Logitech z506 problems

[bollemanneke]

Hello.

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I'm not going to register on another forum just to post one message, so I hope someone will be able to help me here.

I wanted to buy a 5.1 surround speaker set to connect to my computer, and a cheap one, if it were possible, because I didn't want to spend 300 euros to speakers. I bought the Logitech Z506 speakers, and I'm satisfied, but two things seriously bother me.

1. The moment you turn the speakers on, they start making a soft buzzing sound. I thought it wouldn't be a problem when you played music/movies, but whenever the music is soft or the movie scene isn't really hard, the buzzing is audible. Can I solve this?

2. The two rear channel speakers play way too soft, they buzz instead of playing sound (they do play sound, but the buzzing is more audible than the sound sometimes) and the rear channels are played in a very soft way, which isn't the intension of some movies: I extracted the rear channels of some movies to check, and the speakers definitely play too soft. When I turn the volume of the rear speakers harder on the control panel, they start crackling because of the hard volume, but the sound doesn't play harder. Does anyone have a solution?

[setarip_old]

Hi!

Perhaps your speakers are too close to a power source...

[Ghitulescu]

Does anyone have a solution?

Yes, send them back and claim your money.

The buzzing is caused by a lack of powerline filtration (or maybe a ground loop - try to reverse the plug of either the PC or the Logitech) and the insufficient power of the rear LSs can be tracked down to either a power supply defect (which may explain the buzzing) or a false setup (which I assume it's not the case).

[Hagbard23]

Do you use a laptop? Do you use On-Board-Sound?

[bollemanneke]

What does 'on-board sound' mean?

I've swapped some plugs, and now something very strange happens: the rear channels are coming from the front speakers now (I expected that to happen because I swapped the plugs, but I hear the rears loud and clear now), but now the rear speakers, which display the front speakers now, sound bad! I really do't know what the problem is. I could send them back and claim my money back, but does anyone know a good 5.1 surround set? I can only find a Logitech surround set, which is said to be good, but it costs 300 euros. Isn't there a cheaper solution to bu y good 5.1 speakers?

Yes, I use a laptop.

[setarip_old]

What does 'on-board sound' mean?

It means that you have an audio chip on your motherboard, rather than a separate sound card...

[bollemanneke]

I have a sound card on my computer, and internal speakers too.

[Hagbard23]

Try it without havin your laptop-power-supply on. Try it with battery only.

The problem of buzzing onboard sound from laptops is well known - nearly every laptop has this problem from time to time. Try a USB Audio interface or putting your speakers to a different power circle than the laptop power supply.

P.S.: I assume u have a RealTek-Onboard sound chip. At least - this was the chip which i was having problems with.

Yes, send them back and claim your money.

The buzzing is caused by a lack of powerline filtration (or maybe a ground loop - try to reverse the plug of either the PC or the Logitech) and the insufficient power of the rear LSs can be tracked down to either a power supply defect (which may explain the buzzing) or a false setup (which I assume it's not the case).
Logitech speakers are tested with Quality Check - I never have had a logitech product, which was out of spec and i use a bunch of products from them for years now.

It is very unlikely, that the problem comes from the speakers/the 5.1 System. Your problem is your sound card...

[bollemanneke]

But does that mean whenever I want to use my speakers I have to use my computer batteries without having electricity? Wat other power supply could I try? those speakers don't have a USB plug. Yes, I have a realtek HD driver.

[bollemanneke]

I used my battery only, no difference whatsoever.

[Hagbard23]

Use a USB Audio interface...this fixed my problem...there are a bunch of cheap ones available in online stores...have a look here...

http://www.blazeaudio.com/products/usb5.html

or here

http://www.google.de/products?q=USB+audio+interface+5.1+laptop&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:de:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=P9XaTLDsHovzsgaN3KWPCA&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CDcQrQQwAg

And check carefully, if there is a problem with the power supply at your home... ;)

[bollemanneke]

First of all, I really don't want to claim you're wrong, but are you really sure that the problem is caused by my computer and not by the speakers?

I'm new to surround speakers, but I just think it strange that, when a computer has built-in 5.1 speakrs, the rear channels sound all right, but the rear channels from the speakers don't work correctly. I would think the problem is caused by the speakers because the laptop rear speakers do work good (though the sound isn't good, of course, but they do soudnd louder than the external speakers).

[Hagbard23]

Then check this hypothesis out - connect the speakers to a friends PC or something similar. It would be best, if you find a friend whose 5.1 System is fully OK. Then you can be sure, that if you encounter problems, they are caused by the speakers.

I never told, that it is impossible, that the speakers aren't OK, but it is very unlikely. And i told, that i encounter those problems too, and i explained how i fixed the problem. Maybe that is not suitable for your problem - we'll see.

But: It is most unlikely, that a company like Logitech is selling equipment which is buzzing - i just can't believe that. Maybe i am wrong.

[Ghitulescu]

I thought you connected the speakers using the digital line.

Could you please mention again ALL THE CONNECTIONS you made?

[bollemanneke]

These speakers cannot be connected in the digital line: I just just three stereo plugs in my computer to connect them, as the manual told me to do. All the colors match.

[Ghitulescu]

Try to connect only one of the cables at a time and disconnect the laptop from the power (on batteries only!!!), if not possible then do checks with both way of plugging in. If the buzz continues then it's not the ground loop (it sounds anyway different but I think some may describe it as buzzing). Then it's either the laptop which is cheap built (with no galvanic separation) or the loudspeakers are defective.

I thought the loudspeakers had digital in, but this model does not feature one. A bad choice for laptop owners. USB as suggested would have been a better alternative.

[Hagbard23]

OR:

Connect the Speakers to another Audio Device ... like your Stereo-System, Walkman, mp3-Stick or similar. If the Speakers are Buzzing on it is not the laptop...

But: Then you have to check, wether you got a problem in your powerline (House-Circuit) or if the speakers are the problem or its power-supply...

P.S.: I assume, you use the appropriate drivers for your sound-chip. There are incompatibilities with older Realtek-Chips and the new Realtek HD-Audio drivers...

[yetanotherid]

I've swapped some plugs, and now something very strange happens: the rear channels are coming from the front speakers now (I expected that to happen because I swapped the plugs, but I hear the rears loud and clear now), but now the rear speakers, which display the front speakers now, sound bad! I really do't know what the problem is. I could send them back and claim my money back, but does anyone know a good 5.1 surround set? I can only find a Logitech surround set, which is said to be good, but it costs 300 euros. Isn't there a cheaper solution to bu y good 5.1 speakers?

The buzzing aside, have you checked your sound card settings to make sure it's not set to stereo mode?
Also, some sound cards will try to switch audio outputs according to what's plugged in (or in other words the jack outputs can have multiple functions) so you might want to check that too.

Generally if you unplug the speakers and the buzzing goes away then the speakers are simply amplifying the noise in the signal being sent to them. It'd be unlikely for a ground loop to happen between them and if it happens on battery only then it's not power. Do you have an MP3 player you can connect to the speakers to test them? I imagine they have three mini-jack connectors. If so, you could connect your MP3 player to each one to test for volume and sound quality.

I've got two identical (almost) PCs here, both with the same MB and Realtek audio. They both run into a little mixer and then to the speakers. One PC's audio is nice and clean, the other has a tendency to put out a high pitched noise, especially while playing video. At least it did until I discovered dropping the amount I'd overclocked the CPU by just a little bit (it was the same as the other PC) got rid of it. I'd never have guessed that one....

[forumjunkie]

I've had a bad expereince with logitech before so I avoid them.