5.1 surround sound newbie

bought this item (http://www.ebay.com/itm/290536490789?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2648) from ebay. the item no. is 290536490789. don't know if product is defective or i just don't know enough about 5.1 surround sound to hook it up properly. relative facts:
dell latitude D410 with win7 starter OS. whenever i install the Zalman on my laptop and play a CD or mp3 file, the only speakers that are live is the front and just barely with low vol. the rear and sub w are dead. as a check, i plugged in the front speakers (which work fine when installed elsewhere) in to the rear and sub w jacks- still no sound coming from these jacks.

about these speakers: they're not 5.1 s s set. for the front i was using a small pair of bose and for the rear, a small pair of computer speakers (polk audio). neither of these were powered spkrs. for the sub woofer i used a large JBL (model SUB200) subwoofer that was part of a SS set.

looking at the configurations on my laptop, i see no way to configure it for 5.1 SS. reading the specs on the zalman sound card, i'm not supposed to have to do anything but plug in to the usb port and it's off to the races.

questions: 1) do i need special "5.1 SS spkrs" bought as a set or should the speakers i'm using work OK ? are the spkrs supposed to be a "matched set"? 2) does the music have to be recorded in 5.1 SS or should i be able to listen to a CD or any mp3 file on my HD ? (told you i was a newbie) 3) maybe the OS doesn't support SS ?

b4 i ask for a replacement or my $ back, i need to know does the prob lie with my lack of SS knowledge or is the product genuinely defective ?

any help app and tks in adv

 

That's your problem right there, there's not enough power coming from the USB to power anything except for headphones or a pre-amp.

 

another point is mp3 or cd's are not surround you would need to play a dvd or a game with surround to check but like augiedoggie has already said you need either a surround amp or dedicated active surround speakers to make it all work

logitech do quite a good range of active surround speakers

 

app the replies- cosmicma, augiedoggie
hey guys- tks to both of you - your comments were quite helpful but i'm still not clear on a couple of issues:

cosmica- r u saying that even if i got the dedicated 5.1 SS spkrs, cd's and mp3's would not give me a true surround sound. i dont do games - my application would b strictly music. u mention dvd's - when i burn a music file to dvd, what file format would i have 2 convert to b4 burning ? maybe you're referring to commercial dvd's that u buy - pls explain. does the music have 2b recorded in a " surround sound format" b4 i can hear true SS on the playback.

augiedoggie - u mention not enough power - if i bought a set of 5.1 spkrs, would that solve the power prob ? r the 5.1 spkrs powered ?

i know these are "newbie questions" so tks for bearing with me
rogerdc
aka 5string

 

Well, since you don't game and if you won't watch movies then it's quite pointless to get a set of 5.1's and instead get some good powered 2.1's for music. Having said that, I still enjoyed my Logitech 5.1's for music, they were that good!:cool

 

mp3's cd's or music in general is stereo so the best you can achieve is 2.1
when i said dvd's i meant films or music video ( quite a lot of concerts are 5.1 ) just burning mp3's to a blank dvd will not suddenly make it 5.1 surround it's still only be 2 channel stereo

there are a few pieces of music that have been encoded into 5.1 pink floyd datk side of the moon is one of them but there few and far between

most games are 5.1 and more or less all films on dvd are but if that isn't what your going to play then as already said stick to a decent 2.1 setup

 

To try add add a bit of detail (and starting with basics)...

5.1 means that you have 5 satellite speakers and 1 sub woofer; 2.1 would be 2 satellites and 1 sub... This you probably already know.

Each speaker has its own descrete audio channel. In 5.1 you have six audio chanels

1.Front-Left
2.Front-Centre
3.Front-Right
4.Rear-Left
5.Rear-Right
6.Subwoofer

Systems can vary greatly, an you can either have and AV receiver into which you plug your audio source. The receiver then amplifies the signal and sends it to the speakers. In a lot of the logitech systems you dont have a separate receiver as it is build into the subwoofer. In its simplist form you will have three stereo (two chanel) minijacks (two channels * 3 jacks gives you 6 inputs for 5.1 audio). These systems simply have a six chanel power amp that will increase the volume on all channels and then route it to the corresponding speaker.

Now, with the above in mind CD audio specifies 16bit stereo audio at 44KHz. The key is stereo. this means that it only has 2 descrete audio chanels (left and right) so when you plug a stereo source into a 5.1 system as described in the logitech set up you will only get 2 speakers working. If you have an AV receiver then you may find that the receiver might pick up that it is a stereo source and route the left input channel to both front-left and rear-left and thus route the right input to both front-right and rear right. In this scenario there is actually no improvement in the sound quality.

So to sumise, you need a 5.1 source to get true 5.1 out.

Hope this helps

 

tks 4 replies everyone- don't mean to sound dense BUT, are you saying that even if i got a ss amp/receiver and auggies logitek spkrs, i'd still have to have a signal that was
RECORDED in SS to experience true SS on playback ?

i'm beginning to think i agree with auggie- for my situation, i'd be just as well off with a good set of 2.1

rogerdc AKA 5string

 

correct. CD audio is only 2 channels left and right. Where would it pick up the other 4 channels from??

Think of it like playing a DVD in a BlueRay player. The BlueRay will still play a DVD and it will upscale the image but if the detail isnt there in the first place it wont ever look as good as a BlueRay disk.

All digital media works on the principal that you can alway remove detail but you can never add it. Thats why CD audio is often recorded and mastered at 32bit 96KHz and then bounced down to CD quality (16bit 44KHz)

 

tks again 1st sargent for the last reply- i do have a really great onkyo a/v receiver with 5.1
[or so the manual says- with A, B, and C spkrs -the C spkrs dedicated for a center ch].
i have an xtra set of spkrs and a JBL sub w that i picjed up at a yard sale- think i'll
hook em up and enjoy the sound but keeping in mind, that what i'm hearing is not really true SS unless it's a movie or music that's been recorded in SS.

tks again everyone, for your input.

ps one last question - is there no way to underline using "quick reply" when i tried it, i
got this .

 

You can use html tags or bb tags. use the full post. highlight the text you want to format then use the format butto. that will insrt the code you need. remeber the then you can type it in in a quick reply