[SOLVED] 5.1 or 7.1 audio on my PC

[Awittyusername]

I have a quick question about getting surround sound out of my PC. I have an MSI B350M Gaming Pro motherboard which the tech specs say is capable of outputting 7.1 surround sound but on the rear there are only the usual pink, blue and green audio jacks. Now I'm not saying I want 7.1, I'd be more than happy with 5.1 but the point is I'm confused about how I could even get that. Is it because each jack has 2 channels, L and R, and the motherboard/driver/codec intelligently splits those 3 audio jacks up into 6 channels to get 5 speakers plus a sub? If that's so, how on earth is 7.1 achieved?

Also, since there are no home theatre type outputs on my motherboard, am I therefore limited to PC specific (more expensive!) surround sound systems?

 

[alexoiu]

You'd use the front audio ports too. Check the board's manual. You should find all details there.
There are analog to digital converters, if needed. There are also receivers that use analog inputs.

 

[NeoSpudly]

Best guess would be you need to use the HDMI to get 5.1 or 7.1 as the audio jacks are just labeled as line in and out and Mic in. checked the website and the manual doesn't have any info about it either.

 

[ssddx]

looking at the manual, i'm thinking it is impossible to have 7.1 analog audio.

the manual very clearly states about connecting up your front panel audio panel to the motherboard audio pins for 7.1. this will not give you analog 7.1. my thoughts would be that it might be 7.1 virtual surround sound instead but the manual is not clear on this.

as far as getting just 5.1, you may be able to do that on the rear jacks. generally both line in and mic in get disabled when using a 5.1 system but you may want to read the manual and see if it covers or supports this at all.

your motherboard has a rather low end sound solution. if you want things to be easier, upgrading to a soundcard would be better.

 

[Awittyusername]

Got this sorted - couldn't have been easier. Decided to take the plunge despite not knowing if it worked and bought a PC specific 5.1 surround sound system; the Logitech Z506. On the rear for 6 channel audio it only had 3 standard 3.5mm audio jacks (which was a promising start since that was how I had surmised it must work with my motherboard). So I plugged the obvious green one into the back of the PC and a handy MSI themed Realtek HD Audio Manager dialogue box popped up asking what I had just connected so I selected 'Front Panel Audio'. I then connected the orange one into line in and it asked what I had connected again so I selected 'Centre/Subwoofer' and finally I connected the black one to mic and when prompted again I selected 'Rear Speakers'. I was the presented with a graphical representation of my speaker arrangement and sure enough, every speaker worked independently of one another and correctly.

So the TL : DR is: true 5.1 audio does work out of a PC with just 3 3.5mm audio jacks. I'm going off my initial assumption here that since the jacks have 3 poles like a standard stereo jack, the motherboard can send the correct signal for whatever speaker down either the L or R and that it can reassign mic and line in as required for true 5.1 surround sound. I have no way of confirming what I have just written but all I can say is that it works - like a charm - and it was ridiculously simple.

Granted, a dedicated sound card would probably produce better quality audio but coming from built in monitor speakers and not being concerned with studio quality sound, I couldn't be happier. Thanks for everyone's input anyway!