wahoo!! KPM 5.1!!!!

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Originally posted by k_hectic
Well first of all, let me ask you, how do you have the speakers connected, and what kind of sound card do you have?

I'm pretty sure you know that you should plug in the bass plug in the 3rd analog output on the sound card. That's if you wanted AC3-decoding to happen in the sound card itself. I don't know if the KPM5.1 come with a digital decoder, but if they do, then you'd probably use the s/pdif output.

Now, if you're using the s/pdif, the bass will be a lot calmer because the signal that it is getting will be crystal clear. That's better for classical music and rock, but not for rap, house, and dance music maybe.

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You still haven't answered my questions above !!! ^ :rolleyes:

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Originally posted by k_hectic


You still haven't answered my questions above !!! ^ :rolleyes:

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okay sorry! i have a sblive 5.1 card and my speakers are connected using my own monster cable 18 guage wire. its proffesional wire mind you! my dad is an electrician so we have like 1000 ft spools just laying around in our garage :D. the sub is pluged into the 3rd analog thingy. the center channel and the sub are on the same connection....any more questions? thanks for you time and help guys...

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Originally posted by Squirrel Meat


okay sorry! i have a sblive 5.1 card and my speakers are connected using my own monster cable 18 guage wire. its proffesional wire mind you! my dad is an electrician so we have like 1000 ft spools just laying around in our garage :D. the sub is pluged into the 3rd analog thingy. the center channel and the sub are on the same connection....any more questions? thanks for you time and help guys...

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Did you try my suggestions.

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Originally posted by blppt


Did you try my suggestions.

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well okay here goes. for some odd reason i only have options for 4.1 and 6 speakers in powerdvd xp 4.0 and before i swear there was a 5.1 option. but all the channels seem to work but the sub. if i put my hand on the sub i can feel it a little bit. ive tried with LFE and without and it has the same effect. i havent tried putting it with 4 speaker yet but i will try that next. my parents are home and me cranking my system to see if it makes a diff is a bad idea right now. especially since its 12:00 right now :D. anyways, i think i might have fixed it or something. i just uninstalled all my drivers and powerdvd and then reinstalled but like i said, i cant turn it up much. but at the low low volume i had it at it seemed to have some bass in it. i will check it tommorow when i get home but still, im not sure if it fixed it. for right now ill assume it didnt just to be safe.....

Very strange.

I've used my PM's on my old P3 with a Live! X-Gamer (non-5.1, 4-channel) soundcard and there wasn't any loss in the bass whatsoever.

Sounds like it could be the drivers... or something related. Since the bass and volume are both limited in response, my guess is that you either have the wrong speaker setup selected in the Sound and Audio Devices or there's a gain control set to a very low level somewhere.

:confused:

Yeah, if he's saying that PowerDVD is only giving 6 speaker output but not 5.1, then there is definitely a problem with the way speakers are setup in Windows.

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Originally posted by Squirrel Meat


well okay here goes. for some odd reason i only have options for 4.1 and 6 speakers in powerdvd xp 4.0 and before i swear there was a 5.1 option. but all the channels seem to work but the sub. if i put my hand on the sub i can feel it a little bit. ive tried with LFE and without and it has the same effect. i havent tried putting it with 4 speaker yet but i will try that next. my parents are home and me cranking my system to see if it makes a diff is a bad idea right now. especially since its 12:00 right now :D. anyways, i think i might have fixed it or something. i just uninstalled all my drivers and powerdvd and then reinstalled but like i said, i cant turn it up much. but at the low low volume i had it at it seemed to have some bass in it. i will check it tommorow when i get home but still, im not sure if it fixed it. for right now ill assume it didnt just to be safe.....

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I believe 6 speakers does refer to 5.1 (although inaccurate terminology), because there are 6 speakers technically.

Try uninstalling the SBLive drivers, then reinstalling them. Also, i believe in XP you need to select the speaker option to the one you want in the Creative Surround Mixer every time you reboot, due to a driver bug. Some games do this to me as well, namely Bridge Commander. After exiting it, i go back to Surround Mixer, and the speakers are set to 2 channel audio.

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Originally posted by blppt

Also, i believe in XP you need to select the speaker option to the one you want in the Creative Surround Mixer every time you reboot, due to a driver bug. Some games do this to me as well, namely Bridge Commander. After exiting it, i go back to Surround Mixer, and the speakers are set to 2 channel audio.

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Actually, this happens to me in Windows 98 with my Audigy, but not Windows XP. I guess that there is a setting in the registery which defines the number of speakers you have, and it doesn't get saved in Windows 98 with the drivers bug, but maybe one can add it manually.

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Originally posted by k_hectic


Actually, this happens to me in Windows 98 with my Audigy, but not Windows XP. I guess that there is a setting in the registery which defines the number of speakers you have, and it doesn't get saved in Windows 98 with the drivers bug, but maybe one can add it manually.

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Well, we both have Lives, so i'm guessing the problem would be similar to mine, if any.

Check to make sure you have the sub volume turned all the way up in AudioHQ and make sure the soundcard crossover is turned off, if it has one. I have an Audigy and a KPM5.1 and they put out a tonne of bass in dvd's.

After listening to squirrels speakers, I think we've figured out one of the problems. He uses some MAD plugin in Winamp, and it made the z560s sound great, but we think it's what is making the 5.1s distort while playing music. I also double checked all his settings, and there's nothing wrong AFAIKS. I think there just different enough that they will take some getting used to. The overall sound quality compared to his old z560s is amazing! They Klipsch are so much better. Hearing the same things in the same room has finally convinced him of what I've been trying to tell him all year, Klipsch are better. I still think he needs to do some playing aroung though. My Klipsch PM 4.1 sound better right now, but I think it's mainly because mine have been broken in for almost a year, and are tweaked just the way I like em. I'm happy he got rid of those stupid z560s, if another set of them blew out I would have called up Logitech and *****ed them out! I haven't been ABLE to blow out my Promedias, and I have acually tryed a few times! I can blow em out and Best Buy will fix or replace them for the next three and a half years!

The MAD plugin was causing the problems? Odd. I suppose anythings possible since most people with Sound Blaster Lives wouldnt bother with that plugin (due to the Live's inability to do better than 16bit anyways even with that plugin), and that may be why we never heard of this problem elsewhere.

Edit: I also never liked the MAD plugin. I tried it a few times, but it ended up overemphasizing the midrange and upper midrange (1-8khz i guess), and killing the high bass/low midrange (250-800hz i guess). I guess this plugin was just never meant to be used with the SBLive in mind.

I never liked the Mad plugin either. I think I was having the same probably problem, I uninstalled it after two days. The plugin I use now, DEE, works great, allows you to seriously tweak the highs, mids, and lows to your liking. But WinAmp also sounds good without any plugins.

I'm talking to Squirrel right now, he's solved most of the problem now, except for the DVD issue. He says that PowerDVD plays fine and sounds correct when set to four speaker, except for the fact that it cuts out the center channel. Anyway, I'll let him bo the talking later, why the heck am I communicating his problems?! :D

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Originally posted by hexadecimal
I'm talking to Squirrel right now, he's solved most of the problem now, except for the DVD issue. He says that PowerDVD plays fine and sounds correct when set to four speaker, except for the fact that it cuts out the center channel. Anyway, I'll let him bo the talking later, why the heck am I communicating his problems?! :D

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Odd odd odd. Did he try downloading at least the trial of WinDVD 3 and trying that? You only get 5 minutes of audio, but at least it would tell him where the problem lies (whether its the DVD software or the sound card).