How to connect 5.1 surround speakers to Dell Inspiron 1564

I purchased Edifier 5.1 surround speakers, there are 3 wires coming out of sound system to connect with my Dell Insp 1564 but where I should connect?
There is only 1 stereo jack available on one side of the laptop. An HDMI port is available on the left, how to use it to connect with 3 wires? Any Idea.....
Thanks.

 

You have to

A.) Purchase an external sound card that supports 5.1 analog out

B.) Get better speakers that are not so limiting

C.) Just use them as 2.1 speakers

 

Thanks Vicious,
Is it not possible to get sound out of HDMI port?
Your option-C is the simple one but now I have purchased 5.1 and I want to listen distictive sound out of 5 speakers.
External sound card---a usb one?

 

I assume that he means an ExpressCard one.

 

The USB card is one solution, there are also express card solutions.

HDMI... not so much.

HDMI is meant to feed video & audio together directly to a device like your TV. It is possible to select your HDMI audio output method manually in your control panel to use that as the source but how to get that to the very proprietary type of connection that those 5.1 PC speaker sets use?

HDMI is not really in the same family it would go to a 5.1 home theater receiver that has 5 regular speakers fed from an amplifier. Thus why I said B.) Get better speakers that are not so limiting.

I hate these PC orientated sets they limit you greatly and if something goes wrong like one speaker dies or the built in amp dies, the whole set is about useless while with a home theater setup you can just upgrade/replace broken speakers or an amp and add to it as you go.

I went through 3 different cheap $100 PC speaker sets as a younger lad before I learned my lesson and droped $200 for a normal amp/reciever and then got cheap speakers and upgraded as I went.

Now I have a set of Klipsch Quintet III's and a Klipsch Sub 10 hooked up to it on that same amp I bought 6 years ago and it blows any PC speakers out of the water and of course I am using those same speakers/amp for my TV, My Wii, the Radio, ETC so I think its a much better return on my investment.

Truth be told most of the big audio guys use 2.1 including myself even though I have a 5.1 setup. The only time I may use the 5.1 is for movies that have a 5.1 track. For music & games no way would I use it.

If you want great surround for games just a good pair of (2 speaker) headphones gets the job done way cheaper than any 5.1 speakers.

 

Got another option for you, the cheapest way possible to do this.

Get a 1/8" to 2x RCA Stereo Cable - For only $0.65 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 3.5mm Stereo Plug/2 RCA Plug Cable - 6ft | 3.5mm/RCA Audio Cables

(6ft is a bit long, just linking to show you what you need)

And an adapter - Amazon.com: Logitech 5.1 Game Console Adapter Convert Rca Plugs To A Single 1/8: Video Games

With these two items you can hook your 5.1 speakers to the laptops headphone out and use all the speakers in surround stereo.

You will NOT be getting true 5.1 surround sound but atleast your will use all the speakers, and for a lot of people that may be good enough especially considering what I said earlier than the vast majority of listening most people do is not 5.1 sources but only 2 channel sources.

 

just get a second hand Creative’s USB SoundBlaster Live! 24-bit external sound card from ebay for around 30 to 40 USD, this is the best way to get the best sound out of your speakers.

 

Thanks for many suggestions, vicious and lead.
Really I wonder why there are 2 classes of audio systems in the market now for many years. One is the pricey HiFi blu-ray/DVD's home theatres and the other is PC sound systems, cheap and somewhat inferior. This is all about business....
Dedicated for my laptop I was looking for a good sound system and 5.1 are in the market now for many years, but now I realize they are not worth buying. As even today there is no simple solution to connect a conventional 5.1 sound system to a laptop/PC.
Various options I’ve explored and the result:

HDMI port of laptop:
Never for this purpose, there is no HDMI splitter available that can separate sound and video. The video and sound are embedded in a way that a splitter if available might be v expensive

Onboard Realtek sound cards/equivalent:
Most of the desktop and some laptops have three audio jacks, Line in/ Mic in/ sound out.....Realtek audio manager can be configured to use Mic and Line in as sound out, this way 3 outputs are available, useful enough for 5.1 sound. Below article explains all of this.
How To Connect 5.1 Speakers To Your Computer
This is not valid for all Realtek boards and I am not the lucky one here. Further my laptop has only 2 ports, Mic In and Sound out.

Game console adapter:
Like mentioned by vicious, I tried to find it today evening in local market but in vain. This is a reasonable solution.

Add usb sound card:
I searched in the market and found a usb sound card for just 3 $ (china). I was anxious to experiment with it, it has only 2 ports, headphones/mic in. Nothing in the windows I can do to use both cards simultaneously, after hours of search I found a software Virtual DJ, it’s a great software as it can use both sound cards to play an audio file. Volla, with some effort I was able to get sound from both sound cards, but still I need 3 outputs and problem is not resolved.
Finally I have decided to use audio splitter ( http://www.niharsworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/audio-splitter.jpg) to connect 2 wires with one sound card. And the third wire with the 2nd sound card, splitter will be available tomorrow, I will then update about the sound quality.

 

Sound options are similar to video solutions. There are a variety of methods you can use to produce the desired outcome depending on how you have your system configured. Naturally, some methods are more efficient/effective than others. For example VGA vs DVI.

As for sound output, some people have receivers with HDMI ports which can simply be plugged-in providing instant 5.1 output--providing all the other components are properly configured.

 

Krane, do you have a link to share more details on this?

 

He is talking about same thing I talked bout, a real reciever/amp for a home theather system.

It can decode DTS and do 5.1 via HDMI but ti will use "real" speakers not the 3x 1/3" PC types.

 

I'll keep this in my next budget, probably I wasted money / time in 5.1 pc speakers. I would recommend others to first get feedback on this forum as lot of users come here, then go for buying.

 

Sounds like the USB sound card you got isn't a true 5.1 sound card, unless that headphone port might be a S/PDIF interface. More than likely it's a virtual 5.1 sound card, that simulates 5.1 effects through stereo speakers.

 

It looks like you neglected to make sure your speaker output ports/wires etc. matched your computer's inputs. But without further information, I have no idea what the 3 wires do exactly, and therefore, can't advise you specifically.
However, from what I can tell, it appears as though you will need some kind of interface (adapter) to make the connections to your HDMI?

Still, you might not get the best sound since many systems that require these configurations don't offer the high quality output to begin with. In other words, you may lose something in the translation?

In the future it would be better if you make sure the devices you wish to connect (PC/TV/Speakers/Receiver have matching (and compatible) ports. The less adapters (between the source and output) the better.

p.s. Sometimes even when the ports match, they still don't output the high quality 5.1 you may expect. Make sure you read specification carefully, and ask lots of questions.

Try theses:


Edifier Support:FAQ

Edifier Support:FAQ