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you guys were right

E

eggyhustles

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 3, 2008
Messages
101
the z5500 sure do suck. i got some from a friend yesterday and decided to play around with them in my room. the bass absolute sucks. it's muddy and i swear i heard it playing mids. the bass from my old jvc shelf system sounded alot cleaner and got 3x louder. i can't even get walls to vibrate with this sub. the mids also suck too..made my ears fatigue quickly :mad:
 
You can't make the walls vibrate? You were obiously using/setting up the Z5500's wrong.

They may not create the best sounding bass, but they can PUMP alot of volume. You realize that the Z5500's have a shit load of settings on the controller, right?

I'm not saying they are the best speakers ever made, but for the price they are good, and they can produce alot good house shaking thumping. Sounds like you had your mind set up before you ever tried them.
 
Chilly said:
You can't make the walls vibrate? You were obiously using/setting up the Z5500's wrong.

They may not create the best sounding bass, but they can PUMP alot of volume. You realize that the Z5500's have a shit load of settings on the controller, right?

I'm not saying they are the best speakers ever made, but for the price they are good, and they can produce alot good house shaking thumping. Sounds like you had your mind set up before you ever tried them.
Click to expand...

these are what the settings are set at now...it's on 6ch direct via analog

huliko.jpg


i took bass redirection off and the bass got a little deeper but it's not shaking walls
 
Disable 3d sound. I've found 3D sound usually introduces a lot of distortion. Probably not playing well with your z5500s.
 
Your bass is jacked up too high and disable bass redirection because the Z5500's receiver thing will sort that out itself. I usually leave my bass at %50 or the middle and then bump up the trebel about 3/4 the way. I wouldn't at all recommend CMSS-3D, that'll definitely add more noise.

The Z5500's aren't great but you can make them sound good.
 
I dunno if it's just me, but CMSS is not made for music, only gaming. And even then it sounded bad. I've pretty much disabled most of Soundblaster's BS, and my Z-2300's are serviceable. Not great by any means, but I'm not a big spender when it comes to audio. E.g. my first and last headphone purchase are MDR-V6's + Beyer Pads.
 
What about the settings ON the actually Z-5500? have you set it in one of its "modes" or is everything on defaults? Like others have said, the Z5500's aren't anything special but they do sound decent and with some tweaking can be made to sound decently good.

That, and everyone I know with a Z5500 can easily shake the whole house. They may not be the most detailed sounding, but they can thump, and thump hard. Maybe the built in amp or DAC is defective somehow?
 
Funny someone said the Z-5500 sucks but he likes CMSS 3D, please don't tell me that you are using 128kbps MP3s as well.
 
As a general comment, your master volume is jacked up to maximum, and this will introduce distortion too. Set it at around 75 to 80 percent, and compensate somewhere else (logitech controls) if you need to.
 
Last edited:
HAh, I just looked at the EQ settings, turn the 125Hz down to about half-way and make sure you don't have bass boost enabled. You're going overkill on the low-end, that would make any speakers sound like crap.
 
alg7_munif said:
Funny someone said the Z-5500 sucks but he likes CMSS 3D, please don't tell me that you are using 128kbps MP3s as well.
Click to expand...

flac :D



djoye said:
HAh, I just looked at the EQ settings, turn the 125Hz down to about half-way and make sure you don't have bass boost enabled. You're going overkill on the low-end, that would make any speakers sound like crap.
Click to expand...

i went overkill on the low end because i wasn't getting any low end...sub really didn't get low..

Chilly said:
What about the settings ON the actually Z-5500? have you set it in one of its "modes" or is everything on defaults? Like others have said, the Z5500's aren't anything special but they do sound decent and with some tweaking can be made to sound decently good.

That, and everyone I know with a Z5500 can easily shake the whole house. They may not be the most detailed sounding, but they can thump, and thump hard. Maybe the built in amp or DAC is defective somehow?
Click to expand...

on the z5500 the settings are.

input- direct(analog)
effect- 6 ch direct
level- sub is highest setting, surround is at highest setting, and so is center.

i think the amp may be defective..no matter how the settings are, the sub will not thump. i even installed my ht omega striker, went digital and the same issues apply.
 
I'll admit that my z5500s are definitely not the best speakers in the world, but if you can't shake the house something is definitely wrong.

first, drop the three logitech settings to middle. i usually leave surround dead center with the little + sign, and i drop center and sub down to 3 full bars. instead of having them at max, just increase your overall volume. if you find that there isnt enough bass, crank the sub a little.

if you have the center and surround too high maxed at the same level as the sub, you probably have to stop increasing max volume sooner because of how loud the satellites are.

+1 regarding 3D settings and having pc volume maxed.

sidenote, i'm using onboard audio from an old a8n32 sli deluxe, so i cant imagine not being able to make the z5500s sound decent.
 
what else can i do to make these sound a little bit decent? gun shots and explosions in movies sound horrible..
 
Sell them for $200 and buy some nice studio monitors. Your ears will thank you.
 
i have z680's -the precurser to the 5500. maybe not audiophile speakers but they can shake the walls easily!
 
My Z5500 sub gets low enough for it not being all that great. You just need to play a song and then play with all of the settings until you find what works.

If it's bottoming-out then either it's blown or your settings are overdriving it. Also, I wouldn't recommend sitting right next to it. You'll get the most bass by putting it at a small distance and also don't block the port on the side. Mine is in a corner about 3 feet away. The back is facing the corner kinda like this: corner < [back of sub, and the sub kinda pointing at me with the port angled at the wall (the bass will bounce off the wall). It's kinda directional so you'll need to figure out the best way to position it to get that bass going towards you.
 
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