Man, what the hell is wrong with my new Z-5500's????

[iamtrout]

So I got the Z-5500's a couple of days ago. I was excited as hell.

Hooked them up to my Audigy 2, played a bass track, and was not inpressed at ALL. My old 8" Z-2200 sub hit harder. No walls shaking. No windows rattling.

So today I hooked up ONLY the subwoofer RCA wire to my MP3 player, and played "I Against I" (Mos Def, Massive Attack).

I turned the surroud volume all the way down.
Sub volume all the way up.
Overall volume ALL the way up.

Same thing. Weak as hell. I mean, the bass was still there, but not nearly as much as I thought it would be.

It's in the center of the room, not in a corner or anything to resonate, but still... this just sounds so weak....

 

[Excelsior]

uh..is it broken?

 

[TheChort]

General Hardware forum?

 

[BrokenVisage]

The sub needs to be broken in.

 

[iamtrout]

Originally posted by: BrokenVisage
The sub needs to be broken in.

But is it THAT weak before being broken in?

 

[iamtrout]

Originally posted by: TheChort
General Hardware forum?

Meh *shrugs*

I've always placed my speaker questions here... :/

 

[laurenlex]

Wild ass guess: Perhaps the wires are incorrect and is is firing out of phase?

 

[mrSHEiK124]

I dunno about you, but my Z-5500 sub hits every bass note just fine, and it f'ing hits hard. Maybe yours is defective?

 

[chuckywang]

Audigy2....there's your problem.

 

[Merlyn3D]

Maybe the 5500's just suck

 

[iamtrout]

Damn. Does Dell charge you to ship back defective products for exchange?

 

[Howard]

Probably defective, or you put it in a massive null. Have you tried moving it?

 

[JME Fidelity]

well for one your mp3 player is not going to be powerful enough to amplify a signal much with any authoritive bass.

and no the audigy 2 is not his problem..I use an audigy 2 with my pb10-isd and its knocked many things off my shelf.

 

[acemcmac]

Originally posted by: chuckywang
Audigy2....there's your problem.

I highly doubt it. The Audigy 2 ZS is one of the best sound cards ever made. I'd call it the best, but I'm sure theres a million-dollar professional sound card out there. I'm almost postive he set it up wrong...

 

[acemcmac]

Originally posted by: JME Fidelity
well for one your mp3 player is not going to be powerful enough to amplify a signal much with any authoritive bass.

and no the audigy 2 is not his problem..I use an audigy 2 with my pb10-isd and its knocked many things off my shelf.

The speaker system has it's own amp. I've used the creative mp3 thumbdrive with my Z680's (not far removed from the speaker set the OP is talking about) and I get the same results as my audigy 2.

 

[acemcmac]

oh wait. I forgot that the newer logitechs use RCA... mine just uses speaker wire.... I have no idea what could be wrong lol...

do you really think it's defective or are you just peing a pain in the ass?

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Originally posted by: acemcmac

Originally posted by: chuckywang
Audigy2....there's your problem.

I highly doubt it. The Audigy 2 ZS is one of the best sound cards ever made. I'd call it the best, but I'm sure theres a million-dollar professional sound card out there. I'm almost postive he set it up wrong...

I don't think he means that. Audigy2 is a great card, but knowing Creative it's rather buggy.

Go to volume control, and in advanced I think there should be a Sub volume. On my Z640's the sub is TOO powerful, so it's down almost all the way (the volume control of the sub is down to 0%, but the volume on the volumecontrol is at the default 50%)

 

[iamtrout]

Originally posted by: acemcmac

Originally posted by: chuckywang
Audigy2....there's your problem.

I highly doubt it. The Audigy 2 ZS is one of the best sound cards ever made. I'd call it the best, but I'm sure theres a million-dollar professional sound card out there. I'm almost postive he set it up wrong...

I don't see how. There's only three wires to connect.

Just now, I connected JUST the sub wire to the Audigy, and it did the same thing as it did with my MP3 player. I could crank the sub and main volume all the way up and it still sounds really mediocre.

 

[acemcmac]

Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy

Originally posted by: acemcmac

Originally posted by: chuckywang
Audigy2....there's your problem.

I highly doubt it. The Audigy 2 ZS is one of the best sound cards ever made. I'd call it the best, but I'm sure theres a million-dollar professional sound card out there. I'm almost postive he set it up wrong...

I don't think he means that. Audigy2 is a great card, but knowing Creative it's rather buggy.

Go to volume control, and in advanced I think there should be a Sub volume. On my Z640's the sub is TOO powerful, so it's down almost all the way (the volume control of the sub is down to 0%, but the volume on the volumecontrol is at the default 50%)

When I got my Z680's, I still lived in a dorm. I lived one the third floor in the west wing. One saturday morning, the girl I was dating was working the front desk on the ground floor in the east wing and she could hear my sound system....

everyone knows that these systems throw off disgusting amounts of bass

I think the OP is just being retarded...

 

[iamtrout]

Originally posted by: acemcmac
oh wait. I forgot that the newer logitechs use RCA... mine just uses speaker wire.... I have no idea what could be wrong lol...

do you really think it's defective or are you just peing a pain in the ass?

No, these ones use speaker wire. They USED to use RCA, but then they switched to speaker wire.

I have no idea what's wrong either. I wish I knew someone who has the same set so that I can hear for myself what they're supposed to sound like.

I'm not railing on Logitech - I have their Z-2200's which are excellent, hence the reason for me staying with Logitech.

 

[iamtrout]

Originally posted by: acemcmac

When I got my Z680's, I still lived in a dorm. I lived one the third floor in the west wing. One saturday morning, the girl I was dating was working the front desk on the ground floor in the east wing and she could hear my sound system....

everyone knows that these systems throw off disgusting amounts of bass

I think the OP is just being retarded...

Oh, so it can't POSSIBLY be a defect, right? It HAS to be because I'm RETARDED. :roll:

 

[JME Fidelity]

um maybe the bass is just more accurate? And not boomy..muddy sht. But all logitech subwoofers are boomy and muddy, so I dont know what the problem is.

 

[newParadigm]

thats disapointing, the z5500's are down to what i paid for my 5300's.

~new

 

[Cashmoney995]

I just bought them from dell, and I find the bass to be INCREDIBLY responsive, and NOT MUDDY at all. Sure its not horattlin crazy...but the bass is more than enough to satisfy me, not to mention it just sounds so dam good! I can't wait to purchase a X-fi card in a couple months for some beautiful audio. IMO the Z-5500's are some of the best speakers you can buy...anything more and its just all $$$ out your pocket for undetectable difference.

 

[Tiamat]

If you need more bass, you need something like the Wilson XS subwoofer. JUST KIDDING

Hmm, if the subwoofer isn't at fault, try placing it where you normally sit. Crawl along the floor to find the spot that gives you the best bass. When you find that spot, place the sub there and your listening position will have the good quality bass.

Also, make sure you arent just passing the center channel info to it. I did that once and all the sub was playing was midrange LOL. Recheck your wiring, you might have one of the cables flipped.

Also, check to see you have updated drivers for your sound card. Secondly, make sure it is configured for 5.1 analog playback (if you are using the 3 RCA wires).

Good luck!