Z-5500 and digital audio questions

[charliesurfs]

Sorry I didn't know where else to post this =/

Anyway I've recently bought the Logitech Z-5500s as an upgrade from my X-210s and although the sound is miles ahead of my old speakers there is still a bit of noise when it's supposed to be silent. I've got it on the 6 channel direct connection to my Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 card and was about to buy one of these:
http://www.pccasegear.com/inde...=211&products_id=7063&
one of these:
http://www.pccasegear.com/inde...=211&products_id=6091&
or one of these:
http://www.pccasegear.com/inde...=211&products_id=6861&
However all I really want is good sound from music and DTS from movies. EAX is bottom of the priority list and I've heard it doens't really work in Vista.

Anyway I was wondering if I could save money by either connecting a coaxial cord from my motherboard (Gigabyte P35-DS3L) to the control panel or buying one of these:
http://umart.com.au/pro/produc...id2=32&bid=6&sid=20886
and just connecting that to my card or would these methods not do my speakers justice?

Also I've got some spare speakers (http://www.gale.co.uk/goldmonitors.html) lying around and was wondering if I could just swap out the front left and right speakers for them without any negative effects (like blowing the speakers or something) it says in the manual not to but I can't think of a reason why you shouldn't be able to.

Thanks in advance

 

[Twsmit]

If you use coax/optical with pass through it does not matter if you use onboard, Audigy or any other sound card. All will play DD/DTS exactly the same from DVD/Blu-ray. If you buy a $2 adapter that converts mini to full RCA you should even be able to get coax out on your Audigy (depends on the model I don't know if the SE can do that) so that's another option.

Because the source is digital and the transmission is digital the sound card for DTS is irrelevant. All that matters is the digital to analog converters on your receiver/Z-5500. The Z-5500 is not going to be able to match a high end home theater setup and possibly not even a high end sound card, because the DACs are not going to be as good, but overall the simplest way is coax out from the Audigy for DTS and analog out for games.

One thing to keep in mind is that coax/optical only output stereo on sounds cards that lack real time DD/DTS encoding so for games you will still want to use the analog connection. Music is naturally stereo so I don't think it makes a difference if you use analog or digital.

 

[charliesurfs]

Oh really? so if I'm using coax and pass through the only real reason to buy one of those really expensive cards would be if I want good surround from games or I'm professionally working with audio otherwise the sound quality will be exactly the same for music/movies?

Also do you know if I would kill anything by swapping out the front right and left speakers for the Gale gold monitors? I'm itching to try it but I don't want to take the risk is they could screw up.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: charliesurfs
Oh really? so if I'm using coax and pass through the only real reason to buy one of those really expensive cards would be if I want good surround from games or I'm professionally working with audio otherwise the sound quality will be exactly the same for music/movies?

Also do you know if I would kill anything by swapping out the front right and left speakers for the Gale gold monitors? I'm itching to try it but I don't want to take the risk is they could screw up.

Monitors are usually self powered. The speakers on the Z-5500's are passive.

As for the more expensive cards, they are usually more expensive for one of two reasons.

1. Better analog output

2. DDL/DTS connect

 

[charliesurfs]

But what would DTS connect affect? Because DVDs are already encoded and music will use PCM (right?) and games use OpenAL in Vista. And since I'll be using coax/optical the analog output would be wasted. Could I save some money and just simply stick a coaxial into my onboard to my Z-5500s and get almost exactly the same audio.

Also, I've heard that the Realtek chip now supports DTS connect anyway (correct me if I'm wrong)

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: charliesurfs
But what would DTS connect affect? Because DVDs are already encoded and music will use PCM (right?) and games use OpenAL in Vista. And since I'll be using coax/optical the analog output would be wasted. Could I save some money and just simply stick a coaxial into my onboard to my Z-5500s and get almost exactly the same audio.

Also, I've heard that the Realtek chip now supports DTS connect anyway (correct me if I'm wrong)

Games would not be in surround sound via digital connection without it. Games are not encoded to start.

 

[charliesurfs]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
Games would not be in surround sound via digital connection without it. Games are not encoded to start.

So that's the only real difference between onboard and a $250 sound card when using coax?
If so I'll just get a PS3 and play GTAIV and MGS4 in surround via optical instead.
And what the hell is EAX and OpenAL then?

