royphil345
Premium
join:2004-12-10
Lakewood, OH
clubs:
4 edits | reply to pfschim
Re: moving from 1st gen Audigy to X-Fi Audio Card - lost 4.1
It sounds like you're talking about getting 4 channels of sound out of stereo music played on Winamp then...
The only thing I can't figure out is how you were getting that before unless your speaker system has a setting to play a stereo source on all the speakers. I thought most multi-channel speakers had such a setting? I still don't know what model speakers you have...
Setting your old Audigy for 4.1 or 5.1 and using a digital hookup only capable of stereo for non-Dolby Digital encoded stereo music shouldn't have even worked though, unless your speakers have a setting to play stereo over all the speakers. In that case, it should still work now. The digital out on either of your sound cards can only output PCM stereo for non Dolby Digital / DTS material, no matter what surround mode is selected on the computer. Nothing should have changed.
It's possible the plug / cable you're using was somehow bridging something and transmitting the same digital signal to different inputs on the speaker system? Maybe the jack on the new card is set up a little differently and that's not working out now? I really doubt you were even getting true surround from true surround sound sources because it sounds like you were decoding with the sound card instead of passing a raw Dolby Digital signal to be decoded by your speaker system if capable. If so, you were only getting stereo out of the digital output, even if you somehow got it to come through all the speakers.
Anyhow... If your speaker system has analog inputs for the different channels... I'd try setting your sound card for 4.1 mode and analog output. Use the appropriate analog cables and analog outputs on your sound card for your hookup. The sound card would then decode any surround and send analog signals to the appropriate channels on your speaker system. I know the Creative cards / software can process 2 channel stereo into 4 channel surround as well using this hookup method. Probably what I'd try... My guess is you'd end up with better sound than you had before and true surround for any surround format, be it EAX for games or Dolby Digital for movies. |
I guess that's one of the perils of doing a full system upgrade/replacement.