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question about Logitech z-5500 and Creative SB X-FI Sound card

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sandcracker21

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Well I have the Logitech z-5500 as I want to scare the neighbors! The only problem is that it only comes with a direct style connection (not sure of the exact terminology) and my brand spanking new Creative Sound Blaster x-fi sound card has a digital in/out on it. (It has an optical option)

Now when I used the direct color coded cables that came with the speakers, I can get a 6 channel direct sound mode that is not all the bad. However, I was the best I can get with my setup. I have an optical cable, but when I connect the optical cable into the speaker system and my PC, nothing happens and it does not recognize a digital connection.

What am I doing wrong? Does anyone else have a Logitech z-5500 that is hooked up with a digital connection? I am so frustrated and confused with technology right now it is ridiculous!

thanks for the help
 
OK first off, optical sounds great, but definitely isnt needed with that card and speaker setup. Use the 6 channel direct sound input on the z5500. When watching movies with winDVD or something, don't even worry about the spdif out er whatever. Trust me, I've tested it both ways in movies and they sound identical. For band of brothers DVD, I used to think the optical cable with DTS decoding being done by the z5500 setup sounded better, but now that I listen to it, I can say there really isnt a difference at all.

If yuo want to scare the neighbors, go into Game mode, and set the surround sound to "Surround" instead of "Expand" and set it to 50%. This not only gives you sound coming out of 4 speakers instead of 2, it also kicks the sub up a bit. Set your EQ to Rock and your crystalizer to 50% and you should have damn good sound.

But seriously, I used optical out for the longest time with my movies, then tried out the direct 6 channel input with x-fi doing the dolby digital and dts decoding and decided it sounded exactly the same.
 
so you have the same speakers and same audio card that I do??

How did you connect the digital optical cable? I already have one, are you saying its not even worth it? I thought it would make a huge difference?

I have changed my settings to those you have described and it sounds great though...
 
Are you connecting the optical cable to your motherboard's onboard output? Most likely there is an option in the bios to turn it on.
 
Well I have an X-Fi platinum which had the front bay. On the front bay it says "Optical out" so I connected one end there, and the other end to the z-5500 volume controller. You might have to go to your volume mixer and unmute spdif out. I can't remember if I did that or not because it's been such a long time and I'm here at work. I'll follow up when I get home but yeah, you won't notice too much of a difference in sound quality. Not only that, but optical output only has 2 channel stereo so that surround at 50% thing won't work and your sub won't pound as hard. It will send a digital signal for your z-5500 to decode in movies, but no surround stereo. I had heard people speculating that new drivers would enable surround stereo in optical out, but I haven't seen that.

I'm on XP with this setup btw, how about you?
 
Ok I'm home and I checked my volume mixer in windows and I don't see any sort of S/PDIF out option which means for it to work for me, I simply plugged it into the optical out port and plugged it into my z-5500.

You say you tried it this way with no sound what so ever? Are you sure you were in the right port? (out instead of in)
 
yes, and I switched to 'optical' on the volume tower thingy, and it simply said "No Digital Data"
 
What is it you're trying to listen to? 2 channel stereo music, or a movie?
 
mostly games and movies, but I also listen to a lot of music as well

i want surround sound for my game and movies but also great sound to pump some music
 
well in games, you'll only hear the 2 front channels, and for music, it'll be 2 channel stereo but you can change the volume controller to pro logic music. For movies, you'll need to set "spdif out" to on for whatever player you're using.

Of course, this is if you can get optical out to work :/

What X-Fi card are you using? (Music, Platinum, Elite Pro)? Link me to a picture of it or a link to where you bought it lol
 
Ok I see what you're working with. So in your box's contents, you should have a 3.5mm plug to optical converter. Looks like this: http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/3695/misc006yy6.jpg

From what I've read, you plug your optical cable into that, then plug that 3.5mm end into the green plug, then plug the other end into your volume controller bay.

Do you have that sort of converter in your box?

Sorry if you've already done this.
 
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