Sound Blaster Audigy 2zs setup with Logitech Z5500

[gshock888]

I have a SBAudigy2 ZS and Logitech z5500. I had a 6 channel direct connection (orange-green-black) analog setup before. z5500 has direct 6 channel, coax and optical inputs. I don't have the Audigy platinum drive so optical is out of the question. but i figured i could try using the digital out on the SB. so i bought a cable from radio shack that goes from the normal 1/4" headphone jack to a coax/RCA jack. hooked it up and sound comes out, but when I use speakers diagnostic test, the rear and center channels are not working. will only sound good on ProLogic II music/movie upsample. so if i have to watch a 5.1 movie or play a game that supports THX/5.1 i actually have to revert back to analog 6 channel

in short, is there a way to do digital 5.1 with coax? what cable would i need for the digital out in the SB card? I dont want to spend a fortune to get the audigy drive just for the optical jack.

thanks

 

[13rian]

I'm sorry I don't have an answer to your question (me = speaker newb), but I'm going to be doing a very similar setup and wondering what's bad about analog? Does it not allow certain features from the speakers/sound card? If there is, I'll probably be wanting the same cable your looking for.

 

[gshock888]

nothing bad about analog. AFAIK they sound the same. but my z5500 has those coax/optical inputs! it'd be a shame to let them go to waste.

anybody? help??

 

[CPA]

you're lucky. I have the ZS and Altec Lansing ADA890s. I too can only use a S/PDIF connection (no optical). Unfortunately my 890s will only work in Quad mode and worse, because of the way Creative designed the ZS, the sub does not work in that mode. I cannot get the speakers to properly work in DD, Prologic or even Stereox2. Tomorrow I'm taking advantage of the Circuit City ZS Platinum Deal and most likely getting the 5500, so I can run optical only.

 

[gshock888]

if only they offer the drive for sale without the ZS card...

and how hard is it to add the stupid optical out on the card anyway :|
stupid creative labs trying to steal mah money'!!

 

[Cow Fly]

I have the same setup as you and am also interested in the answer since I was planning on buying a cable to use digital.

 

[shortylickens]

This may help, Ive seen similar problems before.

First, under the volume control ( double click the speaker Icon on lower right corner of screen) click 'Options' and check 'advanced controls'.
There should be an 'advanced properties' button now.
Make sure you have 'digital output' enabled. This is also a good place to check bass and treble levels.

Then: Under 'control panel' 'sounds and multimedia' check the speaker settings for windows. Make sure the setup in the cute little picture matches what you want to use. This simple Windows setting overrides most others. I have lost audio in many games because it didnt match my setup.
Things like the center channel not being played when I needed it. Or being played(and lost) when I didnt need it and couldnt use it.

Anything else, PM me before you waste time and money.

 

[DanDaMan315]

OMG THAT IS AN INCREDIBLE DEAL FROM CIRCUIT CITY. THANK YOU SO MUCH CPA FOR ALERTING ME TO THIS DEAL!

 

[mgravy]

gshock888-

Interested to see if shortylickens suggestion did the trick. I have the same setup....

 

[gshock888]

well here's the thing. I want to have Digital 5.1 setup when I do coax, when I scroll through the effects, I only get STEREO > STEREO x2 > PLII MOVEI > PLII MUSIC

no 5.1, I use creative's speakers calibration or diagnostics, I can't get any noise to come out from Center and Rear channels when I test. The only way to get those to sound on diagnostics is to use the 6 ch direct analog, which is muted when I enable "digital output only"

the speakers upsamples my stereo signal to 5.1 when I use their PL2 Movie/Music, which is not true Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS... so how do i get this to work using coax and going DD or DTS

 

[shortylickens]

Hate to say it but (based on your symptoms) this is a speaker problem, not a Windows or Soundblaster problem.

If you are getting ANY audio while using the fiber optic line or digital coax cable, then the sound card is working great.

The only thing thats I do differently is the creative software.
I dont use the drivers that come with the disc, or any of the software.
I just go to usa.creative.com and find the latest web drivers.
Thats all I ever use. Their software seems to add more problems which is sad.

I know this may not seem very helpful, but without digging in your computer myself I'm just brainstorming here.

Does the speaker setup have any kind of special lights to let you know you are recieving a DD or DTS signal? What movies and DVD player are you using?

