I have an SB Audigy2, but I don't have 5.1 PC speakers (I use the digital out to my main system for DD/DTS pre-encoded content). Given that I don't feel like setting up goofy PC-only surround speakers, what's the recommendation on the best configuration for 3D sound w/ Doom 3? Will the Audigy do OK simulating 3D sound on a 2-speaker setup, or are there recommended headphones (or otherwise) for such a configuration?

I'd recommend trying this out on another game before Doom hits the shelves. Many recent games (good ones that you should be playing while you wait for doom) have 3D sound options. Halo, Far Cry, Painkiller, Unreal Tournament 2004, all of them make full use of 3D sound cards.

Personally, I don't like the results of any of the "simulated" 3D sound selections I've heard. They all just sound weird and hollow to me, like I'm playing the game inside a large metal tube. Unless I've actually got the extra speakers, I make sure to uncheck the 3D sound option in the game before I play.

Yeah I've tried it on some of the other games and haven't been particularly pleased ... I'm actually looking at something like this:

http://www.zalmanusa.com/usa/product/view.asp?idx=110&code=023

Reviews for gaming seem to be pretty good (not so good for music, but then I wouldn't play music on these anyway). Anyone happen to have a pair of these?

Heh, at that point I'd just plug in extra speakers.

What's the reason for your opposition to a real 5.1 setup? It's really the way to go. It does look a little goofy and you've got to have the right space to set it up properly, but it really is nice.

If you want to go inexpensive, I've gotten three sets of these for people I've built systems for, and I've been pretty impressed by them considering how cheap they are (which is about $20 cheaper than about 4 months ago!).

If you want really nice speakers, I'm partial to Klipsch, though I'm sure everybody might have their own suggestions. I've had the original ProMedia 4.1 system for over 4 years now, and they're still going strong and sounding beautiful.

(ps- thanks for bringing up Zalman again. I hadn't seen their redesigned site. thank goodness they finally got around to doing that!)

The real opposition is that I have a really nice 5.1 home theater setup, and I'm disgusted that I can't output proper DD5.1 sound to it because I don't have a soundcard w/ a DD encoder. So it's more a protest I hate to buy a set of 5.1 speakers JUST for the computer when I'm already hooked up to 5.1 speakers with SPDIF on the same computer. If I buy another set of speakers just for the computer, the setup for those becomes sort of funky (my room layout isn't particularly conducive to it). The headphones route seemed sort of low-impact until a soundcard comes out that can do DD encoding natively.

I wonder if anyone has made a software audio driver that does DD encoding on the fly that can output over SPDIF, though I suspect DD encoding must just be too processor intensive for that to be feasible.

ms

Most HT Amps have 5.1 analog input along with DD. Are you sure yours doesn't?

Am I imagining things, or was one of the features of the "new" nvidia motherboards something about onboard dolby digital encoding?

Matthew

One option that may be around the same price range as a full speaker setup is a new motherboard. I have an Asus A7N8X Deluxe (AMD) which has hardware DD encoding, then output thru SPDIF. They have Intel boards that do this as well. When I was running thru my home theater system, the sound in my gaming experience was the best it had ever been.

It does, but my HT is rather far from my PC, so I'd have to run six more 20 foot cables to do it ... You are correct about the nVidia chip -- I think it's called the SoundStorm or something like that.

Not a bad idea .. I'll have to check out what Intel MB's have such a beast.

The Intel ones I saw were socket 775, which I know nothing about.

I'm attaching a highly detailed artists' rendering of my loft, using the professional CAD tool called Microsoft Paint

Basically, the computer is on the side of the room, and all the components and video switchers are in the back of the room, so I have a roughly 20 foot really well shielded DVI cable and digital coax cable that go from the computer, over to the wall, up the wall, across the ceiling, and back down to connect to the DVI switch and the receiver. So if I want to do an analog 5.1 out to the receiver, I need to connect 6 more bigass 20 foot cables, which is kind of annoying. Since I already have digital out, it would be nice to just be able to DD-encode over that digital coax that I already have.

Note that I can use the receiver as a decoder just fine (in fact, when I play DVD's on the PC, it's fine), but for "6 channel sound" that you get in games, it's some funky Microsoft 6-channel sound encoding, so it can't just be sent over SPDIF directly and be decoded by the reciever (because it's not actually DTS or DD). So something has to reencode that 6-channel signal into DD or DTS specifically, which would solve my problem. The suggestion of the motherboard with the nVidia chips on them is probably the best bet at the moment ...

ms

Ummm, will the game be being displayed on the projector instead of the computer's monitor? Because unless it is, having a 6.1 speaker system isn't going to do a lot of good if all of the speakers are to your right.

The SN45G does indeed show "Soundstorm certified" here.

I'm hoping for a next gen Athlon 64 nForce solution with Soundstorm for my next Wintendo. One with PCI-E and such, similar to the new Intel Shuttle XPC they released. SB81P.