I NEED HELP WITH AUDIO

[HenMaster6000]

Don't kill me for saying this but I used to own a dell. There I've said it.


When I bought this dell, I bought some really cool speakers along with it. These speakers hook up to my dell's sound card through analog inputs (center/bass, surround, front?). I was wondering if anyone knew of any hardware (USB or preferably Firewire) that would allow me to hookup these speakers to my oh so wonderful macintosh. I'd be great if this thing also had somekind of digital output (optical/coaxial) such that in the future I might be able to upgrade the speaker system.

I have seen the M-Audio Sonica Theater. It's perfect. But... I've read reviews that suggest USB is too slow to manipulate music (in the capacity I've said) without lagging. Is this true? Can I get any kind of firewire receiver?

Thanx
Henry

 

[Grimace]

Henry, M-Audio makes two good models. USB is plenty for 5.1 audio - don't believe anything else.

Get the one with USB on one side, and an optical digital connector on the other.

 

[Travl]

If your just looking at getting an interface for monitoring as you suggest and wont be doing any major tracking, audio editing or midi work then USB should be just fine. There are a million an one factors to consider when buying an interface and basically you get what you pay for. At the same time you dont want to pay for something you dont need. I would really take a bit of time to research WHY USB isnt as good as the firewire or PCI card interfaces. You will then understand the issues you need to be concerned about with USB and if it will work for your needs. A good resource for this topic and many others is

http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm

Its a great resource for all subjects related to this matter...hope this helps