Thread: WinXP - Speaker setup - what the fudge is it compared to on a PC?

Originally Posted by breaker021

Hey all,

My car has the stock 6 speaker setup that came from the factory. I am playing all of my music through the laptop and out of the stock speakers.

I noticed on my laptop - which is windows xp - that when you go to control panel --> Sound and Audio Devices --> CLick on the Advanced button --> You can set your sound card to "output" to different types of speaker setups. This is what the screen looks like:



My question to anyone is - Which of these settings will output the BEST (or correct) quality sound out of the stock speakers?

Does this setting even matter? I've used the default setting this whole time (Desktop Stero Speakers) and the sound has been OK. When I get to see my car, I am going to play around with this setting and see what the difference in sound is - if any...

Anyone have a clue though which speaker setup would yield the best sound?
- sh00k

Either standard, or stereo headphones should be fine. The rest certainly shouldn't apply to your setup.

Michael

Originally Posted by breaker021

I was thinking the same thing but what leads me to think differently is the fact that I have a (stock) 6-speaker system in my car. I would think the "stero" options would output the music in a 2-speaker format...

I am GUESSING that if i set it to surround sound that the quality is going to be different - like a true surround sound system. I know when I listen to a music CD, i get the surround sound (sound moving from one speaker to another, etc) effect....
- sh00k

Here is the deal. Though you haven't stated how you connected everything to your carputer, it is impossible to say for certain, but, most likely, you have a wire going from your sound card to your HU. This wire is "stereo", meaning, it carries two seperate audio signals. This is stereo. The HU then takes the "stereo" audio of the two signals, and does with it what it wants, basically sending the signals to the speakers it wants.

This is why what you set the computer to doesn't matter, as long as the sound card is sending out "stereo" audio. Also, that is the best the HU can accept, since the HU only has input for the 2 signals, and no more.

If by chance you have a different setup, unless the soundcard is connected to the stereo speakers with more then 2 signals, changing it to 6 speakers, 8 speakrers, theater etc... will make no difference. Thos setting only matter if the Soundcard has connections for more then 2 speakers, and you are using more then 2 speakers, which you probably are not, because of the limitation of your HU.

Also, sound moving from one speaker to another is not surrouond sound, that is stereo sound. Surround sound involves having subwoofers and tweeters in different locations, and specific sound signals being sent to individual speakers to give you the impression that you are "surrounded" by the sounds.

Michael