Sonica Theater???

[Willy S]

I was going to buy this for my 5.1 system, but I don´t see how I can plug all the 4 speakers and the subwoofer since this sound card has only one plug for e.g. front left and right speakers.

Each of my speakers has one plug, so I need 5 plugs in the sound card. How would Sonica Theater work for me or is there some other card that I could buy for my iMac?

 

[CanadaRAM]

I was going to buy this for my 5.1 system, but I don´t see how I can plug all the 4 speakers and the subwoofer since this sound card has only one plug for e.g. front left and right speakers.

Each of my speakers has one plug, so I need 5 plugs in the sound card. How would Sonica Theater work for me or is there some other card that I could buy for my iMac?

Where it says L/R -- that would be an 1/8" stereo minijack. You need cables that break out stereo mini plug to two RCA mono (or other) connectors which then go to your powered speakers or processor.

Radio Shack, others have them.

 

[Willy S]

Thanks!

I also need to connect my wife´s digital piano to our iMac. I´m therefore thinking if this unit could solve our problems, all in one, without any extra cables or adapters?

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FireWire410-main.html

I don´t know the quality of this firewire unit vs Sonica Theater.

Well, I´m completly lost in this audio business.

 

[CanadaRAM]

The Sonica Theatre does 5.1 to 7.1 OUTPUT only, no input.

THe FW-410 does have 8 analog outputs, it passes through Dolby and DTS on the OPTICAL outputs. I have never used this one so I don't know for sure how it plays with the Mac for surround output. It would be excellent for recording electric piano and voice. You'll need 5 cables with 1/4" plug to [whatever your speakers have] to go to your surround speakers of course.

Keep in mind you are going to get 5.1 surround ONLY from sources and software that support 5.1 surround.

 

[Willy S]

Thanks again!

The name of the speaker system is: Cambridge SoundWorks MegaWorks THX 5.1 550. I´m able to plug the speakers directly to the SB live sound card on my PC, but I don´t know what the plugs are called.

I thought if I played a DVD commercial movie on my mac, I would get a surround sound, but I´m not sure with anything. I also understand that music is always recorded in sterio, so only 2 speakers and the subwoofer is used.

 

[Willy S]

I´ve been doing a bit more research on this and found that a firewire unit would give much better sound quality than USB 1.1

If I get the Sonica Theater, I need both the cables to brake the sterio into 2 mono outputs and also midi to usb adapter to connect the piano to the mac.

However, if I get M-Audio Firewire 410, I would only need midi cable to connect the piano directly to it, right? If that is right, the total price difference between Sonica and Firewire isn´t that great.

But there seems to be issues with Firewire 410 drivers in Mac and some hotplug issue, so I wonder if there are other alternatives?