Hmmm what a crappy attitude towards the customer. Note to self: Do not ever buy anything from them. 😠

Damn, this is why you need Klipsch ProMedia 5.1s.
"Your amp went out? No problem, here's a set of replacement speakers. Would you like these cross-shipped? Yes? OK, we'll send them air and give you a prepaid return."
"You think your amp is going out again? Hey, no problem. We'll send you a set of our brand new Ultras. Would you like this cross-shipped again? Alright, no problem."
"One of the cones on one of your satellites has a little knobbie on it? Out of warranty by a month? No problem, here's another one. Oh, and don't worry about sending the bad one back."

Damn stellar support. Every. Time.

Yeah, too bad their speakers don't have as many features I like, or else I would have bought them. I've heard that most audiophiles consider them to sound slightly better than the top-end Logitech models.

What features exactly do you need in speakers? The 5.1 Ultras have a nice stable control hub, independent rear channels, centre channel, and sub adjustment, and the option to add additional subs to the system. The only thing they don't have is an S/PDIF interface, which is not of terrible concern.

Off the top of my head:
- I suppose I could live without SPDIF, although I'd like to play with watching DVDs in 5.1 with SPDIF passthrough (the Z-5500s have an AC3 decoder built-in).
- It'd also be nice to have that built-in AC3 decoder if sound card manufacturers ever get off their butts and use AC3 for digital 5.1 sound.
- Their ability to do Dolby ProLogic decoding of stereo analog and digital inputs is very handy.
- They look cooler than most Klipsch speakers I've seen.
- They're THX certified.

I'm sure I could live with a Klipsch set. I'm sure they'd do just as good for how I need to use them, and that the Z-5500's would only work better if I wanted to also use them with game consoles or DVD players or whatever. I'll probably try Klipsch next time I want expensive 5.1 speakers, especially since I'm sure as hell not going to give Logitech another $300+ after what they put me through.

Speaking of which, it now sounds like they'll be shipping them in a couple of weeks, although they haven't committed to anything yet.

All Klipsch speakers are THX certified. My Audigy does hardware decoding of AC3 and DTS streams, as well as Pro Logic streams (IIRC), and so I have no need of that functionality in my speaker system. The sound floor of most non-super-cheap sound cards is very, very low (-104dB for Audigy 2 ZS, which isn't even a pro-audio card) and you'll probably end up with more noise from AC interference.

Good to know that Klipsch speakers are THX.

The Audigy doesn't do ProLogic decoding. It has something called CMSS3D upmixing which from what I've heard isn't nearly as good (but maybe they've improved it recently).

I dunno, this settings box begs to differ...