Surround Sound options for XP MCE 2005?

[markjsmith2000]

I'm in the process of researching the build for an XP Media Center Edition 2005 PC. I've been looking at the options for decent quality surround sound and seen a couple of motherboards that have integrated 7.1 sound cards and have various audio connectors such as SPDIF, optical, etc.

What kind of motherboards, audio connections, external amps & speaker setups work well together? Can anyone give an example of a setup that's working well for them? Would I be better off with a PCI soundcard?

[UbT]

I'm in the process of researching the build for an XP Media Center Edition 2005 PC. I've been looking at the options for decent quality surround sound and seen a couple of motherboards that have integrated 7.1 sound cards and have various audio connectors such as SPDIF, optical, etc.

What kind of motherboards, audio connections, external amps & speaker setups work well together? Can anyone give an example of a setup that's working well for them? Would I be better off with a PCI soundcard?
Yeh, i think you will be better off with a sound card. And with connecters the 'gold' connecters are obiviouly one of the best, but if i was you i would use, fibe optic cabling for connectiong computer to amplifier. Obviously the computer will need the fibe optic output and the amp would need, fiber optic input, with a amp with this most of the latest consoles use fiber optic outputs so you could use the amp for mostly everything.
NapsterUK

[six5tring]

Hi Mark, a welcome to the forums!

Right the great question or onboard or dedicated graphics. If your going to use the amplifier to do the decoding (sending single digitally optical/spdif/[DIN]) then personally there is little point using a dedicated card as you will not really gain anything in quality using a didicate card as the amplifier will be doing the decoding. Most AV amps allow this (personaly a fan of the Yamaha kits at the moment for price vs performance)

If however you decide to connect to the amplifier via an analogue source (line out, headphone out etc) then will get a better sound out of the dedicated card as it will be doing the decoding.

Onboard sound though shouldn't be completely disregarded as many new motherboards have OK onboard sound and although it may not be your complete EAX buttered toast making device if your not gaming it probably won't matter too much. However I will say that system noise has a habit of getting onto the output of onboard sound which is a right pain if like me you tend to leave your amp cranked 3/4's and use PC volume control.

Hope that helps!

Six

ps. I guess it all comes down to how good your ears are!

[markjsmith2000]

Some good points here which have triggered further questions in my mind!

1. Onboard decoding vs amp decoding. In the quest to have a single remote to control my system, would onboard decoding mean that I could use my media center remote to control the settings through software rather than having to hunt for the AV amp remote to change volume>

2. Freeview sound. If I use something like a Hauppuage NOVA-T MCE digital freeview receiver, is 5.1/Dolby Digital/DTS etc actually broadcast with the signal or will my audio decoder need to do a simulation?

3. System noise. If my sound card / motherboard has an S/PDIF/optical output then I shouldn't get any system noise. Is this correct?

4. S/PDIF connection. In practise, if I use the S/PDIF output from my sound card, what kind of amp will handle this single connection and have enough speaker outputs to do front/rear/sub but NOT do the decoding as I want to have the decoding done by the soundcard..........or have I missed the point?

[six5tring]

Hi again,

Right..

1) I would use the MCE remote control it's very easy to use and well thought out.. has volume and mute easy to get to and pretty much all your fuctions are one or two clicks away! also may be worthwhile getting the MCE keyboard due to it's functionality. Leave the amp up at a level just past comfortable and just leave it!

2) Freeview is broadcast is stereo so the system will have to use some form of emulation if you want it to sound 5.1

3) If you are using a digital outputs from the motherboard I've never had any problems with system noise. Due to the digital signal :)

4) Using SPDIF you leave the decoding to the amplifier though you can normally control volume pre SPDIF output (someone connect me if I'm wrong there my motherboard works like that though). Personally The yamaha range.. starting at the RX-V357
(http://www.yamaha-uk.com/av_amps_receivers/) sound great very crisp and can be brought with NS-P110 speakers for as little as £190. Personally though i'd go to your local AV center and have a play. Everyone gets on with different things differently.

