Decoding DTS

[matrigs]

So i would like to upgrade my xbox360 gaming experience with some surround speakers.

At the moment i have a simple stereo-amplifier with speakers connected to it. I'd like this still use these
as they are pretty decent and i'm using them not only for gaming. I have a cheap logitech 5.1 surround
speaker system for a pc with the standard 3 mini jack connectors which i'd like to use.

Now i don't really want to spend $$$ for some new amplifier with a inbuilt decoder, and i don't like the idea
to connect my xbox to my pc and decode the sound over my soundcard.

Searching on ebay i stumbled across these devices :
http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-1-AC3-DTS-Aud ... 256b40267d
and i'm thinking if this might do the trick.

The specs are far from hi-end but i guess it would suffice.

Anyone has any other suggestion ? Or maybe used one of these DAC's ?

[fagin]

That unit would work fine.

I personally use my PC for routing/decoding/encoding my gaming audio solutions in my office at home. Much easier imo.

[gray117]

I'd still favor a true surround setup, especially on the low end, since I don't think the simulated will give you that immersion you're looking for.

However, if cost and space is an issue, you might want to just consider getting some nice headphones for the best audio experience?



/

Alternatively maybe pickup an older dts amp/receiver and add speakers/subwoofer gradually? You can pick up quality old non hdmi amps dirt cheap these days...

[and the lag sometimes added to hdmi processors means that the new high end audio/video receivers aren't always the best/easiest solution for gaming ].

[matrigs]

the simulated

nothing simulated here - this box just takes the digital audio stream and splits it into the coresponding channels according to the DTS standard.
so what exits the mini jacks is identical to what the xbox sends out.

actually the term "simulated" might be rather used when talking about those amps with decoders that have different surround simulations so that
even stereo sound is distributed over all the speakers. hate these so much. that's also the main reason i would rather not buy a amp and speakers
as i hate having most of the offline when listening to music. i could, in fact just buy smaller and cheaper satellites for the rear and center but every
time i used such a setup it was a bitch to configure so that the different front and rear speakers would work together.

as for headphones - i have a pair of decent sennheiser 555 which sound wonderful, but i'm not the biggest fan of using headphones when i don't
have to.

[gray117]

Sorry, yeah thought you were after the 'surround feel' when you mentioned pc setup; i.e. simulated on stereo.

For general purposes I'd still suggest most amps could save settings per input [i.e. stereo only for music, assuming its not played from 360].

... But yeah if you have no use for movie/game surround sound I get where your coming from, and as long as you're good with everything else you've got, just get that one adapter - it should give you a livelier sound for your games.

[BuckoA51]

The 360 actually outputs Dolby Digital exclusively in-game not DTS, but it looks like that box has you covered for that too. Don't expect amazing results but it should work just fine.

[matrigs]

oh well instead of amazing results i rather hope for a rather unproblematic setup.

i once tried to configure the gear of my parents consisting of a hi-end denon amp
and a set of klipsch speakers - 2 towers for the front and 3 small satellites.

to this day it sounds like utter crap. the guy selling this stuff must have had a good
laugh getting rid of these.

the amp has only (actually rather "only") 10db +/- on the speakers and it's impossible
to make the rear and front speakers work together. in games when you turn around
the sound suddenly vanishes and comes back when you turn further. quite funny when
and apc talks to you and you can just ignore him by turning your back at him.

actually - stereo sounds decent without even using the satellites as the sound supposed
to the rear is mixed into the front and you can hear everything on two speakers. the
apc that you turned your back on too.

i'm not sure if DTS and AC3 don't even insist on using identical speakers for all channels.

[BuckoA51]

I don't think amps can tell what kind of speakers are attached, there's simply no way to do that just using a simple speaker wire. It sounds like you have the amp configured wrong, Many can map back channels to the front, either that or it's just plain faulty.

[matrigs]

no no, no science involved here.

the speakers have just very different specs, other impendances and so on.

that's why the front speakers play much louder. and the options on the decoder
don't allow to change the volume enough to correct that.