Windstorm

1. Try buying a stereo -> 2X mono splitter, plug this into the center/sub output, then plug your rear speakers into that. One of the channels will carry the center signal, see if that one buzzes. 2. Try moving the SC to a different pci slot. ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

Sound quality is excellent. Not too happy with the build quality though- had to replace one preamp because of static, the replacement preamp hisses. Overall though I am still happy with them. Will probably stick with Klipsch when I go to 6.1 ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

Yup, the ONLY good feature on the 2500 is the built-in decoder... My friend bought a set, then I bought Promedias to outdo him... did I ever! ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

The headphone jack on the GTXP will not be used for center/sub, there are already outputs on the back of the breakout box for that. The headphone jack (I imagine) will be used to output a rear center channel (or two), which are a part of DTS-EX, 6.1 (o 7.1) surround. ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

Damn, more dilemmas.. now I'm thinking I should just get a set of 4.1 and use them with my 4.0's for 7.1. If I buy 5.1 I will have a few extra sats... ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

One of those, or another 5.1 card.. I have a sb live and am not too happy with it. ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

This has been asked a few times and the prevalent response is...no. Annoys me too. My solution? Will be buying 5.1s. Hopefully they will have a lttle more bass. ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

Sweet, that pretty much settles my AE vs Santa Cruz vs GTXP dilemma... thanks guys for the info. mmm... eight channel surround..... So when is Klipsch coming out with a 7.1 system?? ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

You will need a 5.1 sound card to take full advantage of the 5.1s ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

Had to bring this thread back to the top, I'm still undecided... DVD playback is the most important, then good music quality, finally games, but I don't play those very often. Or should I just keep my old SB value and buy the audio tornado? ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

Actually, all other things being equal, a 'digital' system will sound better than analog, for example were the Promedia 5.1 to have an external decoder, they would probably sound better than if they were connected to a soundcard via analog. The reason is that the digital to analog converters in external decoders are usually of better quality, and are isolated from the electrically 'noisy' environment of a PC. The problem, however, is that some digital systems compromise the quality of other components to keep the price down. So for example the DTT3500 will have a cleaner D/A conversion because of its external decoder, but the PM 5.1 will still sound better because the amp and speakers are of better quality. Simply put the overall quality of the system makes a bigger difference than the external decoder. ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

Will the 5.1s send bass from all the inputs to the sub? Or will the sub be used exclusively for the sub input? Also are the sub and center inputs separate, or is it one minijack for both? I am planning to buy a game theater XP, but I think it has only separate RCA outputs for the center and sub. In that case I would need an adapter to connect these to the 5.1's center/sub input, correct? ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

I have a mouseremote from x10.com. Controls PC functions like volume etc, software, like a dvd or mp3 player, also has a mouse joystick on it. Also works as universal remote for tvs and stuff, and you can get it to control your house lights if you buy more crap with it. Their site is full of garbage but this remote works well. ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

Definately buying 5.1... I have 4.00's which are very impressive, the 5.1 can only be better. I thought about selling my 4.00's but I don;t think I'll get a good price... probably will end up keeping them for a spare room or something. ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

I did this to my 4.00's, soldered 16 gauge right to the speakers. Pretty noticeable difference, although it could be because my rear cables are about 40 feet. It was pretty easy to do on the 4.00's since they only have a cap btw the midbass and tweeters, the 4.1's have a croosover IC in each sat so it may be harder... but it did improve quality a bit. ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

Mute all the sounds in the volume control panel except main and wave. ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

Thin Film Transistor... ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

Forget about gaming if you get a G450. If you look at any reviews of the G450 vs Radeon VE, you will see the VE smokes the G450. I just got a VE and it benchmarks slower than my old TNT2. (Image quality is a lot better though!!) So just imagine how slow the 450 will be. Agreed that the 2D on the Matrox is top notch though. Personally I'd recommend a Radeon LE - its basically a 32meg radeon DDR with some high perf features disabled. The beauty is you can reenable them with tweaks you can find on any HW site. So its basically a Radeon DDR for next to nothing in price. I wuld have bought one myself, except I needed the dual heads the the VE has. ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

A 5.1 card will not make any difference with 4.1's. You will have to downmix DVD's to 4 channels either way. The only difference I could see is that the SoundBlaster 5.1 cards do their own Dolby Digital downmixing to 4 speakers, but I don't know if it's better then that done by WinDVD. (probably not) ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

That's exactly right, you can use either your sound card or the decoder to do the decoding. The only difference is the sound quality - for example when 3Dsoundsurge.com tested the midiland decoder they said that Dolby Digital decoding was better, by a "small but noticeable" margin. It all depends on how well your sound card decodes DD. Also the decoder may have additional features the sound card doesn't such as DTS decoding. In a nutshell though, the decoder and your 5.1 card will both do the same thing - although the consensus seems to be that hardware decoders are slightly better quality-wise. ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

Another thing is that with the paradigms you would lose 4 channel sound for games. ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

I have an athlon 500 @ 770, creative tnt2, 17" monitor, and 4.00's. Also have a pioneer 16X slot load dvd. Anyway my setup works great for HT, the only ***** is my 17" monitor, but I am getting a projector soon...mmmm..... 120" screen. My room is aboy 4X7m, the only thing I can think of is that a center channel would be nice since my sats are 4m apart.. other than that it works awesome for 2-4 people, except for the small monitor I currently have. Hardware wise my PC handles the DVD decoding flawlessly, just make sure you use a good program like powerdvd 3.0, or better yet, windvd 2000 4 channel. ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

True center is better, especially if the satellites are far apart. On the other hand, you will not be disappointed by a phantom channel, unless you have a system with a true center to compare with. ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

No reason why it shouldn't work, but it may affect the sound quality - I don't know how 'clean' the power coming from an inverter is. Also most of the cheap inverters are 300 watts, the pros can pull up to 600, so you would need an inverter that can handle this much. They are a little(a lot actually) more expensive. ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.

Since you can't find a rca to stereo adapter, then get a mono to stereo splitter and plug that into the adapter you already have - the idea is to split the mono signal into a stereo sig with identical left/rights. ------------------ Caring is the first step toward disappointment.