Zathras

I think I already did what you are asking rol1. I played The Matrix using WinDVD in 5.1 analog mode through the SB Live! Platinum and in s/pdif mode which should be AC-3 digital pass thru decoded by the Yamaha (AC-3 decoding was turned off on the SB Live!). I'm sure going digital improves the sound, but I'd bet that most of the improvement comes from the Yamaha decoding at 96 khz/24 bit versus 48 khz/16 bit for the SB Live!. Maybe someone could back me up on this and explain the khz/bit numbers for me in newbie speak or refer me to a newbie sound site

Thanks rol1. I installed a SB Live! 5.1 Platinum and now I have all the analog outputs hooked up and am using the coaxial s/pdif output on the front panel. That is what I needed to do. Now I have full 5.1 speaker support in games. I tried The Matrix using WinDVD in 5.1 speaker mode and s/pdif mode and s/pdif mode sounded much better. SB Live! decoded Dolby sounded like TV. Dolby sound through the Yamaha sounded so good it was hard to turn off. I'm happy now. Thanks again.

The SB Live! X-Gamer has all mini plug outputs on the back. One is the digital out and the analog out for a center channel. Hence the need for the mini to RCA adapter to adapt the digital coaxial cable to the receiver. I just watched a little of The Matrix. I picked S/PDIF for the sound output in WinDVD and got 5.1 surround sound! It is nice to hear something working. With this setting I wonder which is doing the decoding, the computer or the receiver? I feel like I'm getting close. The setup sounds awesome so far judging by The Matrix. I have the receiver going to four Yamaha NS-A100XT tower speakers and a NS-AC40X center speaker. I haven't gotten the sub yet. I was considering going with just a set of 4.1 Klipsh's, but I didn't think they could fully fill my living room. I still can't get surround sound working in games though.

Hi. I hope you guys don't mind my posting this here. I just upgraded my old SB Live 4.1 card to a 5.1 X-Gamer card and I bought a Yamaha HTR-5250 receiver. You can check out the receiver here: http://www.yamaha.com/cgi-win/webcgi.exe/DsplyModel/?gAVR00010HTR-5250 The SB Live! 5.1 tour shows that you can take a mini-jack to RCA adapter and send the digital 5.1 signal to an amplifier. I got a mini-jack to RCA adapter (RCA brand from Circuit City) and am using it with a Monster coaxial cable plugged into the receiver's DVD/LD coaxial input. All I get is stereo from the speakers. What am I missing? When I do the SB Live 5.1 speaker test the center, left rear, and right rear speakers don't work. I get the feeling this is something in the receiver. I think the receiver thinks it has to decode all incomming signals. I don't know how to turn the docoding off. Maybe I should just get an amp and take the Yamaha back? I hope someone can make sence of my ignorance. I'd appreciate any help. Thanks!

Great info Paragon. Do you have a link to Creative that explains this? You would think they would make this more clear. I was just about to get the Philips AE, but I figure I'll wait until I get the Klipsch 4.1's first and see how they sound on my old SB Live! Value 4.1 card. I'd probably rather get the SB Live! X-Gamer over the Philips AE for the better EAX surround sound support. I'm sure I'd be happy with either card though. Why did the Gamersdepot review of the Acoustic Edge make it sound like it was the only card capable of supporting 5.1 sound with all speakers? Janko is right, it is a jungle of misinformation out there.

Thanks Janko. I found this Acoustic Edge review at Gamersdepot: http://www.gamersdepot.com/hardware/sound_cards/philips/acoustic_edge/001.htm They have some great pictures of the connectors on the card. From the review: "The card itself uses a slightly different way to attach speakers, using a cable with a mini-DIN attachment on one end, and with three female stereo connectors coming out of the other. The three cables are labeled for Front L/R, Rear L/R, and Center/Sub. This will allow you to hook up almost any set of PC speakers on the market, making this the most flexible sound card weve ever seen. Compare this to the Creative SoundBlaster Live! Platinum 5.1 we reviewed a while back. That card had a proprietary out that only allowed you to attach those horrible Cambridge Soundworks DTT3500 speakers to get 5.1 sound." Cool. Now that the Klipsch 4.1's are out the question now is what speaker to use for the center channel? I know many have said use a set of Klipsch 2.1's, but that seems like overkill to me. Can anyone recommend a single center speaker to go with the Klipsch 4.1's? --- I just read through that review. Damn, the AE comes with a version of PowerDVD and I just bought WinDVD for $50. Oh, well. The review also mentions using three Klipsch 2.1 speaker sets for a 6.3 system using the AE's outputs for left, right, and center channels. Man, what would that sound like?

I was wondering if the 5.1 sound cards had an extra output jack for the 5th channel. Does the SB Live! Gamer card have an extra center channel jack also?

Sam_D said there was no 5th channel output jack on the back of the SB Live! or AE so how do you send the center channel out to the 2.1's Seb?

5.1 or 6.2, either sounds good to me. All I want to know is how you drive that fifth channel from an SB Live! or Acoustic Edge?

