Originally posted by: Icy006
Originally posted by: TEEZLE
I have a set of the 2.1 promedias, is there a way to integrate them into this 4.1 setup? If there is I will buy it (looking for a reason to buy them.....hehe)
Absolutely, if you have a 5.1 soundcard (or a receiver with pre-amp outputs). Most 5.1 soundcards use three stereo minijacks to put out the six channels - one jack for front left/right, one for rear left/right, and one for center/subwoofer. The idea is to hook the 4.1 system to the front and rear outputs. Then, you get a stereo minijack to dual mono splitter (
example) . One of the mono outputs will be the center channel, the other is the subwoofer. Once you figure out which of the two is the center channel output, then you hook up a mono-to-stereo adapter to get the mono signal going to both of your speakers (
example). Your 2.1 speakers plug into this.
Then you set the soundcard to treat all five outputs as "large speaker", so full bass frequencies get routed to both subwoofers, and the "subwoofer" output of the soundcard is not used. Splitting the center channel might weaken the signal a little bit - but you have separate volume controls, and it's easy to tweak the speakers until everything sounds right. I've done this using Logitech z560s, and the result is well worth it! Full timbre-matched surround sound for movies and gaming.
Hope this helps.
p.s. I don't endorse Rat-Shack products, their website just makes it easy to find examples.