My Gale monitors are passive and are rated as 15-90 Watts into 4-8 Ohms and the Z-5500 front left and right are rated as 62 Watts RMS x2 into 8 Ohms if that has anything to do with whether they'll work or not.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: charliesurfs

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
Games would not be in surround sound via digital connection without it. Games are not encoded to start.

So that's the only real difference between onboard and a $250 sound card when using coax?
If so I'll just get a PS3 and play GTAIV and MGS4 in surround via optical instead.
And what the hell is EAX and OpenAL then?

My Gale monitors are passive and are rated as 15-90 Watts into 4-8 Ohms and the Z-5500 front left and right are rated as 62 Watts RMS x2 into 8 Ohms if that has anything to do with whether they'll work or not.

EAX is an effects processing which changes the sounds based on their environment. I am uncertain if this works over a digital connection...I hesitantly say it does not.

You really need to know your monitors nominal impedance. It shoudl tell you this on the back of the speaker.

 

[charliesurfs]

It says the nominal impedance is 6 Ohms. What does this mean?

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: charliesurfs
It says the nominal impedance is 6 Ohms. What does this mean?

That means that its going to be a little bit harder to drive than the standard satellites of the Z-5500's. Your subs amp will get a bit hotter. Should be ok, but I would watch the levels if you tend to listen to music very loudly.

 

[jg0001]

If you are getting any kind of static/interference when listenig to PC speakers, and you have a choice of digital coax or fiber optic, always go fiber optic. Digital coax still brings with it electrical noise which, though very slight, can be annoying. Note: it won't be enough noise to affect the "actual" signal, but it is often enough to give you a very faint background noise. Fiber optics complete remove any electrical connection from the PC to the speakers and are a better choice. Bear in mind, with enough 'interference' floating around, the speakers themselves could be picking up noise by virtue of their own 10+ foot long connecting wires (which can act like antennas).

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: jg0001
If you are getting any kind of static/interference when listenig to PC speakers, and you have a choice of digital coax or fiber optic, always go fiber optic. Digital coax still brings with it electrical noise which, though very slight, can be annoying. Note: it won't be enough noise to affect the "actual" signal, but it is often enough to give you a very faint background noise. Fiber optics complete remove any electrical connection from the PC to the speakers and are a better choice. Bear in mind, with enough 'interference' floating around, the speakers themselves could be picking up noise by virtue of their own 10+ foot long connecting wires (which can act like antennas).

Ummm.. No.

Any background noise would be introduced prior to the signal getting converted to digital (or after getting converted back to analog on the receiver end), therefore whether or not that digital signal is being sent over coax or optical cable is irrelevant. Even if electrical interference where somehow a problem with the coax line, the receiver would ignore it unless it was SO bad that it was actually stopping it from picking up the digital data being sent to it, and if that were the case you have some pretty significant problems going on somewhere along the line.

In other words, there is no performance gain from using optical over coax. In fact, some audio purists actually argue coax is slightly better (due to some reason that I can't remember, nor believe is any kind of audible difference).

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: Slick5150

Originally posted by: jg0001
If you are getting any kind of static/interference when listenig to PC speakers, and you have a choice of digital coax or fiber optic, always go fiber optic. Digital coax still brings with it electrical noise which, though very slight, can be annoying. Note: it won't be enough noise to affect the "actual" signal, but it is often enough to give you a very faint background noise. Fiber optics complete remove any electrical connection from the PC to the speakers and are a better choice. Bear in mind, with enough 'interference' floating around, the speakers themselves could be picking up noise by virtue of their own 10+ foot long connecting wires (which can act like antennas).

Ummm.. No.

Any background noise would be introduced prior to the signal getting converted to digital (or after getting converted back to analog on the receiver end), therefore whether or not that digital signal is being sent over coax or optical cable is irrelevant. Even if electrical interference where somehow a problem with the coax line, the receiver would ignore it unless it was SO bad that it was actually stopping it from picking up the digital data being sent to it, and if that were the case you have some pretty significant problems going on somewhere along the line.

In other words, there is no performance gain from using optical over coax. In fact, some audio purists actually argue coax is slightly better (due to some reason that I can't remember, nor believe is any kind of audible difference).

Those that argue for coax usually pick two reasons:

1. Robustness
2. No electricity->Light conversion

But yes, don't let anyone tell you differently, they are identical in consumer audio performance applications.