Help me find a new sub (replace logitech Z5500)

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sippm

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 1, 2009
Messages
235
Hey all,

I have a current audio setup for my PC which is fine, but I want to improve it slightly.

Currently I have a logitech z5500 sub which is fed by optical toslink from my PC. I do not use the logitech satellite speakers (yuck). Instead, I just use the sub for bass and as an amp for a 2.1 PC setup with two orb audio speakers on my desk (powered by the logitech sub).

I like everything and it sounds great, but I do not like the fact that I have to deal with the logitech control pod. Ideally I'd like to do two things: (1) take out the optical cabling and use my PC to control all the eq type settings and (2) not have a control pod hanging around for no reason. I know I can do (1) using the control pod with different cabling and software, but I really hate that thing as its just sitting around and I'd rather directly feed my audio directly to the sub and then, in turn, have that same sub power my PC speakers on my desk.

I've been googling around and I just can't seem to find a replacement sub of the same quality (or better) that serves as both a sub and an amplifier for my desk speakers. I'm not sure why I can't find this because it seems like a no brainer.

I'd rather not have a separate receiver and/or amp for the satellites --- just my PC, cabling to the sub, and then speaker wire running back to the orb satellites on my desk. I'm looking for is a sub that has a hybrid amp for itself as well as an amp/speaker outputs for satellites. I know you can mod the logitech sub and get rid of the pod, but that's too much work. I'm imagining a sub like the above with maybe a few knobs to adjust certain levels and maybe a crossover switch, although I don't even care if the crossover fixed.

I've been googling around and just cant fine what I'm looking for. Any advice? Price isn't too much of an issue. I guess maybe I'm just OCD about the control pod, but my room is small and I hate the way it has to just hang around somewhere even though I hide it behind the sub well enough. My home office/PC room is pretty small and I would only ever use 2.1.

If anyone knows of a unit out there, I'd really appreciate a link or recommendation.

Thanks!!!
 
sippm said:
I've been googling around and I just can't seem to find a replacement sub of the same quality (or better) that serves as both a sub and an amplifier for my desk speakers. I'm not sure why I can't find this because it seems like a no brainer.
Click to expand...

Electrically speaking, those aren't speakers. Closer to headphones without whipping out a test bench, but they were never designed to be used independently. There are subs with speaker-level outputs, yeah, and plenty with input passthrough that effectively act as a splitter for the line-level input. Neither of these will do what you want.

Plus you'd get a much better improvement, even in your bass, by replacing the pod children first. Bass starts before 100Hz. Nor is using the subwoofer as a speaker amp exactly ideal even when possible. If space is the concern, there are smallish speaker amps, or active speakers with integrated amps.
 
Okay, those take a speaker signal then. I wasn't quite clear on that from the original post.

This is still tricky - note that many subwoofers with a speaker-level output do not do RCA in --> speaker-level out. Many do RCA in --> RCA out or speaker-level in --> speaker-level out; to do this they just wire the terminals together.
 
Yea, that's what I'm looking for and my research seems to indicate that the logitech sub I have is not the norm and might be the only solution for what I'm looking for in terms of getting RCA in + amp for speakers out (hence my query). I'm well aware of the good desktop self amplified speakers like swan but still prefer lots of bass for games/movies/fun.

This is not meant to be an audiophile setup and I'm mostly just trying to clean the clutter with an all-in-one sub. Though I have to say the speakers do sound great and get accolades for their cost/quality for small room use.
 
The Orbs aren't incredible or anything, but I don't see why they shouldn't work for now. But I don't think you're going to have an easy time finding subwoofers that double as an integrated amplifier. On the other hand, something like a t-amp could potentially drive your Orbs, and it could be very small.
 
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