Logitech X-540

[andydrew39219]

i plan on getting the Logitech X-540 speakers for myself when the income tax comes in....anyways....i want to use them with my macbook and since these speakers are 5.1 i know that they are going to have 3 audio ports to connect into my computer...i think...i dont know tons about speakers and theyre connections. my macbook has only one audio port...my question is, is will these speakers be able to work to the fullest by plugging just one of them into my macbook or will i have to get a wire that will take all three of the connections and make it into one wire. if i have to get a additional wire could someone please give me a link to one...preferably on Newegg.com..thats where im getting the speakers.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121006

[cvasquez]

Andydrew39219, just to let you know this is a nice set of speakers.

http://oneapiprod.synnex.com/image_technote/I180190139.jpg

They are actually behemoth and the sound you are going to get out of them would be out of a movie theater.

In regards to your question you should have no problems.
All the speakers seemed to interconnect with the woofer and only one cable would be necessary to connect to your audio input.

I would only suggest that if you are going to connect these speakers to your macbook, they could be a good chance that your macbook could get overloaded. You might overheat the Macbook. These speakers are meant to be connected to a desktop not a notebook.

[andydrew39219]

would it really overheat the macbook just from a set of 5.1 speakers? well i will defiantly watch the temperature on my macbook when using these speakers. thank you for the warning and im not only going to use them for my macbook anyways...i plan to use them for my 360 and other systems...but whats matrix mode? should i only use it for listening to music off the macbook or can i use it for my videogames and pc games too....im glad i can get a good set of 5.1 speakers for $70 im pretty exited.

[AJ.]

I have these speakers on my main machine and they are awesome. Like cvasquez said, the sound you get from them are superb and theatre like. To answer your question about matrix mode, it's basically surround sound mode. It can take normal stereo sounds and make them work in surround sound.

Check out this review. Logan explains everything quite nicely. :wink:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8wbbpN1UEps

[Miker]

For a mac I would get a nice set of Altec Lansing speakers, the quality of sound is just 5000x better then Logitech. It is a my set is one that was voted #1 by two Audiophile Magazines. The 2.1 has 2x 6 speaker towers and a single sub.'

That is just my 2cents, I know how everyone wants big booms all around, not nice sound. But hey, this is coming from a guy with thiel speakers (http://www.thielaudio.com/) in his living room.

Some really bad numbers.
Sub: 25 watts RMS (into 4 ohms, @ 100Hz, @ 10% THD)

Frequency Response 40 Hz - 20 kHz

[werty316]

I would only suggest that if you are going to connect these speakers to your macbook, they could be a good chance that your macbook could get overloaded. You might overheat the Macbook. These speakers are meant to be connected to a desktop not a notebook.

Why would you think plugging these speakers into a Macbook would create more heat?

[Sadasius]

I have this set hooked up right now actually. They are awesome and worth every penny.

[tyle6]

IF anything the speakers will run cooler well connected to a laptop as they are not going to be feed as much power from the port. Your sound card will have to do some more work then usual but that would be that same with any set of speakers.

[Sadasius]

Here is a couple snapshots of my speakers. The first one is the controller and this thing is awesome and has the Matrix button on it if your card does not support surround sound. This is without a doubt the best computer speaker system I have ever had.

[andydrew39219]

Andydrew39219, just to let you know this is a nice set of speakers.

http://oneapiprod.synnex.com/image_technote/I180190139.jpg

They are actually behemoth and the sound you are going to get out of them would be out of a movie theater.

In regards to your question you should have no problems.
All the speakers seemed to interconnect with the woofer and only one cable would be necessary to connect to your audio input.

I would only suggest that if you are going to connect these speakers to your macbook, they could be a good chance that your macbook could get overloaded. You might overheat the Macbook. These speakers are meant to be connected to a desktop not a notebook.

i read over this and found that you said "only one cable would be necessary to connect to your audio input." if there is 3 cables and only one has to be connected into the audio port am i getting disadvantages by only using one cable. i would love for these speakers to work their best. and if i get no disadvantages by using only one audio wire than whats the point of even having the other two.....my teacher has a 5.1 surround sound system in his classroom and he has a wire that takes 3 audio ports and converts it to one.

Thank you AJ. for linking me the review it was extremely helpful

[tyle6]

I believe the "matrix" button will do exactly what that cord is for your teacher, for you.
Sadasius may be able to verify this for yea~!

[andydrew39219]

Ok...thanks....sorry for all the questions...its just i hate buying something and then having to wait even longer for additional parts that i thought i did not need to have.

[cvasquez]

Why would you think plugging these speakers into a Macbook would create more heat?

Good question Werty316. You're pushing your laptop internal amp to the limits..the speakers would be fine no problems.
Eventually your amp will degrade and go puff...unless you keep sound to a normal level. I think I said enough. ;-)

And now for Tyle6
IF anything the speakers will run cooler well connected to a laptop as they are not going to be feed as much power from the port. Your sound card will have to do some more work then usual but that would be that same with any set of speakers.

"Speakers will run cooler"
I have never in my life heard of this!
Hold on a sec....let me grab a wall here before I fall on the ground.
:dielaffin:

"Well connected"
HAHAHA. :lol:

In order for you to get the most out of your speakers is with a Good Sound Card. Notebooks are not meant to be hooked up to stereo speakers. No one said you can't it's just that your notebook comes with a sound card for normal use.

