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5.1 stereo speakers on a gaming console...how?

post #1 of 5
4/3/07 at 5:10pm
Thread Starter 
First of all, I must warn you all that I'm fairly new to the whole audio scene. I've hooked up a couple home stereo speakers before but thats about the extent of my audio hardware knowledge. I was curious as to what sort of accessories/cables I would need to hook up a console (specifically the xbox360) with 5.1 surround. I do not have a subwoofer so I know I'll need to get one but I wasn't sure what I should be looking at. I do have the 5 speakers (front/back and middle) but thats about it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. If you need anything clarified feel free to ask

Thanks,

Shrum
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post #2 of 5
4/3/07 at 6:18pm
I am assuming that these are not self-powered speakers? (meaning that they don't have amplifiers built into them) If so, you will need to get a surround sound receiver which will take the input signal from your console (usually through a pair of RCA interconnects) and process the signal and send the signals to the 5 speakers + 1 subwoofer.

I have an old Yamaha integrated surround sound processor, Yamaha DSP-E1000. (It differ from a "receiver" in that it does not have a build-in radio tuner.) I've been saving it thinking that one day I whould hook it up to a game console. In terms of sound quality, I think it's hard to beat. You can find one on eBay or other used equipment forum for somewhere around $300-$350. Or you can just go find the cheapest home theater receiver you can find at places like Best Buy, Circut City, Fry's, etc.
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post #3 of 5
4/3/07 at 7:40pm
Thread Starter 
Just finished talking to a buddy who says he's gonna gimme a Fisher Studio Standard RS-911A receiver and two self-powered speakers. Apparently its all fairly big. Will I need any sort of special wires in order to get it to work with the xbox360?
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post #4 of 5
4/3/07 at 7:45pm
yeah you need to hook it up using the optical audio cable from your 360, NOT RCA. I seem to remember it is on the base of the plug from the video/RCA audio out. You will have to hook that up to your receiver and then your speakers to a receiver. The price of the receiver pretty much depends on the quality of your speakers.
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post #5 of 5
4/5/07 at 1:08am
ArielAtom is correct, the 360 uses an optical (also sometimes called toslink) cable to run from the console to an AV receiver. Now, a lot of AV receivers designed for home theater also have amplification built into them (typically 5 channels), so you can use non-powered (passive) speakers. So, to run 5.1 surround sound, typically you need 5 speakers, an AV receiver, amplification for the 5 channels (this may be included in the AV receiver--if it is, the specs will list the wattage for each channel), an optical cable, and possibly a powered subwoofer. If you are going to use powered speakers, you'll need to make sure that your AV receiver has pre-outs on it (basically just some unamplified outputs, they'll probably look like standard RCA jacks). Anyway, I may have given you more than you wanted, but if we've left something unanswered, just ask!
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