 

[gshock888]

thanks. i've never attempted an optical or digital connection with my set-top DVD players, cuz I only wanted to get digital from my PC, I should get my DVD player out just to test if my z5500 can decode properly...

will post more once i done testing... thanks

 

[mgravy]

gshock888-

Here's a screen shot of my SB Audigy 2 ZSS software settings. I think this is what shortylickens was talking about a few posts above. It didn't sound like you were able to find the check box that says "Digital Output Only". You might want to verify that you have a similar setup.

 

[Elliotgb]

Hello

I am by no means an audio expert, but I have done some hookupsand configs of PC's with speakers, etc.

I also have an Audigy 2 ZS card and I am getting the Z5500's soon.

This is what I found from support at the Logitech site at logitech.com.
Let me know if this helps!

I think what you need to do if you are using an coax connection from the Logitech controller to your soundcard: you need to disable the digital decoding that goes through the soundcard and enable the controller to handle the digital decoding on its own.

Here's the step by step instructions:


How can I get Digital 5.1 Surround Sound on my Z680/Z5500 via a Sound Blaster Audigy 2?

Answer
The Z680/Z5500 come equipped with both digital coaxial and optical inputs. The unit also contains a digital decoder that can decode either Dolby Digital or DTS signals, which you may connect to your computer by a 75ohm digital coaxial cable or standard optical cable. The onboard decoder must be used in order to experience true 5.1 surround sound. To use the Z680/5500 onboard decoder, the speakers must be connected to your sound source or PC via digital optical or coaxial cable and the "effect" setting must be set to PL2 Movie for DTS and Dolby Digital on the Control Pod. In general, you must disable any software and/or hardware decoder on your PC. You will need to do this because the Z680/Z5500 decoder will not be able to decode an already decoded signal. If a software or hardware decoder on your PC is active, the Z680/Z5500 will play the audio in only 2 channels, rather then 5.1. You must also remember that the source of the audio must also support 5.1 Dolby Surround or DTS, such as DVD movies and some video games.

Step 1: Before configuring your Sound Card
As stated above, you'll need to disable your onboard hardware decoder. To do so, you'll first need to go to the Creative Labs website and download the latest software and firmware update for your Audigy 2 sound card.

Step 2: Configuring your Sound Card
Once you've downloaded and installed the latest updates for Creative Labs, click the Start button, go to Programs, select Creative, then to Sound Blaster Audigy 2 menu, and finally select Creative Audio HG. A window will pop up; double-click on the "device controls" icon. Another window will appear in which you'll need to select the Decoder tab. In there, you will see two options. Select the second option, which states "SPDIF Passthrough (dolby digital/DTS out)". This will turn off your onboard decoder and let the Z680/Z5500 do the work. Then click close.

Step 3: Configuring your Speaker Settings
Now, you'll need to go into the speaker settings control panel. To do this, you'll need to go to the Start menu, Programs, Creative, Sound Blaster Audigy 2, and then click on Creative Sound Mixer. In this new window, you'll see three icons at the bottom. Click on the second speaker icon. Now from the drop down menu, select 5.1 as your speaker selection. Then check "synchronize with control panel". Also, make sure "digital output only" is selected. Close the speaker settings window and restart your machine.

Step 4: Testing your Sound Card
Once your computer has restarted, go back into the speaker settings. This time, click on the "channel" button. This will test all your speakers one by one. You should hear "front left"... "center" ..."front right" and so on, coming from each speaker.

Notes:
Now you should be setup for digital surround sound although there are a few things that you'll need to take note of to get DVD's and games to work properly on your computer. Inside your computer, there must be a digital audio cable connected to your DVD-ROM to your sound card. Also, the DVD-software may have an option for software decoding and this option must be disabled. Finally, the DVD movie or game you are using must support 5.1 Dolby Digital or DTS. Sometimes you must go into the audio menu of the movie or game and set it to 5.1 DTS or Dolby digital. If you are still experiencing problems with digital 5.1 surround sound, you'll need to contact Creative Labs or the software player manufacturer you are using.

 

[beatle]

Originally posted by: Elliotgb
How can I get Digital 5.1 Surround Sound on my Z680/Z5500 via a Sound Blaster Audigy 2?

