True Surround Sound/Total Entertainment Experience

[Prot]

I just wanted to let everyone know the results of my tweaks to my system. Basically, I hooked up my 31 inch television to my Radeon 9800 Pro. It looked terrible and text was a real chore to read. After numerous adjustments with resolution, font size, handicapped wizards etc. I was eventually able to get the display to be nearly as good as on a standard monitor. I then turned my attention to sound. I didn't realize until a few days ago that my Abit NF7-S had optical audio output. So I hooked up a TOS Link fiber optic cable from it to my Kenwood VR409 surround sound receiver. The result is absolutely stunning. The receiver puts out 500 clean watts of power plus the subwoofer ( 5.1 sound ) has its own built in 100 watt amplifier. Music sounds so transparent. The kenwood receiver has numerous special effects settings which is fantastic because all kinds of things can be done without using up cpu time. I then decided to try Return to Castle Wolfenstein. OMG. I found myself rolling on my living room floor trying to dodge the sound of the bullets. Even though my desktop resolution is set for 800 X 600, in Wolfenstein I have it on 1024 X768. It is cool that resolution in the game can be set separately from desktop resolution. Anyway, I just wanted to let people know that the optical output of soundstorm is definitely worth using, especially if you go through the wizard to get it right. One thing I did find with soundstorm, regardless of when I was using analog out or using optical. I had to set the effects on it to Pop. Anything else sounded awful. That is something other people may need to do to alleviate many of the bad sound problems they are experiencing. Another thing I did to enhance using my tv for a monitor is to use Moby Dock. It is a nifty little program that doesn't use a lot of system resources.

 

[johnny5c]

I have my 9700pro and my onboard soundstorm hooked up to a 32" sony xbr and a denon avr-2803. When I frist got my NF7-S I was planing on getting a Audigy 2 ZS, but after trying the onboard sound I saw no need to upgrade. Playing DVD's on my pc sound as good as ones played in my sony DVD player.

It took alot of tweaking to get the video to come in clear, movies and games were easy but reading text on a page was harder.

 

[12am]

Well I may get beat in the video section (still using a 19" monitor) but I couldn't be more happy/proud of my audio system which is a 4.1 setup that consists of:

Front:
1 set of logitech z560's
1 set of klipsch 2.1's
1 set of JBL Northridge N26's powered by a yamaha rx-v395 reciever
1 8" Yamaha swt80 sub

Rear:
1 set of logitech z560's
1 set of Infinity Alpha 50 Loudspeakers
1 set of Pioneer G405k Loudspeakers
Mission MS10 10" sub
David Dbox 303 12" sub
Infinity and Pioneer speakers are powered by a Harman/Kardon HK 3475 reciever.

Overall it's broken down into 8 speakers and 3 subs for the fronts and 8 speakers and another 3 subs for the rears. The sound quality is just plain amazing and is extremely loud, I no longer goto the movie theatres as my system puts my local cineplex odeon theatre to shame when it comes to watching movies. Oh and did I mention it's all stuffed into a 10x10 room? many people think I have gone mad and maybe I have but I wouldn't have it any other way

 

[SniperXX]

My Epox 8RDA had died and one main reason I cant wait for my Abit Nf7-S is for the opticle output. I got a 500W home theater in my room and another down stairs, lol. Upstairs I have more for gaming and PC stuff since its got TONS of bass, lol, great for those explosions in the FPSers.

 

[ZGOZZ]

I just wanted to let everyone know the results of my tweaks to my system. Basically, I hooked up my 31 inch television to my Radeon 9800 Pro. It looked terrible and text was a real chore to read. After numerous adjustments with resolution, font size, handicapped wizards etc. I was eventually able to get the display to be nearly as good as on a standard monitor. I then turned my attention to sound. I didn't realize until a few days ago that my Abit NF7-S had optical audio output. So I hooked up a TOS Link fiber optic cable from it to my Kenwood VR409 surround sound receiver. The result is absolutely stunning. The receiver puts out 500 clean watts of power plus the subwoofer ( 5.1 sound ) has its own built in 100 watt amplifier. Music sounds so transparent. The kenwood receiver has numerous special effects settings which is fantastic because all kinds of things can be done without using up cpu time. I then decided to try Return to Castle Wolfenstein. OMG. I found myself rolling on my living room floor trying to dodge the sound of the bullets. Even though my desktop resolution is set for 800 X 600, in Wolfenstein I have it on 1024 X768. It is cool that resolution in the game can be set separately from desktop resolution. Anyway, I just wanted to let people know that the optical output of soundstorm is definitely worth using, especially if you go through the wizard to get it right. One thing I did find with soundstorm, regardless of when I was using analog out or using optical. I had to set the effects on it to Pop. Anything else sounded awful. That is something other people may need to do to alleviate many of the bad sound problems they are experiencing. Another thing I did to enhance using my tv for a monitor is to use Moby Dock. It is a nifty little program that doesn't use a lot of system resources.

I have the 9800 XT I must try this.

 

[itizme]

I was doing the same thing but my surround sound receiver would start to smell overheated. I found a simple solution though.
Audigy 2 ZS and Logitech Z's

no more overheated receiver smell for me