how to get Z-5500s digital?

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Firecrotch

Limp Gawd
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Jul 27, 2005
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Ive got the Z-5500s and a creative X-fi Xtreme music. How do i make these speakers digital or w/e? Im an audio noob so i have got no clue. Is it just a cord i need? and would it be worth upgrading to digital?
 
the x-fi has a minijack digital out. You will have to find a minijack to coax digital cable I believe. I think I've seen someone post that you could find this at radioshack but I haven't looked personally.

One thing to note though. If you're using a digital connection only to your 5500's, you will lose all EAX effects as the x-fi will only ouput a stereo digital signal during games and then the 5500s processor (input box) will only give you matrixed stereo sound to all the speakers and not give the positional audio (the x-fi doesn't convert EAX to surround like a dolby digital live card does). You will have to use the analog outs of the card connected to the speakers to get EAX.

Sucks that creative didn't put dd-live on the card.
 
NACZ3 said:
One thing to note though. If you're using a digital connection only to your 5500's, you will lose all EAX effects as the x-fi will only ouput a stereo digital signal during games and then the 5500s processor (input box) will only give you matrixed stereo sound to all the speakers and not give the positional audio (the x-fi doesn't convert EAX to surround like a dolby digital live card does). You will have to use the analog outs of the card connected to the speakers to get EAX.
Click to expand...
Noobs who refer to positional audio as "EAX" annoy the hell out of me. EAX is an environmental audio effects engine that is used in conjuction with DirectSound3D / OpenAL. Also, EAX still works over stereo. You can get some positional audio cues via HRTF's if the game and card is setup properly.

Also, using digital-out is NOT a guarantee that you'll have better audio. (Let's see how many times I have to say this here too. Noobs.) Using digital out from teh X-Fi only means you'll be using the output stage on the external decoder (DAC/opamps), and on multimedia setups, it's more than likely they will use less quality components than on the X-Fi. So using the multichannel analog out on the X-Fi will probably sound better than using digital-out; it won't sound worse.
 
I think you should use both analogue and digital connections.

You can use the analogue 5.1 connection when you play games or listen to music or whatever.

Then you use the digital connection to watch DVDs. You should be able to get your dvd player to pass through dolby digital or dts to your z5500s.

Just switch the inputs depending on what you wanna do. The remote control is very handy for this.

Btw, thanks for the info on the mini-jack spdif on the xi-fi. I wasn't aware that the lowest model had digital output.
 
I have the Z-5500 and audigy 2 zs and I use both the digital coax and analog connections. I use Coax input Stereo x 2 for my music and I use 6 channel direct for my games such as BF2, sounds great!

The adapter, stop into your local radioshack and ask for an adapter. Or order online but just drive there so you don't have to wait a few days.


http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102693&cp=&kw=rca+to+mono&parentPage=search

That is what you want, write down that description and part #, should be no troubles finding it in the store, just ask. Then get a digital coax audio cable there or walmart or bestbuy. I got a 12 ft cable for 14.99! The 6ft was like 9.99 so better deal for the longer cable and gives you more flexibility.

Hope that helps. Also here are some FAQ from logitech about using digital connections. Read them! 1st link says augidy 2 but applies to the general setup with creative cards.

http://logitech-en-amr.custhelp.com...Xh0PWRpZ2l0YWwgY29heGlhbA**&p_li=&p_topview=1

another...

http://logitech-en-amr.custhelp.com...GV4dD1kaWdpdGFsIGNvYXhpYWw*&p_li=&p_topview=1


Good luck!
 
oh i didnt know i could use both at the same time haha. well thats nice. thanks for the post. I guess i will go to radio shack tomorow =)
 
Does anyone know for sure if that digital output is optical or coaxial?

The creative website only says that it's spdif. If someone is 100% sure, please let the op know. He might end up buying the wrong adapter.

In my personal experience, I've only seen these combo ports use the optical minijack interface for digital output.
 
the adapter is right, it is what im using right now with my audigy 2 zs with same "mini jack" crap or whatever it is called. I'm using digital coaxial right now, so I guess its coaxial.
 
Sorry, but Chastity had it right in the first place. The X-Fi is likely better at all DAC operations than the Z5500s. There's just no need to use a digital connection. Use analog for all sound, even movies (the PC is perfectly capable of doing the DD / DTS decoding, with a good DVD playing app like PowerDVD).
 
My understanding is that powerDVD does NOT do dolby digital/dts. The only option available is to send the sound through digital spdif to be decoded by an external decoder. Otherwise, best you can get dolby pro logic, not dolby digital.

This applies to pretty much every single software dvd player out there. They dont decode dolby digital/dts, its all passed through to an external decoder. Or not at all.

I also heard something about sb audigy 2 zs spdif out being slightly different to regular specs. Making it more custom so they can promote using their own speakers as well, that its unhealthy to use some form of adaptor and go through coax of the logitech z5500. Abit hazey on this however.
 
Zorge said:
My understanding is that powerDVD does NOT do dolby digital/dts. The only option available is to send the sound through digital spdif to be decoded by an external decoder. Otherwise, best you can get dolby pro logic, not dolby digital.

This applies to pretty much every single software dvd player out there. They dont decode dolby digital/dts, its all passed through to an external decoder. Or not at all.

I also heard something about sb audigy 2 zs spdif out being slightly different to regular specs. Making it more custom so they can promote using their own speakers as well, that its unhealthy to use some form of adaptor and go through coax of the logitech z5500. Abit hazey on this however.
Click to expand...
Drugs can be bad for you. :p

It would be VERY STUPID if PowerDVD, or any dvd player, didn't decode Dolby Digital / DTS. It's a standard feature. Has been since the beginning. Decodes it to 5/6/7.1 PCM as needed.

Only thing "custom" about the SPDIF-Out on the A2 ZS is that it can do 3 discrete SPDIF outputs to do 5.1 Digital PCM, which is only supported on some of their digital speakers. Otherwise you can use it like a normal SPDIF single stream. Just use a standard 1/8" mini to RCA cable.
 
Really?

wtf wierd.....
Very wierd, I KNOW that I've tried that before and more than once!
Use s/pdif out, and I had no audio playing at all, so assumed that I got no sound at all because I wasn't using digital output on soundcard (because it did work when I did on my old speakers).

I thought I'd tried and tested everything. all directsound/wave produced stereo sound, and s/pdif produced nothing.

I try again now and it works fine. It appears that the software aint decoding, but the soundcard, which is then sent out. Man that frustrates me actually, cuz, as I had said, I tried that, more than once, and the silence resorted to me using an external DVD player and fibreoptic cable for dolby digital. At the cost of image quality ><

omg I hate it when you test something and it doesn't work right and therefore leads you to believe false information! GAH cuz that made me never try again because I had thought I allready had the correct information in mind.

Saves me from buying something I dont need (like a better DVD player/hardware dvd decoder that has coax digital audio out). Far out.

I had even found sources saying software dvd players do not decode the sound. Something else needs to. Which reinforced my belief, but only because I didn't click that that actually means sound card can do it >.<

Oh well, glad to learn something usefull today.

edit:
Lesson = dont need to "make z5500 go digital", analogue is fine, its good however to be able to use the other stuff for other devices like, I dunno, xbox360 via fibre optic or somethin
 
If you set the dvd player to do SPDIF Out, then the player won't do any decoding. If you were to set it to, say, 6 channel audio, then it will do the decoding.
 
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