Hi, I am currently an owner of the Klipsch Promedia 5.1 speakers with a Soundblaster Audigy2 ZS (which, I read, supports this digital stuff), using Foobar optimized to my liking. I have been very pleased with the Klipsch speakers, putting out a great deal of power and quality with my music collection. However, the speakers died once a while ago and I got them replaced under warranty, and got a new set. Now, after a year or two, these replacements seem to be crapping out again, and I don't think the warranty will cover them.

So, I was looking at some speakers that might be appropriate and came across the Logitech Z-5500 5.1 set of speakers with the digital capabilities. I read that these are excellent, and possibly even better than my old Klipsch set. The area that confuses me, though, is that of the digital options.

I don't really play many games, but I do listen to music very often (with Foobar) and watch DVDs. My music collection consists of 192-320 kbps MP3/ogg and some lossless FLAC files. (Mostly rock/metal is listened to). Would this digital option suit me more for my music listening needs? Or would analog be the way to go? Why? Also, would the Klipsch or these Logitech speakers play my music better? I know that I should test them both myself to see which are better, but I won't be able to test the Logitechs on my own audio card and foobar setup, obviously.

I tried to search for more information about analog and digital connections on this forum, but couldn't find much information; the information I could find was too technical for me. Sorry if this has been posted before; I tried searching, but to no avail.

Thanks in advance to anyone kind enough to help a noob out with his audio situation

Hi, the z-5500's are NOT as good as your promedia's.

1) the z-5500's have a bigger sub, BUT because the driver quality is so crappy, your 8" woofer is able to go to lower freqency's and sound flatter (which is a good thing)

2) The z-5500 sattelites don't use upper range drivers (tweeters), they try and use a single driver to go from 150hz-20khz. They might be able to hit all the freq's but you should notice a drop in a lot of clarity and soundstage since your used to the sound of the promedia's horn loaded tweeters.

The only real competition the Promedia 5.1's have are the Gigaworks S700.

Please also understand that all speakers are analog. At some point the signal MUST be converted from digital to analog. In your setup this is done w/ the A2ZS. With the Z-680's/Z-5500's it's done inside the decoder. There's NO practical advantage to doing it this way. It makes sense to do it with a high end expensive 5.1 receiver but not with a computer multimedia system. (because with a 5.1 receiver you might want to upgrade the speakers connected to it)

Just because the digital is converted to analog later down the line in the z-5500's also doesnt mean that it sounds better. In fact it's the QUALITY of the converters that actually matter, not where in the chain the converters are. Texas Instruments tried integrating digital > analog converters inside an amp, and the sound quality was less than stellar, even though the signal path was short.

Don't sell your Kipsch for Logitech, Klipsch is definately a professional speaker company with much more solid quality parts and much lower failure rates. Creative speaker's arent bad either. If you were to compare your 5.1's to the logitech and had a $5000 stereo on the same setup to compare. You'd see that the promedia's sound far closer to the $5000 stereo vs the logitech's. And the logitechs sound closer to a boomy car system with hushed highs.

If the upgrade bug is biting you, then I would either invest in some high end headphones or switch to a 2 channel bookshelf/monitor system.

I sold my Klipsch Promedia 5.1 Ultra's and bought some bookshelves and a nice musical sub. A day never goes by that I regret leaving multimedia products from klipsch/creative/logitech/altec lansing.

-Joe

Joe, thank you for the very thorough response. I noticed you mentioned the Gigaworks S700; I was looking at those a while back -- but I quickly dismissed them when I read a few reviews stating the fact that they are poor for music, but excellent for games.

Also, you mentioned a 2 channel bookshelf system - I was also thinking about this earlier, but I know even less about bookshelf/home stereo systems used with computers than these Klipsch/Logitech products. I read that, if used properly, these systems blow away anything Klipsch and the like could make for the same price. Problem is, I have no idea where to start researching this. 5.1 isn't exactly necessary for me because I mainly use my speakers for the aforementioned musical purposes. So, a bookshelf system may be exactly what I'm looking for. But then again, I know nothing about this.
Does this mean that you should have stayed with your Promedia 5.1?

