playing stereo from a 5.1 setup?

[Ferritus]

I am currently using Recon3D SoundCard through an Altec Lansing 955 setup.

I have also got a few external sound ... things... USB and Firewire of various levels of goodness ranging from the awful to the kind of not bad.

Now, some of these are 5.1 but a couple are just basic 2 channel.

What I want to do, is use my Altec Lansings to playback the standard stereo ( and sure enough, it does that just fine ) however, I was wondering if I can get the Altec Lansing to be a 2.1 setup and make use of that bass speaker?

I am wondering this because of a number of reasons, mostly just that Im bored and want to play silly buggers again, but also, that I have a really cheap and nasty USB sound device that I grabbed for a quid a ta charity shop, and when I use it as a headphones amp, its an extremely good quality output on it. and I just want to try it out on the Altecs as a main Sound device.

I could use the Bose that I have bought, but thats nowhere near as good as the altec lansings, and of course I want teh best I can get with what I have.

Any one know how I can get it to do this?

 

[rids57]

Surely all you have to do is set the driver software to 2 channel instead of 5.1

 

[Ferritus]

No, it gives me audio sure enough, but there is ZERO bass.
Its as if it does the mix of converting the 2 channel into 6 channels, but then only outputs the 2 main speakers and there is absolutely no bass at all.

Plus, the devices that I want to play, only have 2 channel output... Irritatingly, one of the devices, has a 6 Channel mode and that turns the SPDIF IN/OUT into the Center/Bass outputs and that might be fun to play with, but I have never managed to get it to play right.

Today anyway, I bought a cheap 2.1 setup, just to play about with. Its ok, its letting me play a bit but Im just being silly with it now, so Im unsure what I really want?