Question Surround Sound issue ?

[SteelCrow]

Not sure if I have a Windows problem, sound card problems or speaker hardware problem. I have windows 11 pro, the logitech Z906 surround sound, soundblaster ae-7. Put together December 26th, 2024 and worked great until earlier today.

Was playing halflife 2, near the beginning when your coming out of the sewer system and the helicopter is buzzing around shooting at you. Heard the helicopter circling on surround sound and then all sound quit. Exited out of game still no sound. Played around in settings, got nothing. Hooked up an old set of only 2 computer speakers to the soundcard and got sound back. Back to logitech nothing. Logitech support and FAQ, only thing that helped some was the factory reset on the speakers by turning them off and holding the input button for 8 seconds, that got stereo sound back. I can also hold the input on the remote and it will cycle through all 6 speakers with the static.

I previously had them on input 2 and 3D Stereo. Now they only work on input 1 with me going into sound blaster command and putting setting my speakers as stereo speakers. If I do put them back on input 2 and 3D stereo the volume bars beside the speakers in windows go up and down as if they should be playing.

I hadn't felt of it before this so I can't really compare but where the power cord goes into the subwoofer, the area around this is almost unpleasantly hot to touch?

 

[stonecarver]

Was playing halflife 2, near the beginning when your coming out of the sewer system and the helicopter is buzzing around shooting at you. Heard the helicopter circling on surround sound and then all sound quit.

When you said you played around with setting did you in the games Sound options put in the correct surround sound setting.

Half Life 2 is an awesome surround sound experience I hope you get it settled and working. I'm open if I can be of any help.

 

[dwd999]

How are you connecting the Z906 to the AE-7; are you using a toslink optical digital cable or analog cables?

 

[SteelCrow]

When you said you played around with setting did you in the games Sound options put in the correct surround sound setting.

Half Life 2 is an awesome surround sound experience I hope you get it settled and working. I'm open if I can be of any help.

Surround was working when I started playing so I didn't look at any of the sound options in the game.

 

[SteelCrow]

How are you connecting the Z906 to the AE-7; are you using a toslink optical digital cable or analog cables?

It came with the analog cables and I had been using them.

 

[SteelCrow]

I also posted in reddit soundblasterofficial and logitech and might have got a little progress on the problem. I'll copy that here also.
Their reply:

thats a common bug, at least over optical cable, set speaker to stereo and back to 5.1, also make sure dolby digital is enabled and spdif out is a default output. I guess you are using that CreativeAPP In soundblaster command, this almost never happens.

My Reply:
(1)
I'm using sound blaster command app and analog cables that came with the speaker setup. I'm going to check on the dolby digital and the spdif output.

(2)
Ok I can't get any sound to come out with spdif as default. Though it was selected as default the sound was playing over the occulus headset speakers. Disabling them made the sounds come out out of a selection that just said "Speakers Sound Blaster AE-7. Disabling them gave me no sound on spdif so I went back to the speakers selection and with having selected dolby digital it did make the speakers all start working with surround again with some problems. Using a youtube Dolby Digital video to test the surround sounds sounded great but after going to another video where someone was talking and you can't understand the speech. The speech comes over all the speakers but it's like they're talking through a barrel on the other side of a wall or something, it sounds distant and low volume compared to other sounds and is distorted.

The speech is coming out of all the speakers distorted where it use to just come out of the center speaker. I went to back to the speaker setup on the option that just said "Speaker Sound Blaster AE-7" and on configure it's selected as 5.1 Surround but on clicking the test button sound only comes out of the front left and right speakers. The graphic shows it going to the other speakers and sound waves coming out of them but no sound comes out.

 

[dingo07]

Too much text here... draw a line diagram of how the speaker is wired and to what in the computer. Example...

Sound Card Front Left 3.5mm output --to-- Speaker Front Left 3.5mm

 

[stonecarver]

Does it make a difference if while your in game go to Half life 2 Sound options and choose 5.1 audio out.

 

[SteelCrow]

Too much text here... draw a line diagram of how the speaker is wired and to what in the computer. Example...

Sound Card Front Left 3.5mm output --to-- Speaker Front Left 3.5mm

**Sound Card facing the back of the computer this is from left to right.
Microphone --to-- Audio Control Module (came with AE-7, I've unplugged it with no difference)
Headphones --to-- Audio Control Module
Front Speakers 3.5mm output --to-- Front Speakers 3.5mm input on Subwoofer
Rear Speakers 3.5mm output --to-- Rear Speakers 3.5mm input on Subwoofer
Center/Subwoofer 3.5mm output --to-- Center/Subwoofer 3.5mm input on Subwoofer
Optical Out (nothing plugged in)
----
**On Audio Control Module always left to right
Left Side
6.3mm microphone (nothing plugged in)
6.3mm headphone (nothing plugged in)
Right Side
3.5mm headphone --to-- 3.5mm headphone plugged in
3.5mm microphone --to-- 3.5mm microphone plugged in (these are a headset not separate devices)
----
**On Subwoofer (excluding the connections already mention above from soundcard)
5 Speakers hooked up with 18 gauge speaker wire--Rear Left--Rear Right--Front Left--Front Right--Center
DB 15 Pin Connector to Control Console

Following connections have nothing plugged in
3 RCA Stereo
2 Digital Optical
1 Digital Coaxial

 

[SteelCrow]

Does it make a difference if while your in game go to Half life 2 Sound options and choose 5.1 audio out.

I checked and it was set as 5.1 Audio. Played some without good results. The ambient sounds would come and go. Sometimes all the sounds would get that distortion I was talking about above. When a character was talking to me I can turn in game and it would go across the front speakers but when I got my back turned to them they completely cut off until I turned to roughly face them again.

 

[stonecarver]

That's not broken. That is exactly how Valve intended the audio to work. Like real life.

When a character was talking to me I can turn in game and it would go across the front speakers but when I got my back turned to them they completely cut off until I turned to roughly face them again.

 

[stonecarver]

It will seem broken until the logic sets in and the sound cues start to be so realistic. At least that's why earlier I said the surround sound in this game is awesome.

 

[SteelCrow]

Ok I think I have it figured out now. It took some digging but things are now working and yeah stonecarver the surround in half life is awesome! On the control module with the AE-7 you have 6 inputs to choose from and on stereo you have 3 visible which are 3D, 4.1 and 2.1. I'd been going on 3D bc that what was previously working and I have a 5.1 system which didn't seem to be an option. Apparently if you press the selector 4 times so that nothing is selected on the stereo section of the control module it's then in 5.1 Surround. I tried this and it fixed everything, surround is working beautifully and no more distortions in speaking. I wanted to put this in case someone else has this problem and to thank everyone for the help!