Z-5500 +360s + headphones

k00luy101

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Hey Guys,

So here's my setup:

Logitech z5500
Xbox360 slim
Sennheiser hd595

I'm wondering, if I have my 360 connected to the z5500 and then my hd595's connected to the headphone port on the z5500 control console, does that give a 5.1 simulated sound? Would I need an Astro mixamp or Turtle Beach DSS for a 5.1/7.1 simulated experience? I can't tell right now from playing Halo Reach if the simulated surround is there just the left/right directional sound.
 

anwaypasible

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there isnt anything mentioned in the feature list to support headphone surround sound.
if it was there for everybody it would most likely be talked about to help sell the product.
but that doesnt stop the government from doing it anyway to mess with your head.

if the game wanted you to have headphone surround sound, there would be an option in the video game to switch to headphones.

maybe the xbox360 is giving you some virtual surround 'positions'
could be the game itself
could be the xbox
could be the logitech set

kinda sad that the technology offered to us is so bad that we cant tell whether its working or not.
see my post about virtual surround in this forum category.
 

k00luy101

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Yeah it sucks, I thought I'd be able to to skip out on buying a simulated surround processor but so far from Reach and Black Ops and Red Dead its mostly left and right positioning, nothing for up/down or front/back.
 

anwaypasible

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i play black ops too.. and lemme tell ya, the surround sound in that game is pathetic.

lots and lots of audio coming from the front speakesr when it should be from the rear.
lots and lots of audio that should be coming from ONLY the rear.. but it comes out of the front speakers too.

and to top it all off.. 9 outta 10 times someone walks/runs up behind me without the ninja perk and i have no audio of their footsteps.

i mean i have my rear speakers pushing close to 80dB and i dont hear anything at all.
if you switch the game to headphone output.. maybe that changes things.
i am playing it on the PC, which might change things also.

does the xbox360 have s/pdif output?
if it does have the digital output.. why cant you hookup the xbox to the PC soundcard and use its virtual surround capabilities?

**edit**
all you need is a toslink to coaxial adapter and a soundcard that has headphone surround sound.
 

MEgamer

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@anwaypasible, are u using dolby prologic ii x or z by any chance? if treyarch was trying to acheive realis, u may want to put the voluem louder... 80db guns shots mean 40db footstesp u cant hear that lol. Will test out teh audio today on black ops.

nice sound they added, although the way its been volumised is annoying as hell, when i play games i want the gunshtos to be at least 2 times louder, then footsteps and reloading sounds. ..m,eh at least sounds stronger then modernwarfare, plus the bass is hella lot deeper.

but... i mean the coltm1911 reloading sound is louder then the shooting....WTF.
 

k00luy101

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Unfortunately I didn't opt for a good sound card when customizing my laptop so there isn't an optical in and I game mainly on my consoles. I'm looking at getting the Astro mixamp 5.8 and thinking of just setting the z5500 for downstairs in the living room.
 

anwaypasible

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i dont know one thing about revisions of prologic.
but i know that black ops gives PC users the choice of LOUD or QUIET settings.. as well as the ability to change from LARGE or SMALL/LAPTOP speakers.
i havent played around with it much at all.

but i do know that there is a solid difference of when the footsteps work and when they dont work.
i dont need to change the volume, because when the rare instance occurs that i do hear enemy footsteps.. its noticeable and i am usually turning around just before my death.

to the original poster:
i have heard a solid difference with dolby's headphone virtual surround sound compared to creatives virtual surround sound.
the dolby version is more realistic.
but i really dont know if that hardware you are looking at is using dolby surround for video games.
because the video games dont use dolby encoded audio.. they simply map the sounds to the appropriate speaker.
therefore the hardware you are looking at must have some kind of 'other' virtual surround.
and you might want to double check that it does.. otherwise you wont have surround with games, but only with movies.
 

anwaypasible

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friendly footsteps are just fine.
enemy footsteps dont work 9 outta 10 times.

