If you own X-fi and Z-5500 help me NOW

[ta8689]

My X-fi platinum is in the mail (for it for 99 bucks on ebay) and I bought my z-5500's this morning off a friend that parted his computer out (150 bucks). I want some help on all these modes and crap on here. Like should I just set the speakers to 6 channel direct and then mess with everything in the x-fi controls? And one more question to those of you with an X-fi platinum or better, the front control panel... how far do the knobs stick out? Because i think theres about a pencil width and a half worth of space between my drives and my case door. Thanks

 

[PurdueRy]

Use 6-channel direct mode always...simplest and best connection for the X-fi.

 

[ta8689]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
Use 6-channel direct mode always...simplest and best connection for the X-fi.

ok, so what levels should I set the sub, center and satellite's to?
edit:sp

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Yeah, using anything else would be a waste of your card.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
Use 6-channel direct mode always...simplest and best connection for the X-fi.

ok, so what levels shold I set the sub, center and satellite's to?

That would be based off distance from your listening position if you're talking about volume levels.

 

[ta8689]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Yeah, using anything else would be a waste of your card.

heh, ok. is this a good setup?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Yeah, using anything else would be a waste of your card.

heh, ok. is this a good setup?

I guess that all depends on who you ask. Mine's not to a good number of people.

 

[ta8689]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Yeah, using anything else would be a waste of your card.

heh, ok. is this a good setup?

I guess that all depends on who you ask. Mine's not to a good number of people.

Well as I spent 250 bucks for everything, would YOU call this a good setup?

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Yeah, using anything else would be a waste of your card.

heh, ok. is this a good setup?

I guess that all depends on who you ask. Mine's not to a good number of people.

Well as I spent 250 bucks for everything, would YOU call this a good setup?

I would say its pretty decent

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Yeah, using anything else would be a waste of your card.

heh, ok. is this a good setup?

I guess that all depends on who you ask. Mine's not to a good number of people.

Well as I spent 250 bucks for everything, would YOU call this a good setup?

For Anandtech average, I'd say pretty good. I would guess you're in the top ~20% around here.
I would not be happy with it.
In the overall picture I'd call it entry level.

Are you talking about how you did for the price of the quality of your components?

 

[ta8689]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Yeah, using anything else would be a waste of your card.

heh, ok. is this a good setup?

I guess that all depends on who you ask. Mine's not to a good number of people.

Well as I spent 250 bucks for everything, would YOU call this a good setup?

For Anandtech average, I'd say pretty good. I would guess you're in the top ~20% around here.
I would not be happy with it.
In the overall picture I'd call it entry level.

Are you talking about how you did for the price of the quality of your components?

Well Coming from x-530's connected to onboard 7.1 on my a8n-sli premium to this is a bit of a difference. Im not asking If I just bought The best speakers on the face of the planet, Im just asking if I should be pleased with this (and I mean especially for spending 250 instead of... 460 or whatever it would have normally cost me)

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Yeah, using anything else would be a waste of your card.

heh, ok. is this a good setup?

I guess that all depends on who you ask. Mine's not to a good number of people.

Well as I spent 250 bucks for everything, would YOU call this a good setup?

For Anandtech average, I'd say pretty good. I would guess you're in the top ~20% around here.
I would not be happy with it.
In the overall picture I'd call it entry level.

Are you talking about how you did for the price of the quality of your components?

Well Coming from x-530's connected to onboard 7.1 on my a8n-sli premium to this is a bit of a difference. Im not asking If I just bought The best speakers on the face of the planet, Im just asking if I should be pleased with this (and I mean especially for spending 250 instead of... 460 or whatever it would have normally cost me)

If you're happy with it, then I guess that's all that matters.

I guess if you're asking for a pat on the back you're asking the wrong guy 😉
I started with Logitech z-560s and those made me happy for a while but I kept on wanting more. $4500+ later I'm fairly stable now for liking what I have. I know a lot of people would be totally satisfied with the stuff you have and I know a lot of people wouldn't be happy. I was one of the people that was happy with that sort of system for a while and have since moved on.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Yeah, using anything else would be a waste of your card.

heh, ok. is this a good setup?

