Logitech Z-5450 vs. Z-5500

[paybax]

Hey Hal................"annoy thy neighbor"....that they WILL :lol:

But on a serious note, they are good speakers for the money. If I had the extra $ 400 CDN (about 340 USD) I would have gotten the Klipsche Pro Media 5.1's.
The pro medias retail for about $ 680.00 CDN.
But the Z-5500's are an awsome set of ear candy that will definitely even annoy a deaf person and still sound great. What I like about this setup is the desktop console that houses the built in de-coder for digital sound. It's also capable of hooking up a DVD player right up to it and you can use it for a home theater.

The BIG ENCHALADA though is the 10 " sub that weighs in at a hefty 45 pounds !!!!! 8O
The sound they put out is quite impressive I must say.

Enjoy em when ya get em bro, you won't be disapointed.

 

[Arucard]

Just hope you have decent earthing in your house, otherwide there's a good chance anything you turn on or off on the same circuit will create a popping in the speakers. It was really bad for me at first, but a lot of the little noise went away after I finally got my X-Fi instead of using onboard sound. Now I hardly notice the odd time it happens, as it's usually only my heater plugged into the same wall socket that does it.

BTW, it's not isolated, Logitech are offering full refunds for people affected.

But I'm keeping them. They look sweet in my room, and the sub is the perfect size to fit under a tabble I have.

 

[paybax]

Hey ARU,
That popping sound you mention, I notice it like when the exhaust fan in the bathroom is turned on or off. And when you mention earthing, what do you mean? Is there any way to eliminate it? I do in fact use on board sound... my AC97. let me know if there is a way to get rid of this

RIG specs
Antec P180 PerformanceSeries Mid-Tower Case
SeaSonic S12 600 watt power supply
Asus A8N32 SLI mobo AMD N-Force 4 SLIX16 (bios 1103 V02.58)
RealTek 97 onboard digital 5.1 Surround
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo Core, 2 X 1mb L2 cache (AMD driver 1.3.1.0 w/MS hotfix & AMD Dual Core Optimizer)
2 gigs of Corsair TwinX3500LL Pro @ 437Mhz 2-3-2-6-1T
2- BFG 7900 GT OC 256mb in SLI (nvidia driver 91.31)
Western Digital RAPTOR 74.3 gig 10-K rpm HDD for XP & Apps
Maxtor SATA II 250 G HDD for gaming, movies, MP3's
Maxtor SATA II 250 G HDD for document backup (unplugged)
Sony CDrom 52X
Plextor 708-A DVD/CD rom
Logitech Z-5500 Digital 5.1 THX 500watts

 

[astrallite]

Plug everything into a common ground curcuit, and pray that its clean =P

 

[halcyon]

Hey Hal................"annoy thy neighbor"....that they WILL :lol:

But on a serious note, they are good speakers for the money. If I had the extra $ 400 CDN (about 340 USD) I would have gotten the Klipsche Pro Media 5.1's.
The pro medias retail for about $ 680.00 CDN.
But the Z-5500's are an awsome set of ear candy that will definitely even annoy a deaf person and still sound great. What I like about this setup is the desktop console that houses the built in de-coder for digital sound. It's also capable of hooking up a DVD player right up to it and you can use it for a home theater.

The BIG ENCHALADA though is the 10 " sub that weighs in at a hefty 45 pounds !!!!! 8O
The sound they put out is quite impressive I must say.

Enjoy em when ya get em bro, you won't be disapointed.

Actually, the console/pre-amp is why I went ahead and looked at the Z-5xxx series, at all. That with the rediculous sub made me think they could be useful, even if the sat's don't have the best dispersion. ...a lot of utility, so I'll be interested to see what they can do with music, despite my skepticism. :roll:

 

[paybax]

Unfortunately it IS plugged into one power bar. It's not a Monster power bar so maybe thats one solution. I know those power bars have that "clean sound 1 an 2" or something like that.
However like I said it's only when certain lights or switches are used and I don't have any feedback so it's not a total loss 🙁
It would just be nice to be able to eliminate that poping sound like I described earlier. Do you think a good "Monster" powerbar would do remedy it?