Laptop can handle 2.1 no problems...but when you hook up the 5.1 speaker system you won't get full range power. Companies suggest you by an external PCMCIA sound card for them.

[tyle6]

Good question Werty316. You're pushing your laptop internal amp to the limits..the speakers would be fine no problems.
Eventually your amp will degrade and go puff...unless you keep sound to a normal level. I think I said enough. ;-)

Seeing as these speakers are self-amplified. the draw on his sound card will be no different then that from a single set of cheap old speakers. you do realize that pretty much all computer speakers have there own amplifiers and the amount of watts coming out of the jacks on a PC is static? (meaning it does not change due the draw on it). Pc speakers are not powered by the output jack alone. Heck most good headphones have there own amps even!

When the amp inside the speakers isn't being feed 3 different signals it wont have to work as hard as it would to amplify the 3 seperate signals. Thus preventing the internal amplifier from heating up as much.
Yes he would get the absolute most out these by running a secondary sound card with 5.1. They will run just fine on a 2.1 signal as they were designed for it aswell.

my original comment was more about the amp then the speakers but if you have never heard of speakers heating up you have obviously never dealt with high end audio equiptment. movement=friction=heat. go feel a nice 1000W 15" after a half hour of pounding and tell me its not hot. As speakers heat up they loose clarity aswell, a major problem when DJing long sets.

the neodymium cones on my traynors get blazing hott after a good night even.

[Sadasius]

I never tried to hook just one input. I used three for the 5.1 surround sound. When I get home from work tonight I will check and see if you can use one input. Also for others who think you will be pushing anything with a laptop...NOPE. This system just requires a signal and nothing more. The amp is built into the sub woofer where everything else is plugged into. So no worries about a laptop heating up using this speaker system. You would actually be pushing more power from your card to use headphones.

[cvasquez]

My original comment was more about the amp then the speakers.

Now I might have read your comment different then....let me posted it here.

IF anything the speakers will run cooler well connected to a laptop as they are not going to be feed as much power from the port. Your sound card will have to do some more work then usual but that would be that same with any set of speakers.

You know what, I still don't see AMPS anywhere in this comment.
Anyways...I'll keep moving (cause that is what they do here).

But then I saw this other comment...
But if you have never heard of speakers heating up you have obviously never dealt with high end audio equiptment. movement=friction=heat. go feel a nice 1000W 15" after a half hour of pounding and tell me its not hot.

I have Onkyo system and just about 1000 watts of it on my den, with alternative access to the web so I can hear music from any country and more wattage in my house than anyone in my block and this is not including the sound in my backyard. No more said.

Man chill out...something itching you??? No need to get personal here.

[AJ.]

I just unplugged the black and orange plugs leaving only the green output in. Everything works just fine. You should have no problems using this system with full 5.1 surround sound on your laptop. ;-)

[cvasquez]

Thanks AJ, I am sure he will take this into consideration. :wink:

[tyle6]

I was in no way refering to AMPS yet the amplifier that is contained within the speaker unit itself. Thus the main "speaker" or "woofer" would be cooler as the amplifier inside it wouldn't be working as hard. Hey, the matrix technology for all i know may actually generate heat as it has to process the 2.1 audio to 5.1 causeing the speaker containing the amp to warm up. Damn man your really really dense.

[cvasquez]

No hard feelings...here.
I'll just keep walking...:icon_tiphat:

:keepfolding:

[AJ.]

I just hooked up the X-540 to my laptop. Works like a dream. ;-)

I'm actually making a video to show you because I'm really bored and I have nothing better to do. :lol:

[Sadasius]

I just hooked up the X-540 to my laptop. Works like a dream. ;-)

I'm actually making a video to show you because I'm really bored and I have nothing better to do. :lol:

HAHAHA....Good stuff AJ!

[cvasquez]

I just hooked up the X-540 to my laptop. Works like a dream. ;-)

I'm actually making a video to show you because I'm really bored and I have nothing better to do. :lol:

Now we are getting somewhere else and above what was asked but sure a video is always 100% better.
Good job. :-D

[AJ.]

Vid as promised. :smile:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv6u1A2bi3g

Don't know how "blew up" came out, but whatever... :lol:

[cvasquez]

Cool video AJ, I had no doubt that this will work in normal low or mi dtone sound.

But if you keep this music in highest level for about an hour this might not be a good thing for the sound board on the notebook. (This is my perception)

[Methious]

I have that set of speakers, and had a set of Altec Lansing I sold to a neighbor. I hook them up to my POS HP notebook all the time. Hours on end some times. In 25 years of fixing computers and laptops I've never seen speakers kill a laptop or laptop sound card. The voltage the sound card/jack produces doesn't change and isn't affected by the speakers connected to it.

It just sets there and pumps out the same wattage regardless. Now if you pick up the sub woofer and pound on the lappy a little you got problems. Other than that set back and enjoy the tunes.

[AJ.]

Cool video AJ, I had no doubt that this will work in normal low or mi dtone sound.

But if you keep this music in highest level for about an hour this might not be a good thing for the sound board on the notebook. (This is my perception)

If you have neighbors or anyone other than you in the house, trust me, you won't be having this system at the highest level. lol

[andydrew39219]

Thank you everyone for helping me with my questions and even going beyond and testing things out....i highly appreciate it. i will think about getting an external 5.1 card but i might not have the money