Pondering a "real" sound setup

[Howard]

That's over simplifying it a lot of course and 5.1 is relatively easy that way.

I'm still curious as why you attacked me in the other thread for no reason to be honest.

You can get your panties unbunched, I meant no offense. It's ridiculous that you cross-posted on that, as if you forgot this forum isn't Off Topic.

 

[TemjinGold]

I wear glasses too, and have several sets of some pretty highly rated headphones but never use them anymore... ever since I started using Etymotics earbuds. They are 100x the comfort. Headphones always hurt me after a little while. My earbuds, I can literally use them for hours and experience no discomfort. I watch movies with them. They aren't cheap, although Etymotics makes cheaper ones than the ER4S and ER4P's I have. There are many other manufacturers of earbuds type headphones, but the Etymotics are the only ones I've used for over 15 years now. Another plus for the Etymotics, they are in my experience incredibly durable. I've stepped on them accidentally dozens of times, I've brought them into the gym literally thousands of times. They last and last. I don't believe I've ever had a cord discontinuity and I used to get those constantly with my other portable headphone systems. I repaired them and repaired them, those are sitting in a drawer or I've given them away since I got my Etymotics.

Good to know! I'm not THAT picky about the audio quality honestly. I like not feeling "chained" to the desk when using the computer.

 

[Muse]

Good to know! I'm not THAT picky about the audio quality honestly. I like not feeling "chained" to the desk when using the computer.

I bought my first set of Etymotics earbuds when I had a full time desk job, I was the only programmer for my company. I was also their database administrator for the mission critical application that drove the business. The soldier level people used that app constantly to keep track of the business. At times things got busy and loud what with conversation, whatever, and I often had to do brain work and I felt I needed protection from the noise. The Etymotics earbuds are very good at blocking out sound, even better than Bose's current expensive and excellent noise cancelling headphones (which are kind of like earbuds too, but don't penetrate the ear canal). I have a set of those Bose, but the only thing I use them for now is taking a nap when there's a lot of ambient noise. For music and movies it's the Etymotics. In the gym, where there's a lot of noise, the Etymotics.

 

[dreadman]

To the OP if you got your Z-5500 control pod working and you're still interested in hooking up the Z-5500 sub to a receiver it can be done.

You'll need a subwoofer cable (plain RCA can work too but the shielding is sometimes poor) and a 3.5mm male to Female RCA adapter.

Attach the adapter to one end of the subwoofer cable.
Plug the other RCA end into your receiver.

Plug the 3.5mm end into the Center/Sub input on the Z-5500 Control Pod.
Make sure the switch is set to 6ch direct and voila! Subwooferage!


You can then use whatever Auto Calibration software is present on your receiver to set things up.


While the sub may be a few steps below the quality of those from other companies, you already have it. No harm in trying it out before you invest in another one.

As for me, I'd love to upgrade to something better however, being out in the Caribbean I'd be looking at close to twice the cost to get it here. 🙁

 

[bransylow]

How about getting a 3.1 or 5.1 that includes a soundbar? In my opinion soundbars are very easy and convenient to set up. And currently there are many out there in the market that come in affordable prices. I myself am looking for one too 🙂

 

[Aikouka]

How about getting a 3.1 or 5.1 that includes a soundbar? In my opinion soundbars are very easy and convenient to set up. And currently there are many out there in the market that come in affordable prices. I myself am looking for one too 🙂

I was looking at soundbars to potentially work with my kitchen HTPC because the monitor's built-in speakers are back-firing and there was no wall behind it (so the sound was just bad). One of the biggest issues is that any good soundbar started to get quite expensive in price... especially if you wanted "fancier" features like HDMI connectivity. Keep in mind that soundbars also use small speakers, which can limit their overall capability. The size of the speaker should usually correlate with the size of the room, and a puny speaker will have a hard time "filling" a large room (the speaker membrane just vibrates the air in the room).