Roughly build 4.1 system??

[Corban227]

ok so i was wondering if i would be able to combine my speakers and make them into a 4.1 system...
heres what i have:
Altec Lansing 2.1
Bose companion 2

i would be using hte integrated audio in the motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-P55-UD4P

the only problem i see is that the speakers don't all have the standard audio jack

 

[Adidas4275]

you can hook the bose into the surround jack on the motherboard header.... if they are mono hearder (6 of them) then you need a 1 mono miniphone to RCA cable (x2) for each bose speaker

but it will be hard to get it to sound good.... since they are very different sounding speakers

 

[Corban227]

would it be a better idea to buy 2 more altec lansing speakers for the suround sound ports?

 

[ashmedai]

If you're buying something, it probably shouldn't be more of those plastic picayunes. Plus either is near $100 - what the hell is that? - where you are really close to some solid 2.0 options. I would go for solid 2.0 before worrying about 4.1...but it will work if that's your concern. You should be able to use adapters to get the jacks to play nice, but you didn't say what they have that's non-standard.

 

[Corban227]

If you're buying something, it probably shouldn't be more of those plastic picayunes. Plus either is near $100 - what the hell is that? - where you are really close to some solid 2.0 options. I would go for solid 2.0 before worrying about 4.1...but it will work if that's your concern. You should be able to use adapters to get the jacks to play nice, but you didn't say what they have that's non-standard.

not really getting what your saying. what are picayunes? i already have both. had the Bose then i wanted a sub so i picked up the altec lansing for 50 dollars at target. I was just wondering if it was possible or if it would be not worth the trouble.
and also would it be better to buy 2 speakers that are cheaper for the rear left and rear right instead of trying to move the altec lansing speakers to the back left and right and move the bose to the front.

in your guy's opinion would it be better to just keep the altec lansing hooked up and then wait to buy a 5.1 system?

 

[obobski]

why are you trying to wire the speakers directly to the system? it can't amplify them

its got 7.1 output via TRS, plug whatever you want as front L/R into the green one, and whatever you want as surround into either the black or orange one, you will not have a discrete LFE channel (this doesn't matter much), tell your drivers you've got 4.0/4.1 connected, it requires nothing to be purchased either

also, someone was trying to be clever:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picayune

 

[Corban227]

why are you trying to wire the speakers directly to the system? it can't amplify them

its got 7.1 output via TRS, plug whatever you want as front L/R into the green one, and whatever you want as surround into either the black or orange one, you will not have a discrete LFE channel (this doesn't matter much), tell your drivers you've got 4.0/4.1 connected, it requires nothing to be purchased either

also, someone was trying to be clever:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picayune

alright! thanks for the legit response

One last question:
the Altec Lansing speakers are plugged into the sub which then plugs into the comp. does it matter which channel the sub is plugged into?

the only other issue is that of i would need to adjust both set of speakers from their controls to get the sound right. is there any way around this or would i just have to deal with my make shift surround sound?

 

[obobski]

alright! thanks for the legit response

One last question:
the Altec Lansing speakers are plugged into the sub which then plugs into the comp. does it matter which channel the sub is plugged into?

the only other issue is that of i would need to adjust both set of speakers from their controls to get the sound right. is there any way around this or would i just have to deal with my make shift surround sound?

the sub in the Altec handles bass redirection for itself (its got a crossover), so as far as the computer is concerned its a pair of stereo speakers, just like the Bose

that said, I'd probably plug them in as the front L/R because if you're listening to something in stereo, you'll have the subwoofer available on the front L/R (whereas the Bose will only be able to reproduce whatever is fed to the surrounds, like in games or movies if you fidget with software enough)
the other somewhat more pragmatic reason for this is:

you face your computer monitor
generally you have your front speakers near your computer monitor
your computer monitor generally sits on something like a desk or table
you can put the sub under the desk or table and its less cluttered

instead of surround speakers which are beside/behind you, and you'd have to deal with the sub being somewhere

now, the volume control question:
generally speaking, I'd run the onboard sound at or near 100% and adjust the volume on the speakers being used, however with two volume control knobs, this can be somewhat annoying, in theory you could run their volume knobs up to something like 50% or whatever, and adjust it via the PC, however they aren't going output the same level/sound at the same point on their dials, so you're still gonna be spending time to dial them in to do that

based on that, I'd probably just deal with adjusting them independently, you'll have the front speakers in front of you, and the surrounds sort of beside/behind you, not terribly painful to adjust, but not "perfect", I know (for 5.1 they're supposed to be beside you, quadrophonic surround stipulates "behind", but you aren't running a true quad system (nothing you will feed into this will actually be encoded for quad), so I'd just go with them beside you because its closer to 5.1 (and 5.1 is closer to the signal they're gonna be getting))

 

[Corban227]

the sub in the Altec handles bass redirection for itself (its got a crossover), so as far as the computer is concerned its a pair of stereo speakers, just like the Bose

that said, I'd probably plug them in as the front L/R because if you're listening to something in stereo, you'll have the subwoofer available on the front L/R (whereas the Bose will only be able to reproduce whatever is fed to the surrounds, like in games or movies if you fidget with software enough)
the other somewhat more pragmatic reason for this is:

you face your computer monitor
generally you have your front speakers near your computer monitor
your computer monitor generally sits on something like a desk or table
you can put the sub under the desk or table and its less cluttered

instead of surround speakers which are beside/behind you, and you'd have to deal with the sub being somewhere

now, the volume control question:
generally speaking, I'd run the onboard sound at or near 100% and adjust the volume on the speakers being used, however with two volume control knobs, this can be somewhat annoying, in theory you could run their volume knobs up to something like 50% or whatever, and adjust it via the PC, however they aren't going output the same level/sound at the same point on their dials, so you're still gonna be spending time to dial them in to do that

based on that, I'd probably just deal with adjusting them independently, you'll have the front speakers in front of you, and the surrounds sort of beside/behind you, not terribly painful to adjust, but not "perfect", I know (for 5.1 they're supposed to be beside you, quadrophonic surround stipulates "behind", but you aren't running a true quad system (nothing you will feed into this will actually be encoded for quad), so I'd just go with them beside you because its closer to 5.1 (and 5.1 is closer to the signal they're gonna be getting))

