rearanging my room for surround sound!

[chased13]

heres my sound setup - use my onboard stereo output through rca cables to a pioneer 815 receiver (i think its like 250 bux..i got it free) to 2 decent floor speakers. i have speakers that i will use for rear.


i plan on adding 2 rear speakers and possibly using my built in speakers in my pavillion f70 monitor as a center channel

i am hoping to use a digital connection as i dont wanna run mulitple wires from my comp to my reciever

what is a decent sound card with a digital output (my reciever has the digital input that is shaped like a phone line type of plug- i dont think this is the coaxal one...)

im willing to spend 50 bux (hopefully less if i can ebay the card) but if it takes more im willing to spend what i need to get something that will do the job WELL

 

[choirbass]

for true digital surround, i can really only fully recommend any sound card that offers Dolby Digital Live, or DTS realtime encoding... im more hesitant about other cards that dont, if youre really wanting discrete 5.1 channel surround via digital output... ...the digital input youre referring to is an optical input, im pretty sure anyhow, by how you described it... for digital sound connections, ive only ever heard of coaxial, and optical.

the ddl/dts re encoding cards can run from about $80, upto around $100 or more... theyre possibly a great deal less expensive though if you search on ebay like you said

examples two cards that offer that are:

Blue Gears X-Mystique (~$100 offers both optical and coaxial digital connections, comes with optical cable included i think)
Turtle Beach Montego DDL (~$80 offers only optical for digital connections, pretty sure optical cable not included)

 

[DrBlofeld]

Do you own the house your room is in? If so, I recommend that you install the wires behind the walls. The wires really get in the way and makes the room look messy.

 

[chased13]

im 15 and i dont care if i have wires on my floor . i run em along the radiator that goes around my floor. i get speakers and receivers and stuff for free/cheap from my dad...he works in home audio video busines

hmmm anyone have a sound card recommendation for me? im plugging my SC into the reciever via digital connection. What card do i need to get real surround sound out of the reciever (not simulated surround, real surround) via digital connection?? (i want surround for gaming!!!!!!!)

 

[choirbass]

Turtle Beach Montego DDL
Blue Gears X-Mystique

both cards offer exactly what youre asking (true dolby digital 5.1 surround for everything, re encoded in realtime, carried via a single digital cable... games, movies, music, anything)... all you need is an external dolby digital decoder (an a/v receiver for example), and youll then have true 5.1 digital surround, (L, R, C, SL, SR, LFE, all seperate, discrete, independantly controlled channels)... ...and, if your receiver supports dolby digital ex, or dts es... ...you can then have up to 6.1 or more seperate, discrete channels

in all honesty, they are close to just about the only consumer solutions that can do that, theres also the DTS-610, an external DTS encoder, offered by creative, which does about the same, except you feed it 6 seperate cables from your sound card, and it then streams those connections via 1 digital cable, to an external DTS decoder... more cabling hassle, but it does the same thing, its about $100 last i saw too awhile back... ...the only other options really that im aware of that can do what youre wanting, were the nforce2 motherboards, that had soundstorm on them... but unless youre open to using a socket462 motherboard, thats really not much help

 

[rexter]

These 3 setups are connected with my built-in sound card.

When playing games, I use Logitech Z680, Digital signal using optical cable.

When Listening to Music. 2 JBL Powered Speaker for front and Rear, 1 Powered Harman/Kardon Center Channel, 1 Dahlquist Powered Sub, Analog signal using mini plug.

When watching movies, 1 Sony Home Theater Digital A/V Receiver, Sony Center, JVC Front, Advent on the Rear and Dahlquist Sub has 2 inputs, Digital signal using coax.

Although your setup is almost to surround you still need center speaker and sub woofer speakers. Though you may not need subwoofer anymore due to the bass from the front and rear speaker you still need a good center speaker to handle some bass, especially in real surround channel. I don't think your built in speakers can handle the center channel very well. But you might get away with it for now.

Anyway as for your sound card SoundBlaster is good for gaming but does not have optical connector. And check your Pioneer 815 receivers before you buy a sound card if it has a Digital Optical Connector or Digital Coax Connector. Don’t buy an expensive optical connector unless you need more than 50 feet long, they don’t give you much difference in sound quality.

I haven’t tried these two but I assumed they’re good too since they are referred to you and it has optical jacks.
Turtle Beach Montego DDL
Blue Gears X-Mystique

 

[MysticDee]

Im currently running the aforementioned soundstorm on my nforce 2 board. The co-axial is feeding my creative ddts-100 which in turn feeds a creative megaworks (5.1) set.

The only downside to the decoder is that it has profiles for movie, and music in both pro-logic and neo:6, the changing between these profiles has to be done manually.

Other than that it handles DTS, Dolby Digital, EX, ES etc..

The sound in my opinion is good, could be better with a more impressive soundcard i feel.