How do I get proper 5.1 with my setup?

[xhaydenx]

So I was hoping someone could help me understand how to get proper 5.1 on my PC.

My surround sound has an amp, a sub and 5 speakers. It's quite a few years old, but it does give me 5.1 when gaming on PS3, PS4 and Xbox 360 games.

On PC games, however, it doesn't. It does sound good, but the 5.1 doesn't sound as clear as on the consoles. I'm referring to things like hearing voices from behind you, footsteps etc.

For the consoles, I plug the amp into them via optical. I have the PC set up the same way. Optical from amp into PC motherboard.

So how do I get the best 5.1 experience with my set up?

Here are my specs, if it matters:
i7 4790k
Asus Sabertooth Mk1 motherboard.
gtx 980
16gb ram.

 

[ssddx]

is everything working out how it should?n

 

[xhaydenx]

is everything working out how it should?n

Yep, see my previous post? as far as I can tell it's all working right. So much better than my old set up already.

Thank for all the help!

 

[ishagpacman]

it seems that you are already pretty happy with how your speakers sound which to me makes it seem like a waste to get new speakers. generally unless you're not happy with how your current speakers sound i wouldnt suggest it. that and the microlabs do not seem like much of an upgrade over what you have now. also realize that having speakers with their own amp/inputs not a receiver also severely limits you on the types and number of sources you can use.

while you of course dont have to follow my opinion, since you do not want to deal with a soundcard and since you use a tv for both sources you might want to think about upgrading to a newer receiver which supports hdmi and keeping your old speakers. if you play your cards right you could upgrade your speakers at a later date (to something which actually would be an upgrade) to use with this new receiver if you ever felt the need for an upgrade.

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perhaps a little on what i use myself..

i originally bought and used a logitech 5.1 setup (x530 which is better than the current z506) along with a soundcard. about 4 years ago or so i upgraded to a receiver and speaker system after not being happy with the other options given to me. i may have spent more but it was well worthwhile and i dont think i could ever be happy with pc speakers now that i've heard the difference. i use an hdmi capable receiver to swap between a pc, ps3, ps2 (running it on component cables), laptop and other sources and it works great. 5.1 support on pc is uncompressed (PCM), same on ps3. while it seems like pc/ps3 have slightly different sound, both i would say sound good to me.

i currently use a pioneer vsx-30 receiver paired with the 5.0 klipsch quintet set and a sw450 klipsch subwoofer. photos in signature or here http/goo.gl/zcmFbN which is hooked up to my gaming pc and all my components.

in the other room we use a sony strdh540 paired up with some sony fs-f500p floorstanders. while the receiver is not as nice for sure it does offer some pretty good output power for the extremely low price we paid for it. overall a good discount buy i'd have to say.

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optical vs 3.5mm:

optical is pure digital.
3.5mm is analog.

digital generally is less affected by electrical noise, and optical the least of all digital cables. however, generally unless you have something generating some pretty mean interference you arent going to notice it on 3.5mm.

it should be noted that 3.5mm since its an analog signal and already processed and converted to analog from its digital origin is uncompressed sound. if you ignore the possibility of electrical noise interference completely, 3.5mm can technically be superior. however also worth noting that almost no decent hifi sets use 3.5mm input for 5.1 and generally your selection of speakers with 3.5mm is pretty poor. it should also be mentioned that 3.5mm is amped which means to use powerful speakers with it you would need to double-amp which means a loss of clarity. basically: while they can be compared they are both used in two different scenarios so are more like apples vs oranges. both fruits, but different.

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other than that, its only a connection type. what matters more is the hardware driving the connection. a good soundcard (dac+amp) driving 3.5mm makes a big difference and likewise having propper support for 5.1 over optical and a decent sound chip can mean the difference between optical working for you and not.

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to recap: i'm thinking getting a new receiver may fit your needs best.

you're free to make your own choices of course.

Nice one! you answered a lot of my questions. The reason i'm reading this forum (bit late but nvm 😀 ), is because i had to replace a few components that were making my computer crash. While I was fiddling I noticed my sound card wasn't a sound card. It was just a few connections for the onboard sound. I always wondered why the sound from my PC was a bit crap. I can play FPS's so much better on my ps3 because the surround sound gives me a pretty good indication of where a guy is when sneaking up on me. PC was stereo or fake surround which is pretty useless. The speech on movies is a real problem. The fake surround sound ampifies the bejesus out everything except speech. In that case i usually switch the audio to my hdmi and just use the speakers from the TV.

So I just bought the 'Creative Sound Blaster Z' (not arrived yet) and reading up on how to use it best. The speakers I use are 'Logitech z5500'. Been using them for years, always using the optical and swapping between devices. It also has 3 3.5mm jacks for front/rear/center sub. I have never even tried using them and really surprised to hear using them might actually produced better sound than using an optical cable.

In short, what cable do you rekon i should use for when my sound card arrives? Any advice would be appreciated.

Ps. here is a great link to my Logitech speakers. They seem to have a lot of possible effects which im not sure which is the best tbh. (DTS, Dolby Digital, Pro Logic 2 Movie, Pro Logic 2 Music, 6 Channel Direct, Stereo x2, Stereo) Im guessing Dolby Digital is better than DTS as DTS has some further encoding. Both are available via an optical connection. Ive no idea if 6 channel direct is any good or if it produces good surround sound.

http/www.logitech.com/repository/1411/pdf/13099.1.0.pdf

 

[ssddx]

please start your own thread on this issue. if you're looking for my help specifically you can pm the link of the new thread to me.

3.5mm connected to a soundcard is going to give you the best quality - as spdif optical can only output "compressed" audio if 5.1/7.1 (2.0 is uncompressed without quality loss).