N00Bish audio question

[Sovereign]

I got my Logitech Z5500s today! Now, I know absolutely nothing about computer audio/home audio. I know to do my research, however, and for my case I found out that the Z5500s are the best fit for me.

Now, I have an X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card. What settings should I use to get the best boom for my buck? I do music, movies and games, and I don't care if I have to switch settings all the time to get the best sound for each.

 

[SineDave]

As far as settings I assume you are referring to both the speakers and the sound card?

For music/movies i would recommend that you connect the speakers digitally (if available), with the sub set to about 2.5 bars, center on 6, and surrounds on 6. Make sure night mode is off and adjust the volume however you please. For your sound card the only notable change to make is to use analog connections while gaming for EAX to be fully enjoyed. You can of course play with your EQ but i'm not sure about creative EQ with these speakers.

 

[Audioguy]

If you go fully digital with the X-fi and this speaker system you will be limited to stereo ONLY. When playing games or music or movies except if they have been encoded with DD or DTS depending on what the speakers can decode. It is a limitation of the X-fi's Your better off to just connect up with analog cables and enjoy surround all the time.

 

[Odin75]

Well, I currently have the X-Fi XtremeMusic, so I can only talk about that.
For music, I put it on "entertainment mode".
Set the CMSS-3D to "Stereo Surround", and make sure the slider is in the middle between FRONT and SURROUND. Enable the 24-bit Crystalizer and set it to MAXIMUM. Set SVM OFF. The rest I left it default.
For games, use the same method pretty much. But make sure to change it to "Game Mode" before loading the game, not while it's running. Then, in games that support EAX, like Battlefield 2142, set the Audio Renderer to X-Fi, that way you can set it up to "Ultra High" quality.
I mean, this are the settings I use. Some other people might even tweak it more, and get more out their setup.

 

[Sovereign]

Thanks, I just was wondering about equalizer settings as well, because some people say if you don't equalize it manually it doesn't sound as good...

 

[Odin75]

Thanks, I just was wondering about equalizer settings as well, because some people say if you don't equalize it manually it doesn't sound as good...

That is very true my friend. I was using everything default for about a year, thinking that the card will configure itself for optimal quality, and that I just needed to change between MODE's. But how wrong I was. One day I though to myself: "was the X-fi really worth the money?". And then thanks to reading something in this forum I learned that I had to modify some stuff, and BOALA!...The X-Fi came to life. Now, I ask myself again the same question, but my answer this time is "Hell Yeah!".
Don't get my wrong, there might be better cards, but I'm a really happy X-Fi owner. Never had a problem.

By the way, how are those Z-5500? I'm about to pull the trigger on one of those in about 3 weeks when I build my new rig. Are they what you were waiting for?