Swank

Hey Scouro .. Unfortunately Creative decided stereo imaging from front to rear is not important and didn't include it on the Audigy Platinum 2. I had the same problem. I found though that if you turn on CMSS2 and one of the presets (Rock or Techno work best) it sounded OK. In your situation the only way to get true stereo imaging front and back besides a new sound card would be to get a Y-Splitter like this one and plug both the front and rear speaker inputs into the front channel output of the Audigy2. Of course for anything else you'd have to swap wires again. God bless Creative.

If you have an nForce2 board I don't see any reason to drop $150 on a sound card upgrade. Make sure it is a SoundStorm approved board or you may not be getting the highest quality (different manufacturers can use different codecs affecting sound quality .. nVidia approves certain boards with the SoundStorm label if they pass their quality tests .. kinda like THX certification). There are some tradeoffs: you don't get a Live Drive (which wouldn't fit in my case anyway) .. you don't get EAX AdvancedHD effects in games (rarely used, and if used, can always default back to EAX2.0) .. and you don't get DVD-Audio. Another point worth mentioning is the Audigy2 is a 24-bit card while nForce2 is only 16-bit. The benefit of 24-bit sound is questionable at this time because no media is actually delivered in 24-bits .. they say it allows more headroom for mixing effects but I doubt you could actually HEAR a difference. The DAC's on the Audigy2 are also higher quality, but when using digital out it doesn't matter because the DAC's are in the DD5.1. I still have my Audigy2 in my computer just in case I decide I need it .. but, to be honest, I like the sound of the nForce2 better and haven't used the Audigy2 in months. The Audigy2 has $HITTY multichannel upmixing. The nForce2 does an excellent job and is easier to use. The main reason I chose the nForce2 over the Audigy2 however was the DICE feature. nForce2 is the ONLY PC sound solution that lets you send a realtime encoded dolby digital 5.1 signal through the digital out. Every other card can pass a previously encoded 5.1 signal through (like from a DVD movie) .. but can't send anything but stereo the rest of the time. Hope this helps! You can also check out this article at FiringSquad for more in-depth information. http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/audigy2_versus_nforce2/default.asp

Well done. My solution was much less elegant .. I just bought 3x 2male-1female minijack cables from radio shack and plugged my audigy and DD5.1 into the speakers at the same time. It did introduce noise, and the DD5.1 has to be near the computer, but it was better than swapping cables. Eventually I got rid of my Audigy2 and now use onboard nForce2 sound .. the quality isn't as high .. only 16-bit .. but it has DICE (Dolby Interactive Content Encoder) meaning I get 5.1 sound from games, music, and movies through the digital out. No messy cables needed.

DVD's use full dynamic range, meaning the volume will need to be higher than other sources tuned for a wider range of speakers (CD's, MP3's) .. With a high dynamic range, the softs can be softer and the louds louder. You could possibly enable dynamic range compression in your player (if it is supported, most PC players don't) for a louder signal with less contrast. It is perfectly normal to need a volume level of 70 for DVDs. I usually have mine at 73. Even with my home theater receiver, DVD movies need a louder volume setting than radio or CD listening.

Another point I'd like to make is that there is a HUGE amount of lag when using the digital inputs with the Audigy. I had an Audigy2 before I purchased the DD5.1 and used it to decode the digital signal from my XBox. I have a very fast machine (AthlonXP 2800+, 512 MB DDR400 RAM, Geforce4 Ti 4600) so software decoding shouldn't have been a problem, but the sound would always come about half a second AFTER the action on the screen. I would land a punch on my opponent but not hear anything until later. Or I would swing a golf club and hear the SMACK after the ball is already flying. Talk about annoying. I also tested on my friends slower computer with the original Audigy w/ digital I/O board .. same problem. Half a second may not seem like much, but it is 500 ms .. acceptable lag is below 50ms in my opinion. The Audigy2 is a great card for games, but most of its other "features" are worthless. I ended up giving it away and I now use the digital out of the nForce2 .. it has realtime Dolby Digital encoding and proper multi-channel expansion

Since the buzzing only happens when using COAX your Promedias are fine. It is either the DD5.1 input, your DVD player, or the cable. The cable would be the best place to start. See if you can't find a different cable to use. If you have another receiver, plug your DVD player into it and listen for the same noise. If the noise only happens when plugged into the DD5.1, then you may need to contact Klipsch for a replacement.

Dolby Digital format is digitally compressed, so if the signal was really dolby digital but the DD5.1 thought it was stereo, it would sound like static (think modem noise). I bet the signal coming from your DVD player is stereo, even when you select dolby digital 5.1 in the movie. Play with the options on the DVD player itself, not the options in the movie. Make sure the player isn't doing the decoding for you.

Thanks Scouro, I know how frustrating it can be setting this stuff up, so I don't mind helping where I can. The decoder tab is the only one you really need to set to passthrough. The Digital Input tab is for the digital inputs on the front faceplate. For example, before I had the DD5.1 I used to plug the digital out from my xbox into the digital in on my Audigy2. I could set the SPDIF option to AC-3 decode and the Audigy would decode the Dolby Digital signal for me and play it through my speakers. If I set it to passthrough, the Audigy would just repeat the signal through the digital out for an external decoder such as the DD5.1 to take care of. If you don't have anything plugged into the digital inputs, the tab doesn't affect anything.

The original Audigy had some serious sound quality problems. Audigy2 is much improved, with brand new DAC's. Check out this article .. it has more info than I can put here. http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/audigy2_versus_nforce2/ The Audigy2 with EAX Advanced titles really is an amazing gaming experience. However, the nForce2 is good because you can get 5.1 gaming through the DD5.1 with DICE (Dolby Interactive Content Encoding) .. with the Audigy2 you only get stereo sound through the DD5.1, unless you're watching a movie in passthrough mode. As far as quality goes, the Audigy2 and nForce2 should be identical when using the digital out because the DAC's are in the DD5.1. The article linked above does a lot of signal quality testing that should help you decide if it's worth the upgrade.

