Topic: 5.1 surroundsound speakers

[Jaminxz]

Hi guys, seasons greetings and all.

 I am in the process of looking for some new speakers for my pc, and i thought i might as well get some surround sound ones. As i was looking i became aware of a whole host of new terms, such as reative Sound Blaster 5.1 sound card and 4-channel sound card so i'me guessing i need to have a special soundcard to get real 5.1. Just wondered if it would be worth me getting some surround speaker if my soundcard isn't up to the job? and also if anyone can point out and deals etc i'd apprechiate it

Thanks

Jaminxz

[Simon]

You need a 5.1 soundcard in order to use a 5.1 speaker system.  Can't recommend anything specific (depends what you want to spend), but www.ebuyer.com usually have a fair selection of speakers and soundcards.

[Jaminxz]

ok thanks alot simon.

Just to varify, surround sound would be like 5 speakers that output different noises to create the affect of surroundsound, were as if i got a 5.1 speaker system and hooked it up to my current soundcard, it would just be like having 5 speakers all outputing the same sound???

cheers
Jaminxz

[Sandra]

Running 5.1 speakers from a stereo source would only give you the front two speakers plus possibly the centre and sub, depending on how the 5.1 speaker setup worked as some take a stereo input into the sub and split it to send to the front left, centre, right and sub, others would only feed the front left and right. I cant think of any set up that would feed anything to the rear speakers unless you rewired them unless you used a 5.1 source  

[Simon]

Having 5.1 speakers with a standard stereo feed, would be like running a Lotus on a Ford Fiesta engine.