i cant sit here and believe you are not hearing the rear sounds in the front speakers.
the audio isnt mapped to the speakers correctly.
you can spin around and hear the sound move from front to back.. but its heavily stuck between front and back.
just because its loud in the rear and soft in the front doesnt make it right.
its like they intended on leaving the front speakers playing so that they could add an effect to either the front or the back to 'help' with the immersive audio.
and since we are not seeing such effects from the speaker.. it was obviously abandoned and wasnt put back the way its supposed to be.

kind of a cute method of seeing how obnoxious can either be embraced as a huge problem or ignored as people carry on blindly.

now that i think about it..
i bet the audio is ment for a convention center, where the speakers are on stands and about 20ft away from you.
because then it would make sense for such an audio scheme.
otherwise you would have to double or triple the output from the speakers to be able to hear it.
and that is really noisey and perhaps rude for the booths around you.

the gameplay is the exact same.
it would seem the game is only accurate enough when you are 20-30ft away from the screen.
being so far away.. it doesnt matter who killed who in a gunfight, because all you are doing is looking at the graphics and watching the gun go *pew* *pew* *pew*
once you stick your nose 2ft away from the screen, you start to see all of the imperfections associated with client to client lag.
and once you learn and grow adopted to the client to client lag.. then you can start to see people who have hacked something and are seeing you first or simply their bullets have higher priority than yours.
then you look at the ping response and see that the other person has a higher ping.

but dont get all excited.. because i went to other servers to increase my ping, and i came across the same thing.
people who have hacked something and their bullets have higher priority.

it looks like you are shooting at the person and the bullets have an affect or effect (neither one).

shooting first (with your crosshair on the person) and dieing first gets.

i use a machine gun and can pump eight bullets into somebody before they fall to the ground.
its like my data stream is being interlaced and all those bullets get ignored.
happens on a daily basis.
i have stopped playing it.
its made me so angry that i would deny steam or activision the right to distribute my game (is thinking about going to college for video games and using that knowledge for something else)

nothing like trying to be a famous race car driver only to strap into the driver seat and have somebody in the passenger seat grabbing the steering wheel.
makes my feet on the pedals feel like they should be dipped in volcano lava.
 

MEgamer

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^^ hmmm might tried out to listen to the enemies then, cos i just listened to eh friendly and theres was there, so i thought that was that - guess not.... oh well time to go back onto black ops again..
 

MEgamer

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now that i think about it..
i bet the audio is ment for a convention center, where the speakers are on stands and about 20ft away from you.
because then it would make sense for such an audio scheme.
otherwise you would have to double or triple the output from the speakers to be able to hear it.
and that is really noisey and perhaps rude for the booths around you.


maybe, if that was so, then may setting it to small speakers might fix the prob?? ( imassuming ur on about the surroudn issue here)

by the way what speaker set up are u playing black ops from?
 

anwaypasible

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i have quite a home built system.
my front speakers have pre-built boxes with replaced drivers and crossover.
my back speakers have pre-built boxes with the original woofer, but a replaced tweeter.
i have seperate amplifiers for the front and back speakers.
all of my speakers are calibrated with the THX console.
and i have calibrated my equalizer with a microphone that has a custom correction file so that the frequency response is flat.
AND THEN
i used digital room correction to flatten out the frequency response more.

i've used the creative xfi soundcard's reverb (audio creation mode) to make the front speakers play from the rear wall.
the audio sounded like it was coming from behind me with only the front two speakers playing.

i've done all that i could.. except for upgrade my rear speaker woofers and amplifier for the rear channels.
 

anwaypasible

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i went to a local store and purchased the cheapest set of speakers that offered an increase in cone size.

the original drivers were KLH
they seemed like a cheap product to simply fill a void. but i enjoyed the paper-like dullness of the midranges.
they were crisp.. which was a major difference compared to the sony speakers they were replacing.
the tweeters were much louder than the sony speakers because i blew the tweeters and only had a woofer and midrange in that cabinet.

i dont remember what the market was trying to sell way back then.
but i remember that shortly after purchasing my set of 12's .. they came out with a new version that were ported.
mine was sealed.

