sound card + mic + 5.1 speakers

[dreydin]

ive been using my onboard sound for a while now, but have run into a problem. when i plug in a microphone, it doesnt work on my PC. ive messed with all the audio settings and for the life of me, cannot get it to work. (although, when i record something loud, like music, i can barely hear it on the playback when i turn my speakers up ALL the way?) and yet the mic will work on other peoples computers just fine. so im thinking, maybe its the mobos fault? i cant think of anything else...

here are the questions.

1) i have the Logitech Z-5500 5.1 speakers. i have them connected to my PC via the mobo/onboard. if i purchase a sound card(for the mic and 5.1), do i need to specifically get a 5.1 card? or would a 7.1 also work with my 5.1 setup?

2) any suggestions on a sound card priced from 50-100 bucks?

3) i have a 32" LCD TV on the wall in the same room and want to ALSO hook up my Logitech 5.1 speakers to it. can i simultaneously hook up these speakers to my PC and my TV? if so, how? if not, why? what are the alternatives?


thanks! =)

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: dreydin
ive been using my onboard sound for a while now, but have run into a problem. when i plug in a microphone, it doesnt work on my PC. ive messed with all the audio settings and for the life of me, cannot get it to work. (although, when i record something loud, like music, i can barely hear it on the playback when i turn my speakers up ALL the way?) and yet the mic will work on other peoples computers just fine. so im thinking, maybe its the mobos fault? i cant think of anything else...

here are the questions.

You can probably get it working by tweaking some of the software settings in the included software or in Windows. There are some known issues with Creative X-Fi and Realtek HD with mic inputs though and its certainly more complicated than it should be. If your goal is to just get a working mic for voice comms or games I'd just get a singe-ear USB headset/mic and use it in tandem with your speaker system. Its a much cleaner solution imo anyways, as you don't have music/sounds mingling with voice comms.

1) i have the Logitech Z-5500 5.1 speakers. i have them connected to my PC via the mobo/onboard. if i purchase a sound card(for the mic and 5.1), do i need to specifically get a 5.1 card? or would a 7.1 also work with my 5.1 setup?

A 7.1 card would be just fine also, just make sure to configure it properly in the card's software package and Windows and use the proper outputs.

2) any suggestions on a sound card priced from 50-100 bucks?

What are you mainly listening to? Games? Music? Movies? For Games, there's been some good deals on various X-Fi at Newegg and Fry's after MIR for $60-80. Other popular cards include Asus Xonar DX and Raze Barracuda AC-1 for about the same price. For Movies and Music any of the above should be fine.

3) i have a 32" LCD TV on the wall in the same room and want to ALSO hook up my Logitech 5.1 speakers to it. can i simultaneously hook up these speakers to my PC and my TV? if so, how? if not, why? what are the alternatives?

Looks like you can from this spec sheet. I believe the Z-5500 are one of those control pod speaker sets where the pod kinda doubles as the receiver and allows you to switch input sources. You should be able to run a digital output (either coax or optical) from your TV to the speakers and another digital output OR multi channel analog from your onboard/sound card.

What kind of material is your TV playing and through what kind of connection? If its from a cable box, it'd be better to just run sound straight to your Z-5500 directly as I'm pretty sure the Z-5500 has built-in DD decoding. If you have multiple inputs to your TV then you start running into problems as you only have 3 inputs capable of multi channel sound (2 digital, 1 analog). The solution to this is a dedicated receiver and speakers instead of a speaker set like the Z-5500.

 

[dreydin]

Originally posted by: chizowYou can probably get it working by tweaking some of the software settings in the included software or in Windows. There are some known issues with Creative X-Fi and Realtek HD with mic inputs though and its certainly more complicated than it should be. If your goal is to just get a working mic for voice comms or games I'd just get a singe-ear USB headset/mic and use it in tandem with your speaker system. Its a much cleaner solution imo anyways, as you don't have music/sounds mingling with voice comms.

ive tried messing with the settings and havnt been able to get anything except very very very quiet recordings from loud music

A 7.1 card would be just fine also, just make sure to configure it properly in the card's software package and Windows and use the proper outputs.

check. if i get a 7.1 card, ill configure it to my 5.1

What are you mainly listening to? Games? Music? Movies? For Games, there's been some good deals on various X-Fi at Newegg and Fry's after MIR for $60-80. Other popular cards include Asus Xonar DX and Raze Barracuda AC-1 for about the same price. For Movies and Music any of the above should be fine.

well, i do everything on my PC. i game regularly on TFC, TF2 and G-Mod. i have a DVI/HDMI cable running from my PC to the LCD TV to watch movies and i listen to music regularly. since im a noob with audio, ive been reading up on cards more for "gaming" and am curious as to what makes them special for specifically "gaming?" that opposed to movies or music?

