z-5500 and razer barracuda AC-1 Soundcard/HP-1 Headset

Yea the only games that support DTS by the looks of it are on here:
http://www.dtsonline.com/consumer/gaming/video-games.php

When i play games, i just srt my Z5500 to 6Ch Direct, this way if i am playing GTA SA or something they are practically in 5.1, not 2.1.

I have an X-Fi Fatal1ty Soundcard. When i listin to music what i do is set it to Stereo Surround and set it to 50%, so all the sound comes out of all the speakers, i dont know if i should turn CMSS3D off though and just have it all standard, but it is too quiet them and i gotta get into boost and they still havent reach max level.

It seems like when using Optical and in Stereo it seems to bypass all of the X-Fi features.
 
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From what I've read CMS3D makes it sound worse, just disable any EQ or DSP and leave it in 2 channel mode.

I don't have any useless DSP or tone controls in the stereo system either, and it sounds fantastic. If you have to use a DSP then your system isn't that good in the first place.

Stereo surround does funny things to the soundfield, at least the lower quality ones I've read do, Lexicon's own surround DSP sound great and it's not a "5 channel duplicate surround" but a proper high quality DSP.
 
Damn you are so right :D, i just disabled the CMSS3D, its actually allot louder, i only need Stereo, no need for the other speakers unless its something 5.1, it sounds so much better now :)

Its like i have got new speakers now : o, sounds so much better withought CMSS 3D, people say the Logitech Z5500's seem to hurt the ears too much at higher volumes, i was beggining to think it was true, turned CMSS-3D off, thats gone :)

Even the bass is more Punchy now ;s

So exatly what is the X-Fi usefull for?
 
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So exatly what is the X-Fi usefull for?
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Gaming and that's about it. If the M-Audios didn't impact such a performance hit in gaming I would've got one of them instead.

oh the csms3d is supposed to be used for mp3's, but most of my music is flac so need need to apply it.

As for installation of the X-Fi are the drivers alone enough or do I need to install other CL software?
 
squiffy said:
For all sound streams you want to leave it alone, to the speakers themselves. When playing back a CD your (digital) speakers or av amp should receive a 2 channel PCM 44khz bitstream. And when playing AC-3 soundtrack, speakers recieve AC-3 48khz, with the same number of channels ie 3/2. You don't want to upsample a mono DD audio track to 5.1. Same for DTS, speakers receive DTS.

You don't want the soundcard to transcode in realtime to another format, just because you think it'll sound better. ie PCM to DTS transcoding on the fly.

I don't know why your speakers are receiving DTS in games, surely it'll just be stereo /4/5 channel whatever the game uses? afaik games don't have multi-channel discrete soundtracks ie DD or DTS, although a few do.
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hi m8, the thing is it does sound better,not what i read will sound better ;) with this card you can choose what digital signal leaves the pc,so no matter what you are using(media player,games,etc)the control center only displays its receiving dts when it is.I understand what you are saying m8 as ive been a big time hifi/home cinema buff for years, but moved to pcs about 6 years ago(still got all my audiolab gear+ bw p5s, but rarely listen to them now! :eek: )
trust me ive changed ever setting going to find the best positional sound for gaming and heres a screenshot of settings
 
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squiffy said:
As for installation of the X-Fi are the drivers alone enough or do I need to install other CL software?
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The Drivers are enough and it will work perfectly :), i must admit, the X-Fi I/O panels are awsome with the control, i downloaded Inteliremote, i could control Windows Media Center perfectly, was just like having a Media Center remote, its got some good stuff, worth it if you ever want to use Optical or Coax on the PC as a normal X-Fi Extreme Music does not have Optical or Coax, and i suspect thats what you would use to a propor AMP right?
 
willhub said:
Those control 1's seem to be good, abit expensive for me atm :p, might concider some later on this year, do the control 1's increase the amount of bass coming from the z5500 system them seen as its 4" driver and bigger enclosure so possibly more bass?



Oh wow thats awsome, how exatly do you enable DTS like this in games, when i go into games using Optical it just is on PLII Movie :s

Ohh, its only with certain games aint it? lust looked on google, found an article "2 more EA games to intergrated DTS"
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thanks m8, you cannot just enable dts on the logitech when you want it,it happens automatically when it receives a dts signal and you have no sound effect option,just a time delay setting.my last soundcard did what yours does(which is still good! :D )digital out to the logitech and it creates the 5.1 sound for you ie movie mode etc(unless its rec in dolby digital=it will switch to dolby digital )
with the AC-1 though it outputs the sound to the logitech in dts stream,so anything you play or do is in dts :D
regarding the control 1s there is a bit more bass but nothing major,its the mid/treble where they are better,as i said i had to turn the sub up a notch or 2 to get the sound i liked (i saw them for £60 a pair and thought sod it and bought 2x sets,but the original speakers sound v good)
c ya m8
 
barracuda ac-1's are just expensively rebadged x-meridian using lower quality components. its far too expensive, even trhe x-meridian is far too expensive for what it is.
 
g00dsh0t

Are you running Vista?

I will soon be running X64 and am looking at having the Razer setup you have
for my new computer.

I would be gratefull for any further info.

Thanks
 
wilno said:
g00dsh0t

Are you running Vista?

I will soon be running X64 and am looking at having the Razer setup you have
for my new computer.

I would be gratefull for any further info.

Thanks
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sorry for late reply m8..
im running xp pro.
i dont think there is any vista drivers out yet for the razer card.to tell you the truth m8 im in no rush to move to vista yet until they have sorted drivers out(well at least for my hardware)
my spec(if it helps)
C2D 6600,BFG 8800GTX WC,PB5 Deluxe WiFi,2Gb 10 Anni,2 x raptors(raid0),2 x samsung sata dvdrw,Razer AC-1,Custom Water
G15,G7,ZZ5500THX,Samsung Syncmaster 400P
il be glad to help if i can :D c ya m8
 
No problem,

Thought as much, as it's a new build I think I'll go for Vista X64 straight away
and use the on board sound for now.
I like the fact this card seems to be able to output DTS from any 2 channel source.

Thanks
 
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