[ghostrider4385]

Hey fellas,

As my title shows, I'm in a fix. I smartly bought myself the Creative Inspire T6060 5.1 speaker system. The chap who sold it to me said it's laptop compatible. Purrrfect I thought. I was dying to hear good sound out of my 13" macbook. It's speakers are beyond crappy. FYI, the macbook doesn't have a built-in sound card per-say, just 2 analog cum optical line in and line out sockets. It also has a firewire 400 port if it helps any.

After I come home and connect the 5 speakers to the back of the woofer, I realise that there are 3 wires dangling. 1 for the subwoofer and 2 for the left and right surround. I wasn't even provided a stereo to stereo jack!

I now realised I needed a soundcard to get the damned thing running. None of the external creative soundcards are compatible with macs.

Now my question is, how do I get my speaker system up and running, at MINIMUM cost. Anything I can do to connect the speaker system to my airport express base station, so that I can play music wirelessly?


Thanks.

[v1p3r]

Mac? Hahahaha...all the best!

[ghostrider4385]

Thanks for making me feel better Joshi! Go sleep, you not being of any help anyway! :P

[merve_extreme]

Try connecting the green line only to the line out and leave the rest as they are.see if it works in stereo upmix mode.the Inspire 4.1 do work in this manner.

you need a 5.1 soundcard for true surround audio.you can get a external soundcard from Creative.i think its called the Audigy NX
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 NX - External Sound Card with 24-bit DVD-Audio, EAX ADVANCED HD and Dolby Digital EX for premium notebook audio

or if you have a PCMCIA slot try this
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook with THX Certified Sound, CMSS Technology and SoundFont Support for unsurpassed audio on your notebook.

[v1p3r]

Yeah but he just said none of the Creative external soundcards are compatible with Macs, of which he's using one.

[vivekiny2k]

hmm, sounds tricky.

Sound Card for Mac? - MacNN Forums

[greenhorn]

It has a single stereo line out right ?
If you use a stereo splitter something like this ( ~30 Rs ) you should be able to get sound out of everything except the center. It won't be surround mind you. just the same stereo feed from the back as well

[ghostrider4385]

@merve_extreme - As Akshay pointed out, the darn creative soundcards are not made for macs :(. I will try connecting the green wire only and see.

@vivek - I thought about the Griffen Fireware. Problem is that it only connects via usb to the comp. So I will not be able to play music wirelessly via my airport express.

@ greenhorn - The 3 wires (green, black and orange) are as I mentioned for the sub, left & right surround, which is prolly one of the main reasons I bought the speaker system. So I don't think a splitter is gonna help me much.

I need to connect the lappie to the system using a stereo to stereo jack, which is plugged into the AUX IN hole of the wired remote controller.

UPDATE: I found an old stereo to stereo jack. Plugged it in, and as expected, only the speakers were playing and not the sub. BUT, the problem now is that I'm only able to hear the music (very clear), but the vocals are barely audible. Traced the problem to my sound preferences. When I plug it into the headphone outlet of my laptop, it does not detect it as a line-out to a peripheral device, but as a headphone. I think that's the problem. Then I tried plugging the stereo to stereo cord into my airport express base station. Still same problem :(

Sigh... and to think I assumed a mac was almost flawless.

For those who want to have a look at the system:
Creative Inspire T6060 - Power up games and movies in style with 5.1 surround sound

[merve_extreme]

the reason you cannot hear the Vocals is because in a 5.1 system the center speaker is responsible for the Vocals and this speaker is connected with the orange jack which also coonects the SUB.In short for a 5.1 system

green-Front left,right
black-Rear left,right
orange-LFE(SUB),Center

try selling it for a marginal loss and get the Inspire 4.1(work in stero upmix using only one lineout jack) if true surround is not important,as it is you wont get true 4.1 or 5.1 with the Mac.

[ghostrider4385]

Ok... I'm confused merve. What do you mean by true surround? And what's stereo upmix? Explain everything like you would do to a lil kid. I'm pretty naive when it comes to anything audio.

If I do take a 4.1, will all the speakers AND sub work when connected to my laptop? And will I be needing an external soundcard for this too?

[merve_extreme]

Originally Posted by ghostrider4385

Ok... I'm confused merve. What do you mean by true surround? And what's stereo upmix? Explain everything like you would do to a lil kid. I'm pretty naive when it comes to anything audio.

If I do take a 4.1, will all the speakers AND sub work when connected to my laptop? And will I be needing an external soundcard for this too?

when i say true surround that means is the each audio channel produces distinct audio output.

Most DVD movies are 5.1 Dolby surround.What is means is that you will

1)hear the Vocal conversation from the center speaker,

2)some gunfire,breaking glass,music etc from the 4 speakers(FR,FL,RR,RL),it depends where the event is happening relative to the movie that is playing.for instance if you watching a war movie and in the movie a gunshot is fired behind the soilder that is currently in focus then you hear sound only from the rear 2 speakers.in short the sound from the surround speakers is directional.

3)all low frequency sounds(Bass)is heard from the subwoofer only.

when it is not true surround(stereo) the audio has 2 channels left and right and these channels are copied and played by the Front,rear and Center speaker and bass by the subwoofer.Most music tracks are stereo.

the creative Inspire 4.1 have a feature in them which allows you to use them with a stereo source.they have a green and a black wire and if you connect only the green wire to the speaker and leave the black one disconnected then the speakers work in stereo upmix mode(i:e they copy the stereo left to front left, rear left and stereo right to front right and rear right,low frequency sounds are still played by the Sub)

Hope u get it,your only choice is 4.1 inspire because you dont have a 5.1 soundcard and hence you cannot use 5.1 speakers and 5.1 speakers dont work in stereo upmix mode)

[ghostrider4385]

Thanks a lot merve! That's some simple and brilliant explanation for a biggener like me. Lol... this is what happens when I don't do my research first!

I've found someone in my office who is glad to take it off my hand, for about 150 less.

But I thought I'd try my luck and search for a mac compatible soundcard now if I can.

Wish me luck!

[ghostrider4385]

Problem solved! And that too in 40 bucks!

My friend got a brilliant idea and bought 2 splitters for 20 bucks each. Now each splitter has 2 headphone plug holes in the rear and the jack in front. So we put the 2nd splitters lead into one hole and the 3 wires were shoved into the remaining 3 holes (1 hole from the 1st splitter, and the 2 from the 2nd splitter). Glad to say it works like a charm. SLIGHT reduction in sound, but this was expected. I don't play it on full volume, so make no big difference.

Hey merve, if you don't want to see your black wire dangling, you can prolly try this method.

[ghostrider4385]

Next stop - finding myself a mac compatible tv tuner card. Anyone can help me with this?

[merve_extreme]

Originally Posted by ghostrider4385

Problem solved! And that too in 40 bucks!

My friend got a brilliant idea and bought 2 splitters for 20 bucks each. Now each splitter has 2 headphone plug holes in the rear and the jack in front. So we put the 2nd splitters lead into one hole and the 3 wires were shoved into the remaining 3 holes (1 hole from the 1st splitter, and the 2 from the 2nd splitter). Glad to say it works like a charm. SLIGHT reduction in sound, but this was expected. I don't play it on full volume, so make no big difference.

Hey merve, if you don't want to see your black wire dangling, you can prolly try this method.

nice that is works,what you are doing is manual stereo Upmix.How is the bass reproduction?(either very high or low).

thanks but i have 7.1 ch onboard and 5.1 SB live so all my wires are plugged in.