Morfious Posted June 22, 2002 Share Posted June 22, 2002 What is the difference between 4 or 5 speaker surround sound, 5.1 surround sound, and dolby digital surround sound? Can you notice the difference between the three if you play games with surround sound? I am thinking about buying headphones that have surround sound earbuds inside the headphone pieces. Will I notice the difference between those three, and if you can can you reccomend me a good pair of surround sound headphones that cost less than 100$? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liar2 Posted June 22, 2002 Share Posted June 22, 2002 4 speakers surround sound has no subwoofer or center channel, 5 speaker has no subwoofer, 5.1 is the true surround sound, and dolby digital focuses more on the front 3 speakers. if getting a new set of speakers, i'd recommend getting some THX certified and that have DTS sound ('tis the best ;) ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmuZombie Veteran Posted June 22, 2002 Veteran Share Posted June 22, 2002 not true, there are many 4 and 5 speaker systems with a subwoofer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liar2 Posted June 22, 2002 Share Posted June 22, 2002 oops, my bad. there is no 4 speaker system with a subwoofer though. they don't make 3.1 systems. but a 5 speaker system is 4.1 :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morfious Posted June 22, 2002 Author Share Posted June 22, 2002 I thought a 5 speaker system with a subwoofer was 5.1, and 4 speaker systems with a subwoofer is 4.1..... But can anyone tell me the difference between 5.1 surround sound, and dolby digital 5.1 surround sound? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKer Posted June 22, 2002 Share Posted June 22, 2002 Originally posted by Morfious But can anyone tell me the difference between 5.1 surround sound, and dolby digital 5.1 surround sound? With DD 5.1 the majority of the normal sounds in a film come from the front three speakers while the left and right speakers produce background noice and sounds to intensify scenes like bullet noises and background effects (you place the two back speakers next to you for the right effect). When you use a program like windvd to play mp3s you also get Prologic II decoding which uses all the speakers seperatly on a 5.1 system to enhance sound. When playing games you normally get sound from 4 speakers (although there are some 5.1-encoded games now like SOF) and you position the speakers like a normal 4.1 setup for sound protocols like EAX. I use a nForce mobo with built in sound and 5.1 can really enhance sound, especially for films and mp3s - games will use it more in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bern Posted June 22, 2002 Share Posted June 22, 2002 I will try to make a long story short. In cinema or DVD, Dolby Digital is a codec named AC3 and can have up to 6 channel of sound (exept Dolby Digital EX that can have 7 channels) left , center, right, surround left, surround right (matrixed surround center for DD EX) plus a subwoofer channel. DTS is a competitor of Dolby. When you say 5.1 surround or Dolby surround 5.1 or Dolby Digital 5.1, it is all the same encoding. Now in speakers is a little complicated depending on the manufacturer. If you take Klipsch for instance, They make 4.1 and 5.1 systems. They have four or five small speakers (L,C,R,SL,SR) plus a sub that reproduce the bass of the four or five directional speakers. The encoded subwoofer channel is not used (exept if you redirect the sub channel on your sound card). Hope it helped Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liar2 Posted June 23, 2002 Share Posted June 23, 2002 Originally posted by Bern I will try to make a long story short. In cinema or DVD, Dolby Digital is a codec named AC3 and can have up to 6 channel of sound (exept Dolby Digital EX that can have 7 channels) left , center, right, surround left, surround right (matrixed surround center for DD EX) plus a subwoofer channel. DTS is a competitor of Dolby. When you say 5.1 surround or Dolby surround 5.1 or Dolby Digital 5.1, it is all the same encoding. Now in speakers is a little complicated depending on the manufacturer. If you take Klipsch for instance, They make 4.1 and 5.1 systems. They have four or five small speakers (L,C,R,SL,SR) plus a sub that reproduce the bass of the four or five directional speakers. The encoded subwoofer channel is not used (exept if you redirect the sub channel on your sound card). Hope it helped good explanation.+ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperJediMedia Posted June 23, 2002 Share Posted June 23, 2002 I like DTS more myself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bern Posted June 24, 2002 Share Posted June 24, 2002 If you have a very good sound system, it is true that DTS sounds better... This codec uses less compression and is more define then DD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osiris Posted June 25, 2002 Share Posted June 25, 2002 www.dtsonline.com there are explanations of why DTS works better in there. In short its a competitor of Dolby as always said, its like MS and Apple to a point both claim there systems have this that and the other it all comes down to personal choice. Overall though from reviews I have read and listening to some tests of the sound in various stores, DTS in encoded better for each channel and especially the subwoofer. Jurrasic Park was the first film ever to use DTS and if you went to the cinema and saw it you will remember how good the bass and echo effects in it where. Thats basically the benefits of DTS. However I have just disovered that Hi fi systems dont take to well to digital recievers. So no DTS for me, im stuck with DD 5.1 I got my L,R,C,RR,RL and an active surround subwoofer all ready to go anbd I find out I cant get a digital reciever so now 6 channel sound for me. But ahwell its all good :) I cant believe I never picked up that windvd plays mp3s. Im off to try it with me new 5.1 live card :), because my pc is hooked up to my system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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