Answer
The Z680/Z5500 come equipped with both digital coaxial and optical inputs. The unit also contains a digital decoder that can decode either Dolby Digital or DTS signals, which you may connect to your computer by a 75ohm digital coaxial cable or standard optical cable. The onboard decoder must be used in order to experience true 5.1 surround sound.

This last line is not true. I get all 5.1 channels on my setup without a digital cable. My Audigy does the decoding and sends the 6 channel discrete analog signal to my receiver (the Z-5500s and Z-680s take 6 ch. discrete as well). The advantage to this is that I still get multichannel sound in games. With a digital cable, you'll only get stereo in games. DVD-Audio is another animal which will not work at all with a digital cable.

 

[z1ross]

Hey let get few things strait since allot of people are confused on Audigy's Connections.

First off Coax conection is only for Digital pass threw to an external dolby decoder. It operates in a 2 ch mode when no dolby signal is provided. The Audigy's Digital out connector is a 3mm 4-pole connector and to adapter you bought converting it to coax only converts the main front speakers digital signal to the coax and doesn't touch the other two connections. so if you want your external speakers to decode the signal during DVD movies you need to select "Use SPDIF" out from your DVD audio software. Then go into the AudioHQ in the control panel & in Device controls and under the Decoder options Select SPDIF Passthrough, this will output the SPDIF signal those Z-5500 speakers are looking for when watching a movie.

Here is some information on the above and some belowe:
http://dmzweb3.europe.creative...centric:,Kb=ww_english

http://dmzweb3.europe.creative...centric:,Kb=ww_english


If your trying to use an all digital (or Digital only) signal, it only works for only 2.1, 4.1 and 5.1 speaker systems that support direct digital in. 6.1 and 7. 1 systems require you to use analog outputs to your external speakers and not suported in digital out only mode. The cable for running all digital 5.1 and lower systems is a special head phone like cable that supports 3 channels of digital signaling instead of two (the end of it has 4 connection points instead of 3 like regular headphones).

I don't know if the logitech z-5500 speakers have a digital in headphone jack, but in the specs it says it does support Direct digital and that would be the port or ports to use. Here is the spec page i'm getting my information from:
http://www.logitech.com/index....ID=2177,CONTENTID=9486
If you want to run all digital 5.1 then you need to buy a special cable for use that suports Audio left & right as well as Video. The cable converts from a 3mm headphone jack to 3 rca's. The three RCa's are your three all digital signals one for front-left/right, one for Rear-left/right, and one for Center/Sub. Then you need to buy 3 RCA Female to 3mm Mono jacks (headphone style) and plug them into the right spots. Here is information on the Pinouts of the Live and Audigy cards (click on the "Digital out jack" for the right information):

http://dmzweb3.europe.creative...centric:,Kb=ww_english

The digital breakout cable is diffferent then the Analog breakout cable if you want to break out your channels in analog mode for 6.1 (need 1 of the below cables) or 7.1 (need 2 of the below cables) to use different speaker systems together as a 7.1 system like I have done. For example Here is my speaker setup:

Speaker set 1: Altec Lansing ATP5 (4.1 system) speakers hooked up to the Front left and Rigth and center channels (2 speakers are being used as the center..one on each side of the monitor

Speaker set 2: Altec Lansing ADA 745 (4.1 system) hooked up to the SIDE-LEFT/RIGHT and the REAR-LEFT/RIGHT cannels

Speaker set 3: Polk Audio 10" powered Subwoofer Hooked up to the Sub Channel.

Here is the information for Audigy 2 and Audigy 2zs cards ring and pin outs (The Cable showen in these diagrams are simular to allot of the Digital Camcorder Cables used these days. I bought my 2 at Radio Shack:

http://dmzweb3.europe.creative...centric:,Kb=ww_english


JUST REMEBER there are 2 different 4-poll cables, one for Digital signals and one for Analog. Test them with a VOM (Volt Ohm Meter) at Radio Shack befor you buy to make sure you have

Good luck and feel free to email me if anyone has any questions, I'm located in San Jose, and if your really having truble email me and I'll help you get it all strait. And Yes I've been asked to turn it down by my neighbors

 

[beatle]

We're getting a little off topic here, but it's good info anyway.

