Surround Sound or Stereo?

[Zachstar]

With the way things are going in gaming and home entertainment. I was curious about what kind of sound setups you all use for your computers?

Mono = 1 Speaker
Stereo = 2 Speakers (Choose this also if you have one of those 2.1 speakers with a subwoofer)
Quadraphonic= 2 speakers front 2 rear

5.1= 2 front 1 center 2 rear 1 subwoofer
7.1= 2 front 1 center 2 rear 2 far rear and 1 sub

Other= Describe please

 

[TSPenguin]

I have a 5.1 setup, which I mostly use for single player gaming.
Since I very very often play games, and watch movies together with one of my friends who is connected to me over voip, I obviously am wearing my stereo headset.

When I am listening to something natively stereo over the sound system, I clone the two channels to the surround speakers and send everything under my bass cutoff frequency to the subwoofer.

7.1 does not have 2 far rear speakers, it has two rear and two side speakers.

 

[Quick_Nick]

Typically two speakers, but when playing games I use headphones and enable the computer's 'headphone virtualization' which makes things sound like surround sound.

 

[Hielor]

Two speakers (old little crappy things I've had for years) for external sounds and headphones for ATC (for FSX)

 

[Andy44]

I have a Creative Labs computer speaker set with two small speakers and a large subwoofer box. It sits on the oppoeite side of the room from my laptop, so I ran the cord under the carpet and plug into the laptop when it's present. A Y-connector plugs them into my shelf stereo system as well.

When my laptop is not here I just use the built-in speakers or earphones.

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http://www.altex.com/Assets/ProductImages/Standard/T3030.jpg

 

[Unstung]

I don't need surround for a computer, I have two speakers.

 

[MJR]

My friend has like 8 speakers and a subwoofer.

 

[Quick_Nick]

I don't need surround for a computer, I have two speakers.

Heh. I LOVE the headphone virtualization! Apparently comes with lots of soundcards now too...

 

[Arthur Dent]

I use my Sennheiser headset with a Soundblaster X-FI. Apparently it does virtual surround. I used to use two decent (but old) 150W speakers.
But my computer is in the living room and my girlfriend doesn't like me to be loud when she watches Greys Anatomy. And we had a noise complaint from a mental neighbour upstairs, too.

I had the Speedlink Medusa headset before. It hat multiple mini speakers built-in. So it was more or less true surround sound. The sound and surround quality was surprisingly good (better than virtual surround sound). But the quality of the headphones was poor. Some of the mini-speakers stopped working after a while. I had to wait 4 weeks for a replacement. That stopped working after two weeks. I looked in both headsets and the speaker cables weren't soldered, but taped to each other.

I brought it back to the shop, got a refund ans bought a Sennheiser P160 headset at Amazon for about the same price. In combination with a decent sound card, it's worth every cent.

 

[agentgonzo]

I use a cheapo pair of £5 headphones for my computer. Having said that, they've been unplugged for the past month since I moved house.

Admittedly, I have a proper stereo system in the computer room running music from the server, so never play music through my computer and watch all videos/DVD/TV on the main TV in the living room. The only thing that I really need sound for is orbiter, and I haven't had time to play that in about 3 months. :-(

 

[Zachstar]

I am actually surprised there is not one quad setup here.

Setting up a quad is very easy and sounds great in my view. Just run a pair of crappy speakers with an extension to anywhere behind you, turn on both sets and set to quad in windows. And there you have it. The only thing missing is the center channel which many games don't use exactly right anyway.

 

[tblaxland]

I used to have a 2.1 setup, but changed to 5.1 when I got this computer a few years back since the sound card supported it by simply adding some cheapo computer speakers. I didn't spend much on the speakers because I usually use headphones anyway.