stereo 2.1 speakers VS soundbar 2.1/5.1 ??

[arni-gx]

I really need it, preferring to watch 2160p 5.1/7.1 movies (so there is surround sound), as well as for PC games with my PC that already has an onboard soundcard, already supports audio optical out....

samsung soundbar hw b550 2.1 (must buy optical audio cable separately)
Nakamichi Soundstation 8W 2.1 (optical audio cable included)
logitech z625 2.1 (can directly plug into PC)
swan hifi m10 plus 2.1 (can directly plug into PC)
sony HT s400 2.1 (optical audio cable included)
sony HT s20r 5.1 (optical audio cable included)

*samsung soundbar HW b650 3.1 (has a bad remote control, and doesn't include the optical audio cable, so i have sold it, yesterday)

all the price options above, under US$ 200....

1. which one is more suitable??
2. Any other better suggestions?
3. If I use the Sony HT S20R 5.1 via optical audio cable to my motherboard, will my Windows 10 automatically recognize the 5.1 system?

 

[SchumannFrequency]

2. Any other better suggestions?

I like the F&D F550X. I bought this speaker 4 years ago for 71 EUR.
That was the price for a new product. I have also seen it sold for 30 EUR more expensive.

Here is my sound test of these speakers.

F&D F550X sound demo.wav

drive.google.com

I use the Hama P35 which is a low budget microphone.
With the exception of the second track where he doesn't pick up the bass correctly, the distortion is acceptable.

The F&D F550X are my PC speakers. I also have a home theater with an expensive amplifier and decent Infinity speakers.
So what I find is that the F&D F550X can outperform this much more expensive setup in some audio around 40% of the time.
I'd say there isn't a huge difference between the F&D F550X and the best audio system out there.

 

[SchumannFrequency]

You can also buy second-hand speakers and a second-hand amplifier.
It's going to give you the best sound.

For example, you can buy second-hand Infinity speakers.
Here's my sound demo of the Infinity Alpha5 HCS II:

Infinity Alpha5 HCS II sound demo.wav

drive.google.com

You can compare the differences with the F&D F550X.
The recording was made on the same laptop with the same microphone.

 

[arni-gx]

I like the F&D F550X. I bought this speaker 4 years ago for 71 EUR.
That was the price for a new product. I have also seen it sold for 30 EUR more expensive.

Here is my sound test of these speakers.

F&D F550X sound demo.wav

drive.google.com

I use the Hama P35 which is a low budget microphone.
With the exception of the second track where he doesn't pick up the bass correctly, the distortion is acceptable.

The F&D F550X are my PC speakers. I also have a home theater with an expensive amplifier and decent Infinity speakers.
So what I find is that the F&D F550X can outperform this much more expensive setup in some audio around 40% of the time.
I'd say there isn't a huge difference between the F&D F550X and the best audio system out there.

there is no store in my country, that sell those speakers.....

but today,, i choose & have bought the nakamichi....

anyway....

someone has say it, that if i am using SPDIF/optical cabel from soundbar 5.1 into digital realtek audio in my win 10, the realtek still can not recognised the soundbar 5.1, but only recognised soundbar 2.0, why is that ??

 

[SchumannFrequency]

someone has say it, that if i am using SPDIF/optical cabel from soundbar 5.1 into digital realtek audio in my win 10, the realtek still can not recognised the soundbar 5.1, but only recognised soundbar 2.0, why is that ??

I am not a windows10 user. In Linux you also need to configure a few things before 5.1 audio works in specific apps. Something you need to do in Linux is in 'pavucontrol' enable the option that it supports 'AC3' and 'DTS' streams. Suppose you then use mpv to play DTS content via SPDIF then you need to configure this in mpv as well:

mpv.io

a free, open source, and cross-platform media player

mpv.io

--audio-spdif=<codecs>
List of codecs for which compressed audio passthrough should be used. This works for both classic S/PDIF and HDMI.
Possible codecs are ac3, dts, dts-hd, eac3, truehd. Multiple codecs can be specified by separating them with ,. dts refers to low bitrate DTS core, while dts-hd refers to DTS MA (receiver and OS support varies). If both dts and dts-hd are specified, it behaves equivalent to specifying dts-hd only.
In earlier mpv versions you could use --ad to force the spdif wrapper. This does not work anymore.