Looks like you can from this spec sheet. I believe the Z-5500 are one of those control pod speaker sets where the pod kinda doubles as the receiver and allows you to switch input sources. You should be able to run a digital output (either coax or optical) from your TV to the speakers and another digital output OR multi channel analog from your onboard/sound card.

im guessing optical would be better than coax, right?

What kind of material is your TV playing and through what kind of connection? If its from a cable box, it'd be better to just run sound straight to your Z-5500 directly as I'm pretty sure the Z-5500 has built-in DD decoding. If you have multiple inputs to your TV then you start running into problems as you only have 3 inputs capable of multi channel sound (2 digital, 1 analog). The solution to this is a dedicated receiver and speakers instead of a speaker set like the Z-5500.

well, aside from streaming movies from my PC to the LCD TV via HDMI cable, ill be watching cable TV via coax and DVDs via XBOX. (not 360/HD) its just silly to use my 5.1 surround sound when i watch movies from the PC and to NOT use the surround sound on regular TV shows via cable. i guess ill have to check my available connections on the back of my TV(Vizio VW32L) and the Logitech speakers before i rush off and start buying the wrong things because i dont know what either of them have.

 

[Mutilator]

I've been using a Logitech USB Microphone for years... that's what I'd recommend. It's cheaper than a new sound card and less involved to setup.
This appears to be the one I have.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: dreydin
ive tried messing with the settings and havnt been able to get anything except very very very quiet recordings from loud music

Hmmm well that seems like its an input selection issue. If you check in your onboard software, there should be a selection for input, like "line in" or "mic" or "aux". Also make sure that any flexible input or mic input is actually set to mic.

well, i do everything on my PC. i game regularly on TFC, TF2 and G-Mod. i have a DVI/HDMI cable running from my PC to the LCD TV to watch movies and i listen to music regularly. since im a noob with audio, ive been reading up on cards more for "gaming" and am curious as to what makes them special for specifically "gaming?" that opposed to movies or music?

Games, unlike movies and music, can have dynamic positional sound. That just means you can get positional sound effects in real-time based on whats going on in the game. Movies and music otoh have static positional sound effects which are simply read and decoded from what's been recorded. Gaming cards support the positional sound effects game developers put in their games. You can still get "surround sound" if your card doesn't support a particular positional sound format, it'll just typically be basic upmixed stereo sound (similar to Pro Logic on a stereo source, like a CD).

Creative cards are the best for games because they support DirectSound and Creative's proprietary EAX as well as OpenAL in Vista. Other cards can still get positional effects in XP with DirectSound and in Vista with games that use their custom directional sound engines (Crysis for example). With Creative cards you will want to hook them up to your speakers through the multi-channel analog inputs, although there is supposedly a patch for X-Fi cards coming that will enable real-time DD encoding similar to other cards on the market.

im guessing optical would be better than coax, right?

I believe technically coax is less lossy than optical and better over long spans, but in reality you probably won't notice the difference. Realistically, I would just decide based on the outputs from your components as the inputs to your Z-5500s are limited. Like if you had 2 devices and one supported optical and the other supported coax and optical, I'd just use coax for the one that did both.

well, aside from streaming movies from my PC to the LCD TV via HDMI cable, ill be watching cable TV via coax and DVDs via XBOX. (not 360/HD) its just silly to use my 5.1 surround sound when i watch movies from the PC and to NOT use the surround sound on regular TV shows via cable. i guess ill have to check my available connections on the back of my TV(Vizio VW32L) and the Logitech speakers before i rush off and start buying the wrong things because i dont know what either of them have.

So you don't have any HD cable box or anything? Just straight coax into your TV? It may only have very basic stereo RCA output for sound. If that's the case I'd probably not bother trying to run anything through the TV then to your speakers for sound. For the Xbox though you could get that HD breakout kit that has optical for 5.1 sound from Xbox games and your movies.