Logitech Z-5500 first time setup

[Tanatz]

Two questions:

1) Uhm, I'm having a really hard time getting them mounted! Seems like I can't get a screw driver to get a solid enough grip on the screw because it's hitting the side of the speaker. Does that make sense? No matter how I turn the speaker it's always in the way of the screwdriver making it tough for me to get it in the wall. I'm thinking about purchasing four corner shelves, mounting those and just placing the speakers on top, but I'm not too fond of that idea because then the speakers will sorta face the ceiling.

2) No signal through Digital / Coax., which makes sense. Under direct sound there are several options: 6 channel, stereo, stereo x2, pro logic movie & pro logic music. Music and games sound best under Pro Logic Music but basic OS sounds ( AIM, Mozilla, Windows Explorer, etc. ) don't play when on this setting. They only play when set to 6 channel. I'd keep it set to 6 channel permanently but music and games don't sound nearly as good as when set to Pro Logic Music. I'm very lazy and would hate to have to switch back and forth between settings, is there a workaround?

 

[Viper16]

1. are you talking about removing the screw that attaches the feet onto the speaker? if so I would be very causious as when and if you do get that detached, the screw will fall into the speaker housing and you will be sol at getting it back without opening up the speaker...and i think the speaker is glued together! so be cautious.

2. are you sure the windows sounds dont work in the movie and music sound? i thought it just duplicated the channels for the front and back speakers. oh...and don't be so lazy when it comes to changing audio options, just use the remote.

 

[Tanatz]

1. are you talking about removing the screw that attaches the feet onto the speaker? if so I would be very causious as when and if you do get that detached, the screw will fall into the speaker housing and you will be sol at getting it back without opening up the speaker...and i think the speaker is glued together! so be cautious.

2. are you sure the windows sounds dont work in the movie and music sound? i thought it just duplicated the channels for the front and back speakers. oh...and don't be so lazy when it comes to changing audio options, just use the remote.

1) I was considering removing the screw that connects the stand to the speaker but thought better of it seeing as how they intentionally put some kind of goo there to make it next to impossible to get a philip's head in there. Makes me think they highly discourage that

What I was referring to was trying to get the speakers mounted on the wall with the stands actually still connected - it's impossible. The speaker gets in the way, no matter how you turn the stand. I couldn't get the screwdriver, or a drill, to get a good grip on the screw. The drill / screwdriver was hitting the screw at an angle because the speaker was getting in the way, you get me?

2) I'm almost positive no windows sounds came through with Pro Logic except for once - WHILE I was playing an MP3 I actually heard someone log off AIM ( the door close sound ). I tested it out by sending IM's to myself, no luck. But when I switched to 6 channel, I'd get all my Windows sounds, but MP3s didn't sound as good.

 

[joecop120]

you CAN remove the OEM bases and wallmount them.

1. remove speaker grills
2. pull out black rubber plugs that grill attached to
3. unscrew 4 phillips screws underneath plugs
4. CAREFULLY begin separating silver speaker portion from black casing
5. Be patient and do not apply large amounts of force
6. 2 pieces of double sided tape are used in the center of the speaker to the left and right of the cone
7. the cone is attached to the silver part
8. BEFORE these steps remove screws on back of black casing that are for the wire connection.
9. speaker will come out and you can then unscrew the base screw

 

[Tanatz]

you CAN remove the OEM bases and wallmount them.

1. remove speaker grills
2. pull out black rubber plugs that grill attached to
3. unscrew 4 phillips screws underneath plugs
4. CAREFULLY begin separating silver speaker portion from black casing
5. Be patient and do not apply large amounts of force
6. 2 pieces of double sided tape are used in the center of the speaker to the left and right of the cone
7. the cone is attached to the silver part
8. BEFORE these steps remove screws on back of black casing that are for the wire connection.
9. speaker will come out and you can then unscrew the base screw

Guh, that sounds a bit intense. I'd rather not disassemble the unit, but I appreciate the help.

Besides, there is some sort of glue covering the philips head screw which would prevent me from unscrewing the mount anyway.

I need some sort of socket wrench screwdriver, ya dig?

 

[Tanatz]

2) It's official - Windows sounds come through when MP3s are playing ( Pro Logic Music setting ), but not when...they're not....

Logically speaking, why would this happen?

 

[Viperman5000]

Ask yourself this: If music comes out and sounds fine, do I really need to know when someone logs in/out of AIM?

 

[Asian Dub Foundation]

i wallmounted mine with the stands just fine. just take a little finese and a thin and long screwdriver

 

[Tanatz]

Ask yourself this: If music comes out and sounds fine, do I really need to know when someone logs in/out of AIM?

I prefer things working as intended, call me crazy.~

 

[alg7_munif]

2) It's official - Windows sounds come through when MP3s are playing ( Pro Logic Music setting ), but not when...they're not....

Logically speaking, why would this happen?

The receiver needs some time to detect and recognise what type of signal(Stereo PCM/Dolby Digital/DTS) from the digital input. Your sound card didn't send a constant continous signal through the digital output. When there is no sound, the sound card stop sending any signal and the receiver goes back into standby mode. Windows sounds are short sound, by the time the receiver recognises the signal type, the sound has already stoped.

