You guys are my last hope for figuring out surround sound

I've asked the same question on 3 other forums and no one has answered.

I have a Samsung R580 laptop (has expresscard 34,HDMI, usb 2.0, and esata ports) and a Rotel RSX-1056 (does not have HDMI, but accepts optical digital, component, coaxial, RCA audio input) sound reciever. My external surround sound speakers are connected to my sound reciever

1. How should I connect my laptop to my reciever in order to get the best quality surround sound (i.e. buy an external soundcard for my expresscard slot that allows optical out to my sound reciever)?

2. If the soundcard is the way to go, is there a certain brand/model I should buy?

3. Does the laptop itself matter in terms of sound quality? Would I have had better sound with higher end sony or something?

If you don't know the answers to all three questions, I'd be very happy if you just answered one or two. I'm not finding the answers anywhere else so far. Thanks a lot.

 

HDMI to the screen, and S/PDIF from the screen to your receiver. At least, that's what you should be able to do without paying for any external sound card, assuming you have a decent TV or monitor.

 

I have a related question - I am trying to upgrade my onboard audio solution (Sigmatel on a Dell XPS 1530) to something which has an onboard processor and ultimately send that output to a 2.1 system.

So my ideal solution would be a USB sound card. Creative's X-Fi USB 5.1 link here comes to mind but I understand all of the processing is done through software, which makes the card nothing but a means to add optical out to my system. I might as well download Creative's standalone software solution link here if that were the case.

I wouldn't mind opening a new thread to ask this; don't want to hijack the OP's question. Any suggestions?

 

I have an older projector so it does not have hdmi. It is a infocus sp7205.

I think our questions are almost identical allister except that I do need an optical out as well if optical is the way to go. Good place for your post I think.

 

A lot depends on exactly how much you're willing to pay. For allister, if all (s)he's interested is a cheap way to amplify and extend to an external 2.1 system, something like the $25 Turtle Beach Micro II or Amigo II might be enough. If something more robust is desired, then there are a fair number of USB mixers and amps available. I do recommend asking that this thread be moved over to the Accessories section as opposed to being here in the Hardware Components section; I think you're likely to get more and better answers there, although I think some of those might also involve you going over to Head-Fi.org - Headphone forums and reviews for audiophiles.

 

Thanks Judicator. Amplification is not a priority, I'm really looking at a good quality DAC and wanted to know how different the DACs on different USB sound cards compared.

I have opened a new thread on the Accessories forum so hopefully I will get more answers there link here

 

thanks. i think i'll head straight to the headfi forum. i think i haven't found a conclusive response yet cause I've been posting in the wrong forums. I did get one other answer from another forum that told me to get the turtle beach card. But I think you're right, something that cheap can't produce the quality I'm hoping for.

 

You will need to get some kind of add-on sound card that has digital audio out (coax or optical). Something like the Creative Labs X-Fi USB would do the trick.

You don't have the DAC-quality issue that Allister has mentioned, because you are going pure digital. The only DAC that matters is the one in your receiver.


As for Allister - any external DAC will be an improvement over onboard sound, simply because you reduce EMI. But once you're looking at DAC's, then the sky is the limit in terms of price. How much are you looking to spend?

 

Sorry I didn't mention it earlier - I'd say around $80?

I've also opened a new thread for this link here

 

Thanks a lot. I posted at the head-fi forum too and no response so very glad for your post.

What's the difference between 5.1 and 7.1 sound anyway?

I'll go get that creative Labs 5.1 sound card now unless 7.1 is really the better way to go.

 

firstly are you trying to get 5.1 for films or are you trying to get general 5.1?
if its for films then spdif will be your cheapest bet which can be accomplished several ways. one way you can do this is through your hdmi out. if your receiver has an hdmi you could send the audio through the hdmi to the receiver then video to your projector but in order for this to work your receiver must support video pass-through (a feature left out of many receivers)

another way to do it is that your notebook might have an optical connection built in to the regular audio jack (the asus g50vt has this) but youll have to check your notebook documentation for this as a quick search i couldntfind out any meaningful details of your notebooks audio. if it does support it youll need a mini toslink to toslink cable

If you do buy the xfi external audio remember that the 5.1 optical will only work for things that are already encoded with 5.1 digital audio (for example a dvd movie) in order for you to get 5.1 out of everything like games you will need a digital encoder on the audio card (for example: dolby digital live or dts neo/interactive)

the difference between 5.1 anbd 7.1 is that 7.1 adds two side channels.

________5.1 channel setup

____________Center
F.Left ___________________F.Right


_____________YOU


R.Left_____________________ R.Right



______________7.1 Channel Setup

____________________Center
________F.Left_____________________F.Right


L.Surround___________YOU___________R. surround


_________R.Left___________________ R.Right

EDIT: they also sell audio decoders and such for hdmi which if you have the money lying around for it you could buy one. something like this would be cool
http://www.allaboutadapters.com/hddodtsdihdo.html (research before buying from here i merely used this as an example so i dunno if this is a reputable seller)

Honestly though that stuff is a waste of money in my opinion.

 

Thanks. I'm only caring about dvds so I don't need the digital encoder. I don't have hdmi on my reciever or projector and I don't have optical on my headphone jack so I will have to get a soundcard.

Can 7.1 sound cards also do 5.1 or do I have to do one or the other? I have 5 speakers (and will not get anymore in the near term) but would get a 7.1 sound card if 7.1 also did 5.1 so I could expand in the future if I ever wanted to.

 

Your 7.1 card should be able to do 5.1 as well. Just make sure you have your player (VLC/Cyberlink etc) set up for it.

 

this is a minor thread hijack but how do sound cards help? Also what is the best and cheapest soundcard? I've been hearing of creative xfi-go..

 

I recommend you post your question in allister's thread I've linked below. Someone posted above that we are in the wrong forum and would get better answers over there. I was going to post your question for you but I realized I didn't really understand what you were asking. Are you asking when do you need a sound card at all for your laptop? Anyway, it could just be me cause I don't really understand all this electronic stuff. If you think that your original post might be hard to understand, you may want to reword it over in that thread.

Here's a link to her thread.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/accessories/511727-these-best-audio-solution-my-notebook.html

 

Without getting into the complexity of individual components and how they're configured, the basis of getting the best sound reproduction is as follows: 1) keep the signal digital for as long as you can, 2) limit the length of cables, 3) make as few conversions/connections (hopefully not more than one) as you possibly can.

As for the difference between 7.1 and 5.1. The 7.1 simply adds two more (fill) speaker channels. Whether or not that makes any real difference in the sound is more dependent on the sound mixing that anything else. Though you should know that there are only a hand full of sources that utilized the 7.1 configuration.

 

if all your worried about is movies then just buy yourself an xfi 5.1 surround or something similar that has an optical toslink output. plug that toslink into your receiver and set your notebook up with a codec to passthrough the audio through the spdif port on your audio card (i use AC3 Filter) as long as the movie your watching is dolby digital or DTS then you will get 5.1 audio into the receiver (assuming the receiver supports these formats but it would have to be pretty old not to)

Im pretty sure your projector has a dvi input so you can use an hdmi to dvi-d if the dvi port on the projector is digital. If you wanted to watch blurays then make sure the port is hdcp compatible.

so to sum it all up i think your best bet will be
AUDIO- audio card toslink output to receiver toslink input. (using toslink to toslink cable)
VIDEO- Notebook HDMI output to Projector Dvi input. (using Hdmi to Dvi-D cable)