rear speaker and HTPC questions (1 Viewer)

[Almon]

I have 2 noob questions.

1. I just setup my rear speakers. They are wharfdale wh-2 bipolar speakers, using 16 gauge speaker wire. The question is that, are the rear speakers supppose to be loud at all? when i listen to mp3s from my computer, the rear speakers barely make any sounds. I am definitley no audiophile, but are the rear speakers mostly for the surround effects for movies/games?


2. I have a onkyo HT-R510 receiver hooked up my computer via a digital coaxial cable. The Receiver is capable of 6.1 but my sounds cars is the original soundblaster live platinium (not the 5.1 version). If i wanted to setup a 6.1 system, would i be better off gettin a new sound card. The one i have use to be the top of the line 5 years go (before live 5.1, audigy, audigy 2). Will i notice any difference? Also is it true that it doesnt matter what PC sound card i use since the decoding for dolby-ex is done in the receiver

Almon

Onkyo HT-R510
Wharfdale Modus One Six (fronts)
Wharfdale WH-2 (rears)

Impressive for a mere college student

 

[ChrisWiggles]

It shouldn't really matter if you're using the digital output.

 

[John S]

Some of the oldest SB products even with a digital out won't work this is true. (The have no way to switch to bitstream and are limited to PCM only)

On your rear speakers, most AVR's have an all channel stereo mode, that will make the rears loud on stereo recordings. Otherwise, in DD / DPLXXx / DTS, they are only loud when the recording engineer wants them to be.