Portable surround sound setup (1 Viewer)

[MovieCake]

Howdy all,

I'm building an outdoor theater setup, the projector and inflatable screen is on the way. I'll be using an xbox 360 for hd movie playback. Now I need sound. I'm familiar with surround sound and how it works but some things are fuzzy. I know that in order to output to all speakers you need a device to decode it. I have a sony amp in the house that does that. I'm trying to find a way to have surround sound for my outdoor setup. I see surround sound speaker setups for PC's by logitech and other companies that are pretty good for the price. The xbox outputs via a 2 channel stereo connection, in the house the amp decodes the 5.1 and plays it correctly. Will I get the same result connecting to these PC speaker setups?

Thanks in advance.

~MC

 

[Robert_J]

If the xbox (audio source) only has a stereo output, then your PC speaker system has to have Dolby Pro Logic to turn that stereo signal into a simulated surround sound.

-Robert

 

[MovieCake]

I think I found one

Klipsch ProMedia GMX D-5.1 Digital Speaker System

The Klipsch ProMedia GMX D-5.1 computer speaker system is designed primarily for use with game consoles such as Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo Gamecube, and Sony PlayStation 2, but it can also be used to deliver excellent, home theater sound from your PC or stereo system. It features 5.1-channel surround sound with Dolby Digital and Dolby Pro Logic II decoding, and it includes five small, identical satellites and a 100-watt, 6.5" fiber-composite cone subwoofer.

 

[Leo Kerr]

Problem you'll probably encounter is outdoor sound.

There is a real reason why an outdoor rock concert has massive speaker stacks and racks of power amplifiers.

In a room, even a big room, the sound bounces around a bit.

Outdoors, the sound gets one pass through the listening area and is gone. It makes a huge difference. HF carries well; LF disappears entirely.

At the low end, you'd probably want a bunch of big "DJ" type speakers - horn and 12" driver type things on stands surrounding the space.

I was just at a bunch of high school graduations in a covered pavillion - each front array consisted of fourteen Martin FLA speakers; ten facing forward, the bottom four angled down to fill the front of the house. (24 front speakers total,) with two "little" wing-fills of four speakers each. Each pair of speakers was driven by a 2kW (rms) per channel power-amp. (8 amplifiers, 16 channels of amplification, 32kW RMS amplification.)

Outdoor sound is a scary field to explore. Good luck.

Leo