Radio Shack only shows one type 4-segment 3.5mm cable as seen here. They also have an overpriced Monster Cable version for almost 3x the price. There is nothing that makes a coax cable "digital." You'd need this cable if you planned on hooking up your Audigy 2 ZS to a real receiver and getting 6.1 or 7.1 output. You wouldn't need it to hook up any other brand of 6.1 or 7.1 card, as they use 4 3.5mm analog stereo output jacks.

Unfortunately, none of your Creative links work.

Welcome to the forums, z1ross.

 

[z1ross]

Thank you for the Welcome, I'm glad to be of help.

Ok I've just finished reading some more info on the z5500 speakers and they only support an ACM (DVD movie or Music) for dgital 5.1 surround sound. so you have to use the analog inputs if you want your gaming in 5.1 suround sound.

Thank you for the link beatle :thumbsup:
The cable on the far right is the one I bought 2 of for use in my system, the "10-Foot Gold Series Camcorder A/V Cable". They are the ones that are correct for seperating the analog signals for external speakers. The cable needed for breaking out the digital signals is a bit different and they changed the location of the ground wire so one will not work for the other, I have both! I have blowen 2 digital converters on 2 different Audigy cards before I got this information right so I'm not posting to just say it should work I'm posting because I was doing this a few years ago and it got "real expensive" and at the time there was almost no documentation on the ring out pin outs of the cards that could be found & I've done it from LIVE 5.1 cards to the new Audigy 2zs Platinum Pro card.

I'm sorry the links didn't work for you and don't feel bad because they are not working for me either any more...... If you go and search their support database with the key words ( "ring out pin out" , you will get a list back. Two of the items are named :

1. "Pin assignment of internal and external connector and jumper settings of Sound Blaster cards" (Solution ID # 3026)
a. Click on "External Connectors such as Microphone, Line-In, Line-Out, Digital Out, Center/Subwoofer/Rear Center Out."
b. click on "Digital Out Jack(Analog Subwoofer/Center jack) of Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 and Sound Blaster Audigy" This information would have saved me from blowing 2 cards as I had a adapter connector for digital use but not analog use.

2. "Ring assignments/pinouts on the Sound Blaster Audigy 2/ZS" (Solution ID # 3069)
(for analog, the 2ZS digital jack is the same as the Audigy2 in the first article, just it's dedicated to only digital full time, no SPDIF or analog signals.)

If you look at the digital 5.1 signal out you will see the 4 connections with the base being the Ground. Now if you compare it to the "Line 3 Audigy 2 cards" you will see that the ground is in a different place, it this cable you can get from Radio Shack that "beatle" Provided a link to.

The cable that works for breaking out (seperating) the 3 digital signals for use on external digital speakers (which the pair of Altec Lansing ATP5's I'm running, are digital and have a digital front and rear inputs on them, I was running at one time & they do not decode ACM 5.1), That cable I was able to get at a computer store as they are common with Monitors that have an 3.5mm AUX input plug on them that support video & Audio L&R. it's also the same as many adapters that come with portable LCDS for video game systems like the 5" game cube travel screen my sone has, (I've got that little extra cable now )


An SPDIF Coax is aimed at Digital signals. The signal sent along a SPDIF CoAX cable from any of the sound cards will only be a 2 ch PCM signal untill a DVD is played then it becomes a Compressed ACM format that the external decoder can decode. None of the Pc sound cards on the market compress normal computer sounds (videos, games, internet, music or other) for use with an external decoder. They provide digital out which is slightly cleaner then analog signals (and don't pick up EMF from other neaghbooring wires very easily) and require one half the amount of wires since 2 channels can be sent on one connection, so 3 connections are needed for Digital 5.1 out & none of the sound cards on the market support digital out 6.1 (7channel) or 7.1 (8channel) yet and I've not seen a 5 pole 3.5mm jack anywhear on the market. Even more rare in the market are the speaker systems that fully use the digital signals for the rear and center/subwoofers channels. Creative is the only one that I know of right now that has those setups.

