Need some new speakers, but its complicated!

Naan_H

Naan_H

Naan_H

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Hi all,

well it seems my trusty logitech z5400 5.1 system has finally bitten the dust - rather annoyingly it seems the control unit, although receiving power, refuses to turn on. the speakers were working fine and i have never abused them, but the produced great sound for what i paid for them

So now i need a new system. I am tempted by the logitech z906 as it will pretty much be a straight swap, giving good results. I would however, also like to have DTS-HD/TrueHD, but this setup will not support it.

I have seen the onkyo 22HDX which looks like a great system, but i cant see how i could implement it into my current pc system.

Im currently running 3 x 1440p monitors (Dell u2711 and 2x DGM's) through a 5450 card, using an old X-fi xtrememusic soundcard (analog).

Is there any way i can output HD audio while maintaining 1440p resolutions of my current setup (3 screens) using the onkyo 22HDX? Would a new sound card do the trick?

Many thanks in advance - im struggling with this idea!
 
Z906's aren't badly priced ATM. £220 on offer this week. £240 though, while only £20 more, may be borderline on being too much. IMO, at least. I don't know how the Z5400's compare to the 5500's, but many people have said the Z5500's were better than these new Z906's, and for the most part cheaper too. Again, that makes £240 seem too much really, especially when you can get pretty decent budget AV receiver and speaker package for £200-£300 that will have many more inputs, plus the ability to decode HD formats nearer the £300 mark.

You are going to have to use HDMI if you want access to HD audio formats found on Blu-ray that is for sure. SPDIF, or optical/coaxial, if you prefer, cannot do this. As far as sound cards go, that leaves only ones with HDMI. They cost a premium really when a cheap AMD graphic card can do the same thing for a heck of a lot less. I don't know how that is going to work with three screens. Multi screens is not something I've done, so I don't know how that will work, especially when a AV receiver is involved. There are chaps who know a lot more about that than I do.
 
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Marsman said:
Z906's aren't badly priced ATM. £220 on offer this week. £240 though, while only £20 more, may be borderline on being too much. IMO, at least. I don't know how the Z5400's compare to the 5500's, but many people have said the Z5500's were better than these new Z906's, and for the most part cheaper too. Again, that makes £240 seem too much really, especially when you can get pretty decent budget AV receiver and speaker package for £200-£300 that will have many more inputs, plus the ability to decode HD formats nearer the £300 mark.

You are going to have to use HDMI if you want access to HD audio formats found on Blu-ray that is for sure. SPDIF, or optical/coaxial, if you prefer, cannot do this. As far as sound cards go, that leaves only ones with HDMI. They cost a premium really when a cheap AMD graphic card can do the same thing for a heck of a lot less. I don't know how that is going to work with three screens. Multi screens is not something I've done, so I don't know how that will work, especially when a AV receiver is involved. There are chaps who know a lot more about that than I do.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply.

In trying to find the answer to my query, it appears the newer ATI cards can carry 4k resolutions via its HDMI port and a compatible cable. To factor that in, the AV receiver has to support 4k too (im assuming) to output to a pc monitor (and hence do 1440p). I have only looked at onkyos and these receivers start at approx the £350 mark for the onkyo 515.

Seems all too excessive just for HD audio at this moment in time. However once 4k receivers become commonplace then im sure more PC users will be using AV receivers than they are now for 1440p + resolutions

Im keeping an eye on the second hand z5500 market too. But given how logitechs seem to break not sure i want to fork out for them and instead go for the z906 and the warranty.
 
I'm not sure in z5400 but on z5500 you can buy a cable that bypassed the control unit and allows you to use the speakers without it

Is it a typo? There's no z5400,if z5500 then yep you can buy a bypass cable,I'm looking at one now
 
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Yes definitely z5400, they preceded the z5500. Seems like all the cables you mention are for the z5500, and can only find them in the USA. seems too much of a gamble for 30 odd quid
 
Yh Idk if they would work for the 5400,maybe you could get them repaired at a tv or electrical repair shop? Could be something simple
 
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