 

[halcyon]

Unfortunately it IS plugged into one power bar. It's not a Monster power bar so maybe thats one solution. I know those power bars have that "clean sound 1 an 2" or something like that.
However like I said it's only when certain lights or switches are used and I don't have any feedback so it's not a total loss 🙁
It would just be nice to be able to eliminate that poping sound like I described earlier. Do you think a good "Monster" powerbar would do remedy it?

Sounds like a good line conditioner/noise filter might do the trick. Yet, you don't have to spend "Monster" money to get this: Consider the Tripp-Lite Isobar series ( http://www.tripplite.com/hometheater/surge.cfm ).

 

[Vash-HT]

For what its worth I figured I would add my input on this situation. Last summer I decided to buy a set of Klipsch promedia Ultra 5.1 speakers. The first set the amp blew out on pretty quickly, so I returned it and got a new set.
The second set worked fine, but I was greatly disappointed int he sound of them. I was using an M-Audio card at the time for music, and an audigy 2 for games, but the impression I got from the speakers was that they were highly overrated in terms of music playback. All I can remember is that the highs were too powerful to the point that they got annoying. Anyway, I ended up returning those and picking up Z-5500s. I can honestly say that when I first hooked them up and turned on some music, both me and my brother agreed they sounded better than the Klipsch set that I had owned.

The sub is loud as most people have said, but most of the music i listen to contains little bass, and I still think these speakers are decent for music. Anyway this is just to help set your mind at ease, they certainly arent crappy speakers, especially for the price you're paying for them.

 

[halcyon]

Thanks for the input Vash, they should arrive today.

 

[DrBlofeld]

The problem I run into is connections. Connecting a PC to an A/V reciever via RCA connections loses the 5.1 surround sound necessary in BF2, but doesn't make too much diffrent if you are using a 2 channel source. I tried optical out from my X-Fi but the sound never came through as 5.1 even though the source was a DVD-Audio. It was weird.

PS- if anyone has tips on getting 5.1 from PC to A/V reciever via optical I am willing to enertain ideas. I could try the digital out (not optical) that requires a 1/8" to optical cable but I'm not so sure about that. Any thoughts?

There is a way in which you can 5.1 via optical, but it requires a hardware modification. Here it is, but I am not responsible if you mess up your computer:

1. Turn off your computer and ground yourself (ALWAYS DO THIS)
2. Remove the X-FI card from the motherboard
3. Replace the card with an M-Audio 5.1 surround card
4. Replace drivers

 

[halcyon]

The problem I run into is connections. Connecting a PC to an A/V reciever via RCA connections loses the 5.1 surround sound necessary in BF2, but doesn't make too much diffrent if you are using a 2 channel source. I tried optical out from my X-Fi but the sound never came through as 5.1 even though the source was a DVD-Audio. It was weird.

PS- if anyone has tips on getting 5.1 from PC to A/V reciever via optical I am willing to enertain ideas. I could try the digital out (not optical) that requires a 1/8" to optical cable but I'm not so sure about that. Any thoughts?

There is a way in which you can 5.1 via optical, but it requires a hardware modification. Here it is, but I am not responsible if you mess up your computer:

1. Turn off your computer and ground yourself (ALWAYS DO THIS)
2. Remove the X-FI card from the motherboard
3. Replace the card with an M-Audio 5.1 surround card
4. Replace drivers



Smart @$$. You had me here, right up to step #3. :lol:

 

[halcyon]

I've just hooked up the Z-5500's. Not too bad. The bass is rediculous, yet tamable. They seem decent enough for music. A fun set. I'm surprised, they're not half bad, hmmm.... Heck, the mouse-makers did alright with these. 8O

 

[Arucard]

Yeah, popping fix can be one of a few things.

1) Wait for Logitech's promised replacement that will never happen.
2) Rewire your house so the circuit you're on is properly earthed.
3) Spend as much as you did on your speakers on either a good line conditioner or a decent UPS.

Realy, it's logitech's fault, you shouldn't have to worry about this with speakers, there should be a good band stop filter on the power supply.

And the difference I noticed with onboard sound: Apart from my mouse creating a high-pitched whine that increased whenever you moved it, my mum using an electric carver in the kitchen made my computer unusable. Lights in the bthroom caused popping, fan in the bathroom etc. After instaling an X-Fi, most of the noise sources disappeared, it's now only what's plugged into the same wall socket as my speakers, now, pluss a random pop every so often, but it's not very common now. I think using onboard sound provided a second source of line noise, that was more sensitive.