Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS question

[TitusTroy]

newbie question...I currently have the new X-Fi ExtremeMusic sound card...do I need to purchase a speaker set that has a separate decoder in order to get Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS or can my sound card handle that?...if my sound card can do this then why do people purchase separate decoder boxes for their pc speakers?

 

[alcoholbob]

No you do not need a seperate decoder.

People buy seperate decoders for various uses. 1) more inputs to their speakers 2) various 5.1 emulation algorithms like Pro Logic 2 when they don't have DD-encoded stuff.

 

[TitusTroy]

if my sound card does the decoding is the 5.1 /DTS sound quality any different then if I had a separate decoder?...or is it not even noticeable?

 

[cryogenic666]

It's doubtful you'd notice any differences unless you were comparing it to a several thousand dollar home theater receiver. I personally use optical digital out to my home theater receiver instead of using actual computer speakers. One other advantage to having onboard DD/DTS decoding is that the signal going to either your speakers or your HT receiver is already 5.1ch so your receiver doesn't even have to do any matrixing of the signal to get sound through all your speakers. I went from an NF2/soundstorm audio to an NF4/realtek audio and had to change my receiver settings so that it would emulate the sound across all channels and create the subwoofer channel because the signal coming out of the optical out is basically just a raw stereo signal. Sound quality is nowhere near as good.

 

[alcoholbob]

The X-Fi has pretty decent DACs. I don't see the point of getting an external decoder unless you have a lot of inputs. And it would probably sound worse anyway.

 

[shortylickens]

I know this is a little late, but do you plan to run games in 5.1?
What speakers are you using?