have been a Megaworks 510d for about a year (until it died on me.. ), and now i'm using z5500. i was surprised to hear that the crispness and clarity of the logitech is actually much superior than the megaworks, and the bass is not as boomy as the megaworks.

Not sure wat kinda bass u r looking for, but the logitech's bass is somewat tighter than the megaworks. the bass is well defined as u can hear the change of bass node as compared to the boomy bass from the megaworks where i can't tell wat node is being played. The bass i get from megaworks is a bit over-emphasized and undefined..

If u ask me, i would prefer the z5500 to the megaworks.

the z5500 has included a comprehensive Quick Start guide in their massive packaging, so there's no worry in setting it up.. let's worry instead about moving that massive package into ur room..

Have not have any chance to audit on the Gigaworks here in Penang, though it was 2nd in my list after the Z5500. the promedia 5.1 ultra is simply too expensive to my liking, their GMX series on the other hand does not impress me with their lousy control pod design and boomy bass.

i listen to music a lot apart from movie watching, and i would put my priority to music when i make my selection as i believe a reasonable powerful / good set of system should be sufficient to drive the movie watching without the need to specifically emphasizing on bass.

so, call it phobia if u may.. the megaworks didn't actually went 'dead' as it still powers on, but getting pretty close to that state..

the megaworks i got was a refurbished set sold by a fellow forumer. been using it for about 1 & half year, then somehow the volume starts to go high and lows all by itself, until recently the sound went crack/distorted when i turn my volume above 1/3 of the whole range.

been doing some research of the matter, and i end up finding a lot of such similar cases in a Creative's forum, where i seen a lot of case of the forumer with their dead / bad subwoofer-amplifier.

the cause of the problem were due to some badly designed power circuit. there's a case where the transistors even cracked into half.

http://forums.creative.com/creativelabs/bo...ard.id=speakers

can't remember the exact thread, then again, do some searching in this forum, u'll see wat i mean. i do realize that these cases could be some rare case that only happened to the forumers in there. but since i myself is caught once in such situation, i figure i'd better pass the Gigaworks and go for the logitech's highest range ( i still have a set of z640 which served me fine, of which being used by my gf later after the upgrade to megaworks).

i'm a happy user of z5500, even my gf can tell the diff of the sound quality for it's crispness and clarity. the control pod combined with the infra-red remote is working well, the reception of the remote is good, the set up is easy, the Stereo X2 mode is good for music, i use foobar to play DTS-CD and the staging of the speaker set is superb...

hmm.. this is getting very long, ask me if still got anymore questions...

tips: Find the easter eggs in z5500 by doing the following: while the z5500 in standby mode, pressing combinations of buttons on the control pod for 6 seconds will switch / enable some hidden mode. for instance, pressing all buttons except the "Level" button will trigger a Second Skin, which would change the LCD display scheme and even the color of the power button (Red --> Purple).

This post has been edited by weeluvmal: Oct 4 2005, 03:17 PM

tried to get it repaired through the local distributor, the answer i got was:
Sorry, can't be fixed, the 510d is an obsolete set. and even if it can be fixed, it's better for u to get a new set, as the repairing fees is gonna be close to that.

also went to some electronics appliances repairing shops, ppl there have no idea of the design and dare not to fix the damn thing.. probably i've not search hard enough for a repairing shop, but i'd be leaving it aside for now as i'm happy with the Z5500.

This post has been edited by weeluvmal: Oct 4 2005, 03:12 PM

i would favour the Z5500 for it's design and crispness.. not being too impressed with the GMX series the last time i audition it in the shop.. have yet to tried on any Promedia Ultra though..

<1k in lowyat..

those rear satelites placement really worth u some bash..

a little sharing of how i set up mine.. i have 4 speaker stands that can't fit my logitech sats.. so in turn i bought 4 foldable chairs (sanded plastic) with rubber feet, and there i have my speaker stands, cheap and nicely position height due to the fixed tilt angle of the z5500 sats..

so, forget the speaker stands, consider getting urself a pair of those, and u'll have distinctive rear surround..

i presume by not stuffing it to the corner of da room with no air flow, the sub shouldn't have any overheat kinda problem?

the usual rear left and right corners, put the speakers on the chair, put some tape to hold it in position if u want, a pair of those chair is cost <RM20. for sure this is not the most elegant design, but it's flexible and cheap. and most of all, i can't mount any speaker stand to the z5500 sats as there r not thread or hole for speaker stand mounting..

and if there're guests in the house, those speakers are always ready to give way to the guests if u get wat i mean.. hehe..

rented apartment with pre-cast wall, so wall mounting is the last thing in my list that i would do to mount my speakers. that's y i opted for foldable plastic+ aluminium chair mar.. btw, got those chairs in Tesco, and i have not heard any audio distortion/vibration caused by the chairs.. they have about the same foot prints as the speaker stands that i have.

those surround speakers ARE the rear speakers that i mentioned. rear speakers for rear channels, no? the point is to put the two rear ones at a location distanced enough so that positioning of different channels can be heard distinctively..

If the control of Z680 is anything similar to Z5500 that i'm using, try to check ur Surround level, that's the adjustment for u to change the volume level of the rear channels..

if u r sitting slightly closer to ur three front channels, probably u would wanna up ur rear channels a little so that u get the surround feel (well, almost.. ideally u should be at the center of all five satelites).

This post has been edited by weeluvmal: Nov 29 2005, 05:11 PM

since no one is answering ur fuse question directly, well guess i'll do the honor for u.

just get any 2A fuse u can find.


i'm using Z5500 and the fuse blown twice, the first time was within 2 weeks. after that another one two months, after that the replacement lasted till date. btw, i'm staying in apartment.

This post has been edited by weeluvmal: Feb 10 2006, 10:59 PM

check if ur bass is rattling ur door or any objects in the loose / hanging..

hope ur hearing still alrite. blasting just for the sake of it is a quick way to kill your hearing.