MBP 5.1 Surround Sound

[SvenT]

I have recently received Logitech X-540.

However these only come with analog cables. 3 cables which supply front, rear and centre/sub. I've done alot of searching on this and another mac forum and found the 2 main answers to this problem.

A decoder, like the discontinued Creative DDTS-100.
An AV receiver like this Yamaha receiver.

As I didn't buy the speakers I don't think I'll be easily able to return them for the money so doing that and upgrading to something like Logitech z-5500s isn't really viable.

Are there any other ways to get true surround sound from my MBP with these speakers?
If not are there any cheap AV receivers that people could reccomend?

Thanks in advance
Sven

 

[kolax]

Check out a USB sound card - there's ones that have the matching outputs to what you are talking about (all 3.5mm jacks).

Only question is - find one that is Mac compatible..

 

[bakerster]

sell the speakers, get the z-5500's and buy the 3.5mm > toslink converter nub/cable. they are at walmart for like 20 bucks.

thats going to be your cheapest route. the z-5500's are only like 200-300 sometimes cheaper they are on sale a lot.

getting a Yamaha receiver really will not help you at all unless you get speakers to accompany it. those logitech speakers are most likely not the same ohms as the receiver puts out.. unless there's something i missing between the receiver and the speaker set.

 

[SvenT]

getting a Yamaha receiver really will not help you at all unless you get speakers to accompany it. those logitech speakers are most likely not the same ohms as the receiver puts out.. unless there's something i missing between the receiver and the speaker set.

You're probably not missing anything. I just got linked to that receiver from a different thread so that guy might of had speakers which would work on the receiver.

Edit: After a quick look on Yamaha's page 'many Yamaha AV receivers are stable down to, but not below 4 ohms. We recommend that you use only speakers with a minimum of 4 ohms. Also, please make sure that the impedance selector switch is set to the correct position as recommended by the owner's manual.'
The X540's are all 4ohm speakers so should work on the yamaha receiver.

I thought about a usb sound card, creative seem to make some good cheap ones. But we all know creative are unaware of Macs existence and so they aren't compatible. Might dig around a bit more for them.