got the z5500 speakers and planning to get X-fi

ok so i have the logitech z5500 speakers currently using onbaord soundcard. i cannot get the front to speakers to work no matter what. anyways im sick and tired of it so im planning to get that X-fi xtrememusic. mainly becasue im big into games and that 128 voices or whatever probly will boost up game performace instead of using cpu for sound. my question is will i be able to get 5.1 surround sound? i am using the green, black, and orane connectors that look like headphone thingys. if i connect those 3 to xfi will i be able to get surround sound? i dont know what what the coax or optical things are. sry this is like my first surround sound system. thx!

 

i suggest you get the xfi-fatality, simply becoz your into games and it's got
64mb of xram, which is supposed to boost your games. if im not mistaken, you connect your rear, front and center speakers to the subwoofer, which makes three cables. as long as you got the same colours on your sound card, provided you put rear on rear front on front and center and subwoofer. you will make sound. no matter the sound card. you don't need coax or optical.

 

im really low on money and the only reason im uprading is becasue my onbaord doesnt work 5.1 properly. (the green port doesnt work) but i looked at some pics of the x-fi and it doenst look like it has any colors. u think the manual will include where everything goes like the front, sub/center, and rear?
thx i think ill just order xtreme music cuz i dont play much pc games (mainly counter strike which doesnt require that many sounds) i jsut need it so i can get 5.1 for movies and stuff and low end pc games cuz i mainly play xbox

 

i use onboard sound and i have no problem getting these speakers to work, have you deffo got them connected to the correct connector on the onboard sound?, and also got it in 6ch mode, also have you tried the Test function on the remote, this will play some pink noise or w/e its called in each speaker and this will indicate if some speakers are not working properly if you dont hear sound.

Analoug is no good becouse you cant have 5.1 dolby surround sound, you need coax or optical.

Is your version of the Logitech z-5500 speaker system using RCA connectors or those were you push the clip and place the bare metal in the clip?

 

no its def the onboard sound cuz i also had exact same problem with 5.1 surround headphones. i made sure its 6ch direct and i made sure the ALC850 is in 6ch mode and i made sure windows settings is also 5.1 desktop speaers. the only way the side front speakers wuld work is if i connect it to the headphone port on the front of my pc. that is what im currently doing with my headphones. also i have the version that u have to put the bare metal in this lil metal clip on the subwoofer and the console thing is connected to sub and console then connects to Pc. I know the front speakers do work because i did the test thing on remote and noise came from every speaker. i triple checked connections. also u were saying that analog wont do surround? y is this? it shuld make sence i mean. it includes the 3 things (green orange and black) which are front, sub/center, and rear. how can that not b surround? and whats so great bout coax?

 

Coax and Optical is Digital, those 3 cables you use are for Direct 9Analoug) for some reason you need coax to use Dolby Digital 5.1, as if you use coax you have more fetures on the soundtouch digital control center.

Hmm try re-installing your Sound drivers, maybe getting the latest version becouse i have the same audio chip as you (ALC850) and mine works fine.

 

ohh i get it, to get the PLII Movie and PLII Music u need digital! i get it. so it like decodes the sound in the logitech control panel. ok i get it now.. BUt what if i want it to decode in the x-fi and not in the ligitech control center? i want it to decode in x-fi so then my games will have a lil better performance and stuff like that. so ill try analogue for now and decode in x-fi and then if i dont like it ill get digital and decode it in logitech. or maybe i can connect it both? movies = digital and games = analogue? think that will work? as for the driver idk what is wrong with it because i reintalled xp like 7 times and used diff drivers for that so idk whats wrong with it. i dont really care anymore cuz im getting a new sound card soon. waht do u guys think i shuld do? those cords are kinda expensive and im really low on money.

