Inquiry: Surround Sound w/o New Speakers

[MadDog31]

Hey all,

I'm going to be buying my first Mac tomorrow (MBP) and I have a question regarding surround sound.

I have a great set of speakers right now that have done a great job for years - the Klipsch ProMedia 5.1. I'd like to hook it into the MBP to have pure 5.1 surround to enjoy. The speakers do not have an optical so that part screws me, but I'd like to see what you all thought of an external card of some sort that can help me get what I'd like.

This isn't a deal-breaker or anything...I can live w/o 5.1 for now until something comes out that's decent - in the meantime I'll just jack into the headphone zone. Sucks, but what can ya do?

I saw the FireWave, but that currently isn't supported by Leopard according to them (says so right on their site). So now it's back to standing between a rock and a hard place.

Any solutions out there?

Ian

 

[MadDog31]

Since I posted this originally during release day of the new MBP, perhaps it got lost in the tons of posts...or perhaps what I'm looking for doesn't exist. :-\

*bump* for the sake of seeing one final time if anything exists...

 

[matperk]

you could try some sort of USB device. Look for some featured on apple's store. I haven't ever tested anything, but shouldn't be too hard to find. I would imagine most USB devices would work.

 

[Pim]

Couple of years back I bought a Decoder from Creative. Only costed me about 80€ (hardware prices are 1on1 with euros and dollars) and this thing accepts optical, coaxial, en stereo input and I guess you can hook your three cabled surround set up with it. Lovely thing, comes with a remote too. But they don't sell those anymore. I think this is it's succesor: http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=209&subcategory=677&product=14191

 

[MadDog31]

I looked that Creative device over...it's VERY close to what I'd need, however it doesn't have an output to analog (to my speakers) so that shoots it.

What I need is a cable connection from the MBP, which is TOSlink, to a device that takes that optical signal coming in and sends it out over an analog connection to my speaker system. Damn damn damn why can't that device have an analog out?!?

I don't want to resort to USB or Firewire because won't that put an unnecessary load on the MBP and hamper performance?

You'd think such a device exists but I have scoured the Internet to no avail. Right now it looks like I'd need a receiver but price-wise that's just not an option and is more crap around my desk than I want. Ugh...