Trying another surround sound set up for my PC(I am finally happy!!)

[CAMAROBOY69]

I installed these saturday night and they arent too bad for $199. They are a lot better than the $79.00 set that I bought. The bad part is they arent anywhere near as good as my surround sound for PS2/xbox.
I have 30 days to decide if I like them or not. So far they seem decent. I will be testing them tonight on Fear, Far Cry, Half Life 2 to see if I will kep them.
Logitech® Z5300e 5.1 28O Watts Surround Sound Speaker System (6-Piece)
http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/productDetail.do?oid=124026&WT.mc_n=4&WT.mc_t=U&cm_ven=COMPARISON%20SHOPPING&cm_cat=GOOGLE&cm_pla=DATAFEED->PRODUCTS&cm_ite=1%20PRODUCT&cm_keycode=4

 

[F1GTR]

Try them on Black & White 2 too!

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Try them on Black & White 2 too!

Ok I will check that out? Hopefully I have time tonight. I still love that game. Its a shame I cant get true surround sound of the PC.

 

[Pako]

Congratulations on finally getting some. Will you keep them or take these back for the quest of better speakers?

My nephew bought this exact same setup. It's a very decent setup for the money. If you just can't seem to get the quality results (not talking about the encoding, but the sound quality) you might have to save your money and bust out the big guns. You can always hook up a standard Home Theater Receiver that has SACD analog inputs. They offer 5.1 analog inputs that would match up nicely to your audigy card. At that point speaker selection is what ever you want to hook up.

As far as the Surround effect not being good enough....or just not present enough, try playing a 5.1 surround movie that you are used to hearing in 5.1. How does it compare? If it does sound comparable, you have two things that it could be. The sound encoding on the game just isn't there, or you don't have the proper settings adjusted on the game itself. Some games you have to specify wheither it is 5.1 or not. I am assuming you have all the levels mixed correctly? I believe the SB software allows you custom levels and eq per channel to let you fine tune it.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Congratulations on finally getting some. Will you keep them or take these back for the quest of better speakers?

My nephew bought this exact same setup. It's a very decent setup for the money. If you just can't seem to get the quality results (not talking about the encoding, but the sound quality) you might have to save your money and bust out the big guns. You can always hook up a standard Home Theater Receiver that has SACD analog inputs. They offer 5.1 analog inputs that would match up nicely to your audigy card. At that point speaker selection is what ever you want to hook up.

As far as the Surround effect not being good enough....or just not present enough, try playing a 5.1 surround movie that you are used to hearing in 5.1. How does it compare? If it does sound comparable, you have two things that it could be. The sound encoding on the game just isn't there, or you don't have the proper settings adjusted on the game itself. Some games you have to specify wheither it is 5.1 or not. I am assuming you have all the levels mixed correctly? I believe the SB software allows you custom levels and eq per channel to let you fine tune it.

Thanks for the ideas Pako. I will have at least 30 days to try different things out. I will try some games that I mentioned and then try a couple movies and see how I like it. If I am still not happy then its just as easy to bring them back. Then mabey put that money towards the xbox360. The main reason is because once i get a 360 I am sure I wont be playing anything else for a while. I will still play AOE3 with Heather but other than that I will be all about the 360.
The funny part is that I have a surround sound receiver already sitting right next to my pc. BUt I use it for xbox and ps2 games when I play online.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Update time.
I played for 3 hours straight tonight. I tried Far Cry, Fear, and then Black and White 2. I have decided to keep this surround sound set up. When I played Fear I was very impressed how the surround sound worked. If I was by a radio and turned my body 360 degrees I could hear it in all 5 speakers. I was impressed. 👍
FINALLY I AM HAPPY WITH SURROUND SOUND SPEAKERS.
Check out my new screen shots in the Far Cry thread. They are soooo beautiful!!!!

 

[Evolution.]

If I was by a radio and turned my body 360 degrees I could hear it in all 5 speakers. I was impressed.

Welcome to last years technology .

But yeah, my AudioFX headset does that too. It's very cool indeed. I can't really use a surround sound setup...the 'rents would be ticked if I turned it up as loud as I am content with when gaming. My Headset is pretty much better than most speaker setups though.

 

[Event]

I've got a set of those. They're awesome little buggers. What sound card you have driving them?

 

[Pako]

Alright! 👍 Glad to hear you're happy with them!

"Last year's technology" - Nice one...

 

[Robin]

Ive got 6 year old cambridge soundworks surround sound speaker system (4 little ones with a sub) ...... I absolutely love it... best money I ever spent, Im so happy I may even write to them saying how good it still is!

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Welcome to last years technology .

But yeah, my AudioFX headset does that too. It's very cool indeed. I can't really use a surround sound setup...the 'rents would be ticked if I turned it up as loud as I am content with when gaming. My Headset is pretty much better than most speaker setups though.

It was the first time I have ever heard my pc do that. (I tried 2 other surround sound systems for the pc) The last surround sound system I got for it didnt give me that effect at all. Its still not as good as my 600watt sony system for my xbox and PS2.

I've got a set of those. They're awesome little buggers. What sound card you have driving them?

Yeah these arent too bad. They will get me by for a while. This is the sound card I am using. Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS SB0350 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card

Alright! 👍 Glad to hear you're happy with them!

"Last year's technology" - Nice one...

Yup they are decent. Good enough for the PC. I spend most of my time on the xbox or PS2. Soon the 360. So I just wanted something for the PC to get me by. THis is no where near as good as my set up for the consoles but hey its good enough for now.

 

[emad]

The 5300's are fantastic, but they shouldn't have cost $200USD considering that they run $150 canadian which translates to around 130US...

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

The 5300's are fantastic, but they shouldn't have cost $200USD considering that they run $150 canadian which translates to around 130US...

They have them at Newegg for $134.99 plus $35.66 for shipping.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

The bad part about buying online is if I dont like them I get screwed on shipping to send them back. I try to buy all my electronics from local stores. If whatever I buy sucks I simply bring it back for 100% refund.
I appreciate the price help. That info will probably help any other member thats also interrested in these speakers.

 

[Evolution.]

Buying online is great only if:

You buy from NewEgg.

They have THE BEST service ever. If anyone here disagrees they should DIAF.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Buying online is great only if:

You buy from NewEgg.

They have THE BEST service ever. If anyone here disagrees they should DIAF.

Thats where all my gaming PC components came from. Otherwise my PC would have been a lot more expensive if I had bought it from a local store.
I agree, NewEgg is the only place I would buy electronics from if I dont buy local. 👍 I never heard of them until the guy that built my PC told me to get the parts from there. Saved me a LOT of money and I absolutely love my PC.
Nice avatar MachOne "Do the Dew"

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Just wanted to post an update on my opinion of these speakers now that I have played more games. I have played Fear, Far Cry, Prey Demo, Age of empires 3, black and white 2 and my mind is made up. I have decided to keep them. So if your looking for a set of surround sound speakers for your PC that work quite well then I recommend these for sure. 👍 👍

 

[CDailey]

And if you feel the need for an extra 225 watts of power, you can always upgrade to the Z5500's. You won't regret it. Unless of course you keep getting the cops called on you for noise violations.