Can I do surround sound with existing speakers?

[Malpine Walis]

For my next computer, I have chosen the Asus A7V 266-E mobo. To keep the initial cost down, I am going to use the onboard sound chip, which is supposed to be able to deliver surround sound. Perhaps later, I will put in a soundcard upgrade.

Now over the years, I have acquired a few sets of speakers and I have two sets that are pretty good.

The first set is a normal pair of speakers which, when connected to my relatively new laptop, do have a "sweet spot" that I have not had on older computers with other sound cards.

The second set that I would use is a brand new set that I bought for my desktop about a month before that machine died. It consists of two flat panel speakers and one subwoofer.

Both sets are designed to plug into a normal stereo jack. Can I get surround sound with that configuration or do I need to buy more stuff?

[Monaco]

they will work fine, as long as your sound card has 2 separate outputs for the 2 separate pairs of speakers. Some do, some take a weird all in one plug.

[Darrenct]

It will work fine, it is kind of a pain though, If you want to adjust volume using speaker volume knobs, you have to adjust the knobs on both the speaker systems. My brother does it that way and it works fine for him.

[primal51]

So how would that work on a sound system that has Line-Out and Speaker Out? It sounds like a interguing design, I would like to use it if it is possible. Check specs on my PC first.

[Darrenct]

Originally posted by primal51
So how would that work on a sound system that has Line-Out and Speaker Out? It sounds like a interguing design, I would like to use it if it is possible. Check specs on my PC first.

This wouldn't work very well, The cool thing about surround sound is that it sends different sounds to all four channels. If you use speaker out and line out, it would only send out two channels(Left and Right).

If you wanna do it anyway, plug your speaker out in to the PC speakers, and run your line out to a stereo that has a line in jack. Like I said though, you wouldn't have "real surround"