Chances for 5.1 surround sound?!

[BW6]

iMac to Klipsch ProMedia

I got a new iMac 27" and want to connect the Toslink output to my Klipsch ProMedia v2-400 speakers. There are 2 cables with 1/8" mini plugs that provide the signal to the Klipsch amplifier. These are suppose to come from the front and rear channels of the sound card. My question is what cable adapter will allow connection to the iMac and will I then get Dolby surround?

 

[Big-TDI-Guy]

I got a new iMac 27" and want to connect the Toslink output to my Klipsch ProMedia v2-400 speakers. There are 2 cables with 1/8" mini plugs that provide the signal to the Klipsch amplifier. These are suppose to come from the front and rear channels of the sound card. My question is what cable adapter will allow connection to the iMac and will I then get Dolby surround?

Those speakers look pretty old according to what I dug up on google (not attacking quality here, just possible feature shortages). The promedia v2-400 appears to NOT have a surround decoder built in, so you will need to get one. Something along the lines of this, but that isn't discontinued.
http://sewelldirect.com/Sewell-Digital-to-Analog-51-DTS-Surround-Sound-Decoder-SPDIF-to-RCA.asp

If you can't find one of those converters for cheap cash, you'd either have to run in stereo mode, or just find some newer speakers with an optical input and decoder built in. (In your shoes I'd opt for that last option)

 

[Icaras]

Wow, lots of misinformation in this thread.

Been enjoying "true" 5.1 sound from Macs for years. Currently utilizing my Thunderbolt/MDP/HDMI output to my Onkyo 5.1 receiver to get AC3 for all my iTunes movies encoded in 5.1. That includes ALL DVDs as well. Though I hardly own those nowadays. Begone ODD! Anyways, games built for 5.1 such as all the Call of Duty games from Aspyr and most of all Feral Interactive games (unfortunately not Colin McRae: Dirt 2...sniff) play perfectly in 5.1 audio on my iMac. All you need is one cable and a capable 5.1 AV receiver.

When bootcamped in Windows, most of my 5.1 enabled Steam games play multichannel audio perfectly thanks to AMD HDMI audio out drivers (if your Mac has MDP or Thunderbolt port with an AMD GPU, just download the latest catalyst drivers). Just some legacy games don't support it because they are in the Creative EAX era, and those types of games require a respective USB EAX sound card. No biggie for me because the list of my unsupported games is relatively small.

I don't see the problem then. You have speaker system with DTS/DD decoder. Then all you need is mini Toslink to TOSLINK cable. Just google it. Plug between the speaker and your iMac.

Exactly. The Toslink cable is the other alternative, but to be clear, this setup will only for movies and TV Shows encoded in 5.1 (digital, i.e: iTunes, or DVD), but unfortunately will not give you 5.1 sound in OS X gaming. Bootcamped in Windows, you'll need a proper 5.1 USB external sound card as mentioned from above.