5.1 Sound on a 360

[WazMeister]

I did a post recently about leads for 360 ala vga or rgb etc..

Now alot places been saying COD2 and other games with 5.1 sound blow you away in experince!!

Now I've never experinced true 5.1 sound where it feels like its really going on around you.
I have had 5.1 sound cards and stuff but never really have a setup to use it.

With 360 I want the total experince I've decided to get a vga unit and play it on my monitor but now I want to get the 5.1 sound experince with it.

What setup would i need to get a set of 5.1 sound coming from my 360?

I mean how would i plug it in as I be using a monitor for viewing.
Whats a good true set of 5.1 speakers that don't have millions of leads all over and are not expensive.

And also how could I use a headset on 360? I mean with luive were have to use their 1 ear headset to hear talking but if we wanna keep noise low in house and use a headset how can we talk+hear game/speech?


Thanks for any advice.

Waz

[Soi]

5.1 adds a lot to current Xbox games and I'm sure things will only get better with the 360.

What you need is a surround sound amplifier and 5 speakers (Left, Center, Right, Back left and Back right). There are lots of options for you. You could spend lots of money and get a separates system (buying amp and speakers separately) or you could spend a couple of hundred quid (if that) and get and "all-in-one" system.

As for how you plug it in, I use an optical cable to link my xbox to the surround amp. The speakers are then connected to that.

I use the normal Live headset and have no problem with it messing up the sound. I deliberately didn't get the Halo 2 in ear headset, because I thought it would blcok out sound from the left.

[WazMeister]

Could you suggest a all in one set of 5.1 speakers for me?

Also whats a optical lead?

[Spatial]

An optical lead looks like this

[davvy76]

Personally I'd look for a 5.1 receiver with optical and digital coax inputs plus speakers then you're covered.

[WazMeister]

Im all confused to be honest lads.
Can i not buy a pc speaker set of 5.1 and plug that in???!?!?

What amp do I need because Im lost they all like 300+ quid and I not paying that for sound lol.....

[WazMeister]

I take it i need something like this?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/KENWOOD-SURROUND-SOUND-AMPLIFIER-KRF-V4060D-S-Mint_W0QQitemZ5815842705QQcategoryZ3280QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

and then a optical lead goes from the 360 to the amp... and the 5.1 speaker setup goes from the amp.

What speakers do I need to work in amp, could I buy a creative 5.1 speaker setup and they plug in it?!?!?

[davvy76]

I take it i need something like this?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/KENWOOD-SURROU...QQcmdZViewItem

and then a optical lead goes from the 360 to the amp... and the 5.1 speaker setup goes from the amp.

What speakers do I need to work in amp, could I buy a creative 5.1 speaker setup and they plug in it?!?!?

Something like these will do @ ?115, just make sure whatever you get has an optical connector

http://uk.europe.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=4&subcategory=25&product=9137&nav=1

[Soi]

Or you could buy a "DVD Home Cinema" set up. For example (no idea if it is any good, but its cheap!):

http://www.comet.co.uk/comet/html/cache/558_167037.html

?70 gets you a DVD player and 5 speakers -and setting it up will be very easy (all the wires will be colour coded and it will have simple instructions). All you need to ensure is that the one you buy has an optical input, so that you can plug your xbox/whatever into it -effectively using it as a surround sound amp. This solution gets you the bonus of having 5.1 sound for your DVD viewing.

I hope that is enough to go on.

[fahrenheit]

^ That package has no optical input. Very few of these 'home theatre in a box' packages have optical inputs. A desktop speaker system will compliment your VGA monitor, but if you wish to migrate the sound system to the lounge, with viewing at a greater distance, then the small Creative/Logitech systems start to show their weaknesses.

The most flexible option is to get a seperate AV reciever, Subwoofer and five matching (and magnetically sheilded) speakers.

[WazMeister]

What if they are not magnetic protected?

That creative setup the davy posted coudl I buy that and then just 1 optical lead and set up 5.1 in my bedroom on my 360 and pc?

Or do I still need a amp with that setup?

I think the decoder can do it all right?

[davvy76]

What if they are not magnetic protected?

That creative setup the davy posted coudl I buy that and then just 1 optical lead and set up 5.1 in my bedroom on my 360 and pc?

Or do I still need a amp with that setup?

I think the decoder can do it all right?

That'll do it all out of the box, looking at the instuctions its got digital coax and optical sockets. It decodes dts, prologic 2, dd and dolby surround.

http://files.europe.creative.com/man...%20English.pdf


Now its never going to sound as good as a seperate amp and speakers but they're not terrible either especially if you're space limited.

I got these:

http://www.wharfedale.co.uk/model.php?model_id=103#

and this:

http://santala.iki.fi/~jake/pics/PioneerVSX-808RDS.jpg

for the grand total of ?150 (amp 50 squid off ebay and speakers 100 off superfi.co.uk) last year and for that money I cant fault them.

[fahrenheit]

Magnetic sheilding (which will be standard with any package that is sold as 'home theatre' speakers) prevents magnetic interference from affecting your display. You can't have a centre speaker close to a TV or monitor if its not sheilded, because it would affect the colour and geometry of the image.

On my PC I have two speakers either side of the monitor that are not sheilded. If they are too close, I get big yellow splotches of colour appear on the sides of the screen.

[dataDave]

Here you go matey:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Videologic-DTS-Digitheatre-SILVER-Good-Cond-1p_W0QQitemZ5816335145QQcategoryZ14996QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

That's what I have and I have to say it's done a very good job over the 4 years I've had it (paid 500quid originally).

It has analog (red+white stereo), digital coaxial and digital optical (Xbox+adv.scart, PS2) inputs.

You can't go wrong there really.

[Psyduck]

by the way, you shouldn't buy an optical sound lead for your xbox, with the current one at least you had to buy the advance AV lead which had one already connected - there's no separate connector.