Speaker issues?

[KerbalPhysicist]

Hi!

So I just bought a set of 4 speakers and a subwoofer, with 2 of the speakers for front and the other 2 for rear surround. They are all hooked up, and I am running the Realtek audio driver for my motherboard. But, the rear speakers only work in the audio driver software. to be clear I havent opened any games yet, just tested it with music. It is configured in quadrophonic mode, and the speakers are all 100% healthy. But the Rear Speakers dont play any sound except for in the control software. I am a computer hardware guy, not an audiophile who knows what he's doing! So is this normal, or do I have a problem?

Thanks in advance!

[TheKDub]

I'd say try it in a game, the songs might not be set up to run on more than two speakers. (Just a wild guess lol)

[MrLewisMHarris]

try and download a 7.1 surround test video or something and check if it works with that.

[MrLewisMHarris]

Also, make sure your audio playback device's advanced settings on windows is set to the highest possible quality, and the same with your video/audio player

 

In VLC you may need to go to preferences > show settings: all (bottom left of the window) > Audio > Output Modules > Directx > Make sure the "Speaker Configuration" is set to your level of surround sound. You're sounds like 5.1 but try as many as you want until you are happy (since some might not properly use the subwoofer).