Surround Sound?


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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$?

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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 ;) )

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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?

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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.

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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

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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.+

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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.

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