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4.1 speakers and XP?

V

ViciouS

Golden Member
In the sound and audio devices in the advanced tab, there is no selection for 4.1 speakers. I have some sort of intergraded creative labs sound card on this computer. The speakers are 4 speakers with a subwoofer. I can find the 4 speaker set up without a subwoofer, but if i select that its sending mid range sound to my sub. I googled a few time but cant find where or how i can get an option for 4 speakers and a sub. Does anyone know how i can do this?
 
Usually the speakers handle the ".1" bit. They split the sub signal out internally and send it to the sub, not the card. So 4.0 will be the same as 4.1. Most comp subs are not true subs, thats why you get a bit of the low mids in there too.

What speaker system do you have?
 
Originally posted by: CrispyFried
Usually the speakers handle the ".1" bit. They split the sub signal out internally and send it to the sub, not the card. So 4.0 will be the same as 4.1. Most comp subs are not true subs, thats why you get a bit of the low mids in there too.

What speaker system do you have?
Click to expand...

Those logitech 50 dollar ones, they now sell them as 5.1's.
 
Vicious, why are comp subs not "true" subs?

The only difference I see is no low-pass filter between normal HT subs, but then again, most HT subs don't have 310W satellite amplifiers.
 
Originally posted by: Astrallite
Vicious, why are comp subs not "true" subs?

The only difference I see is no low-pass filter between normal HT subs, but then again, most HT subs don't have 310W satellite amplifiers.
Click to expand...

I didnt say they were not "true" subs CrispyFried said that. And my speakers at home are 5.1's and no mid range sound comes out of them.

And yeah they are the z540's
 
Originally posted by: Astrallite
Vicious, why are comp subs not "true" subs?

The only difference I see is no low-pass filter between normal HT subs, but then again, most HT subs don't have 310W satellite amplifiers.
Click to expand...

I don't know what definition he meant, but there are several definitions of subwoofer....

From loose definition to very critical definition:
1. Something that produces bass
2. Something that produces bass and the woofer has a diameter of 8" or larger
3. Something that produces bass below 20hz (+/- 3dB)

I know of no computer sub that meets definition #3.

I got pretty much one of the cheapest subs that can do #3 and it cost over $400.
 
There is no such thing as 4.1 for multimedia. In fact, even 5.1 is overrated because any low frequencies sent to any channel are going to be crossed over to the subwoofer anyway. Furthermore there are no frequencies that would normally be sent via LFE (0.1 channel) that the sats could even image at all. You need to use 4.0 mode and you need to make sure you have the two stereo minijacks hooked up correctly in from the soundcard to the subwoofer. Keep in mind that music is still only two channels so you?ll only heard the front speakers (and subwoofer because of the crossover) working unless you use a quad stereo DSP effect or something like it. Multimedia subwoofers don?t have a low pass filter. If they have anything it is a low ordered crossover or nothing. They are not expensive and not sophisticated and the best these systems deal with the lack of midbass from the tiny sats is to allow the subwoofer to breath a little higher up the frequency spectrum. If something doest sound right, perhaps you can describe in detail what it is and we can help you out a little more. But it looks like you have your system set up correctly. You can?t really expect much from a 50 dollar pair of speakers. The Z-560?s are very boomy and the subwoofer tends to dominate the soundstage. I believe most people need to turn the bass to the absolute min to balance out the system, so you can try that if you like.
 
Originally posted by: 07
There is no such thing as 4.1 for multimedia. In fact, even 5.1 is overrated because any low frequencies sent to any channel are going to be crossed over to the subwoofer anyway. Furthermore there are no frequencies that would normally be sent via LFE (0.1 channel) that the sats could even image at all. You need to use 4.0 mode and you need to make sure you have the two stereo minijacks hooked up correctly in from the soundcard to the subwoofer. Keep in mind that music is still only two channels so you?ll only heard the front speakers (and subwoofer because of the crossover) working unless you use a quad stereo DSP effect or something like it. Multimedia subwoofers don?t have a low pass filter. If they have anything it is a low ordered crossover or nothing. They are not expensive and not sophisticated and the best these systems deal with the lack of midbass from the tiny sats is to allow the subwoofer to breath a little higher up the frequency spectrum. If something doest sound right, perhaps you can describe in detail what it is and we can help you out a little more. But it looks like you have your system set up correctly. You can?t really expect much from a 50 dollar pair of speakers. The Z-560?s are very boomy and the subwoofer tends to dominate the soundstage. I believe most people need to turn the bass to the absolute min to balance out the system, so you can try that if you like.
Click to expand...

I don't understand your part about 5.1 being overrated because low frequencies are sent to the sub...

Oh, and z-560s are more like $140 speakers (you mean 540s, right?).
 
The crossover forces all FQ that would already be LEF to the subwoofer no matter which channel. So why have LFE in the first place? Its really a grandfathered concept that is a lot more practical for larger, traditional home theaters that have speakers that could compromise the LEF because of their bass extension. This is not the case for tiny PC speakers. In fact, you can idealize a PC sub sat combo as a 2 way speaker (3 if you have a tweeter) So my analogy would be: Why would you have a separate channel for the midrange driver and the tweeter of a speaker? Im not saying its bad or good, just overrated and used primarily for marketing,.. in my humble option.

Yes, the 540's are the 50 dollar ones (my mistake), But I was talking about the 560's.. Do you know which pair he has?
 
Originally posted by: 07
The crossover forces all FQ that would already be LEF to the subwoofer no matter which channel. So why have LFE in the first place? Its really a grandfathered concept that is a lot more practical for larger, traditional home theaters that have speakers that could compromise the LEF because of their bass extension. This is not the case for tiny PC speakers. In fact, you can idealize a PC sub sat combo as a 2 way speaker (3 if you have a tweeter) So my analogy would be: Why would you have a separate channel for the midrange driver and the tweeter of a speaker? Im not saying its bad or good, just overrated and used primarily for marketing,.. in my humble option.

Yes, the 540's are the 50 dollar ones (my mistake), But I was talking about the 560's.. Do you know which pair he has?
Click to expand...

Originally posted by: ViciouS

And yeah they are the z540's
Click to expand...

EDIT: ok, I thought you meant the speakers themselves were overrated, not the way in which the signals are used by them.
 
I think the point of LFE is just noise, since as you alluded to, not only do you play an LFE signal that has a +10db gain over the other signals, the subwoofer also plays all the frequencies past a cutoff crossover that is fed to the speakers.

So, the purpose of subwoofers is to play the low FQ signals of a 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, whatever signal. The LFE signal, or the ".1", is just extra work for the subwoofers on top of what they already do--in order to achieve greater noise levels.

I guess the thinking is, better to have a more compressed input signal, then have the subwoofer take itself out adding gain to a normal signal, which might lead to distortion. Kind of like, its louder when you play the same file with two media players simultaneously (more compression), but requires less db gain from your amplifier for the same SPL playing just one source.

Edit: and for the first poster...".1" is just another way of saying LFE, or discrete low frequency channel.
 
I guess it doesnt make that much of a difference. I have expensive'ish 5.1's at home and they sound awesome; i also have a much better sound card. When it is in 4.0 it sounds muffled like the subwoofer is doing to much. I guess i shouldn't care so much.
 
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