Connecting X-FI to 5.1 hifi possible?, inc pics.

Mark A · 29 Mar 2006 at 14:54

Hi

I purchased an X-FI Extreme Music sound card a couple of days ago and I'm very pleased with it but i only have a 2.1 sound system hooked up to it. Id like to hook my 5.1 surround sound hifi up to it but don't want to buy any leads etc if it isn't possible.

Theses are the connectors on the back of the hifi

This is one of the front speakers, its the front side speakers but also the sub so i don't know if it'll work.

Any help appreciated

cheers

Mark

tom_nieto · 29 Mar 2006 at 15:48

By the looks of things you'll only be able to get pro logic sound, basically an upmixed stereo signal. Reasonable for movies, but not great for music and games.

I would just leave it connected in stereo. If you've not done this already you'll need a 3.5mm headphone jack to 2 x RCA cable. The sort of thing used for recording to portable MD players etc.

Mark A · 29 Mar 2006 at 16:25

Thanks for the reply. The hifi is a 5.1 system with 2 rear 70 watt speakers 2 large front speakers with 6" subs built in and a front middle 160watt speaker i would have thought i could get surround sound somehow. Or is it due to the connections on the back?.

If i cant set this hifi up some how itll mean spending an extra £190 on a logitec z-5500

.

Mark

LadFromWales · 29 Mar 2006 at 17:31

Does that system have a digital input, either coax or optical?

Even if it did, creative cards suck and won't pipe multichannel audio to the amp, unless its passthru from a dvd or something.

(I still can't let go of soundstorm, so I'll prolly be going for a HDA)

Mark A · 29 Mar 2006 at 21:09

Cheers, i dont think it has, my mate has same hifi but its the cd version and it has a few more inputs so he has been able to rig a dvd player up and get surround sound. Looks like ill have to shell out another 190 quid then

, ohh well, its supposed to be good.

Mark

tom_nieto · 30 Mar 2006 at 00:40

Yeah, I'm afraid you've only got stereo analogue inputs on there, which is a shame really. I'd be interested to see what you think of the Z5500's compared to your current setup. I worry that you'll be disappointed and dare I say it, have wasted your cash.

Mark A · 30 Mar 2006 at 01:49

tom_nieto said:
Yeah, I'm afraid you've only got stereo analogue inputs on there, which is a shame really. I'd be interested to see what you think of the Z5500's compared to your current setup. I worry that you'll be disappointed and dare I say it, have wasted your cash.

I dont have my hifi setup for my pc, it gets used as a DVD player and for playing music on at the moment. I wanted to use it for my PC to play games listen to music watch DVDs etc but that cant happen now. My mate has the same hifi as me but his is the CD version not the DVD version like mine and he has a few more inputs to get surround sound. He said that his logitecs sound as good as the hifi if not better so i don't think ill be disappointed, but it would have been great to be able to use the hifi for my PC. Its a good hifi though and sounds excellent so whatever i get will have a fair bit to live up to. The sound system I'm using for my PC at the moment is an Altec Lansing 2.1 system that uses 1 x 6" sub which isn't quite enough to get a deep rich bass, plus it isn't surround either.

This is the system I'm using now, do you think id see a big improvement with the z-5500?

Mark

tom_nieto · 30 Mar 2006 at 08:44

I would think so, the system you've got now, whilst being quite big, doesn't look of the highest quality.

LadFromWales · 1 Apr 2006 at 02:28

I've been tempted to go the Z-5500 (or similar) route for a while, but have never had the guts, as I don't think a set of small satellite speakers and a sub could replace full size speakers.

I would really like to hear what they sound like, but no one I know has a deep enough wallet to spend nearly £200 on pc speakers