Nvidia SoundStorm question

[1sikbITCH]

I have an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe with Nvidia Soundstorm audio onboard. I just purchased a set of Logitech Z-5300 5.1 speakers.

When I set the speakers to 5.1 on the back of the subwoofer, I get no sound from the rear speakers. However if I set it to 2 channel, I can now hear all 5 speakers.

With all the bells and whistles on the SoundStorm audio, are there really only 2 channels? I can't find anything in the documentation saying how many channels there are. I'm not knocking the Soundstorm, because it's by far the best sound I've had, I'm just wondering if I am just missing some setting somewhere.

If there are indeed only 2 channels, how much improvement will I notice buying a 5 or 6 channel card (I'm supposing an Audigy)?

 

[Elcs]

I havent had any problems with my Soundstorm.... it plays fine using all channels on my 5.1 system.

This advice is based on what Ive read... this seems to be a rather common problem.

A program called NVswap should sort you out... either that or your speakers are plugged into the wrong sockets (some colour coded things were wrong on some boards iirc)

 

[PliotronX]

When the speakers are set to 5.1, the inputs for the rear and center channels are used so if there is no sound being output from the source (motherboard) to the rear or center channels, for example with stereo (a.k.a. 2 channel) signals like MP3's and CD's, only the main left and right speakers are putting out sound. So by setting the speakers to 2 channels, it will clone the front 2 channel signals from the source and put them out the rear and possibly center speakers (a.k.a. "StereoX2"). With certain driver versions for Soundstorm, the front two channels were cloned to the rear automatically and there is no way to enable or disable this, but with surround sound content such as games or DVD's, the real signal is sent out. I don't know which versions of the drivers will do this as I don't use my SS anymore, but you can easily experiment by downloading them from Windows Update's Catalog page and installing them via Device Manager for the APU and "Dolby Digital Processing Unit." Also in the control panel for SS, enable "create center channel" if you wish to clone the front channels into the center speaker.

Unless CMSS is enabled on Audigy cards, the same effect happens here where stereo content will only sound out of the main speakers if the speakers are set to 5.1. But with CMSS, you have the choice of mirroring the stereo channels abroad (it's called "Stereo surround" in the EAX console panel) and CMSS 1 or 2 (people have varying opinions on these three settings, it's easy to experiment) which will attempt to wrap some of the reverb to the rear speakers, almost like Dolby Pro-Logic but with inferior sound quality. HTH

 

[yhelothar]

how are you testing how many channels you are getting sound out of? Are you pushing the test speakers button or are you testing it by playing mp3s?

 

[John]

A7N8X-E User Manual

Look on page 2-18

 

[1sikbITCH]

Well, thx for the input, first off. I did have them plugged in directed on page 2-18. The CD that came with the board had an outdated control panel and drivers, so once I uninstalled and upgraded to the latest version I had more options. NVSwap didn't help, but unchecking Dolby Surround did. Somewhere along the line with all the screwing around I now have sound out of all 5 speakers.

Thx for all the advice While the sound is great now, I'm convinced I need to get the Audigy2 ZS Gamer now for the THX and enhanced EAX. I never realized just how much better great sound makes a game.