Surround audio on Sony SZ

I already started this in this thread, but I think it deserves its own thread.

I bought Sony SZ1XP/C and it's great machine so far. It will be replacing my desktop computer and become my only computer, and thus it needs to resolve two things:
- external monitor
- surround (5.1) speakers

I expected that docking station will resolve both of these. It does have DVI port, but nothing for audio output. Laptop itself since to be able to support this, but Sony did not make use of those capabilities.

Apart from bying Creative's Audigy 2 ZS PCMCIA card, is there any option left?

This is really stupid move - docking station is far from cheap and not including audio output options on them is really low

 

Curious to see the outcome of this inquiry.

I use an EMU 1616 for multichannel audio, so am of no help to you.

 

Why doesnt the external Monitor work?
Perhaps a PCMCIA Sound Blaster Card would solve your 5.1 speakers.

 

There are USB 2.0 5.1 sound card...
More useful than a PCMCIA card as it's likely your next laptop won't have PCMCIA.
And the USB sound card can be plugged to the dock station

 

and what usb 5.1 card would you recomend. i've just got a bunch of videos from itunes and i'd love to play them on my home theater some of the time...
i know that the picture will be not great but if i could get 5.1...

 

I work primarilly with audio and would advise against USB for anything more than 2 channels of audio. PCMCIA has far less jitter and latency, next best is firewire, then USB 2.0. A pc card will certainly be usefull to you as long as you have THIS laptop. Another thing woth noting is that the EMU interface I mentioned above lets you use the PCcard by itself when you are mobile, and then you can attach the dock when needed.

 

...forgot to ask...

Does your home theatre have SP/DIF or Optical inputs?

 

yes all 4 of them have optical or coax inputs. one of them has firewire in, but i wouldn't have a clue how to get sound out of the firewire port on the sz, i'm not that techy

 

Friend of mine uses a USB 2.0 5.1 card using the S/PDIF output on its mac mini (1.4Ghz G4: not very fast).
There's no jitter whatsoever, the USB 2.0 bandwidth is sufficient to handle the digital output and there's no processing done on the adapter itself.

JY

 

You would need an amplifier/decoder which can take firewire as an input. There aren't that many, I know some high-end Marantz do that

 

There are a multitude of of digital audio interfaces that work with USB, USB2.0, firewire and PCIMCIA.

Here is a descent firewire solution:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001AVUXA/102-4233716-1654531?v=glance&n=172282

Here is the interface I ended up choosing:

http://images.google.com/images?q=emu+1616&hl=en&hs=jA2&lr=&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title

 

EMU is even pricier than Creative's card.

"Luckily" I'm not audiophile - I just want basic surround. Thus I was happy with integrated sound that comes with laptop. And then (lack of) those **** outputs will now set me 100£ back for the Audigy card.

USB options sounds interesting, only I have not seen a direct recommendation for the particular model. I'm walking on unknown fields when it comes to sound cards and have no real clue what to look at.

I have Altec Lansing 5.1 speakers (model 5100), which does not have SP/DIF input, only regular input with 3 cables.

Any help/recommendation appreciated.

 

Further lurking through reviews on various sites, I collected these three cards being mentioned:

Philips Aurilium Sound Processor PSC805 - Sound card - 24-bit - 96 kHz - 5.1 - Hi-Speed USB

Creative Audigy 2 NX

Zalman ZM-RSSC External 5.1Ch USB Sound Card

That would be my order of preference, based on what I read. Anyone deal with any of these?

 

That phillips unit looks nice, but the Creative looks more portable and I'm sure is fine too. I think the bottom line is that if you want surround with this laptop...be prepared to drop at least another hundred dollars.

I would avoid that Zalman thing, it's USB 1.1.

 

Looks like that first two models are long gone from production. Not a single shop has them, most of the salesmen do not even recongnize the models. Finally one told that they last had Creative model in April 2004.

What they now have is Creative Live! 24bit, which I bought for 50 pounds, here in London. Will see in few days how it works - will write about it here.

 

Like I said, I'm not anaudiophile, but can recognize what is better sound when I hear two different things. I used integrated sound for years back - nForce2 SoundStorm always received good reviews and I was content with it. That was, until I tried this little baby from the previous post.

Music is amazing on it and my speakers, especially bass, sounds so much better and deeper. I can't compare it to other sound cards, but if you used integrated sound so far, Creative Live! 24bit is a really good and worthwhile upgrade.

 

Does using the Creative Live! 24bit external sound card prevent the use of the internal card on the SZ?

What I'd like to do is use the Creative card when my notebook is docked and use the internal sound card when mobile.

Does anyone know if this is possible?

 

Yes, it is possible. When the external card is not connected, WinXP will automatically use next available sound card/chip, and that is internal stuff. So, no worries there.

I keep the card attached to docking station, so I don't have any cabling to worry about. Just dock/undock and it will use whatever is there (and Creative is set as default).

 

thanks aleck. That's exactly the info i was looking for.