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External USB sound card and Surround Sound?

post #1 of 5
9/21/06 at 2:53am
Thread Starter 
I have a question about external USB sound cards and surround sound capabilities. Can I hear surround sound through sound cards like M-Audio Audiophile USB, Firewire 410, or EMU 0404 USB. If so, how would I come about doing that? Like if I would to put in some Klipsch ProMedia 5.1. I notice that they have S/PDif out, would I do it through that?
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post #2 of 5
9/21/06 at 3:03am
hmm, do you mean trying to hook up one of those cards directly to the Klipsch? The SPDIF doesnt connect directly to them, the SPDIF is a digital signal, whereas those speakers require discrete (as in different) inputs for all the channels. You would need some kind of DSP or DAC to separate the channels
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post #3 of 5
9/21/06 at 3:22am
Thread Starter 
Whats an example of a DSP or DAC that can do that?

but the Firewire410 has 8 analog 1/4" output, but it says that it needs some kind of software, anyone know what M-Audio is talking about?
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post #4 of 5
9/21/06 at 2:29pm
You can do this with a M-audio Transit or Empirical Audio Off-Ramp driving a surround-sound processor. These will support AC3 surround. You must have a multi-channel decoder like those used for home theater to get 5.1 or 7.1 output analog channels.

Steve N.
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post #5 of 5
9/21/06 at 4:26pm
For Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 (or any other analog 5.1 speaker system),
an USB audio device w/ 6 analog output channels (mono) and software for decoding/convertig/transfering surround audio (stereo->5.1 or already multichannel audio) should be enough for this (least this only is needed when creating multichannel music + Encoder ofcourse for the final audio product).

Doesn't most audio/movie player software already have a decoder for surround audio?

"pro" gear:
TerraTec Phase 26 USB (6 analog outputs)
Edirol UA-101 (8 analog outs)

Software, if needed:

SRS - http://www.srslabs.com/circlesurroundvstplugin1219.asp
AcousModules - http://acousmodules.free.fr/the_plugins.htm
MatrixMixer - http://matrix-mixer.sourceforge.net/
AC3Filter - http://ac3filter.sourceforge.net/ac3filter_eng.html
etc.


Low budged USB devices indented for 5.1 - 7.1:
TerraTec Aureon 5.1 USB (MK II)
SB USB cards Audigy 2 NX, Audigy 2 Zs VideoEdition and Live! 24-bit External


jiitee
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