It's good enough for my relatively untrained ears. I'm sure there are better decoders out there, the DD5.1 isn't exactly user friendly .. it only has one button and a remote. Simplicity to a fault. According to Donald1800 on soundwise.org it has an unacceptable high-freq rolloff and high amplitude bass response. I have no comment on that. As far as the Aragon processor bit, Klipsch said it. "The digital processor utilized within the ProMedia DD-5.1 is actually the same Crystal 20 Bit converters as in our own high-end Aragon $8000. home theater processors." http://store.klipsch.com/details.asp?ProdID=24 I have to admit it sounds just as good as my roommate's Harman-Kardon AVR-225 which also uses a Crystal DAC. At 1/4th the cost. Can't complain.

Yeah it works fine. I have almost the exact same setup (Audigy2, Promedia5.1, DD5.1) I used different cables though (Qty 3 -- 2 Male to 1 Female) so I didn't need to buy more long cables for the sub connection. You might as well go that way too since your DD5.1 is on top of your PC. This particular cable may treat the signal differently because it is intended for combining input from two sources .. I don't know if the cable you are mentioning would be the same. I'm not an audio expert but I don't think you can cause any damage using just line outs, they would need to be amplified. Radioshack Cables When using the PC and DD5.1 at the same time the output mixes, although not very cleanly. I don't recommend it. Also if you are picky you will notice more background noise with both of them connected, so for the cleanest sound you should just swap wires.

I have heard the auto-detect for Prologic doesn't work at all with analog inputs, only digital inputs and even then only with older Prologic streams. http://www.soundwise.org/gethelp/dd51.htm Just keep it set to Enable. Doesn't the Gamecube output a Prologic II sound stream? I didn't think the DD5.1 could handle that. I guess they are backward compatible, you just won't have any separation in the rear channels.

I assume you are talking about Monster Cable Speaker Wire for the Promedia 5.1. I was hard pressed to notice a difference with the new cables in regular mp3 listening, but man, once I put in a DVD or listened to CD audio the difference was obvious. The bass was much cleaner and the highs crystal clear. The wires do make a difference. How much you gain is obviously a personal opinion. I feel like it was worth it, but Uncle Sam just gave me lot of money to burn. It is an improvement at any rate. Right now you can get the 5.1 set from Klipsch's online store for $69.99. I did a little price checking around the web for similar cables and I couldn't find a better deal. Buying from Klipsch just to save the hassle of cutting the wires yourself and putting the ends on is worth it. Not to mention these cables are LONG! I can finally position my speakers where I wanted them in the first place. Not a bad deal.

If you do a lot of gaming with your PC, I would suggest an nForce2. I know it's not a real addin sound card but it does have digital out and DICE (Dolby Interactive Content Encoding) which means you can get dolby digital encoded 5.1 sound right from the board. ALL other soundcards on the market currently output only a stereo signal through the digital out (sucks for games). For DVD's the card can passthrough a previously encoded Dolby Digital stream, but you won't get true 5.1 output any other way. I personally don't use the DD-5.1 with my PC except to watch DVD's .. I have an Audigy2 and the sound quality is just as good with the analog outs as the digital, so I swap the wires. Don't buy a new soundcard just to hook it up to the DD-5.1, you may be disappointed.

---------------- On 3/28/2003 1:17:34 AM ljcesar wrote: why connect to the DD-5.1 if you have an Audigy 2? The DD-5.1 is capable of Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS while the audigy2 can decode Dolby Digital 5.1 and EX 6.1 by hooking the analog outs to your promedia 5.1's. I see no real need for the DD-5.1 unless you want to watch DVD movies with DTS soundtracks on your computer. Granted the hardware preamp decoder is probably better than the Audigy 2's decoding abilities (assuming its like the SB Audigy which I have...which according to some online sources say the Dolby Digital Decoding in movies such as platoon do not allow the user to precisely hear the sound of gunfire going from rear left to front right) but unless youre a hardcore audiophile you wouldnt be able to tell the difference.... ---------------- I have a good reason .. The Audigy is a software decoder. Sure, it's a dedicated hardware sound card, but the algorithm for decoding Dolby Digital is done in software. (Don't believe me? Watch your CPU usage while listening to an AC3 soundtrack). Part of the imprecision you have heard about can happen if the CPU gets tied up like in high motion scenes of a DVD. I don't really care about that though, what really bothered me was the lag the software decoding introduced. When playing my XBox through the digital in on the Audigy, the sound wouldn't be in sync with the action. Not just a little bit either, sometimes the sound would happen half a second or more behind the action. Talk about annoying! I tested on three different systems, on the Audigy and Audigy2 using the SPDIF optical digital in. All showed the same symptoms, which narrows it down to the software decoding Creative uses. Creative told me to "lower the hardware acceleration on my video card." What? I said "no thank you, I will buy a real decoder" and got the DD-5.1. Problem solved, and movie soundtracks sound noticeably better too. Bonus! Now as far as your DVD movies being in stereo, you need to be sure that you have enabled Dolby Digital passthrough. Open up Creative AudioHQ->Device Controls->Decoder then turn off decoding by choosing SPDIF Passthrough. ALSO, you need to enable SPDIF out in your DVD player. I don't know which one you are using, but it will be on the audio options page. If the DVD software or your soundcard decodes the signal it will only be sent to the DD-5.1 in stereo.