Once again thank you for the large amounts of information!!

as of right now the 2.1 speakers are beside me due to the fact that i have three monitors and there is no way to put them in front of me. would i be getting a relatively good result by placing the bose speakers behind me due to the fact that the "front" ones are already on my sides?

 

[obobski]

Once again thank you for the large amounts of information!!

as of right now the 2.1 speakers are beside me due to the fact that i have three monitors and there is no way to put them in front of me. would i be getting a relatively good result by placing the bose speakers behind me due to the fact that the "front" ones are already on my sides?

I'd try to get one of the fronts to the other side, at least if you're going to use this for surround, it shouldn't matter too much for music or movies, but if you're playing a game that can take advantage of it (like, for example, Fallout 3) the sound will be "off" a bit (whichever side doesn't have a speaker will be "blank")

they can be spaced fairly far apart and still provide decent stereo reproduction, if its a matter of cable length, Altec should still be using cinch connectors for the non-control driver, just head over to ratshack or home depot and grab a cinch (also sometimes called RCA or Phono) female to male extension cable of suitable length

I will say though, I'd take the Bose speakers behind me, missing one front channel, instead of rotating the entire setup 90*

 

[Corban227]

I will say though, I'd take the Bose speakers behind me, missing one front channel, instead of rotating the entire setup 90*

I will try it out for a bit, once i get everything set up. if it doesn't work, the altec Lansing have amazing sound for 50 dollars. i will start saving for a 5.1 system. actually considering altec's 5.1 system

 

[Corban227]

o well here is an interesting possibility i forgot. My monitor has a speaker on it (the middle one) would it be possible to set it up so that speaker is the center and make it a 5.1 system? or would i run into the dilemma where all of my stuff (when not running games) would only come out of the monitor speaker.

But the more i think about it, it begins to become to complicated for me to want to figure out lol

(sorry bout double post)

 

[obobski]

o well here is an interesting possibility i forgot. My monitor has a speaker on it (the middle one) would it be possible to set it up so that speaker is the center and make it a 5.1 system? or would i run into the dilemma where all of my stuff (when not running games) would only come out of the monitor speaker.

But the more i think about it, it begins to become to complicated for me to want to figure out lol

(sorry bout double post)

you could have ~5.0 if you plugged the monitor into a splitter from the C/Sub output on the mainboard (you'd want a stereo to mono splitter, and then feed the monitor's stereo jack to the mono line on the splitter for the center side (You basically don't wanna drive the LFE channel into the monitor), might require a mono to 2x mono if it doesn't play nice)

although I'm doubting your audiocard's drivers would let you select "5.0", meaning it'd be presenting an LFE signal to the Sub output, and this may cause some trouble (you may lose low end frequencies entirely, depending on settings), if you had a sub you could plug that into the sub output, and yeah, have 5.1 with your existing gear

one note:
most monitor speakers sound like mud and don't get very loud
so it might not be worth the hassle of wiring it all together (if you don't have the splitters and stuff on hand, I wouldn't go spend $3-$10 on them just to test it, because a $3-$10 set of computer speakers probably sounds better (like those little snowmen ones newegg used to sell for $4.99 (which I would not buy, even as a joke, there is a line where it isn't worth asking "is this a legitimate fire hazard" or "could this damage connected equipment"))

 

[Corban227]

Lol indeed.

Pulling it off with the existing gear is possible but i don't think it is worth the headache. for now i may try using the bose speakers behind me but it would be more beneficial for me to save my money for a legit 5.1 for about 230 and get a nice pair of headphones right now

i think the altec will hold me over lol

would this be good though for a mono spliter?
http://www.cablesforless.com/p-128-mono-splitter-6-inch-male-rca-plug-to-2x-female-rca-plugs.aspx

and which side would the monitor speaker go into?

 

[obobski]

thats for RCA, you want TRS to 2xTS, or Stereo to Mono/Mono

as far as "which side", honestly I don't remember, try both (you won't damage anything, it'll just sound awful if you connect the LFE out to the monitor inputs), go with the one that sounds right

 

[ashmedai]

what are picayunes?

A little bitty thing that's not worth much.

i wanted a sub so i picked up the altec lansing for 50 dollars at target.

It's not much of a sub either TBH.

I was just wondering if it was possible

Sure, just a matter of figuring out what needs doing in order to hook it up.

or if it would be not worth the trouble.

Probably not.

in your guy's opinion would it be better to just keep the altec lansing hooked up and then wait to buy a 5.1 system?

Very much so...but keep in mind that my primary objection to the ALs is that they are little bitty things with bargain-basement sound quality. If you're saving up for new speakers, make sure they sound better than the ones you're replacing. Just having all the speakers come out of the same box won't substantially improve on your proposed AL+Bose hack.

The hack isn't optimal by any means, but for now it could be an interesting way to find out how you feel about using surround sound systems.