The Elders' House of Pain
Public Forum => Pc Help/Tweak Page => Topic started by: crazydog on March 29, 2009, 05:46:14 AM
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I'm looking to replace my piece of crap crap speakers that are 10 years old. Did I mention they are crap?
These are at the top of my list (that only contains this one item).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121130
Thoughts? I'm not looking to spend much more than this ($70) on speakers.
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Hitman and I were looking at these same ones in the store and liked them. We were considering them for our systems ourselves. Good choice man!
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Overall, the Z-4's are supposed to be pretty good although I don't have any first-hand experience with them.
Consider getting the Z-2300 instead: they are a bit more in price ($30 difference at newegg after adjusting for shipping) but supposed to be much better if you care about listening to music (vs. just games and movies). There is also a huge difference in output: 40W per speaker vs. 8.5W with the Z-4. Of all the PC speakers I have tried, I definitely like the logitechs for sound and overall quality/price.
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If you only want 2.1 sound instead of 5.1 then they are a pretty decent pair of speakers to get.
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mmm Luggage the Z-2300s look nice....now I guess I should take the effort to sell the speakers I have...
Edit: Just noticed the Z-2300s don't have an aux input...that's a deal breaker for me. I really like being able to play music through my speakers without having to open iTunes/etc.
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oh ok - the Z-4 def has an aux input
wouldn't your sound card have an aux in? not the most convenient at times to reach around the cpu so still may be a deal breaker...
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Well, it does, but with my sound card, the line in loops to the line out, so it doesn't go through Windows, meaning I can't play it through my digital speakers, and only my headset.
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I just looked it up, and the speakers I'm using are 3 watts/channel.
I also realized that since the Z-2300s are analog, not digital, I CAN just use one of my audio ports in the back of my computer as an aux input.
I hope 40 watts/channel is much better than 3. :P
I also hope I like them since they're non-refundable and non-replaceable through newegg. All I get is logitech's 2 year warranty.
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I have the Z-5500 which are basically the elder cousin of Z-2300 (~60W per channel - 5.1): these things are LOUD. I always play games and music at a setting of 2 to 3 out of max volume of ~15.
You should definitely look around beyond newegg (e.g. amazon, buy.com, mysimon.com, etc.) since newegg policy (no returns) sounds a bit tough...
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I have the Z-5500 which are basically the elder cousin of Z-2300 (~60W per channel - 5.1): these things are LOUD. I always play games and music at a setting of 2 to 3 out of max volume of ~15.
You should definitely look around beyond newegg (e.g. amazon, buy.com, mysimon.com, etc.) since newegg policy (no returns) sounds a bit tough...
Are the 5500's worth that hefty price tag?
I was looking at getting a 5.1 system for my room back home since I'm moving back in May after grad.
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Holy crap! The Z-2300 shipment is 37 pounds! Shit! Those are some heavy speakers!
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Are the 5500's worth that hefty price tag?
I was looking at getting a 5.1 system for my room back home since I'm moving back in May after grad.
I think they are good speakers, but to be honest I don't really find the 5.1 that helpful on my computer speakers which I use primarily for gaming (TF2, L4D, Civilization) and some music. If you are going to watch a lot of movies, then highly recommend the Z-5500. For computer speakers I think they are beautiful but wouldn't match up to a decent pair of bookshelf speakers (but then you'd need nice amp, etc. so huge price difference). Finally, when I bought them I did a pretty thorough price comparison with other speakers and could not get comfortable with sound quality on others -- sound matters a lot to me (thought i'm not an audiophile) so this is a subjective opinion...
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Are the 5500's worth that hefty price tag?
I was looking at getting a 5.1 system for my room back home since I'm moving back in May after grad.
I think they are good speakers, but to be honest I don't really find the 5.1 that helpful on my computer speakers which I use primarily for gaming (TF2, L4D, Civilization) and some music. If you are going to watch a lot of movies, then highly recommend the Z-5500. For computer speakers I think they are beautiful but wouldn't match up to a decent pair of bookshelf speakers (but then you'd need nice amp, etc. so huge price difference). Finally, when I bought them I did a pretty thorough price comparison with other speakers and could not get comfortable with sound quality on others -- sound matters a lot to me (thought i'm not an audiophile) so this is a subjective opinion...
Gotcha....Thanks for the info. I'll have to do some price hunting on them.
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lol 37 pounds? comp speakers yes heavy....i have the spherex Xbox surround sound for my TV/xbox (which i love, its awesome) about 75/80 lbs lol its all the sub
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Yeah I know. It's just that the sub I have now is like less than 5 pounds.
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So it showed up today...I was NOT expecting the Sub to be this bug. :P It's practically 1 sq. ft.
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Logitech's tend to be bass heavy so you will have to use EQ to beef up mids and reduce bass. Hopefully you like the sound :D
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Yeah I like it. Realtek's drivers don't provide direct access to an equalizer, just a bunch of presets.
Ok..who wants to help me! I've never properly used a 10-band graphic equalizer before...suggestions? :P
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Yeah I like it. Realtek's drivers don't provide direct access to an equalizer, just a bunch of presets.
Ok..who wants to help me! I've never properly used a 10-band graphic equalizer before...suggestions? :P
What you want to do is get each band on the equalizer to put out an equal level of sound. I used to compete in car audio competitions in the sound quality category so here's my advice. Find an MP3 of a sound test CD. What that will do is announce each tone in Hertz and then play the tone. You can then set each so they have an equal loudness. You usually do this with a machine that measures the level and you can probably find a program that will do it and use your mic to check level or you can do it by ear if you have to. After it's set you can adjust it to your taste (i.e. more bass less treble etc.) though I recommend keeping them the same. It may be different on the computer as opposed to the car audio environment so I suggest setting them the same then adjusting as you see fit. Hope that helps.
(http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb162/panzersmurfcoh/smurf1.jpg) Smurf
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so, Crazydog -- what's the verdict after having tried the speakers for a while?
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Well, I love them.
Even though I can't use a global equalizer thanks to Realtek's vista drivers, they're fine for me.
Much better than my 8 year old speakers + sub, and much better than the digital version of those same speakers (I'm off digital speakers for a long time. They're too expensive to test out another set to see if it was just the ones I had.) They fill up my room really nicely, and you won't notice a difference in the sound unless you are directly under them or at an extreme angle.
Everything comes through great, and if you're not a complete audiophile like me, you'd think they're amazing too. I had to buy a couple extension cables for the speakers (they were almost too short, but I didn't like them being so taut), but that was only a few bucks. The remote thingy is a nice touch, but I barely use it. I'll adjust the volume sometimes (never the bass), and I'lll use it to turn them off at night.
Worth $120 (or whatever I paid)? I'm not sure. I haven't bought new speakers in the past 8 years, so I don't really know the difference. I had a teacher 2 years ago that had some logitechs that LOOKED like the Z-4s (Remember: I got the Z-2300s not the Z-4s), and they would crap out and mid-range volumes. I can turn these all the way up (+ my system volume + whatever I'm listening to) and they still sound really great. They start to sound bad, but not as bad as some other system's I've heard.
I will miss the silence the digital speakers would give even when they were all the way up.
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Just thought I'd revive an old thread to say that Realtek FINALLY added a graphic equalizer to the Vista/Windows 7 audio drivers! Woo! :P
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lol, took long enough. I have the Z-2300's on the desktop through an X-Fi card.
and Z-5500 for my theater system.
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Using Z-5500 myself for my desktop. Been around for ever, but still an excellent 5.1 system.