homemade surround sound?

[asoccerplayer99]

I have a motherboard (Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L) with a built in sound card that supports 5.1 surround and I own 4 speakers. Two are large and require an amp, and 2 are normal computer speakers with a power plug.

Does setting up surround sound on my computer just mean plugging everything in properly to the sound card, then enabling the surround via the software? If not, is there any way to turn my 4 speakers into a home made surround sound system?

 

[Roguestar]

If you plug normal speakers into the appropriate channels, they should be able to be configured appropriately as if they were part of the same speaker set.

 

[asoccerplayer99]

Fantastic, thanks

 

[Billb2]

You'll have to connect the appropriate output(s) from the sound card (front speakers/rear speakers) into an amplifier to drive the speakers that need an amp though.

All Sound cards outputs have to be sent to an amplifier. Computer speakers have amps built in.

And once you hook up an amp/home speakers to your computer system, you'll be looking to get rid of the computer speakers pretty soon.

 

[mpilchfamily]

Just a little info but the regular PC speakers are also on an amp. Thats whey they must have power supplied to them. The sound card doesn't have a preamp so all speakers connected to it have to have there own pre amp.

 

[0roo0roo]

you will have to match volume.
and speakers that don't match don't mesh well for surround. if the amp speakesr are nicer they should be the front stereo channel.
and the soundcard/media player should have a quad output mode. 4.0 mode basically, center mixed with stereo left right, and sub mixed in as well.

 

[Ghouler]

5.1 means that mid and high frequencies are output by 5 speakers and the sixth (woofer) is used to deliver all the low end (bass). If I follow you correctly you do not have the woofer. You have several options, e.g.:

1. Use one of the speakers as the woofer - that will only work if that speaker/amp is enough powerful to do that. Bass frequencies require the most energy to be produced and the cone has to be physically capable of producing low frequencies.

2. Use only four speakers and select 4.0 configuration in the speaker settings - this is assuming that these four speakers are full range i.e. each of them can produce bass pretty well.