For sure the best thing to do with any equipment is to get it from someplace that has about a 30 day return option.

I will tell you my experience with the z5500's. So far, I have found the best way for me to use it is to use only the sub along with my JBL Eon 10G2's. This sounds very good. The sub adds a nice bottom even in a small room. I like the feature of playing a demo on my Tyros that I recorded and step out into the audience area and use the remote control to fine tune just the right amount of bass. Not too much and not too little. I find that I need to do this because, so far my experience has been that the sub kicks out a lot of sound especially next to me. It really sounds kind of boomy and overpowering. But, out in the audience when set properly it sounds quite nice. I have noticed that the balance between different bass notes is not perfect. There seems to be a couple of notes that just kind of drop out. Seems to me "F" is one of them.

Now, I would hopefully expect this set-up to sound better that the z5500 out of the box because of the price and speaker and cabinet size of the JBL's.

As far as using the z5500 as a 2.1 or a 5.1, so far, I have been unimpressed. I can't believe that I'm the only one, but perhaps the one that's being vocal about it.

To me there is absolutely no mid-range.

I did pull out the satellite speakers the other day again just to experiment as a 2.1 set-up. I found that when I placed the speakers on the sub the way Richard Peck used to do with his Yamaha 2.1, that I didn't like the sound at all.

Then I placed the 2 speakers on top of my Tyros aimed directly at my face. I did find that the sound was actually pretty good sitting in front of the keyboard. Set up like this I almost didn't notice the lack of mid-range. I then let my onboard demo play and I stepped back about 6 feet. At this point the sound started sounding thin and small and undesirable to me, IMHO.

I have played with the EQ and the onboard compressor to tweak it so it sounds as good as I can get it.

I suppose I can again test it with the 5.1 setting, but, even with that number of speakers optimally placed, in my mind I can't see how those small speakers will ever fill a room with a sound I like where I am performing, regardless of the size of the room or the number of people. Unless those little satellites are aimed to such a degree that it actually would cover the entire area without any blank spots.

I am still open to any ideas or suggestions on how to optimize the sound of this to the point where I would be happy and comfortable about using these, but so far, even when I did try it as a 5.1 system which is how I did do the original testing, it is definitely not a sound I want to use.

I also found that the sound of the piano is a very noticalbe degradation compared to the JBL's.


So, these are my findings, IMHO. If they work for you and sound good to your ears, then I say, fantastic, good for you. I would love to be able to say the same, but so far it's been far from it.

I am open to any input and suggestions about my findings.

Best

Scott Langholff
http://www.ScottLMusic.com

[This message has been edited by Scott Langholff (edited 05-04-2005).]