Be Excellent To Each Other

I would like to put surround sound in my games room. I am currently using an old Creative Soundwords 2.1 set.

I'd want:

• Two optical inputs (360, maybe PS3 one day)
• Dolby Digital support
• One analogue input (iPhone)
• More inputs are a bonus
• Headphone jack
• Reasonable sound. Doesn't have to be hyper loud, it's a small room.

The Logitech Z-5500 is £230 from Amazon. That feels like silly money. For that expense, I could buy this Yamaha speaker set from Richer Sounds and any number of second hand proper 5.1 amps from Ebay and have a fair bit of change.

I'd prefer not to have to find room for a hulking 5.1 amp though.

The previous model Z-5400 seems to fetch around £110 on ebay (this auction is at 99p with two days to go, but buyer must collect from Doncaster, if anyone fancies a bargain). There are no other current auctions for it.

So, apart from these Logitechs (which seem to garner universal praise), what other makes and models should I look out for?

Yeah my room is quite small though, and 5.1 amps are hulkingly huge, and those speakers aren't tiny either.

Plus, I'll get teh upgrade fevarr, and end up buying a new amp for the living room with HDMI support and bringing the surplus one upstairs.

Look, should I just get my red outfit on and sit on your shoulder?

You're a bit heavy for my shoulder. Lap would be better.

So, does anyone have any more helpful suggestions?

I'd also be interested in something like this, also. It just needs one input for the 360, though. I'm not fussed about having it set up for my N64.

I bought these.

That looks a bargin..

They look nice. I am tempted to get something like that myself. Do you need an amp/controller to run them, or can you plug computer and xbox straight in?

Many of the cheaper sets -- anything below £100 new -- will only take analogue audio inputs, like your soundcard outputs. The pricier sets like this one have some optical inputs and take the 5.1 signal directly from the 360.

The amp is built into the Sub and the controller plugs into it.

AV gibbon here: if I got something like what that Gaywood just bought, I wouldn't need anything else in order to have Xbox 360 5.1 goodness?

Nope. Just a 360. You should get an optical cable too (about £5).

I have my 360 in a very small room, is it worth having 5.1 sound, or is stereo as good given the size of the room?

I'd say it is, yes.

See, mine's in a smallish room as well, but my TV speakers seem to be quite weedy. Would I be better off getting a 2.1 system, then? I'm guessing they're a lot cheaper.

You NEED 5.1 for modern games, it adds a whole new dimension being able to hear where shots are coming from, for example. Even if you get a small set you'll love it.

Dead Space was awesome in 5.1

Surround sound is lovely, and fairly cheap now. 2.1 doesn't begin to cut it.

I have a 5.1 in the lounge and it is great, but the 360 isn't in the lounge. I like the look of the stuff Dr G got, and the price seemed pretty good also.

Yeah you scrubbers. Sell a kidney!

I have almost the same as them, but the rear speakers are wireless (they still need power, though). It's a nice bit of kit.

"A Total Time waster, Should be thrown off ebay. Banned from Ronny J's"

?!?

Don't anger Ronny J!

Or Ron Jeremy. You really don't want to be on his receiving end.

RonnyJ sells some good stuff, btw.

But the AY soundchip in my CPC only has 3 channels. What use is 5.1?

As others have said, 2.1 vs 5.1 isn't about volume levels. It's about the positional audio.

Mwah, I forget what that was now. I think I won an auction with a sniping tool and totally forgot about it, so never paid the guy. It was for something really small though.

Nice stuff on that site What on earth would you want of there?

Me? Nothing. I think it was the other half using my ebay account, or it was a Christmas present for the bairn.

And then, if your 360 AV cable is anything like mine, glue the optical plug into it, as it's loose as hell and the sound will keep cutting out every time you cough at the other side of the room. At least that's my latest theory...

Im guessing with a HDMI equipped Xbox you have to buy some extra damned dongle to get optical out

I don't have any fancy sounds, I just have my piece of crap sony mini widescreen CRT TV which is about 15 years old

The tiny 15 inch ones from the late 90's?

They were wicked. However very expensive and nobody bought them. The BBC purchased a load + their slightly larger 21 inch sister units because they were pretty much the only way to monitor widescreen material at a size which would fit in the bays in edit suits and tx areas prior to the broadcast monitor manufacturers getting their backsides into gear. I did manage to acquire one from a department that was closing down and was well chuffed even though it was a good 7 years old when I got it. The geometry on those Trinitron screens was pretty darn good for a domestic grade unit. The pictures looked good when hooked up to the Digibeta even if we were only feeding it S-Video (the irony of a 30 grand broadcast deck and us using S-Video to view it isn't lost on me, in my defence the deck was also hooked up to a small broadcast monitor which was being fed SDI).

Probably, I dont know how big it is but at a guess 15 would probably be right, it's on its' last legs, but it's done me proud for many a year! Good little piece of kit, and lasted well

I'll be sad when I can afford to get some monster HD screen and actually play games and see stuff the way it's meant to be seen!

Mine's got HDMI, but I use component. The XBox end of the component cable has a (crappy, ill-fitting) optical socket:



Hang on, that doesn't answer your question about what to do if you're using HDMI does it? Sorry.

Looks like you need this:

Lace: you can use any Xbox adaptor you have with an optical jack on, you don't need the special one. You might find the plastic casing on the adaptor fouls the HDMI port - in which case you can cut it off or whittle it down.

This is a good point. I'm using HDMI as well (my PS2 takes up my component port).

My ZOMG1337REDJASPA came with an optical out dongle.

Mine might have done, but I probably didn't know what it was and left it in the box.

Got these now. They are ace. That is all.