Laptop and 5.1 Speaker Compatability

[alucidinterval]

Hey i just purchased a logitech x-540 speaker system to use at school and had a question. I haven't got the speakers yet, but i hear they may not work fully without an external usb sound card. I've searched and found a range from fairly cheap to more expensive than the speakers themselves, and was wondering how to choose them. I saw this on ebay and thought it might do the trick, but honestly i really have no idea: http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-Sound-Card-...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item53def10f5f

For reference i have an HP dv4 1430us laptop and it has two headphone jacks and 1 microphone jack on the front, however none of them are the red/green/black color coded

Also i'm not a huge audiophile or anything, just tired of my laptop speakers as my other speakers broke a few months back. I don't need any true HD surround sound or anything like that, just want something that sounds pretty decent.

 

[Kougar]

Welcome to the forums Alucid!

I am not the most familiar with sound technology, but I don't see how that USB dongle would work as it only offers one audio-out jack. Most software that claims to give 7.1 sound is just a gimmick. You should be able to just use the single jack you have and plug it into the green port, but you won't get any base or rear/side speaker output. You need something with a minimum of 3 audio-out jacks to get 5.1 sound.

I think the better solution would be something like: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829126101 but I can't tell you how good it would be.

Some others are at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829270009 but remember you'll need 3 jacks to use all 5.1 speakers. "Virtual" 5.1 is something entirely different diesnged only for headphones or front speakers only.

 

[alucidinterval]

Hey thanks for the response. I think i only need 1 extra headphone jack though, as my laptop already has 2. Could i not plug that usb card in and then just plug 1 of the speakers into the usb and the other 2 into the headphone jacks on my laptop?

 

[Kougar]

Your laptop has one line-in and one line-out port... unless your laptop hardware is capable of using the line-in as a line-out you will not be able to use it. The sound hardware will also need to let you configure it as a sub or side/rear speaker out, otherwise you would just be sending two front channel out signals which again won't help anything.

Theoretically you COULD, but again you'd need to be able to map which port sends which type of signal. To see what I mean scroll down to the "Audio I/O" and you can get the idea. You will need to find out if your laptop will support this ability before you can do what you are trying: http://www.mslinn.com/index.jsp?sites/mike/bear/audio.html

 

[alucidinterval]

no no i know the difference between line in and line out. my computer has two headphone jacks though. there are three ports on the front, one as a line in for a microphone and two for a line out for headphones/speakers. so wouldn't that mean that i only need one extra headphone port?

 

[Tharic-Nar]

From the official Specs....

~~
# 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, or xD Picture cards
# 3 Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0, 3rd port shared with eSATA
# 2 Headphone out
# 1 microphone-in
# HDMI
~~

Two headphone out sockets will not provide 5.1, even with an additional socket, since the 2 headphone sockets are split from a single source. To be honest, if your using a laptop as a laptop, in that you're mobile, a 5.1 system is kind of pointless. Even if your just using it at a desk, do you have space behind you to place the rear speakers? You're better off spending the same money on a pair of stereo speakers, they'll sound far better, but as always, quality of sound is subjective.

The other problem as well is that the laptop doesn't state what sound card it has, just that it uses Altec Lansing speakers, which means nothing really. A lot of external USB decoders are not that great, but it's always a case of you get what you pay for.

 

[Kougar]

I have to agree. I hate to say it considering you already bought those speakers Alucid, but two stereo speakers that use a single jack would probably have been the best route here. 5.1 on a laptop is just going to require a larger investment in an external soundcard or some sort of elaborate adapter setup.

If it was possible to only use the front speakers on that Logitech setup I'd recommend that, except I'm fairly sure it requires the subwoofer for the speakers to be used because the sub delivers the power needed to driver the side speakers. The speaker kit includes the adapter to let you plug the 2 front speakers directly into the line-out port if you want to give it a shot anyway.