Need z5500 replacement advice!

[wasteomind]

So it seems like my faithful old Logitech Z5500 sound system is on its way out. The control module has some flickering in the LCD panel, and the sound is cutting out more and more lately, and for longer periods of time. I've had these for 8+ years now I think?

Now as I am considering a placement I am thinking of going with something a little higher quality. I'm not by any means an audiophile, but I do appreciate better quality. I saw the z906 but that was a step back in quality in my opinion so kinda off the table. I want something comparable or better than my current z5500 without breaking the bank.

Now in the past I've tried messing with using optical/toslink from my pc to the z5500 and discovered that 5.1 sound in games didn't work. My understanding was it needed some encoding trickery to pass the info on to the head unit via optical out, but after playing with it some I was less than impressed with the spotty nature of it. I fear moving away from the multichannel 3.5mm analog outputs because I only game on this PC, and don't want to have sound issues with positional audio. I hear HDMI out via a gpu doesn't have this issue, and can be paired with any capable receiver and still get 5.1 surround in games with no hoops to jump through. Doing so would obviously render my Xonar DX sound card useless unless for headphones I guess.

So that all said I guess my question is this: Is my understanding of using HDMI correct to get 5.1 surround from gaming? Will I have any issues using the sound output via HDMI when running 680s in sli (not using surround)?

Assuming it is all a go, what all in one solution is a good start to a comparable or upgraded experience vs my current z5500? I've seen the Onkyo HT-S3500 recommended a few places, but didn't really dig into it to find out details. Is there a better solution grabbing individual components while keeping it in the sub $500 range?

 

[JohnleMVP]

Yes HDMI doesn't have the same issues as optical needing DD Live or DTS Neo whatever. Your 680 SLI will be fine as long as you avoid NVSurround. I also went from Z5500's to a receiver setup with Energy RC-Micro's. Coming from the Z5500, the RC-Micros seem a bit anemic on the low end. I ended up returning them for slightly larger speakers. That Onkyo setup seems like a good starting place, it's a real receiver so you can upgrade the speakers in the future. However I would personally get a $200 receiver and get better speakers. Maybe that means you only have a 2.1 or 3.1 setup now and later upgrade to a 5.1 when you feel like spending more (or even hold off on the sub until later).

 

[EzdineG]

Yes HDMI doesn't have the same issues as optical needing DD Live or DTS Neo whatever.

Can you elaborate on this? It goes contrary to everything I've ever heard. If the source isn't "encoded" in 5.1, won't it still deliver PCM2.1 like the toslink?

I admit this is somewhat of a black hole to me,
Thanks.

 

[Liggywuh]

Can you elaborate on this? It goes contrary to everything I've ever heard. If the source isn't "encoded" in 5.1, won't it still deliver PCM2.1 like the toslink?

I admit this is somewhat of a black hole to me,
Thanks.

Optical didn't have enough bandwidth to transmit PCM 5.1 channel sound, hence having Dolby Digital and DTS. It did have enough bandwidth for 2 channel PCM though.

HDMI has the ability to transmit many channels of PCM audio.

If you connect the HDMI to the 680 SLI, you will be able to game in 5.1 (or 7.1) with PCM, without the need to encode to DD or DTS.

I hope that made some sense!

 

[wasteomind]

Thanks for the replies on this. The next question I have is I'm looking to possibly upgrade to a gsync monitor when they are released. From the sounds of it, those monitors will be using display port which to my knowledge, no receivers support.

Would I still be able to output sound via HDMI to a receiver by using a clone display mode? Will this cause a performance penalty? Is there a better way?

 

[Armenius]

To my knowledge sound can be output exclusively over HDMI with NVIDIA cards. If a display is created you can use the multiple display section of the control panel and keep it unchecked. If this doesn't work and you do need to do some sort of clone display, performance impact should be minimal, but your video cards will go into 3D power mode even when not gaming with multiple displays.