Competitions

A fair proportion of home audio systems are setup with some form of surround sound system. ordinarily, these setups are known as either 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound.

5.1 Surround Sound configuration contains one speaker at the front and center, a pair of speakers to the front side of the listener and another pair of speakers to the rear. 5.1 also has a subwoofer that can be placed anywhere in the room, although it’s commonly placed in front, somewhere near the front/center speaker.

7.1 Surround Sound configuration is very much the same as 5.1, with the exception that there is another set of speakers added to the sides of the listener, somewhere between the front and rear pairs.

Note: Professional entertainment centers, such as cinemas, often use systems up to and including 16.2 surround sound.

As with home entertainments systems, computer systems can also be connected to more than a single pair of speakers or set of headphones. Some computers even include all of the connections for a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound system, depending on the included sound card.

Even if the computer doesn’t have the ports required to directly connect a surround sound system, there are a variety of ways that can be used to connect a computer so such a home audio system.

• Analog Cable: in this method, the computer system is connected to the audio system through an analog cable, with a normal line out jack on one end and a set of RCA connectors on the other. Typically, the jack will connect to the line out or headphone port on the computer, whilst the RCA jacks are connected to a port on the audio receiver, most commonly the auxiliary ports
• USB Cable: Computers can be connected to an audio receiver through use of a USB cable that has a normal USB connector on one end and a set of RCA plugs on the other. This allows both audio and visual data to be sent to the home audio system. Sometimes, an external digital-to-audio converter (DAC)is connected to the computer via a USB cable and to the home audio system using RCA cables.
• Digital Audio Cables: Some computer systems come equipped with an S/PDIF port. This port can be used to connect a coaxial cable, with RCA connectors or a TOSLINK cable between the computer and home audio system. Other computer systems, including Mac computers, have a digital port in place of the standard headphone jack. These ports are able to transmit both analog and digital data, depending on which type of device is connected.
• HDMI: If both the computer system and home audio system have HDMI ports, it’s possible to simply connect the two together through the use of a HDMI cable.

In the majority of cases when connecting a computer to a home audio system, it will be necessary to configure the setup through the computer systems Device Manager (or similar in non-Windows systems).