Sound Blaster G6

[L.o.D.]

Am I to assume this hardware only does virtual surround, regardless of a 5.1 surround speaker system being used?

[PopinFRESH]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von L.o.D.:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von _I_:

it needs the drivers
in windows audio control panel set its speaker count to 5.1

I had the drivers/software all installed. Even then, all sound was still out of the front speakers only, even when selecting a single rear speaker.
The software also has no option for discrete 5.1 as it claims to have on the front of the box.

Maybe you should look at the box again? It says "Virtual 5.1/7.1 Surround". It doesn't say anything about discrete 5.1 surround.

https://www.igorslab.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Box-01.jpg

You seeing the word "Discrete Amp" and applying that to the "Virtual 5.1/7/1 Surround" is a you problem not false advertising.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von L.o.D.:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von PopinFRESH:

If your intention is to play discrete 5.1 content on your PC output to a 5.1 receiver then return the Sound Blaster X G6 and either get what you were originally thinking about from your other thread (Sound Blaster X AE-5 Plus) or the ASUS Xonar DTS 7.1 as Sigma957 noted which is another good option.

My intention with the G6 is for it to do exactly as it states it does. It says discrete 5.1 surround.
It's laid out on the front of the box.

Again, it does not; it says Virtual 5.1/7.1 Surround

Ursprünglich geschrieben von L.o.D.:

... Reminds me of back when Creative stopped their cards from working as they should and wouldn't release drivers that would. It took a 3rd party programmer to code drivers/software that enabled their cards to work as they should from the get go....

You are likely referring to Windows Vista and SoundBlaster EAX and 3D positional audio. That wasn't a Creative Labs issue, that was a Microsoft issue. It wasn't Creative sopping their cards from working, nor was it them not releasing drivers. In Windows Vista, Microsoft removed the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) for DirectSound and DirectSound3D. That HAL was the software layer in older Windows operating systems which allowed an audio accelerator which supported hardware features such as EAX and 3D positional audio to provide DirectSound3D applications with hardware accelerated audio.

The community hack to "re-enable" those features isn't a "fixed driver" it is a translation that leverages OpenAL.

[_I_]

are you using the optical cable it came with, to the optical spdif input on the receiver?

[PopinFRESH]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von _I_:

are you using the optical cable it came with, to the optical spdif input on the receiver?

Yes he said he is. It isn't going to matter though because the Sound Blaster X G6 will only send 2 channels with virtual surround after decoding the dolby digital audio. Which it states in the DACs technical details

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Creative Labs Technical Specifications for Sound Blaster X G6:

Max Channel Output
Stereo

https://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blasterx-g6

^ and scroll down to the specifications section.

[L.o.D.]

Popin, I have a different box than what you posted as mine states discrete 5.1 surround, then to the right it states virtual 7.1. Mine at the bottom of the front of the box lists 6 features starting with discrete X amp, then 130db dac etc.
I got it from Newegg.ca.
https://ibb.co/TPXDTmk

Now tell me again how to read.

In the command center software, there's a means to test each speaker. The rears do nothing at all.

[L.o.D.]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von _I_:

are you using the optical cable it came with, to the optical spdif input on the receiver?

That's the only way I can.

[PopinFRESH]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von L.o.D.:

Popin, I have a different box than what you posted as mine states discrete 5.1 surround, then to the right it states virtual 7.1. Mine at the bottom of the front of the box lists 6 features starting with discrete X amp, then 130db dac etc.
I got it from Newegg.ca.
https://ibb.co/TPXDTmk

Now tell me again how to read.

In the command center software, there's a means to test each speaker. The rears do nothing at all.

Fair, that looks to be mislabeled unless they put out a very recent firmware update. But every packaging, including the packaging shown on the Newegg.ca product page, show that it is virtual 5.1/7.1 surround. Either way, return it and get one of the other options mentioned as all of the product documentation shows that it does not do what you are wanting it to do.

Or if you want to not go with creative then Xonar AE is a good option, or if you can possibly find one the EVGA NU Audio but I’d personally stay clear of those, not because they are a bad product but because EVGA isn’t supporting them anymore.