the first thing i decided to do was upgrade the woofers because the ones that came with it were not loud enough and distorted if i tried to get them to play as loud as i wanted.

then i blew a tweeter and i replaced those.
and then i cut out bigger holes to fit new midranges.
i've gone through four different midranges with these cabinets.. and three different woofers.

i bought a pair of peerless midranges off ebay for $25 and they absolutely blew me away.
one night i got real impressed when i was listening to the dialog of a movie.
there was a guy talking with a slightly lower than average tone.. and he was in the scene with some female.
they were talking to eachother at the same time and i could hear both vocals very clear.

so clear, infact, that i could mentally visualize a gap between each voice.

but i was stupid and had midranges sharing the same air space as a 12 inch woofer.
the woofer was blowing those poor speakers in and out so much that they smacked and bottomed out.
really only one side did it more than once.. but it was enough to make the coil play a gritty sound.
it wasnt totally blown and i kept using it.
after some time, the damage grew worse and worse until the woofer started to cut out.
i knew it was time to replace.. and i had some other midranges from my car audio project that died before i ever got to finish it.
so i brought those into the house and realized that i had blown one of them the same way i blew one of the peerless drivers.
because i had those drivers inside the house sharing the same airspace with the 12 inch woofer and it popped just like the peerless.

so what i ended up doing was use the speakers intended for the front doors of my car audio install and placed them on top of the box without any box.
they arent receiving any damage from the 12 inch woofer anymore.
i used an old pizza box and cut it up with a razor.
i cut out some squares and used 3-4 squares stacked on top of eachother to cover the midrange holes.
then i punched out a hole for the midrange wires.
they are sturdy enough because the box now has a 3 inch port letting the pressure out.

all of the speaker damage occured before i installed the ports.
i did try the midranges in the box.. but they were moving a whole bunch like the old drivers.. and they hadnt popped yet so i decided to take them out before i did ruin one.
its not the best.. because i had some other midranges that were better sounding than these.. but i learned a lesson of taking care of my things.

for such a long time i vowed to purchase some more peerless drivers.. even the exact same ones.
but as i moved into my apartment.. i realized they didnt sound half as good as they used to.
my first thought is that there is zero carpeting or furniture in my room now so all of the impressive details are lost.
and the ceiling of my apartment is 3-4ft lower .. and that doesnt help with the spacious feeling i once had.

now that i broke my microphone.. i am not going to be purchasing any new speakers at all because i cant calibrate them.
i am a little bit saddened that i didnt get a chance to try those peerless drivers with the microphone and equalizer.
but then again, i can appreciate how good they sounded without any equalization the first time i used them.

they where crisp and vivid and open.
the ones i have now are crisp without the vivid and open.

the sony woofers behind me are muddy monstors that just wanna blow some air.
but i got some onkyo tweeters and snipped the crossover out of the box.
now the woofer gets full range and the tweeter has its own little filter to block the bass.
the woofers are nothing special other than my desire to use them as hidden subwoofers in stereo sometime in the future.
but the tweeters are loud and open.. although i dont think they are crisp and vivid.
they are unique despite superb clarity.. and that is keeping me occupied without any money to change anything.

i have grown very driven to get a job.
there are a list of wants and desires.. as well as the things i find disgusting when browsing my leisure time.

kinda stinks because being motivated seems to be a solid step above being driven.
its like i have a reason.. but dont see the fun.
so i am hoping to find a job that will bring me to wake up and crawl out of bed.
otherwise i will be sluggish and not really supportive.. which would probably get me fired.

my list of things to buy once i get some money is so long that its probably humorous.
i've been trying to survive on less than $100 per month for the last three-four years.

i mean i've got important things on that list besides fueling a hobby.
new glasses for starters.
the ones i have now are 4+ years old.
havent bought clothes in years.
i could really pamper myself a bit since i havent had much of anything in such a long time.

but the current situation i am in is about as ugly as having to save up every single penny for as much as 6 months so that i have enough money for food and rent in the event that i get a new job and it doesnt work out.