--coreaudio-spdif-hack=<yes|no>
Try to pass through AC3/DTS data as PCM. This is useful for drivers which do not report AC3 support. It converts the AC3 data to float, and assumes the driver will do the inverse conversion, which means a typical A/V receiver will pick it up as compressed IEC framed AC3 stream, ignoring that it's marked as PCM. This disables normal AC3 passthrough (even if the device reports it as supported). Use with extreme care.

By the way, since most laptops do not have a SPDIF output, I have been using an HDMI to HDMI+SPDIF splitter for several years that works well with just about all Linux systems.

 

[arni-gx]

what splitter do i have to, for enabling soundbar 5.1 with optical cable into my PC desktop .....???

i do not want to hack the realtek audio driver for this......

 

[claes]

Don’t bother with optical and use hdmi imo

 

[SchumannFrequency]

what splitter do i have to, for enabling soundbar 5.1 with optical cable into my PC desktop .....???

i do not want to hack the realtek audio driver for this......

I took two photo's of my splitter:

My Sony receiver only supports SPDIF and it doesn't support HDMI.
This splitter allows me to send DTS sound to this receiver if I use laptops or netbooks. (I also have a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable)
You don't see this in the picture but the device has a 2CH 5.1CH switch and a L/R OUT as well.

 

[arni-gx]

I took two photo's of my splitter:
View attachment 304403

View attachment 304404

My Sony receiver only supports SPDIF and it doesn't support HDMI.
This splitter allows me to send DTS sound to this receiver if I use laptops or netbooks. (I also have a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable)
You don't see this in the picture but the device has a 2CH 5.1CH switch and a L/R OUT as well.

so, you have connect soundbar 5.1 with hdmi cable into the spliiter, then the splitter is connect into your PC with optical cable ?? so, if your win 10/11 can recognize the soundbar 5.1, so the surround sound has 100% working fine, today ??

 

[Mussels]

Keep in mind two things
A 2.0 signal (single 3.5mm audio jack) passively moves low frequencies to the subwoofer

2.1 sound systems require the audio to be sent as seperate channels, so you'd get no bass at all from a 2.0 signal - which things like youtube exclusively are.


Optical is a dead standard with low compressed quality and plenty of issues on PC, and should not be used.
Splitters like that are a method to get things working sometimes, but they're flawed.


I cant even list all the ways these setups go wrong, but i'll simplify it down to:

There are several ways to send and receive the stereo audio
Not all work with these methods
You're gunna be extremely limited in some ways, as these devices often lock you to the lowest standard - stereo PCM only, and some HDMI Devices will limit the video options as well, so they often only work with 1080p 60hz at best, and the most basic HDMI audio devices still show up as a display device in windows if you want any audio from it

 

[arni-gx]

Keep in mind two things
A 2.0 signal (single 3.5mm audio jack) passively moves low frequencies to the subwoofer

2.1 sound systems require the audio to be sent as seperate channels, so you'd get no bass at all from a 2.0 signal - which things like youtube exclusively are.


Optical is a dead standard with low compressed quality and plenty of issues on PC, and should not be used.
Splitters like that are a method to get things working sometimes, but they're flawed.


I cant even list all the ways these setups go wrong, but i'll simplify it down to:

There are several ways to send and receive the stereo audio
Not all work with these methods
You're gunna be extremely limited in some ways, as these devices often lock you to the lowest standard - stereo PCM only, and some HDMI Devices will limit the video options as well, so they often only work with 1080p 60hz at best, and the most basic HDMI audio devices still show up as a display device in windows if you want any audio from it

Are you saying that using an analog cable will work 100% better for a 2.1 soundbar than using an optical cable?? because if i use optical cable, the sound from soundbar 2.1 can't work 100% properly, on my pc??

 

[Mussels]

Are you saying that using an analog cable will work 100% better for a 2.1 soundbar than using an optical cable?? because if i use optical cable, the sound from soundbar 2.1 can't work 100% properly, on my pc??

Yes.

because optical has a timeout where you get no audio, so short sounds are always cut off, and optical audio is going to behave very differently depending on what's sent to it - stereo PCM, dolby digital, DTS signals and so on

Analogue is designed for this, first by being software controlled so the signal matches (those simple windows settings for X number of speakers) and then in hardware with the bass and treble filtering part of the hardware design itself while the digital systems assume everything is 100% to spec, that if you're running a 5.1 audio stream you have a 5.1 sound system and those extra channels get sent to nothing, and dont play.

This is why we get a lot of tech threads with people asking about "quiet voices" from their sound setups, or they enable the upmixing settings that duplicate those front two channels to all speakers and cut off the centre/bass/rear/side speakers and cause the same effect a different way