For what it's worth then I guess I won't be be getting a set of Klipsch's until they come out with their 5.1 system. So how are the 5 channels handled then? My SB Live! 4.1 card has 2 jacks, one for the front channels and one for the rears. Someone post a reply and I'll brb

I agree in a normal computer set up a fifth channel isn't needed. However, if you spread your speakers far enough apart I think a center channel would be necessary. Spreading the speakers far apart enough sounds artificial because you are expecting some sound to be comming directly from the screen. I've moved my speakers far apart before to get better sound cues from my first person shooter games. Against gluegun's advice I want to try the Klipsch's in my living room where they will be 8 feet apart. Could someone look at the back of their SB Live! or Acoustic Edge 5.1 card and tell me if there is an output for a fifth channel? If you could post a photo that would be even better.

Complicated? What would be involved? I'm assuming that there would be a fifth channel output on the back of the soundcard that you would plug the speaker into. Ideally you would just plug an amplified speaker into it and be good to go.

If you get a set of 4.1 Klipsch's and have a 5.1 soundcard can you buy a center channel speaker and add that to the Klipsch's?

I'm waiting for the 4.1's too. I have a SB Live! Value 4.1 card going through an old set of Altec Lansings with sub up front (came with my Dell XPS H266) and a pair of Yamaha YST-M15's in the rear. This is in the living room and it sounds great. I can't wait to hear what the 4.1 Klipschs sound like. If I get a 5.1 sound card can I get an additional center channel speaker and add that to the Klipschs?

What is a cp-1?

Yes sir! My living room is about 20' wide by 15' long. The couch sits about 9' back from the monitor/front speakers. The front speakers will be about 3' apart in a 4.1 system and spread to 8' apart in a 5.1 system. The rear speakers will be 10' apart and right beside the couch, probably not the best layout for the rears, but I can't get them back further. I'd like to get as much speaker separation on the fronts as possible to aid in locating players in a lan game. My living room: ........20' /------------------/ 15' /....L TV R / / / /...L COUCH R /------------------/ This computer will dedicated to the home entertainment system. My budget is anywhere from up to $4000 for the monitor and $1000 for the speaker/sound system. I'm basically cheap and easy to please and I'm not a picky audiophile. If I can get by with a set of $250 Klipsch's that'd be great. I figure whatever I come up with will be light years ahead of what I'm used to. Again, can I add a center channel speaker to a 5.1 sound card for use with the Klipsch 4.1 Promedias?

Thanks for the replies everyone, keep them coming. I finally found the Promedia v.2-400 faq. I like Klipsch's reasoning behind having the speakers analog only to focus on speaker quality, unless that is all bs I've been wondering why most 5.1 computer speaker sets come with a Dolby decoder when a 5.1 sound card is supposed to do that. Can I get the Promedia 4.1's and add a center channel speaker if I get a 5.1 sound card? I used the Princeton monitor at 800x600. Games and DVD's look great on the monitor. Displaying text is where the monitor falls short. Text is not nearly as crisp as what you are used to on a Trinitron 17" or 19" inch monitor at 1024x768. The .74 dot pitch is just too big. I want a monitor with svga inputs so I can use the Voodoo5 with its full scene antialiasing which won't make 800x600 look too bad in games. The Princeton AR2.9T was $1200 at Buy.com. I do like that Sony 24" monitor Gluegun. I just wish it were bigger and I think it is too expensive for its size. I'm open to monitor suggestions. Thanks!

Hi all. First, thanks to Klipsch for having this forum. I'm putting one of my computers in the living room and was hoping you all could give me some advice on sound components. I'm getting a Princeton Graphics 29" monitor/TV. I want this to be my main computer and my home theater. The computer has a 566 Celeron2 o/c'd to 850, an Abit BE6-2 mobo, 128 megs of ram, an old SB Live! Value card, an ATI TV wonder card, and a Voodoo5 5500 video card. No DVD for it yet. I'm confused about sound components and how they go together. I figure I want a 5.1 sound card, a set of 5.1 speakers, and a Pioneer DVD-115 DVD player. Do I need anything else? I'm leaning towards the SB Live! Xgamer 5.1 sound card. For speakers I WISH Klipsh made a set of 5.1 digital computer speakers. I may hold off on the speakers until they do. I want a 5.1 speaker set up because this is going into the living room and the speakers will be spread far apart enough I think to warrant having a center channel. Do I have to wait for the speakers? Can I get a set of Promedia 4.1's when they come out and get a center channel speaker too? I assume the sound card has a separate jack for the center speaker. Should I wait for digital speakers? I've heard the Promedias might have some hiss to them. Should I get a DVD player with software or hardware decoding? My old Dell XPS T500 has a software DVD player and it plays movies just fine so I don't know what hardware decoding will get me. Sorry for all the newbie questions. I promise I have looked at the forums before posting. If you have any thoughts on the monitor I'd like to hear them also. I had a Princeton Graphics AR2.9T for a week and sent it back to Buy.com for replacement as it had an imperfection in the picture tube. The AR2.9T will do 1024x768 at 60 hz and 800x600 at 72 hz. It has computer video inputs, is designed to work as a monitor, and is HDTV ready. The dot pitch is .74 mm. I wish it had more resolution and a smaller dot pitch. I can't find a better 29" monitor though. The 29" is to keep the price down and have it fit into my oak entertainment center. I figure why pay a lot now when things are changing so quickly. I can always ditch the cabinet if one of you knows of a much better monitor that is bigger. You can check out the monitor here: http://www.princetonhdtv.com/Products/Pages/Current/Arcadia/AR27Tp1.html If you recommend a component please tell me where to get it. I had a bear of a time trying to find a place to buy the Pioneer DVD-115 and a place that sold Videologic speakers. Thanks!