 

[Tanatz]

The receiver needs some time to detect and recognise what type of signal(Stereo PCM/Dolby Digital/DTS) from the digital input. Your sound card didn't send a constant continous signal through the digital output. When there is no sound, the sound card stop sending any signal and the receiver goes back into standby mode. Windows sounds are short sound, by the time the receiver recognises the signal type, the sound has already stoped.

Sounds like it makes sense tho I've never heard anything like that before.

fyi, I'm not using digital mode, or coax but rather direct sound.

 

[alg7_munif]

If you are using direct sound analogue, I don't think that you will have this problem. I only had this problem with my Z-5400 before when using digital with my old sound card, my new sound card can send continous signal so the speaker is always ready. I've read before that the Z-5500 had problems with inteference, maybe logitech make the latest batch of the speaker to "turn itself off" when there is no significant sound from the input, or maybe not...

Edit: You said that you didn't get the sound when using Pro Logic, don't use the Pro Logic with 6-channel direct, just use the direct mode and set up your player(winamp,foobar2000 etc) to output a 6-channel sound. Some players also have build in prologic option. Pro Logic is only used to simulate 2-channel sound to surround.

 

[Tanatz]

Edit: You said that you didn't get the sound when using Pro Logic, don't use the Pro Logic with 6-channel direct, just use the direct mode and set up your player(winamp,foobar2000 etc) to output a 6-channel sound. Some players also have build in prologic option. Pro Logic is only used to simulate 2-channel sound to surround.

I was considering using 6-channel rather than Pro Logic Music but I could have sworn MP3s did not sound as good. Is there any reason for this? Maybe I just need to readjust some settings once I switch to 6-channel?

I use WMP11 by the way.

 

[alg7_munif]

Did you get MP3 playing in surround when using 6-channel? Why not you try using another player, maybe WMP11 can't simulate a surround sound from 2 channel source as good as Pro logic.

 

[Tanatz]

Yes, it came through in surround, just not as "full" as it sounded in Pro Logic Music.


I will try WinAmp tonight. Any other suggestions for a player?

 

[Viperman5000]

iTunes FTW.

 

[alg7_munif]

Foobar2000 is a good player but I prefer winamp just because I didn't have much time to customize foobar2000.

 

[Tanatz]

There are lots of different ways to affect the sound that comes through your speakers. For example, in my case, using WMP I have in the Windows Volume Control Panel the Bass and Treble sliders. Then, WMP has it's own EQ and SRS WOW effects. Then, there is the EQ in the Creative Console, THX Effects, EAX effects, 24bit crystalizer. Etc., etc., etc.!

When I first purchased these speakers I had all these settings going and the sound coming through the satellites sounded ugly. My roommate told me to completely disable the EQ in WMP and just use the EQ in the Creative Console and that worked wonders. It's almost if there was too much sound coming through the speakers which made it sound all farty and crackly.

My question is do you guys notice one player creating better sound for your setup than others? Logically speaking, if I were to disable the EQ in WMP and WinAmp and just use the Windows Volume Control Panel settings to adjust overall system Bass and Treble, and also use the EQ, 24bit crystalizer, EAX and THX settings found in the Creative Control panel, then the player I choose should have no effect, correct? It's essentially simply an alternate interface? Or does each player somehow render the sound differently from one another?

In the past I've stuck to Windows Media player because I always thought it sounded the best, especially with the SRS WOW effects. But since I've gotten my new sound card I've been in the hunt for a less bulky media player that didn't sacrafice any sound quality.

 

[rblews]

As hard as I have tried, I can hear no difference between the 6Ch Direct and the PLII Music settings. I hear very noticeable differences between the other settings, so I don't think my ears are not too bad. Excepting our ears, our audio system appears to be identical in all other respects. I keep my control on the 6 Ch Direct effect setting, and get all my music from URGE (wma) using WMP11. I tried the digital coax out from the sound card, but didn't notice a big enough difference to warrant switching back and forth between digital and annalog (for games, where the X-fi rules).

 

[alg7_munif]

Tanatz,

Different player use different method to simulate a surround sound from a stereo source(here MP3).

rblews,

There is a big difference between analogue and digital from the X-Fi. The 6 ch direct input is a discreet 6-channel sound and digital is only 2-channel.

 

[DaCoOlNeSs]

come to think of it, do they even MAKE 5.1 digital output PC sound cards? I want 5.1 but I want digital too!

 

[alg7_munif]

Yes they do(but not Creative), have you ever heard of Dolby Digital/DTS encoding? If you have never heard of it then this is the time for you to read the first post of my thread about the X-Meridian, there I've posted some cards with DD/DTS encoding.

 

[rblews]

If the music is MP3 (i.e. URGE wma), then I don't think it makes much difference whether the upmixing to 5.1 is performed by the X-Fi card (annalog) or the Z5500 receiver if using a digital coax connection.

I agree, however, that if your sound source is DVD or Xbox360, then the digital connection is the way to go-- and, in that event, one can connect directly to the Z5500.

 

[alg7_munif]

Sorry, you are right, for music upmixing it doesn't makes much different. What I meant by the big difference is if you are listening to a discreet surround source(i.e anime, WMV HD etc)