I guess that all depends on who you ask. Mine's not to a good number of people.

Well as I spent 250 bucks for everything, would YOU call this a good setup?

For Anandtech average, I'd say pretty good. I would guess you're in the top ~20% around here.
I would not be happy with it.
In the overall picture I'd call it entry level.

Are you talking about how you did for the price of the quality of your components?

Well Coming from x-530's connected to onboard 7.1 on my a8n-sli premium to this is a bit of a difference. Im not asking If I just bought The best speakers on the face of the planet, Im just asking if I should be pleased with this (and I mean especially for spending 250 instead of... 460 or whatever it would have normally cost me)

If you're happy with it, then I guess that's all that matters.

I guess if you're asking for a pat on the back you're asking the wrong guy 😉
I started with Logitech z-560s and those made me happy for a while but I kept on wanting more. $4500+ later I'm fairly stable now for liking what I have. I know a lot of people would be totally satisfied with the stuff you have and I know a lot of people wouldn't be happy. I was one of the people that was happy with that sort of system for a while and have since moved on.

I am one of those people who is unsatisfied with what he currently has but doesn't have the funds to change that 😛

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Yeah, using anything else would be a waste of your card.

heh, ok. is this a good setup?

I guess that all depends on who you ask. Mine's not to a good number of people.

Well as I spent 250 bucks for everything, would YOU call this a good setup?

For Anandtech average, I'd say pretty good. I would guess you're in the top ~20% around here.
I would not be happy with it.
In the overall picture I'd call it entry level.

Are you talking about how you did for the price of the quality of your components?

Well Coming from x-530's connected to onboard 7.1 on my a8n-sli premium to this is a bit of a difference. Im not asking If I just bought The best speakers on the face of the planet, Im just asking if I should be pleased with this (and I mean especially for spending 250 instead of... 460 or whatever it would have normally cost me)

If you're happy with it, then I guess that's all that matters.

I guess if you're asking for a pat on the back you're asking the wrong guy 😉
I started with Logitech z-560s and those made me happy for a while but I kept on wanting more. $4500+ later I'm fairly stable now for liking what I have. I know a lot of people would be totally satisfied with the stuff you have and I know a lot of people wouldn't be happy. I was one of the people that was happy with that sort of system for a while and have since moved on.

I am one of those people who is unsatisfied with what he currently has but doesn't have the funds to change that 😛

There's always something to upgrade 😉
I think I'm going to go for the https://svsound.com/products-parts-plus12_3woofer2.cfm">12.3 driver upgrade</a> just for the heck of it sooner or later 😛

Just for fun I added up the "what I could have paid" price for my stuff and it was over $7k 😱
You'd have to be pretty unobservant to pay full retail for everything I got though 😛

EDIT: Sorry I'm messing up your thread, ta8689

 

[ta8689]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Yeah, using anything else would be a waste of your card.

heh, ok. is this a good setup?

I guess that all depends on who you ask. Mine's not to a good number of people.

Well as I spent 250 bucks for everything, would YOU call this a good setup?

For Anandtech average, I'd say pretty good. I would guess you're in the top ~20% around here.
I would not be happy with it.
In the overall picture I'd call it entry level.

Are you talking about how you did for the price of the quality of your components?

Well Coming from x-530's connected to onboard 7.1 on my a8n-sli premium to this is a bit of a difference. Im not asking If I just bought The best speakers on the face of the planet, Im just asking if I should be pleased with this (and I mean especially for spending 250 instead of... 460 or whatever it would have normally cost me)

If you're happy with it, then I guess that's all that matters.

I guess if you're asking for a pat on the back you're asking the wrong guy 😉
I started with Logitech z-560s and those made me happy for a while but I kept on wanting more. $4500+ later I'm fairly stable now for liking what I have. I know a lot of people would be totally satisfied with the stuff you have and I know a lot of people wouldn't be happy. I was one of the people that was happy with that sort of system for a while and have since moved on.

