What speaker setup should I be using?

[vong]

Hi,

 

Just wondering what you guys think about the speaker setups windows has.

There's:

-stereo

-quadraphonic

-surround

-5.1

-5.1

-7.1

 

It's a HTPC and I'm using an Arcam AVR380 receiver which I believe has an inbuilt processor.  Stereo, quadraphonic and surround settings have the dialogue coming through the center speaker but the 5.1 setups have the dialogue coming from the towers which is odd. So should I just leave it on stereo as it seems like the AVR380 is already doing all the work?

[kirashi]

57 minutes ago, vong said:

Hi,

 

Just wondering what you guys think about the speaker setups windows has.

There's:

-stereo

-quadraphonic

-surround

-5.1

-5.1

-7.1

 

It's a HTPC and I'm using an Arcam AVR380 receiver which I believe has an inbuilt processor.  Stereo, quadraphonic and surround settings have the dialogue coming through the center speaker but the 5.1 setups have the dialogue coming from the towers which is odd. So should I just leave it on stereo as it seems like the AVR380 is already doing all the work?

How is the PC hooked up to the receiver, and what kind of signal is it outputting?

You can have Windows configured to output 7.1 audio, but if you've got it hooked up with a single 3.5mm audio cable, you'll never hear 7.1 audio.

[vong]

45 minutes ago, kirashi said:

How is the PC hooked up to the receiver, and what kind of signal is it outputting?

You can have Windows configured to output 7.1 audio, but if you've got it hooked up with a single 3.5mm audio cable, you'll never hear 7.1 audio.

Oh, I've got it hooked up throught the GPU's hdmi port. Should mention that I have a 5.1 system.

[kirashi]

1 minute ago, vong said:

Oh, I've got it hooked up throught the GPU's hdmi port. Should mention that I have a 5.1 system.

Well, in that case, as long as your HTPC is outputting true 5.1/7.1 audio through your GPU, and your source media has a track for said channels, it's really just up to your media player software and audio drivers to properly support the channels.

 

You'll have to play with the configuration and see why dialogue is coming from the towers and not the centre channel, as most 5.1 setups use the centre channel for voice.

[spwath]

Set it at 5.1 because it's... 5.1...

[vong]

39 minutes ago, spwath said:

Set it at 5.1 because it's... 5.1...

Mate, the dialogue doesn't come through the center speaker in 5.1 mode so why would I set it to that?

[spwath]

44 minutes ago, vong said:

Mate, the dialogue doesn't come through the center speaker in 5.1 mode so why would I set it to that?

Because you should set a 5.1 system to be 5.1. because 5.1=5.1

The center speaker shouldn't perform all the time.

[vong]

3 hours ago, spwath said:

Because you should set a 5.1 system to be 5.1. because 5.1=5.1

The center speaker shouldn't perform all the time.

The purpose of the center speaker is dialouge so I expect it to work when someone is speaking. When I set it to 5.1 the dialogue comes from the towers and doesn't sound right.