboard manufacturers or add-in card manufacturers, it doesn't matter to me. It needs to happen fast, though.

/rant

One great band to listen to on these speakers is Dream Theater. They're sort of a Symphonic Groove Metal. I love the CD Systematic Chaos. Really great stuff