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Coshlo

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 4, 2008
8
0
I'm thinking about buying a new macbook pro. I want to be able to hook up my Logitech G51 Surround Sound Speaker System, but obviously they don't come with a sound card that supports 5.1. I've been looking through the forums and have come up with a few solutions. From what i've read it seems the easiest way is just to buy an external soundcard device, such as the FireWave. I went onto griffins site and it says that FireWave doesn't support the current OS Leapord. Can anyone vouch for this? My other route was buying the Creative External Sound Blaster Live! SB0490 5.1 Channels 24-bit 48kHz in 5.1 mode and up to 96kHz in stereo mode USB Interface Sound Card. If anyone has a better tip let me know!
 
I'm thinking about buying a new macbook pro. I want to be able to hook up my Logitech G51 Surround Sound Speaker System, but obviously they don't come with a sound card that supports 5.1. I've been looking through the forums and have come up with a few solutions. From what i've read it seems the easiest way is just to buy an external soundcard device, such as the FireWave. I went onto griffins site and it says that FireWave doesn't support the current OS Leapord. Can anyone vouch for this? My other route was buying the Creative External Sound Blaster Live! SB0490 5.1 Channels 24-bit 48kHz in 5.1 mode and up to 96kHz in stereo mode USB Interface Sound Card. If anyone has a better tip let me know!

Does your MBP have optical ports in the headphone jack? That might do the trick. I do that with my iMac. I have my iMac connected to my SB Extigy.
 
Yeah i'm assuming it would. I haven't yet boughten it. I'm getting it this weekend. All the new mac's come with digital output from what I can tell
 
Yeah i'm assuming it would. I haven't yet boughten it. I'm getting it this weekend. All the new mac's come with digital output from what I can tell

IF and I say this loosely, IF the media is encoded with 5.1, the way I understand (and I could be wrong of course) the optical signal would be a straight stream from the encoding (which should be in 5.1) and as long as a processor is on the other end it should output it fine.

My Extigy (albeit it's a USB sound card but takes optical input) outputs very nice sound when using the optical cable.
 
I have my new mbp and also want to hook up to pure 5.1 surround sound. My PC had a sound card that had 3 colored outputs that went directly into their respective channels for true 5.1. I want....I need.....on my mac.

Anyone have more knowhow on optical out options for 5.1 on the mbp as well as leopard issues with Griffin's Firewave?

Other options people are currently using?
 
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