I am one of those people who is unsatisfied with what he currently has but doesn't have the funds to change that 😛

There's always something to upgrade 😉
I think I'm going to go for the https://svsound.com/products-parts-plus12_3woofer2.cfm">12.3 driver upgrade</a> just for the heck of it sooner or later 😛

Just for fun I added up the "what I could have paid" price for my stuff and it was over $7k 😱
You'd have to be pretty unobservant to pay full retail for everything I got though 😛

EDIT: Sorry I'm messing up your thread, ta8689

bah, its fine. You helped me well and you can have the thread now 🙂 Ill go to bed tonight not feeling as thogh i threw my money away

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

If you want to get the best results from your stuff now, try to get some good placement going. At the very least, don't have all five speakers lines up in front of you on your desk like I've seen a lot of people do 😛

Try to get all the speakers pointed towards you and close to ear level. Try to have each be the same distance away from you in the listening position. Play around with the sub positioning too. It's more difficult to get good results with a computer speaker sub since it's crossed over so high that you need to worry about sounds being localized to wherever you have the sub.

After you set the speakers up, try to get them to be equal volume using test tones through your X-Fi. If you want to get fancy, you can get an SPL meter to test this and help you with some equalization if you want to mess with that.

EDIT: I move often enough that I haven't even bothered doing it in quite a while. I'm moving again on Wednesday 🙁

 

[ta8689]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
If you want to get the best results from your stuff now, try to get some good placement going. At the very least, don't have all five speakers lines up in front of you on your desk like I've seen a lot of people do 😛

Try to get all the speakers pointed towards you and close to ear level. Try to have each be the same distance away from you in the listening position. Play around with the sub positioning too. It's more difficult to get good results with a computer speaker sub since it's crossed over so high that you need to worry about sounds being localized to wherever you have the sub.

After you set the speakers up, try to get them to be equal volume using test tones through your X-Fi. If you want to get fancy, you can get an SPL meter to test this and help you with some equalization if you want to mess with that.

EDIT: I move often enough that I haven't even bothered doing it in quite a while. I'm moving again on Wednesday 🙁

ok, I had this already done with the exception of my rears. My bed is directly behind my compuer desk, so they are screwed to the wall about nose height standing up. The center is above my monitor, screwed up side down to the hutch on the computer desk (like the x-530 in my "my pc" pic in my sig) and its pointing at my face. btw, where ya moving to?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
If you want to get the best results from your stuff now, try to get some good placement going. At the very least, don't have all five speakers lines up in front of you on your desk like I've seen a lot of people do 😛

Try to get all the speakers pointed towards you and close to ear level. Try to have each be the same distance away from you in the listening position. Play around with the sub positioning too. It's more difficult to get good results with a computer speaker sub since it's crossed over so high that you need to worry about sounds being localized to wherever you have the sub.

After you set the speakers up, try to get them to be equal volume using test tones through your X-Fi. If you want to get fancy, you can get an SPL meter to test this and help you with some equalization if you want to mess with that.

EDIT: I move often enough that I haven't even bothered doing it in quite a while. I'm moving again on Wednesday 🙁

ok, I had this already done with the exception of my rears. My bed is directly behind my compuer desk, so they are screwed to the wall about nose height standing up. The center is above my monitor, screwed up side down to the hutch on the computer desk (like the x-530 in my "my pc" pic in my sig) and its pointing at my face. btw, where ya moving to?

Just got back from a vacation in Colorado this afternoon 🙂 and I'm moving from Milwaukee WI to Madison WI for the school year. I'm not looking forward to packing up all this crap.
EDIT: quick little addition looks like around 600 pounds of audio crap 🙁

 

[ta8689]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
If you want to get the best results from your stuff now, try to get some good placement going. At the very least, don't have all five speakers lines up in front of you on your desk like I've seen a lot of people do 😛

Try to get all the speakers pointed towards you and close to ear level. Try to have each be the same distance away from you in the listening position. Play around with the sub positioning too. It's more difficult to get good results with a computer speaker sub since it's crossed over so high that you need to worry about sounds being localized to wherever you have the sub.