Think thats everything - six

[Big Adam]

Mark,

Just to add a few points to Six's perfectly valid posts above.

In general, there are two routes you can go down to with regards to HTPC sound.

The simplest and cheapest is to use the PC as your source and use a receiver (such as the Yamaha range above) for your decoding and amplification. Simply connect digitally using either a single optical or co-axial cable. For greatest volume control and negligable loss of sound quality you should set Windows volume to MAX and use the amp's volume control.

The second route is to use the PC to undertake all decoding using a decent soundcard and software. What you define as 'decent' will depend on your budget. At one end you have Lynx and RME, at the other you have M-Audio and a few others. Creative may be regarded for gaming but they are not well respected when it comes to Home Cinema (despite their claims).

If you use the PC for your decoding, you will then output an analogue signal (well six signals for basic 5.1 sound) to your chosen method of amplification. This amplification may be a receiver if it has discrete analogue inputs or multichannel power amplification. A receiver may be cheapest but you will be bypassing all the in-built electronics and using it purely for the amplification.

The second method (all on-board decoding) is the one generally used by those with high end HTPCs. Some users even use a processor unit inbetween to act as a volume control. I will not go into the full reasons here but Windows volume control is a pile of poo and should generally be avoided. I suggest you read into ASIO drivers to optimise your sound quality.

For the first timer I would ALWAYS recommend the first option of using a receiver for the decoding. Connections are simpler and there are fewer problems with 'noise'.

[markjsmith2000]

Thanks 'Big A' & 'six' - more excellent advice.

1. Right - Microsoft controller and keyboard it is then.

2. If I use an external Receiver that does DSP emulation of 5.1 that should work with Freeview stereo signal from the sound card shouldn't it?

3. If I watch a DVD loaded in the PC and my DVD drive uses S/PDIF connected directly to the sound card, will the full Dolby Digital/DTS signals get output through the soundcard S/PDIF to the Receiver?

4. I'll opt for the S/PDIF connection to stop noise and also as I've decided on going the route of decoding using an AV 5.1 Receiver to keep wiring simple and the cost down.

5. he M-Audio Revolution 5.1 sound card has a digital coaxial output as opposed to an TOSlink optical ouput. Are there pros and cons of coax vs optical? Would I be better off with another model of sound card with n optical connector and if so any suggestions?

[Big Adam]

1. Groovy

2. Yes

3. Actually, that little grey wire running from the DVD drive to the soundcard is redundent.......unplug it and nothing happens. All data passes via the PCI interface.

4. Marvellous

5. People will argue the advantages of one over the other. Generally it is accepted that there is absolutely no difference over short runs. Over long runs (>2m) it is reckoned that optical links are better due to lower signal degradation.

The M-Audio Revo is a VERY nice card which will output a nice clean digital signal. Remember that you're also paying for decent functionality that you won't actually be using. If your mobo has onboard digital output, I'd personally start with that and THEN upgrade to the Revo (or maybe a cheaper card) if I wasn't happy with the quality.

[six5tring]

Exactly what Big A says :) Hope that your pleased with the results when you get it all finished. Always happy to help - six

ps. on optical vs digi coax. So long as you make sure you use a digi coax cable then no I don't think so. You will likely run into problems using standard phono cable though. From what I remember if uses a different impedence of cable or something and tends to distort/crunch.

[tremble]

Quite an interesting read.

At the moment im using Mythtv, with the frontend and backend on different machines. I was considering trying out Windows MCE to see what it's like but the thing that was holding me back was that I wouldn't have any space for my sound card as I would need to plug my DVB card into my htpc.

The motherboard does have an S/PDIF out header on it so I could connect that to my reciever(JVC RX-6042) rather than using the sound card so from what you are saying that would mean the sound card wouldn't be a problem.

So would there be any advantage in opting for MCE over MythTv other than the fact that I could use the MCE control and keyboard...which would be pretty handy.