Questions on 5.1 audio..

[SE14man]

Hi there,

Just bought myself a good bargain with these speakers on special offer at the local supermarket:

Logitech Z506 5.1 Speakers


Ive never used 5.1 before i'm used to just 2 stereo speakers with a sub underneath...

But with these i was wondering if any audio output settings would need to be changed firstly on the software media player (which is VLC and MPC) and also if any settings need changing within windows itself?

Do i need to downsample to 44.1 aswell or something because someone once told me that would get rid of the noisy bitso n films sounding EXTRA EXTRA noisy and quiet bits sounding extra quiet. would the same need to be applied for 5.1 surround sound?

Please help me out here fellas

Thanks.

[aedipuss]

first your motherboard/soundcard needs to have 3 2-channel speaker mini-din outputs to hook up to the 3 inputs. then go into your sound properties or audio card control program iand change it to 5.1 speakers. no downsampling required.

[SE14man]

Hi there,

Well thanks very much for your answer.
Unfortunately part of the soundcards software is a liuttle confusing for e and im not sure if anyone else is familiar with this kind of thing?

Below is a picture.



I'm a little confused at this point.. I have selected what i can only guess to be the correct settings but listening to the "left surround" speaker it sounds quite distorted, quieter and very crackly.

As you can see on the left pane there are 6 colour coded outpot jacks.
I'm using only the ones on the right, first of all are those the ones to be using?
2ndly what does each colour represent?
Does the orange represent say the subwoofer? Does the black represent the L & R? Or does black represent left surround and right surround? Really not sure but id really like to ocnfigure them to work how they are supposed to as so far yes the left and right surround do work but are quieter than the left and right front ones and crackle a lot at me too.
The film being played back is on VLC and is set to 5.1 audio which is correct as these speakers are 5.1, I have changed to settings in windows also to 5.1 instead of 'desktop stereo speakers'
Perhaps if any of you know you could point me in the right direction for the relivent settings on this screenshot that i'd need to do?
If the info is of any help to you the sub woofer itself has a green stereo jack input aswell as the orange and black one next to it. The PC has the 6 on it identical to the one on the picture.

Pls help guys im desperate 2 get this up n going.

Thank you

[aedipuss]

the plugs used are stereo mini jack just like on a set of headphones. each wire carries to channels. make sure the jack is inserted completely at both ends.

orange center and sub. black would be the l and r front. white l and r rear.

[SE14man]

Ok thanks very much mate!

is l and r rear known as l and r surround?

Also would a film play in surround sound even if in VLCX it doesnt have the option for 5.1 and it only had stereo?
Would sound then play out of all of the speakers of only the 2 front ones?

Thanks for your quick response.

[aedipuss]

rear or surround would be the same.

answer to the film sound is maybe. hard to tell without knowing if it's pcm audio or ac3. ac3 2channel can have surround. also the age of the film would make a difference. older films are not likely to have surround sound.

[SE14man]

Hi there,

So running it thru something like gspot would help idendify as to whether it does have AC3?
I suppose i'd just have to listen then and if sound does come out the rear speakers obviously it has surround sound right?

Thanks so much 4 yr quick responses i iwll try all these things 2morrow when i get up

[Nelson37]

The surround speakers generally are much quieter than the fronts. I have the same set. I should clarify it is not the speakers themselves but the audio directed to them which is of lower volume. The crackling usually indicates a jack not fully inserted, or a poor quality audio file.

Testing using a video will be frustrating. Ideally get a dedicated test audio file, it will address each speaker, "left front", "right rear", etc.

Sound coming out the rears does NOT mean you have true surround sound, it could be simulated. True surround could have audio coming out the rear that is not at all present on the fronts, and it also could be specific to just one speaker. Some files which are technically true 5.1 will not show these characteristics. Hence my suggestion of the dedicated test file.

[SE14man]

Hi Nelson im glad youve got the same speakers as me mate!

I was just wondering.. i have done the test and when i hold the surround speakers to my ear whilst doing the test when the woman is reading out the other ones like front left, front right, centre etc i can faintly hear her voice through the surround back speakers with like a little crackle. Is this normal? I have checked all connection and all seem to be fine!

Cheers m8

Just another thing should all 320 mp3 & WAV files play at surround automatically?

[Nelson37]

It is often somewhat quieter but should not be so quiet you have to hold the speaker to your ear.

As for all files, NO, definitely not. Depending on the settings for your sound card, you could get front speakers only, fronts duplicated on rears, rears having different audio but the same on left and right, and, lastly, seperate and distinct audio on each of the four, plus center and subwoofer. Only the last case is from a 5.1 file, the rest could be the file or a simulation from your soundcard, or playback software.

One useful test is to replace one of the three jacks with a set of headphones and play the test file. Some soundcards can re-map the jacks. This will nail down which channels go where, and also identify any volume issues.

Don't forget to check any mixer settings available.

The crackle and low volume is not unusual, but a good quality file should not do this.

Also, the speakers are all identical so swap them around and see if the problem moves with the individual speaker or stays with the jack.

[Nelson37]

Just re-read your post, are you saying that you hear "Front Left" thru the REAR speakers? If so, this should not happen, definitely not.

[MaEdCo]

Hello, I just recently bought the Z506 Speakers, I have a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty sound card, and Im using ffdshows codecs, I enable Mixer, and Expand stereo to surround, to center options also Dolby Decoder, Apply Dolby Pro Logic II decoding to all stereo sources. Also I enable Xi-fi CMSS 3D Stereo surround...

but with some files at Media Player Classic I dont get sound on rears speakers what I should do? thanks in advance.

[SE14man]

Well thanks v much for your help there guys
Is most appreciated.
Just another thing... on my sound config utility for my sooundcard (the one in my screenshot) there is an option on either device or mixer tab thats says 'Enable Multiple Streaming' should this be checked?
Is there anything else in MPC that needs checking such as AC3 settings or is there anything elsei n ffdshowl ike AC3 settings that need enabling or disabling? I ask this because a while back now i was fidlding around with ffdshow's ac3 settings not really knowing what i was doing and thought that that may be responsible for the crackly sound.
3 movies have done it on the trot now but i'm hoping it's just the .avi files themselves.
When i run the actual speakers test though with my sound manager utility there is no crackling and the sound is now coming out the correct speakers thanks to your help nelson.
I am left with crackly audio though now but just from movies andi havent actually had a single film/episode played yet which hasnt crackled on the surround speakers. Thats just the last issue i need to tackle.

Thanks guys.