[Matthew720]

Yo, can I get true 5.1 surround sound with a optical cable going into my dac NFB 15.32 from an xbox 360, while the the RCA outputs (L+R) goes to my 5.1 capable speakers? Please help I need to know now!?!?.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  Yo, can I get true 5.1 surround sound with a optical cable going into my dac NFB 15.32 from an xbox 360, while the the RCA outputs (L+R) goes to my 5.1 capable speakers? Please help I need to know now!?!?.

 

The 2ch DAC in the NFB-15.32 won't even be able to comprehend an incoming 5.1 signal. PC soundcards on the other hand can take a native 6ch or 8ch track and then play them through a 2ch DAC-HPamp-headphone signal chain after it not by simply down-mixing true signal into 2ch but simulating the sound as if it's affected by the sound source's relative position to the recording microphone. Of course, it still doesn't do real surround in terms of going around the player smoothly (ie the depth effect isn't really that large and that's in the front, the rear barely has such an effect) but it's very convenient especially when noise is an issue.

 

What most people do to get surround on consoles, since they are paired with an HDTV anyway (and likely in the living room), is to use an HT receiver with 5speakers and a subwoofer. Which is convenient since they can make the most out of HDMI, and given the more standard formats (ie you only really have a problem with some versions of BluRay/DVD but as far as games are concerned it's pretty standard), you won't have to deal with having to check whether your graphics card can output a certain surround sound format.

 

[obobskivich]

The Audio-gd will not support surround bitstreams (MPEg, AC3, DTS) but Fiio and Gefen both make DACs that will. Both are under $100 so shouldn't be too bad to try out. They will downmix the 5.1 signal to stereo. As far as using soundcards - some will accept a multi-ch bitstream via their digital in and decode/process it; some will only allow it to be passed-thru to the digital out.