 

[funk3h]

The main problem with forming a digital connection between the audigy2 zs and the z-5500 is that the z-5500 are designed to recieve a raw (undecoded) digital signal. The audigy 2 zs';s digital out serves two purposes. When spdif pass through is not active, the digital out trasmits a decoded signal. I know this is contrary to some opinion expressed so far, but if the signal has been split into three channels then the simple fact of the matter is that it has been decoded in some way and split into seperate channels. Coupled with this, there are avaliable creative speakers 5.1 that DO NOT have an external decoder but CAN conect to a soundcard with a single digital line, this is why the digital out on the back of creative sound cards is designed the way it is. Right back to the topic, so we have 3 signals and one common ground hence the 4 pole conector. The problem is that, as implied above, the digital in for the z-5500's is a 2 pole RCA jack. The idea of being able to find a cable that somehow connects the 4pole out on the back of the soundcard to a 2 pole in on the speakers without some kind of electronics inbetween, is non-sensical.

However, when spdif pass thought is active and the internal decoder is turned off the digital out on audigy because in effect becomes just one signal and one ground, just like the coax. This is the very definition of an undecoded signal, i.e. theres just one. Simply one channel in its raw form for some external decoder to act on. If the digital out on the audigy was not capable of outputting a decoded digital signal then WHY use a 4 pole interface? what the hell do the seperate channels mean? why arbitrarily split the signal into 3 parts? Even if that were happening, the three chans still cant be considered front rear and sub, as this implies a purposeful splitting of the signal with foreknowledge of how its constructed(i.e. decoding). The problem however, is that you still cant use a 2 pole 3.5mm jack. And as we have already mentioned there exists no cable capable of connecting a 4 pole 3.5mm jack to a 2 pole coax without some kind of electronic gadgetry inbetween.

I may have found a possible solution however. Yesterday i found a cable with a 4 pole digital 3.5mm jack on one end and THREE RCA connecters on the other. I.e. each RCA has a common ground and each carries one of the 3 distinct signals. I ordered the cable the other day so i have yet to discover whether or not its going to work. As i see it there are three posibilities:

a) the single signal goes down ONE of the RCA connecters, so its just a case of finding the right one
b) the same signal is duplicated in all three RCA connecters so then all three will work
c) the signal is somehow split between the 3 conencters in some kind funky unexplained fashion, in which case im still buggered.

I'll let u know how i get on

and heres a link to the place i ordered the cable from (its uk but i THINK they ship internationally)

http://www.audiovisualonline.co.uk/dyna...et/ref/19/3.5mm-jack-phono/browse.html

 

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: gshock888
I have a SBAudigy2 ZS and Logitech z5500. I had a 6 channel direct connection (orange-green-black) analog setup before. z5500 has direct 6 channel, coax and optical inputs. I don't have the Audigy platinum drive so optical is out of the question. but i figured i could try using the digital out on the SB. so i bought a cable from radio shack that goes from the normal 1/4" headphone jack to a coax/RCA jack. hooked it up and sound comes out, but when I use speakers diagnostic test, the rear and center channels are not working. will only sound good on ProLogic II music/movie upsample. so if i have to watch a 5.1 movie or play a game that supports THX/5.1 i actually have to revert back to analog 6 channel

in short, is there a way to do digital 5.1 with coax? what cable would i need for the digital out in the SB card? I dont want to spend a fortune to get the audigy drive just for the optical jack.

thanks

Ive got same setup.. direct works fine for the PC... i used my coax to go to my real DVD player and my Optical to my Xbox...
to get EAX3 to work in games it has to be on the direct line anyway..
kinda defeats the purpose of having 5.1 and an audigy

 

[z1ross]

Like i stated above.......(Facts)

The regular digital signals are a 2channel PCM format.

When SPDIF Pass threw is enabled, The signal becomes a ACM 5.1 Channel compressed signal.

(AS Stated ABOVE but in Simpler Terms) The Audigy cards do have 5.1 direct Digital PCM Format available, but the z5500 speakers to not support 5.1 direct digital PCM (only a Select few speakers sets have this). The Z5500 only support 5.1 Digital ACM Format (SPDIF for movies). They do not have the Rear & Front/Sub Digital PCM Format connections, Just the front because the 5.1 decoder defaults to 2 channel mode when receiveing a PCM signal.

So they way CVSiN stated above is correct, You have to use the 6 channel Direct analog connection (orange-green-black) for your surround sound to work with games.

 

[funk3h]

z1ross, i'm not sure i totally agree on your interpretation of the pass through situation.