After you set the speakers up, try to get them to be equal volume using test tones through your X-Fi. If you want to get fancy, you can get an SPL meter to test this and help you with some equalization if you want to mess with that.

EDIT: I move often enough that I haven't even bothered doing it in quite a while. I'm moving again on Wednesday 🙁

ok, I had this already done with the exception of my rears. My bed is directly behind my compuer desk, so they are screwed to the wall about nose height standing up. The center is above my monitor, screwed up side down to the hutch on the computer desk (like the x-530 in my "my pc" pic in my sig) and its pointing at my face. btw, where ya moving to?

Just got back from a vacation in Colorado this afternoon 🙂 and I'm moving from Milwaukee WI to Madison WI for the school year. I'm not looking forward to packing up all this crap.

Ah, cool. Ive been through there a bunch of times. Hope you like your new place.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: ta8689

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
If you want to get the best results from your stuff now, try to get some good placement going. At the very least, don't have all five speakers lines up in front of you on your desk like I've seen a lot of people do 😛

Try to get all the speakers pointed towards you and close to ear level. Try to have each be the same distance away from you in the listening position. Play around with the sub positioning too. It's more difficult to get good results with a computer speaker sub since it's crossed over so high that you need to worry about sounds being localized to wherever you have the sub.

After you set the speakers up, try to get them to be equal volume using test tones through your X-Fi. If you want to get fancy, you can get an SPL meter to test this and help you with some equalization if you want to mess with that.

EDIT: I move often enough that I haven't even bothered doing it in quite a while. I'm moving again on Wednesday 🙁

ok, I had this already done with the exception of my rears. My bed is directly behind my compuer desk, so they are screwed to the wall about nose height standing up. The center is above my monitor, screwed up side down to the hutch on the computer desk (like the x-530 in my "my pc" pic in my sig) and its pointing at my face. btw, where ya moving to?

Just got back from a vacation in Colorado this afternoon 🙂 and I'm moving from Milwaukee WI to Madison WI for the school year. I'm not looking forward to packing up all this crap.

Ah, cool. Ive been through there a bunch of times. Hope you like your new place.

Thanks. I'm acutally heading up there with Ladybuggy tomorrow afternoon with the second load of stuff. I think it's going to be pretty much all her stuff though. Going to have to wait for the truck to move my stuff ( the screen and bed especially 😉 )

 

[FP]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
Use 6-channel direct mode always...simplest and best connection for the X-fi.

I would disagree.

Those speakers have a Dolby II Music setting that plays the music out of all 5 speakers instead of just 2. I use it whenever I am listening to music.

For movies and games however 6-channel is the way to go.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: binister

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
Use 6-channel direct mode always...simplest and best connection for the X-fi.

I would disagree.

Those speakers have a Dolby II Music setting that plays the music out of all 5 speakers instead of just 2. I use it whenever I am listening to music.

For movies and games however 6-channel is the way to go.

But then you're ruining the soundstage and whatnot 😛
I guess I've just never been too impressed by any of the surround faking modes out there.

 

[amheck]

OP, I'm just curious. Why do you need such urgent help? You don't even have all of your equipment, but you rudely ask for help "NOW"?

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: binister

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
Use 6-channel direct mode always...simplest and best connection for the X-fi.

I would disagree.

Those speakers have a Dolby II Music setting that plays the music out of all 5 speakers instead of just 2. I use it whenever I am listening to music.

For movies and games however 6-channel is the way to go.

In that case use either the player's or Creatives software to enable PLII-like qualities. That way you get all the quality of an analog connection...and the 5.1 fakeness that you like 😛

 

[ta8689]

Originally posted by: amheck
OP, I'm just curious. Why do you need such urgent help? You don't even have all of your equipment, but you rudely ask for help "NOW"?

because if i make it sound urgent, then people will reply. And it is urgent. I want to know NOW. 🙂 I hate waiting