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Surround Sound Speakers for PowerMac G5

JasonGough

JasonGough

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 25, 2005
184
0
Manchester, UK
Does anyone on here have a set of surround sound speakers for their PM G5?

I was wondering what will be the best thing for me to get in order to play movies in full surround sound once i get my PM.

Is the only output for surround sound on the PM the Optical Output? Is it therefore best to get a set of digial surround sound speakers?
 
I had 5.1 on my comp before, I used Creative's Surround Station. It looked like a cage, lol, but it worked. Sold it all when I sold my machine and got a powerbook instead. The Logtech THX Z5500 are probably your best bet for the digital optical. But since the speakers themselves will be doing the decoding the optical, only audio sources with digital 5.1 audio will have surround sound. Say if you rip a cd into iTunes and play it with those speakers, since iTunes doesn't encode the music into a 5.1 digital format for the speakers to decode, I don't think you will get 5.1 on the speakers from the music.

If you want 5.1 on everything, music, games, movies, and everything else, then I would get either a soundcard that supports analog speakers or maybe an external soundcard. Those sound cards will encode and decode whatever to 5.1 speakers. Analog 5.1 speakers usually have 3 cables, Green, Black, and Orange. Most 5.1 speakers are analog, few are optical.
 
KittenKrusher said:
I had 5.1 on my comp before, I used Creative's Surround Station.
Click to expand...
I used to have one of those :D Used it with Nascar Racing 2003 and Grand Prix Legends when I had my PC. It didn't get the (rear) speakers back far enough though IMHO.
 
JasonGough said:
Does anyone on here have a set of surround sound speakers for their PM G5?
Click to expand...

Yep. Onkyo HT-R320 receiver + 5 speakers + subwoofer; this came as a set with a different model number but I can't quite remember...HT-S570 maybe? $200 plus free shipping (minus $10 because that was the first time I ordered from them). Great sound quality, definitely beats the Logitech system I had before. Normally I like Logitech stuff, which is why I bought it, but it wasn't that great, despite the THX certification.

Is the only output for surround sound on the PM the Optical Output? Is it therefore best to get a set of digial surround sound speakers?
Click to expand...

No, you can get a surround sound PCI card like the M-Audio Revolution series that has analog surround output. However, if all you're going to be doing with surround is watching movies (no gaming), then the optical output is all you need. One nice thing about the Onkyo receiver is that it's got quite a few inputs, so if you change your mind about what type of connection you want to use, you don't have to change your speakers. Heck, you can connect the built-in stereo output, optical output, and analog output from a sound card all at once and switch between them with the press of a button if you wanted to for some reason....

After not being satisfied with the Logitech Z-6800 system I had, I spent MANY hours on-line researching this very question, and the Onkyo is what I finally ended up with. I wasn't really familiar with the brand so it was a bit of a risk, but it paid off. So I'd recommend going to www.shoponkyo.com and seeing what they have these days. I don't know if they have the $200 deal any more (it was for a refurb, BTW), but I'd have paid more than that if I'd known that they were going to turn out as well as they did. Also, I was impressed that the system arrived *before* I got the email notification that they'd shipped that morning...that's fast! Especially for free shipping, and from Canada to the U.S. no less! I mean, I paid $40 shipping on the Logitech speakers and they weren't shipped anywhere near that fast....

--Eric
 
M-Audio Revolution 7.1 or 5.1 would do
Then a Logitech X-530 speakers or
Get a complete Sony Surround Sound Speaker System and hook up the toss link to the system.
 
xparaparafreakx said:
M-Audio Revolution 7.1 or 5.1 would do
Then a Logitech X-530 speakers or
Get a complete Sony Surround Sound Speaker System and hook up the toss link to the system.
Click to expand...

yeah, might check some of them out.

thing is, i currently have a Creative Audigy2 Platinum for my PC, but i can't find drivers for it on OSX.

I also have an analogue set of creative inspire 6.1 speakers which are ok, so i supporse it would be cheaper and easier to get a new soundcard then new speakers, shame i can't get my Creative Audigy working with OS X


......or can you???
 
I have the Loitech Z-680 hooked up to my Dual 1.8 via the optical audio out. But only DVD player really supports this....

So I got the M-Audio Revolution 5.1 soundcard from the AppleStore for more surround sound compatibility (for games and VLC etc). Attached the Z-680 via 3 analog cables to the Revolution soundcard, and kept the optical audio aswell.

I have the latest Beta drivers installed, and the software seems to work perfectly. Testing of all the channels is perfect too (right rear = actually right rear, and so on...)

But..... VLC seems to mess the channels up! :(
It seems surround sound... BUT... sound that should come from the front centre speaker, comes from L&R rear speakers! Arrggghhhh! I tried switching the cables, but that only made matters worse. Besides, the testing does work perfectly!

Anyone have a clue? Is it the drivers? Is it VLC?
I tried installing the latest non-Beta drivers, and also tried the latest VLC (0.8.4 Test 1), but it doesn't make any difference... :confused:
 
When I get my PowerMac (which is soon), can I plug in my Sound Blaster Audigy ZS sound card into the PowerMac's PCI slot, then plug in my Creative 5.1 speakers?
 
Update...

It seems that I am not the only one with this problem.

Quote from that article:
One thing I've noticed with VLC and my Revolution 7.1 is that with the analog outputs, the audio comes out of the wrong speakers most of the time when VLC decodes 5.1 content. My center channel comes out my left rear, left rear out my center. Right Rear I think goes out my sub. I think the only two speakers that work correctly are left and right front. You have a different card and different drivers, so maybe things work properly for you. But for me, VLC's 5.1 decoding is busted with analog speakers.
 
Sorry, What is VLC?


I think the best bet for me is to get some kinda 5.1 decoder PCI card, like the M-Audio one, and hook it up to my Creative 6.1 speakers. I only need this for watching movies and playing games... Its not going to be my main speaker system, think i'll use my Genelecs for that :D
 
cruxed said:
When I get my PowerMac (which is soon), can I plug in my Sound Blaster Audigy ZS sound card into the PowerMac's PCI slot, then plug in my Creative 5.1 speakers?
Click to expand...

Not that I am aware of, but I could be wrong. I remember trying my SB Live 5.1 a while back when I was running Panther, and couldn't get it to work.
 
JasonGough said:
Sorry, What is VLC?


I think the best bet for me is to get some kinda 5.1 decoder PCI card, like the M-Audio one, and hook it up to my Creative 6.1 speakers. I only need this for watching movies and playing games... Its not going to be my main speaker system, think i'll use my Genelecs for that :D
Click to expand...

VLC

In short it's an excellent media player.
 
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