Can a soundcard run surround sound speakers meant for a traditional av receiver run setup?

[johnt]

2 hours ago, JZStudios said:

I think you need to.... nevermind. I don't know what your problem is, but there was a time before bluetooth, myriad arrays of wifi, 4k, 3D, etc. etc. and the 5.1 or 7.1 still recieved true surround sound, so I'm under the impression that these companies keep adding all this crap to increase their asking price. And without your completely useful help I found that Sony actually has some 7.1 receivers without all the bells and whistles for under $400, instead of the customary $700+. Unfortunately their quality seems to be of concern.

In any case as to you other two, I'm honestly not going to read those because I'm not interested in either of those forms of connection, as I've read they only support compressed 5.1, and not 7.1

Again... I'm not sure where you're conducting your research, but most of the time the big four companies (Onkyo, Pioneer, Yamaha, and Denon) include more features, keep the same price as last year, but they do reduce the quality of the amplification to compensate. There is severe competition in the $300 to $1,000 market. If any of these companies skips a beat, then they just lose. The cheaper products just represent market share to any large company. The products are designed with cut corners to meet a certain profit margin. 

 

As much as you think I'm trying to pick fights with you guys, you should consider your position. You keep ranting about all these bells and whistles, and I keep telling you to do more research. I'm not sure how I've been useless, but I can tell you're still not clear about receivers as half the responsibility of a receiver is to be compatible with every item a person might own. If you want a component that deals strictly with sound, consider a DAC with a separate amplifier. Unfortunately surround sound DACs don't exist, so you're in a tough position and you have to look into receivers.

 

But you're harping on useless stickers and things you can overlook or turn off. You're upset because you have to pay for it. I understand that. But it doesn't sound like you need the latest and greatest and the most compatible receiver on the market. Which begs the question, why are you looking at retail? Your best alternative is to look for a used receiver. Just make sure it has HDMI 1.4.

[JZStudios]

On 10/30/2016 at 10:44 PM, JohnT said:

Again... I'm not sure where you're conducting your research, but most of the time the big four companies (Onkyo, Pioneer, Yamaha, and Denon) include more features, keep the same price as last year, but they do reduce the quality of the amplification to compensate. There is severe competition in the $300 to $1,000 market. If any of these companies skips a beat, then they just lose. The cheaper products just represent market share to any large company. The products are designed with cut corners to meet a certain profit margin. 

 

As much as you think I'm trying to pick fights with you guys, you should consider your position. You keep ranting about all these bells and whistles, and I keep telling you to do more research. I'm not sure how I've been useless, but I can tell you're still not clear about receivers as half the responsibility of a receiver is to be compatible with every item a person might own. If you want a component that deals strictly with sound, consider a DAC with a separate amplifier. Unfortunately surround sound DACs don't exist, so you're in a tough position and you have to look into receivers.

 

But you're harping on useless stickers and things you can overlook or turn off. You're upset because you have to pay for it. I understand that. But it doesn't sound like you need the latest and greatest and the most compatible receiver on the market. Which begs the question, why are you looking at retail? Your best alternative is to look for a used receiver. Just make sure it has HDMI 1.4.

There you go, a reasonable response. Again, Sony made a no frills 7.1, and a lot of people bought it to replace older ones that died out after years and didn't want to spend $500. Unfortunately Sony's audio output ports seem to die. And you're right, I don't need compatibility, I want to run it through my PC, which can handle all the visuals. Realistically, even if I had a 4k smart TV, All I would need is HDMI2.0 put through. But the big 4 don't make any like that. I'll look into used models as it's the cheaper option, but a lot of people would be plenty happy with a cheaper 7.1 focused purely on sound with a 2.0 throughput, as evidenced by all the people that bought Sony's cheap model.

My big deal is I'm fairly broke, and can't afford a $5-700 receiver, plus the speakers. I can however afford a $200 one. I guess I could also mitigate it by going to 5.1... but I like 7.1... My friend got a pretty decent 5.1 Yamaha with speakers for $400, they just need to add two channels to it and it'd be perfect. There's basic 5.1 receivers, but not really any basic 7.1

[johnt]

On 11/1/2016 at 1:28 PM, JZStudios said:

There you go, a reasonable response. Again, Sony made a no frills 7.1, and a lot of people bought it to replace older ones that died out after years and didn't want to spend $500. Unfortunately Sony's audio output ports seem to die. And you're right, I don't need compatibility, I want to run it through my PC, which can handle all the visuals. Realistically, even if I had a 4k smart TV, All I would need is HDMI2.0 put through. But the big 4 don't make any like that. I'll look into used models as it's the cheaper option, but a lot of people would be plenty happy with a cheaper 7.1 focused purely on sound with a 2.0 throughput, as evidenced by all the people that bought Sony's cheap model.

My big deal is I'm fairly broke, and can't afford a $5-700 receiver, plus the speakers. I can however afford a $200 one. I guess I could also mitigate it by going to 5.1... but I like 7.1... My friend got a pretty decent 5.1 Yamaha with speakers for $400, they just need to add two channels to it and it'd be perfect. There's basic 5.1 receivers, but not really any basic 7.1

Yeeeeeeeeah Sony is like the minimum standards company. There is nothing wrong with their products directly, but almost every other company makes a better product for the same price. They are definitely a household brand (couldn't tell you why except marketing), but friends don't let friends buy Sony gear... you can be my friend if you want to be.

 

Have you had a chance to look around Craigslist yet?

[JZStudios]

13 hours ago, JohnT said:

Yeeeeeeeeah Sony is like the minimum standards company. There is nothing wrong with their products directly, but almost every other company makes a better product for the same price. They are definitely a household brand (couldn't tell you why except marketing), but friends don't let friends buy Sony gear... you can be my friend if you want to be.

 

Have you had a chance to look around Craigslist yet?

Found an older Marantz SR5001, which is 7.1, but only runs the older HDMI 1.1

[johnt]

On 11/3/2016 at 10:43 AM, JZStudios said:

Found an older Marantz SR5001, which is 7.1, but only runs the older HDMI 1.1

That might be good enough. PC only outputs PCM anyway (even in games). Games don't support Master HD or TrueHD so it might not even matter to have HDMI 1.4.

[MarcWolfe]

5 hours ago, JohnT said:

That might be good enough. PC only outputs PCM anyway (even in games). Games don't support Master HD or TrueHD so it might not even matter to have HDMI 1.4.

Some games use dolby. I know damn well there have at least been some xbox games that do.

[johnt]

6 minutes ago, MarcWolfe said:

Some games use dolby. I know damn well there have at least been some xbox games that do.

PC titles haven't used Dolby for quite a while now... we aren't talking about connecting consoles to receivers

[MarcWolfe]

Just now, JohnT said:

PC titles haven't used Dolby for quite a while now... we aren't talking about connecting consoles to receivers

They haven't? Good, Dolby is over rated and unneccasary.

[Stagea]

On 11/6/2016 at 1:55 AM, MarcWolfe said:

They haven't? Good, Dolby is over rated and unneccasary.

Star Wars Battlefront is the only PC Game I know that supports Dolby Atmos. It might change though with the Xbox One getting Dolby Atmos support (hopefully PC ports will also get Atmos).