[_I_]

then it probably doesnt really support anything beyond stereo

[L.o.D.]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von PopinFRESH:

Fair, that looks to be mislabeled unless they put out a very recent firmware update. But every packaging, including the packaging shown on the Newegg.ca product page, show that it is virtual 5.1/7.1 surround.

It's not a sticker either.
I need a card that is not all about the headphone audio as most sound cards seem to be directed towards. I also watch tv and movies and listen to music through my Yamaha receiver and 5 speakers.

[_I_]

does the receiver have hdmi input?
you can use the gpu for sound, that will be better than usb

[L.o.D.]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von _I_:

does the receiver have hdmi input?
you can use the gpu for sound, that will be better than usb

Been using the HD audio that is part of the RX 6600 XT via HDMI to the receiver.

But wouldn't the onboard audio of the Steel Legend be better than that is?
Keep in mind that I haven't used a sound card since Auzentech.

[_I_]

optical doesnt really support 5.1, it needs to use matrixed rear channels
kinda the same way to get stereo surround adding center/rear from 2 channels

hdmi does true 5.1 discrete channels for 5.1-7.1 or atmos

[L.o.D.]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von _I_:

optical doesnt really support 5.1, it needs to use matrixed rear channels
kinda the same way to get stereo surround adding center/rear from 2 channels

hdmi does true 5.1 discrete channels for 5.1-7.1 or atmos

It's supposed to support compressed 5.1 surround. TBH, it's be kinda dumb to build a sound card that only has the optical option for home theaters/speaker systems and not support 5.1.
In this day and age, sound cards should have hdmi. It's probably why most people just use the audio driver of their video card.

My mboard has hdmi for onboard audio with more options than the HD audio driver does from my card. So I may end up just going that route instead. I can use that $200 for more storage.

[PopinFRESH]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von _I_:

optical doesnt really support 5.1, it needs to use matrixed rear channels…

This isn’t true. S/PDIF optical is a digital transfer just like HDMI. Optical S/PDIF can do discrete 5.1

Specially it has to do so via an encoded signal with compression, e.g Dolby digital or DTS. If you are only talking PCM then the optical standard only has enough bandwidth to do PCM2.0

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von L.o.D.:

Yes, the X G6 and I have the optical going to a Yamaha receiver.
Can't remember now why I jumped on the G6. But yes, for my new AMD build.

Just trying the G6 out on the win10 machine til I build the new one that is here.

Never really used optical connections before, so maybe that's why all sound is coming from the front 3 speakers and ignoring the rear 2 despite being set to 5.1?

On PC this is how using Surround Sound normally is because MOST things you will do outside of Movies/Games don't support surround to where it has anything to feed rear or side speakers with. When you enable Virtual Surround it will push Stereo Audio to rear/side speakers as well. Which sounds dumb but it's only way you're going to get audio from most online video stuff to feed to rear of the speakers. Like say for Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube...

Now in most games and movies you might have proper 5.1 options and actually get 6 channels of sound for positional purposes.

[L.o.D.]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Bad 💀 Motha:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von L.o.D.:

Yes, the X G6 and I have the optical going to a Yamaha receiver.
Can't remember now why I jumped on the G6. But yes, for my new AMD build.

Just trying the G6 out on the win10 machine til I build the new one that is here.

Never really used optical connections before, so maybe that's why all sound is coming from the front 3 speakers and ignoring the rear 2 despite being set to 5.1?

On PC this is how using Surround Sound normally is because MOST things you will do outside of Movies/Games don't support surround to where it has anything to feed rear or side speakers with. When you enable Virtual Surround it will push Stereo Audio to rear/side speakers as well. Which sounds dumb but it's only way you're going to get audio from most online video stuff to feed to rear of the speakers. Like say for Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube...

Now in most games and movies you might have proper 5.1 options and actually get 6 channels of sound for positional purposes.

Problem with that card is that even it's own tests all sound came from the front speakers only, even when clicking on the rears to test.
I sent the card back due to false advertising and failure to work properly.
The box said discrete 5.1, but there was none to be had and no other mention of it was to be found anywhere.