[Meran]

I've looked all over the place and I still haven't found a solution to my problem, (not a good/cheap one anyhow). Here is the issue:

I have optical out from my Xbox 360 and I want to have full 5.1 surround sound. The speakers I have are these Logitec X-540. Do I need a reciever to convert from my optical out to the 3 stereo jacks of the X-540 (there are green, orange and black stereo jacks going to the speaker system)? I thought maybe I could get a sound card with optical in and 5.1 out ~ maybe a USB one?

All the people I've talked to are either a) are very computer savvy but don't know a lot about audio or b) know a tonne about audio/music but aren't computer/tech savvy.

Any information would be great! I'm looking for the cheapest solution I can find.

I saw this Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Roadie USB Sound Card @ $79.95. Would that even work?

Thanks!

[Meran]

Looking at the turtle beach website, they have the Montego at $59.95... I'm wondering if this would work with the optical in and the output jacks. (I'm pretty sure there is something similar from creative).

[jonyak]

Originally Posted by Meran

Looking at the turtle beach website, they have the Montego at $59.95... I'm wondering if this would work with the optical in and the output jacks. (I'm pretty sure there is something similar from creative).

What you need is a surround receiver to take that signal and decode it into 5.1.
The actual optical signal is only in stereo. I tried this as well. I got better sound out of useing the discrete channel outputs on my x-fi platinum than I did useing the optical and my receiver. Now this is possibly because my surround receiver is older and the x-fi has better 5.1 decodeing than the receiver.

[rabb1t]

To my knowledge the only stand alone speaker set that was designed for consoles had modified inputs. (They weren't like PC, they were like 'normal' inputs.) These were sold at places like EB Games / GameStop / Frys, but I haven't seen this set in years.

It does appear that you could run an input into the X-Fi Fatal1ty, but that's going to run you ~$180.

It looks like you could also go with the very nice Logitech Z-5500 5.1 speaker set, which has an optical input. But, that's gonna run you ~$300. Though several reviews have said these are the absolute top of the line for 5.1 systems that near home-theater system quality. (I don't actually see where the input is though.) This may be the better choice if you want really nice sound. No offense, but those speakers you have are decent for PC gaming, but I don't know how good they would sound when running movies or games from an external source.

Do you not have the option to hook up the Xbox in the living room to a real sound system?