it seems like i have gone as long as i can without any gross conclusion of 'luxuries' and i am down to essential things like glasses and brakes on my vehicle that i cannot afford.
shoes on my feet and pants on my body.
my shirts have holes and my pants are so worn that the fabric has lost its strength and is growing holes that will rip if i apply pressure.

i wanna whiten my teeth while it's legal.

and lingering over all of this.. i want to go to college and learn a few things.

i'm in agony and you want me to speak with some pride about the generic speakers i bought... lmfao
i really think they were the missing link to all of the muddy speakers on the general consumer market.
adding them together would probably have an end-result closer to something audiophile than either one seperately.

and that includes the obnoxious JBL or cerwin vega speakers for an easy $400

anyways.. the klh speakers came about 11 or 12 years ago is when i bought 'em.
i think i had a job back then and it was easy to afford.
makes me think about paying for my first car in cash (and paying my aunt and uncle back)

makes me angry that so much is revolving around money.
money doesnt care if you are lonely and in agony.
and i tried quite hard to remain functional without worrying about money.
there is no way to get around it because the world is revolving around it.
then i sit and ponder why some people make more than others when the situations are the way they are.

it should make me feel better about going to college, as if there is more money to be earned by graduating.. but thats not the case.
the video game industry is a current embarassment and i know good and well that i dont have to be the one to go and fix it all.
besides, i have plans to do other things with a virtual 3d space.
i'd like to do some interior and exterior design as well as inputting furniture and calculating audio optimizations.
it would be one more thing i could do on top of equalization and digital room correction.

maybe i could really learn to dial in some reverb the right way instead of holding on tight to three or four knobs and having high wonders about the rest.

speaker placement would be one thing to achieve.
but maybe furniture shape or size or material could really help.
maybe somebody spent thousands on a couch and doesnt want to get rid of it.. but maybe they are willing to change the material that wraps it.. or use a throw blanket to help the audio.
would be wild to simply lay down a throw blanket and see an improvement in audio details.

i just quit smoking again last week because i cant afford it and need to pack in that extra detail pertaining to my future and the changes that need to happen.

yuck.
anything else you want me to ramble on about?
 

anwaypasible

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i thought it was worth a giggle.
things are complicated with me usually, and i choose to express rather than fill out some simply blanks in a form of questions.
its usually a bit more entertaining since the 'other' stuff stems from the topic of question.

but anyways.. i dont wanna save up my money, i am going to spend it on fast food.
because i am seriously sick of the different foods i buy at the grocery store.
none of it seems to hit the spot of satisfaction like the fast food does.

its quite weird to me really.
i sometimes stop and think that the people inside the store with me are possibly blowing by without having the same nutrition problem.

i think its bad that towards the end of my meal, i can hardly keep chewing because the taste is boring and the nutrition is boring.
i get full pretty quick and will get hungry again later.
but its the fact that when i was a child i would remember getting full and would stop eating.
now its like i am simply tired of chewing the boring food and hardly had any satisfaction during the entire meal.

seems like the only satisfaction that i get is that i dont think the food has terrible taste.
struggling to keep the food i buy at neutral with my tastebuds.. because its often going lower.
rarely do i ever get over neutral unless its some fast food.

and i have tried all kinds of things..
different foods
fruits
fruit juices

i eat a bowl of cereal in the morning and a few hours later my body is freaking out like it didnt eat anything at all.
i bite into a fruit and i have no motivation to eat it.. i can hardly motivate myself to browse the produce section of the store.

and fruit juices.. they are terrible.
i have had more instances of heart burn than i have had pleasure.
the ratios are all wrong to say the least.
but the feeling i get after digesting the fruit juice doesnt satisfy either.

poptarts
steak
pizza
chicken
pork chops
oat bars

lol.. lots of attempts with no good results.

if i pick up a potato chip and eat just a single handful.. sometimes its like i have already eaten an entire bag of raw potatos and i just cant simply eat anymore.
it's annoying but i suppose its better than waking up and crawling out of bed for the single purpose of eating.

i gotta get my satisfaction some place else.. perhaps somehow else.