ATTENTION: All self-proclaimed surround sound experts. I need your help.

Before I begin, if there is a better section to put this in, let me know.

Okay I bought the Logitec X-530 Series 5.1 surround sound speakers for my Alienware M5790.

Here are some pictures to show how the speakers are plugged into my laptop.









Also, i notice an SPDIF/OUT jack on the side with the 3 jacks Im using.

When I hook my speakers up to my laptop, the Realtek HD Audio Manager does not let me select Suround Sound speakers from the options. All five speakers give sound, just not surround sound, (2 lefts work as lefts, middle works as a left and the two rights work as rights. What am I doing wrong? Is there a driver I need to download?



The system also came with a small adapter: (i own the white cord)





Im pretty damn sure my laptop supports 5.1 surround sound so im confused as to why i can't seem to set the damn thing up.

If you guys need me to take a picture of something else or if i can give you more information just tell me.

Thanks,
Frank

 

Hello,
I have NOT used surround out of a laptop and I have not used these small surround speaker packages, however, I work in surround sound doing audio for TV work, so I can perhaps help with some general concepts.

It seems you have on your laptop, a stereo out (analog), a mic in (mono analog input), and a headphone/SPDIF out. That last one is a bit of a mystery however as SPDIF is a digital format and I would think headphones use the analog stereo out, but whatever.

I dont know the input configuration of that speaker set cause you arent showing the inputs labeling.

but if your computer isnt showing 6 dedicated outputs for 5.1 surround (which they wouldnt as that would be impractical), that means the surround audio stream is in an encoded 2 channel format which will sound like stereo unless it is "decoded" by a decoder that splits the extra speaker information out to 6 individual channels.

Your mic input (the hole on the right) is not an output. That wont be hooked up to any speaker.
The hole on the left, will put out left and right only.
The middle hole I am guessing will have a digital stream and will have to be connected to something that decodes and splits that signal to 6 channels. Your speaker system probably does this within it. As for that little adapter, I dont know what that is without more information about it.

added note: many digital encoded surround streams will actually sound like noise untill decoded and I wanted to make the point that your computer is likely not doing the decoding, or else it would have outputs for all individual speakers. So there is probably NOT a software/driver issue as a problem here. (wow, hows that for grammar).

 

Im a little confused as to what you want me to get a picture of. Are you talking about on the back of the sub where all the speakers plug into? Because i posted that one already. I do appreciate your help tho.

 

actually looking at your sub again, its not the same as the 540 model. I will try to find the 530 online again.

 

Hmmm. Do you know if something like this would allow me to achieve 5.1 surround? http://www.soundblaster.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=204&product=9103

 

Ok, I just deleted some of my posts cause I made a mess of this thread with all my posts.

My question. How do you know your system is capable of surround?

 

I guess I could wrong but i swear my card was surround sound cabable. Im off to work, but thank you for your thoughts i'll try to get this figured out.

 

Well true surround sound capable, means, theres first of all a source (like a DVD has surround sound ON the DVD in an encoded form). Im guessing Games do as well. Then there needs to be a decoding process. If this happened within the computer, then there would be outputs on the computer for the separate channels. This may exist in the form of 3 cables at minimum. If it is to be decoded outside of the computer, then the computer would output a digital stream on one output (one cable) that needs to be decoded in some external gear - so the speaker system would have some decoder in it (Im not sure this exists mind you, just hypothetically speaking).


Ok I found stuff on your speaker set. It says this:

The X-530's only audio inputs are the three analog miniplugs required to connect the speakers to a 5.1-channel PC sound card. Unlike some models, the X-530 doesn't have digital inputs or a jack for connecting a music source such as an iPod.

But looking at this picture I found here, http://www.cooltechzone.com/images/reviews/audio/x_530_5.jpg
I dont understand which are the inputs and what is connected to what on your setup.

So I guess all I was able to do was give you some theory....
sorry.

 

there is a lot of "fake" surround things in a lot of this consumer gear where its turning a stereo feed into a surround feed but this is not true surround.

For instance anything that turns your CD or Ipod output into surround, is fake surround. Interesting, but not the way I want to hear somethng that was created for stereo speakers.

As a sound mixer, to me, thats like buying a piece of artwork, and then painting over the parts you think should be better. Same goes for all those fake reverb effects so many recievers and things have on them. presets labeled things like "concert hall" or EQ presets that say things like "bass boost" and "exciter" and "rock" or "classical".....these little gimicky things these companies add to stereo systems are cheap processors that degrade sound quality and just basically ruin music. The mixing engineer already mixed a rock song to sound like "rock". No need to add cheap consumer stereo gear FX.
.... just say no!

but I digress............

point was, virtual surround is not true surround - and not anywhere near as good quality - wise.

 

Does anybody know anything about external USB soundcards?

 

ha ha, I hand over the soap box now.

good luck!