Greetings CMDRs,
little bit different this time. Let's leave roadmaps, new content discussions and balancing issues behind for a while and appreciate one thing that no one is complaining about. The sounds of ED. The reason I'm putting this topic on is that I finally (tho somewhat unexpected) upgraded my rig's speaker system.
I have 3DPro stick and wanted to upgrade to X-56 Rhino HOTAS. Wait... joystick? What jopystick - it was supposed to be about sound.
Right, but it all came from joystick issue. I wanted X-56 but blue had quality issues so I waited. Then gray revised came out, sadly no stock in my country. I had money prepared for the purchase but nowhere to actually buy it. So I waited.
As a X-Mas gift I got my first sound system part - upgraded sound card from mobo integrated to SoundBlaster Z. Had it paired with old (really old) Logitech X-540 5.1 speakers.
X-540 5.1
Speakers were working fine and getting new sound card showed how "bad" was integrated one. Since they were old, I was looking for some time after some upgrade. I had one system on my mind but it was bit expensive so I put it on my "maybe one day" wishlist. Until few days ago when I found a discount option. So after bit of consideration - get new speakers or wait for X-56 I decided to get new speakers. Critical vote against HOTAS was: I don't play that much to justify X-56 price level while good speakers I use all the time with YT, music and other games. So yesterday I went and bought...
Logitech 5.1 Z906 THX
Promptly replaced old X-540 with new ones and ... man... The sound...
Before we get to that - previous setup I had:
- subwoofer behind desk
- central on screen's top
- front pair on the screen sides
- rear pair as a "wide" front, sometimes repositioned to the desk sides.
Not much surround but 5 speakers added to the effects. With Z906 I could adjust the whole setup to get true surround, thanks to long signal cables. So right now it looks like this:
- subwoofer behind desk
- central on shelf above desk (may put lower, need a wall mount)
- front pair on the screen sides
- rear pair ~1.7m behind me, on sides.
Initial test left me with a Cheshire Cat smile on my face. SoundBlaster Z paired with Z906 THX produce truly amazing result. Especially after upgrading from integrated SC. With test songs started to hear new sounds and instruments. I test played Diablo 3 as this game supports surround and 5.1 systems. Finally didn't test for long as it was late evening and kiddo was going to bed, not the best time to test 1000 W output power.
I had some issues with test sounds, center and rear not playing but I figured out it was speaker mode selection. I can switch between surround, 2.0, 4.0 and 3D. With 3D preset I had issues, switching to plain surround fixed it. Need to learn new setup.
Now I need to tweak playing positions, speakers are placed mostly where they should be, all I need is to configure the listening spot so all speakers deliver sounds to the exact listening spot. After all this is done I wonder how ED will sound. For we all know ED sound department good awesome job with sounds and music.
After all I think that getting new sound system was a better solution than getting fancy HOTAS.
<rationalization of purchase mode on>
little bit different this time. Let's leave roadmaps, new content discussions and balancing issues behind for a while and appreciate one thing that no one is complaining about. The sounds of ED. The reason I'm putting this topic on is that I finally (tho somewhat unexpected) upgraded my rig's speaker system.
I have 3DPro stick and wanted to upgrade to X-56 Rhino HOTAS. Wait... joystick? What jopystick - it was supposed to be about sound.
Right, but it all came from joystick issue. I wanted X-56 but blue had quality issues so I waited. Then gray revised came out, sadly no stock in my country. I had money prepared for the purchase but nowhere to actually buy it. So I waited.As a X-Mas gift I got my first sound system part - upgraded sound card from mobo integrated to SoundBlaster Z. Had it paired with old (really old) Logitech X-540 5.1 speakers.
X-540 5.1
Speakers were working fine and getting new sound card showed how "bad" was integrated one. Since they were old, I was looking for some time after some upgrade. I had one system on my mind but it was bit expensive so I put it on my "maybe one day" wishlist. Until few days ago when I found a discount option. So after bit of consideration - get new speakers or wait for X-56 I decided to get new speakers. Critical vote against HOTAS was: I don't play that much to justify X-56 price level while good speakers I use all the time with YT, music and other games. So yesterday I went and bought...
Logitech 5.1 Z906 THX
Promptly replaced old X-540 with new ones and ... man... The sound...
Before we get to that - previous setup I had:
- subwoofer behind desk
- central on screen's top
- front pair on the screen sides
- rear pair as a "wide" front, sometimes repositioned to the desk sides.
Not much surround but 5 speakers added to the effects. With Z906 I could adjust the whole setup to get true surround, thanks to long signal cables. So right now it looks like this:
- subwoofer behind desk
- central on shelf above desk (may put lower, need a wall mount)
- front pair on the screen sides
- rear pair ~1.7m behind me, on sides.
Initial test left me with a Cheshire Cat smile on my face. SoundBlaster Z paired with Z906 THX produce truly amazing result. Especially after upgrading from integrated SC. With test songs started to hear new sounds and instruments. I test played Diablo 3 as this game supports surround and 5.1 systems. Finally didn't test for long as it was late evening and kiddo was going to bed, not the best time to test 1000 W output power.
I had some issues with test sounds, center and rear not playing but I figured out it was speaker mode selection. I can switch between surround, 2.0, 4.0 and 3D. With 3D preset I had issues, switching to plain surround fixed it. Need to learn new setup.
Now I need to tweak playing positions, speakers are placed mostly where they should be, all I need is to configure the listening spot so all speakers deliver sounds to the exact listening spot. After all this is done I wonder how ED will sound. For we all know ED sound department good awesome job with sounds and music.
After all I think that getting new sound system was a better solution than getting fancy HOTAS.
<rationalization of purchase mode on>