 

no, Pro logic 2 music and moview is for analoug, it makes 2channel sound like surround sound, its for true dolby digital 5.1 surround u need digital.

to use digital you need a Coxial cable or optical cable.

your sound card should have coxial, get a coxial cable and use that instead of analoug, you games, movies and music etc.. will be in digital, i think if your soundcard decoded pro logic 2 etc.. then the control center still would but it wouldent really need to, depends what effect you have it on.

did you know that apparently the logitech z5500's are so good quality hat you need a decent sound card or all your music and stuff sounds crap. With the z5500's i can notice like wird noise in songs due to the quality of the files and i couldent with my old speakers or the home theatre downstairs, thats how good these speakers are!!

 

wow i had no clue. yea i bet i can really tell a difference bettween onbaord to soundcard. thing is gonna b my first nononbaord sound card! so if i go digital then will my games be "true" 5.1 cuz i need to hear footsteps and stuff. also if i go digital will it decode on the soundcard cuz i really want a performance upgrade for games. also can u give me some suggestions on what cable i shuld get so the i can give picture to my dad and he can pick it up at a store.

thx

 

If you get your soundcard, buy a Digital Coxial cable aswell, this will replace the 3 cables going form the soundtouch control center to the computer, then select Coax with your remote, you will notice more effects to what you have using Direct Input, eg Dolby Digital 5.1, which will actually give you true dolby digital 5.1 i think, i am using Direct and going to purchase a sound card to go digital.

At the moment to play games and hear everything i belive you have to have the effect set to 6CH Direct, this is what i had to do to hear everyhting in GTA SA, i know it suks especially when you have to buy a soundcard which can cozt a bomb.

 

The X-Fi's X-RAM is shown to have virtually no impact in gaming. Secondly, the Fatal1ty branding is going to cost more because of the branding.

 

oh really? guess you can't trust it's maker, they claim that bf2 had a 50% increase on frame rates when the fatality was on. true, it's like 200 bucks more than the sound card you're getting.

 

yea willz u were saying that u had to put it on direct analog to get true 5.1 for games right? so u think it is possible to connect the green, black, and orange to the speakers along with 5.1 headphones (using splitters) and also connect it digitally for movies? like all at the same time?

thx

 

well if you have the connections you can have direct for games and digital for movies, you just switch from direct and coax etc.. from the control.

although if you did have coax there is no need for analoug as everyhting would be in 5.1 true surround with that, you dont get true 5.1 surround with direct i dont think, you get surround sound in games when using direct and effect set to 6ch direct but it doesent sound very good.

 

k all i want to is how to get true surround sound (heer footsteps from exact place no "seems like" 5.1 surround) in games. get surround sound in movies (whatever sounds best) i dont care if i drop a little sound quality for games as long as i get true surround to heer footspeps and stuff. as for movies i think digital coax wuld sound best? so what kind of connections do u guys suggest i buy for games and movies? also if i need to get a coax can someone gimme a picture or a product website cuz i was thinking theres no place to put coax on the sound card.

 

get a digital coxial cable then to run from the control center to the sound card and then ditch the direct 6ch.

 

yea if i just go digital then will my games be true surround like if someone is coming behind me i can heer their footsteps?

 

yes they should be.

 

ok ill go digital. but exaclty how does the product look like? all the digital coax cables i am finding have coax on both ends.
but if both ends are coax how am i supposed to connect it to the sound card? and also what port do i plug it in the sound carD?

 

you need a sound card with a coax or optical connection on it.

fftopic:

look on the net or a download software for somthing called THX World's deepest bass or maybe gone in 60 seconds, deep bass or somthing, or bass tests, or i think sound excursion test, turn volume up to full then onto 11 on boost, and then sub to half way, shakes your room and also when you speak your voice sound wierd like artifical coz of air vibrating and your vocal chords vibrating too, you may hear wierd sound coming from sub, thats it hitting stops, push it further than that and vibration and noise is emense, subwoofer is distorting but aint that bad, looks like my floor was shaking like 1cm lol.