matching sound card to speaker

krishcanag

krishcanag

krishcanag

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Joined
30 Dec 2007
Posts
30
Hello

Can someone tell me if I have to have a 5.1 sound card to use 5.1 speakers. At the moment I have a creative soundblaster X-Fi Extreme audio card and logitech 5.1 speakers, it all works but just wondering if really them need to matched?

I guess I need to understand what is 5.1 and 7.1?

krishan
 
In most cases it will still work although not properly...

A 2.0 system is the classic stereo pair, left and right. hence the "2"

A 2.1 system is the same as the above, except it has a subwoofer- ( the .1 ) which isnt really a channel in its own right, as it just uses the stereo signal to reproduce the bass.

A 5.1 system consists of 5 seperate channels plus a sub:
Front left
Front right
rear left
rear right
center
and the .1 which is a subwoofer

A 7.1 is the same as above but with the addition of 2 more (pointless) channels, being:
side left
side right


A 5.1 system:
51.jpg


A 7.1 system:
71sound.jpg
 
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wrong way round Matt, 7.1 actually adds the surround back speakers, not the sides. like your pics show :p a lot of people dont realise that the surrounds in a 5.1 setup are actually supposed to be to the side and just behind. people just assume they are supposed to be right behind you as the surround backs are in a 7.1 setup :)

also, 2.1 doesnt nessesarily take the .1 from the stereo channels, it can also be fully discreet :)
 
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