When pass through is enabled the information sent via the digital port is a single undecoded signal (ground and signal that is). The whole point of pass through is that the sound is not converted to 5.1 via the soundcard, this is done in the external decoder.

I'm not attacking this from a software logic, purely from an electronics logic. There is no way a 4 pole connector can reduce to a 2 pole interface without some kind of electronics. THAT is a fact.

On other issues, sadly my coax connector didnt work ]=. Just got no signal at all. This implies to me that really the only way to connect the logitech 5500's to an audigy 2 zs digitally, is to use the optical out on the platinum drive.


EDIT : All this is assuming the digital out on the back of the Audigy2 zs is infact 4 pole, which im now starting to doubt

 

[z1ross]

Well Beleive it our not the Digitla port on the Audigy 2 cards has 4 connectors in it. The SPDIF pass threw will only work both Optically and digitally in surround sound mode with a DVD Movie with SPDIF pass threw selected in the options of both the DVD software and the AudioHQ settings in the control pannel (the digital out only has nothing to do with the SPDIF Passthrew). I've tried to post links to Sound blasers own Pin ring outs but they don't work but let me try a different way.(I'll post a link to the picture...LOL)

Do 2 searches with the titles like I posted before at the creative labs site. I have this information strait from the guys at creative plus I've got a degree in Electronics engineering. And I can practically walk next door and ask them since i do live in San Jose, CA.

You should review Creative articals:
Solution ID # 3026
Solution ID # 3069

Here is creatives picture of the Digital Out Jack(Analog Subwoofer/Center jack) of Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 and Sound Blaster Audigy (Also the Dedicated digital jack of the Audigy2 cards) This is from Creative's own Support site, Note the reversed Ground location I was warning about in the earlier post when trying to get the cables for spliting the signals when using Analog or Digital.

http://dmzweb3.europe.creative.com/wwenglish/audio_int/images/soundcard19.jpg

When you are not playing a dvd move or something with a ACM Sound stream there is no surround sound output from the optical or digital SPDIF connections, because the ACM stream is compressed and unprocessed and the speakers decode it for listening. The front SPDIF is the channel that you want hooked up to your surround sound movie equipment. My Altech Lansing ATP5 Speaker set has front and rear digital inputs if i connect a standard stearo cable and split it to 2 mono channels and plu it in it works with the front and rear signales, I've got the break out cable (both types because of the ground being different) and i can change and hook up the front/sub if i want too but then no sound comes from the right speaker on that channel since it's a sub signal that is to low for the speaker.

Also if your using a COAX out on the add-on board then you will only get a signal for movies, but only with the above settings for the SPDIF pass threw (I beleive).

Do the searches and find the information. It's there and it's because of people like me (who blow up Digital IC's on $200 sound cards AND use the warentie because the card didn't come with the proper information the first time) that Creative has posted this information because They did this screwey set up and didnt tell people.

 

[funk3h]

yeah ive realised we're talking at cross purposes and actually agree. SPDIF is just a digital interface, it doesnt neccesarily mean the signal hasnt been decoded. Ive also got the uncoded digital signal to work now using the external decoder using a simple RCA to 3.5mm cable, i.e. just ground and 1 signal. The sound card must be set up so that when passing through the decoder and using an external one, the digital port effectively outputs just the one signal.

I'm assuming the seperate SPDIF channels are when digital output is selected in the speaker configuration, but the soundcards onboard decoder is not bypassed.

Sorry for the confusion

Bassically to get 5.1 in games, you have to use the direct analogue output and the onboard decoder. With movies, a simple 2 pole RCA to 2 pole 3.5mm jack does the trick.

 

[Hybr1dz]

hey i have Z680s and Audigy Plantinum ZS pro. I have the optical cables hooked up from the hub and into Z680 controller. I went into Audio HQ and selected the Passthrough for the decoder. My logitech controller is set for optical input. I also set my speaker settings to use digital only. Basically everything straight from the instructions posted previously. However, I still only get the front left and right speakers to work in the channel test. I played LOTR dvd with dobly digital enabled and it seems to produce a surround sound effect but I wasn't very satisfied with it.

I tried Direct 6-channel using AUdigy's onboard decoder and the surround sound was a lot better.

Any suggestions for getting optical surround sound to work?