surround sound

[clive]

i have a sony vaio w1 and would like to have surround sound ... how would I go about this .... is there suitable kit on the market?

Clive

[Dwestie]

Firstly you need to find out if your existing sound card is 'on board' ie it is on the motherboard or if it is seperate in one of the pci slots, not having a vaio w1 i am not to sure of its set up.

secondly, this needs to be replaced by a 5.1 or upwards sound card, for example the creative soundblaster audigy series etc. then get some speakers and off you go!

my vaio is connected to my home cinema receiver at the mo (also sony) and it makes listening to all those mp3s soo much nicer than on speakers supplied

[vaiodon]

Have a look at M-Audio's website - they do 2 USB sound "cards" that'll support surround sound. The Transit will pass through surround encoded (AC-3 and DTS) data via a digital connection to a home theatre system while the Sonica Theatre has direct 7.1 analog outputs. I haven't had a close look at the W1 but I kinda suspect that there's not a lot of options for adding/swapping PCI cards into it so these might to the trick for you. I'm waiting on a Transit coming 'cos both my Vaio RZ-322 and my business (Fujitsu-Siemens) laptop suffer from RF noise interference on the built-in audio.

[grahambird80]

The W1 has a optcal out on the left side of the computer where your other ports are.

I am not sure if this carrys your digital sound out to a 5.1 amp but if it does, what you need from here is a surronund amp to give you the surround sound. There are many on the market.

Such as the very smart ageo amp by accoustic energy

http://www.acoustic-energy.com/

Also creative and logitec also offer other packages.

But if the optical out port on the W1 doest support 5.1 surround then you will need to look at getting a USB sound card as you will not be able to replace the one on that computer as it is a built in one and the computer doesnt have any PCI slots.

[Psaila]

Just find the speckers you find most fitting for you taste and add them as the mauals tell you ,

I do use 5.1 Cool too ...