Thanks again for your input and please forgive my noobish questions

on the contrary, the downfiring sub competes with the Klipsch PM 5.1 Ultra sub (which isnt an easy feat) and the sattelites on teh S700 actually have a more open sound than the Promedia's. But the sound quality is so close, that it's not worth the upgrade from your current setup.



No, i meant that i never look back and regret leaving multimedia audio.
We all start out as noobs sometime, even the very elitist of audiophiles.

So where to start? I would do this. Go through your MP3 collection, choose the highest fidelity songs you know OR songs your extremely familiar with. Or google hi-fi test tracks and burn them on a test CD. For a while, listen to the CD, learn the music. While you learn the music, keep your sub turned way down (not off) but just have it barely support the mids, faintly. This will allow you to hear the mids and highs clearer.

After a while of listening and getting to know the music well, bring the CD into a mom & pop hi-fi store, or any hi-fi stores in your area. Ask if you can play the music on some speakers in your price range. DONT judge the speakers with music your not very familiar with.. if you go to a mom&pop store where they have used speakers, it's a GOOD option to buy used. Used speakers dont sound worse, in fact some 2 channel equipment from the 60's and 50's sounds much better than new ones for the same price!

Personally, I would recommend Klipsch References series (copper drivers) not the Klipsch Synergy (silver drivers). Klipsch and Totem are a couple of my favorites, but that's my personal preference. You'll have to find out your own.

I like the "forward" sound from the klipsch horn-loaded tweeters, really brings the detail out of the speakers. Polk speakers have very laid back highs.

Again, try to get used to your sub being almost off, it will let your ears adjust and let you hear a more detail in the speakers you demo.

-Joe

Thanks for all the tips so far. I'm really starting to get interested in the realm of bookshelf speakers now. Now, I have a few more questions:

I would definately go with Klipsch again, as their Promedias were top notch. Why are the Reference speakers, in your opinion, better than the Synergy ones? Bestbuy carries Synergy III series bookshelf speakers but not the Reference ones, it seems. (If i were to eventually buy some of these, BestBuy would be convenient because I have some gift cards lying around )

Also, if I were to get a pair of bookshelf speakers, I would need to get a sub, too, right? If so, what kind would I be looking at? One of the Klipsch ones, for example?

Staying within the $500 range, would you have any suggestions for a setup or two?

I'll probably go to the GoodGuys by my house and try out a few speakers; they, of course, carry the Reference series speakers.

Thanks again, you have been ever-helpful.

Yeah, a sub does add a lot of warmth to the music. But with bookshelf speakers, the kick drums and bass guitars are mostly handeled by the actual speakers themselves. There's not as much "boom" as there is with a MM system, which is why you should used to turning your sub a ways down.

While subs do help out the music, I believe you should concentrate on putting 90% of your money into the speakers, because it's THERE where you will find all of the fidelity your after.

Bestbuy is _not_ hi-fi. They own some hi-fi shops around the country, Magnolia is one off the top of my head. The synergy series uses the same design (more or less) of the Reference series. The reference series just uses a better crossover and better quality drivers. You just get a bit more clean detail and wider sound out of the reference series.

If you have a lot of store credit from gift cards, then i would definately go get the Synergy series (floorstanders). But do yourself a favor before limiting yourself to Klipsch, go to a real hi-fi store (not best-buy/circuity-city) and give those speakers a listen. You might find out that you should probably save up some more money to buy something that you may find sounds much better than the Synergy line. Seriously, the Synergy series look nice, but the Reference speakers are made with some of the industry's highest grade tweeter material, crossovers, etc while the synergy series are not, and it shows when you play say classical music or some Rock that's recorded well.

After you buy the speakers, i would then buy one of these
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.c...r=300-632&DID=7
and if you want more bass later, buy another one! You'll NEVER get better bang for your buck with subs than with the daytons, unless you want to build a sub yourself and order parts online

Also read reviews on audioreview.com of speakers, keep in mind they are just listeners opinions, but read between the lines and take their opinions with a grain of salt until you hear the speaker for yourself.

-Joe

Great advice. I plan to go down to a local hifi store and check all this out. I'll let you know what I come up with Thanks a bunch.

Also, I have another question. Say I got some nice bookshelf speakers; would I be able to somehow use my old Klipsch Promedia subwoofer with it? That seems too convenient.