Connecting the X-Box to 5.1 speakers?

[SwedBear]

Nope - not a thread about why console A is better than console B or the sales numbers of Console C vs A in UK during 4 hours on the 28th of November .

I got a question regarding hooking up my X-Box to 5.1 speakers.

I got the Advanced Scart cable which includes a RGB Scart contact and a Optical Digital connection.

The X-Box is connected to a 21" TV which only got mono so naturally I would like to hook it up to a set of 5.1 speakers to get some nice sound in the games and/or DVD's.

So - what do I really need to get 5.1 sound? Can anyone suggest some good speakers that can bee hooked to the XBox and, if needed, tell me what I need to be able to hook them up?

I have been looking at the Logitech Z640 5.1 speakers since I heard they have an adapter for consoles giving them surround sound. Has anyone tried them?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance for any ideas on what to get.

/B

 

[Ozymandis]

I dunno what to recommend you. I'm not an audio expert, I just got an Onkyo home theater system (full-size one) that I use for my 5.1 sound, and I like it a lot. Only had it for about a month.

How much were you looking at spending?

 

[zurich]

I use the Inspire 5700 5.1 speakers from Creative. What you need to MAKE SURE, is that the 5.1 setup comes with a dolby digital (optionally DTS too) DECODER. So many PC speakers advertise "5.1", "6.1", etc. but they don't have onboard decoders!!!

http://www.americas.creative.com/products/product.asp?maincategory=3&category=15&product=220

Thats what I have an it works like an absolute charm. It has a DTS decoder as well for certain PS2 games (and movies). Its like $250 or $299 USD.. the speakers may be small, but they're perfect for a bedroom (dunno about livingroom).

 

[PC-Engine]

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Pioneer/CDA/HomeProducts/HomeProductDetails/0,1422,32427,00.html

You can get this for around $325 at some places. 8)

EDIT: you can get this at etronics.com for $280 but it's the black version and not silver.

 

[SwedBear]

Thanks Zurich.

That should mean that even the INSPIRE 5500 5.1 DIGITAL should work since it also has a decoder.

What kind of sound would you get in a set of speakers like the Logitech 640 which comes with some kind of adapter for consoles? This would not give true 5.1 sound I guess?

PC-Engine - hehe, I hadn't even thought of getting a 'real' Receiver/speaker setup. As long as they have optical Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS it should work fine with the X-Box I guess ...

Hmmm, decisions decisions ...

/B

 

[zurich]

Yeah Swed, from what I can see the 5500 is the same as 5700, just missing the DTS decoder. I don't know how much the price difference is, but I find I use DTS quite often for certain PS2 games, and a lot of movies (ie: Band of Brothers). Its pretty subjective, but _I_ can hear the quality difference between the two in movies (DD vs DTS).

 

[Guest]

Owwww....5.1 You will never want to go back to plain stereo again.
Get a full HT set rather than some cheap ass Inspire ripoff. Inspire is very bad for far field listen, well the near field is not much good either.

Look for cheap HT systems from Yamaha, Pioneer or JBL. Make sure to have DTS, DD5.1, DPL2 and DPL1 decoding, at the very least. If you have more than 1 console, make sure to have multiple optical inputs.

Stay clear of the Inspire!!!!!! or most PC speakers.

 

[mr]

Hi Zurich,

You might want to read those pdf's on dd and dts.

http://www.dolby.com/tech/mp.in.0103.DigitalVsDTS.pdf

http://www.dtsonline.com/dtsposition.pdf

http://www.dtsonline.com/dolbyrvu.pdf

It's quite interesting information.
Those two companies sure love each other.

 

[DeathKnight]

You may also want to look into Kenwood's HTiaB systems. For X-Mas I got the Kenwood HTB-205 and it's superb

 

[Ozymandis]

I thought about getting that Kenwood. Was 200 bucks cheaper than the Onkyo I ended up getting... but I like the bigger front speakers on this system. Oh, and my girlfriend didn't like the way it looked

 

[DeathKnight]

Yeah. The looks really don't bother me since my setup isn't really a glamorous one. Eventually I'll be replacing the speakers with larger two-way or three-way speakers. The sound that comes out of the stock speakers is really quite amazing though. It's crazy how they can make a 3-inch speaker handle up to 100 watts with so little distortion. The highest volume I've turned it up so far has been -25dB, and even that was to the point of being almost too loud The 100 watt sub is quite a kicker too. My parents have already complained quite a few times because of the bass (most of the time I barely have the volume turned up). I've got it situated in a good area (corner). The floor shakes quite nicely as well... you can really feel it during the original DTS startup vid.

I'll get some pics of my setup here soon and maybe we can get a "post your setup" thread going.

 

[Ozymandis]

I'll get some pics of my setup here soon and maybe we can get a "post your setup" thread going.

I just got a digital camera, and wanted to start one of those, as I snapped pics of my stuff. In a forum like this I'm sure some people have some nice gamng setups

 

[Ty]

Sorry to be a snob (well, not really) but just say no to HTIB. Thank you.

 

[DeathKnight]

It's pretty much a resounding "YES!" when you don't have the $700+ to spend on getting a receiver with everything you want and a good speaker system. That's why a little research helps before jumping on a sub-$300 system. You gotta start somewhere, ya know?

 

[PC-Engine]

Sorry to be a snob (well, not really) but just say no to HTIB. Thank you.

The Pioneer system I listed can be had for under $300 and it does not come with a DVD player. In other words it's solely a receiver/amplifier much better than those combo DVD player/amplifiers IMO. You don't need to spend a lot of money to get separates

Also keep in mind that we're talking about Xbox here, not some $500+ progressive scan DVD player. Your HTS is only as good as the weakest link which in this case is the Xbox