Saturn - Surround Sound Questions

[ImportBoy]

Now that I have a 5.1 surround sound setup I am looking into connecting it to all of my consoles. I'm told the Saturn supports outputing true 5.1 surround sound. My 5.1 setup includes an adapter that will let me plug the Saturn audio cables into my speaker system.

Is this all I need - or will this just be putting 2-channel sound all around me? Is there another output cable I need to get true surround out of the Saturn to my speakers? Do any games specifically support surround sound for the Saturn?

[opethfan]

5.1 needs 5.1 cables, ie. a Digital coaxial (orange RCA cable) or TOSlink\digital optical (square cable with metal center and a jack with a red light). Most likely you have red\white RCA connectors, which carry only 2 channels (left on the white, right on the red). I doubt the Saturn can output 5.1 TBH (I don't have one yet, so don't quote me on that). I'd recommend just connecting the stereo connectors to your amp\receiver and it'll either send it to all channels automatically, or you can find a 5 Channel Stereo setting (that's what my Yamaha amp has, but I only have 2 speakers).

Hope that helps.

[marurun]

I suspect the Saturn could probably output Dolby Pro Logic. It's certainly powerful enough to mix it on the fly, but I'm not sure it actually does that at all. If it did it wouldn't need Qsound for the Capcom games. I'm pretty sure Stereo is all you get for the price of admission, my friend.

[opethfan]

Not that there's anything wrong with stereo. 95% of all music releases are in stereo, and with a nice amp\speakers, your Saturn (and other games) will sound astonishing, especially if they have redbook audio.

[pixelbender]

Its dolby pro logic, which is carried over two channels. You'd hook up your saturn like normal, and put the AV receive on "pro logic" or pro logic II. However, your receiver probably has another seudo-surround mode that sounds better.

[marurun]

To be honest, I find high quality stereo mixing over headphones to be better than 5.1 home theater setups. For real audiophiles a 5.1 setup can actually mess up a solid stereo mix.

[opethfan]

For a lot of people, such as me, 5.1 isn't practical. I don't want a million-billion cables all over the floor and walls. If I had some money, I'd buy either a Cambridge Audio Azur-series amp (340A, 540A or 640A), or a Denon M-33\35 micro system with a pair of nice speakers (Mordaunt Short, Q Acoustics, etc) and run everything in Stereo. We only have 2 ears, right?

[lordofduct]

the saturn is only 2 channel actually. It uses a special custom Audio processor that supports dynamic audio on 2 channels... sorta like Pro Logic.

It's actually more similar to Q-Sound on the SegaCD (utilized in games like Ecoo the Dolphin and Sonic CD). Q-Sound faked 4 channels across a 2 channel signal... blah blah blah. Anyways, both Q-sound and what the Saturn does (similar to Q sound) are done through algorithms that are supported by most modern receivers that support Pro-Logic 2, or DTS-ES/Neo6. Depending on what your receiver defaults too you'll get it out of the little biznatch.

Hopefully you have a DTS-ES/Neo6 machine as the receivers with it usually give you more manual options for altering the sound. I know with mine I can easily turn the soundtrack into a dual channel stereo, but give a surround sound feel to all the sound effects. As for the Q-sound in SegaCD I just let it do its thing, Ecco Tides of Time sound phenomenal with it!

Pro-Logic2 processors sometimes have the options, I know my last Pioneer Elite (before my new Marantz) had a Pro-Logic2 Music AND a Pro-Logic2 Movie/Game setting. Obviousily you can deduce which does what.

But yeah, the Saturn doesn't actually do Discrete Surround Sound. That requires lines for each channel of sound... or in most cases, a mixing cable (i.e. optical, coax, midi).


Oh and a comment to opethfan... yes we do only have 2 ears... but our ears are dynamic enough to recognize sounds coming behind us and sounds that are in front of us. That is mostly what surround sound is used for. I agree in the case of music it isn't really necessary... main reason why, the music wasn't recorded with surround sound in mind. It was recorded with Stereo in mind. But I like the DTS-ES/Neo6 music settings mainly because it softens the rear speakers a bit to give it that more natural sound... like if a real instrument were in front of you, some of the sounds would bounce off the wall behind you and you'd hear them softly coming from the rear...

but movies really can make great use of it... there are nice visual queus to go along with the rear and side sound effects that allow the sounds to add more depth to the experience


but that's preference.

You should try out some albums that are recorded with surround sound in mind. I.E. several SegaCD soundtracks, there are tons of industrial and techno albums as well (NIN actually released I believe both his last albums in DTS and Dolby surround sound), and there are actually some older albums done in Quadrophonics by if I remember correctly; The Who, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and a few others... (funny thing is, this was all released on 8 tracks at the time... you can obviousily now get them on DVD audio and Super-CD)

[tHePhAnToM!??!]

how do gaming speakers compare to building your own 5.1? cause i have 5.1 surround sound logitech speakers. they are cool but...i want a different set that lets you change the volume to each speaker. its by logitech as well. its the z-5500 series. i have been wanting those for years. so i am going to fucking get them for my b day.

[opethfan]

how do gaming speakers compare to building your own 5.1? cause i have 5.1 surround sound logitech speakers. they are cool but...i want a different set that lets you change the volume to each speaker. its by logitech as well. its the z-5500 series. i have been wanting those for years. so i am going to fucking get them for my b day.

Nothing beats a real setup with a good amplifier and speakers. Active speakers can be good, but they'll never match a custom setup.