Bluegears b-Enspirer - Hook it up

I've had, for the past few months, a nice set of Logitech 5.1 speakers sitting on a shelf, waiting for me to get an audio card worthy of their use.  Here's a shot:

The subwoofer is just too damned big for me to include in the picture (plus its pretty damned heavy).  Since I was using the on-board audio before, I went into the bios and disabled it before installing the b-Enspirer.  Hooking up these speakers to the b-Enspirer was pretty simple.

As you can see, coming out of the audio controller are three lines: front, read, and center/subwoofer. There is also the option to use a digital connection, which I opted not to do for this configuration.

On the back of the b-Enspirer, I'll be using just the top three connectors to connect these speakers.  I'm tempted to also plug my old two channel KOSS speakers into the "Back Surround" slot, to give me a full 7.1 feel.  But not today.

So I quickly made the connections and turned on the sound controller. After a few short tests, I confirmed that the card was indeed producing sound. Now, it was time to configure the software.

Without going into too much detail, the software that comes with the b-Enspirer is quite powerful. It allows you to tweak your listening experience to your precise taste. What's better is that the 10 channel EQ allows user presets, so you can create several custom options and switch to them at whim. I personally find that I prefer different settings for different types of music, movies, and audio books.

Here are some screenshots of the configuration options this card has to offer:

The only negative thing I have to say about the software is that it is pretty much trial and error. There is no included help file, or even pop-up information while configuring the software, to help you understand what you are changing. After some playing around with it, I was able to create the desired feel, but it took a little work to get it right.

Next: Well, how does it sound? >>
 

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