How to make a 2.1 speaker a 4.1 speaker

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rahulbmg

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I have an altec lansing vs4121. I need to make a 4.1 out of it with additional 2.0 speaker...What can i do...Suggest me some methords
 
Well, the simplest method is to connect another 2.0 speaker to the rear left and rear right connections of your sound card; you'll get 4.1 sound...theoretically :D

Practically, it's not worth it. I have tried this (but I was using a different set of speakers for front and rear; maybe that's why it didnt wokr out). I had an old 2.0 set of speakers (good ones) lying around so I tried it.

Sound didnt come out good, so I went back to 2.1
But yeah, worth a shot :D
 
Unless you are able to filter the rear channels/frequencis from the existing speakers and push those channels to the newonce, it cannot be called as 4.1. theoritically it will be still 2.1.
 
You could connect the 2.1 speakers to the front L&R and other 2.0 to Back L&R. Not sure how good that will sound though.
 
Though everyone here is recommending a 5.1 setup, it won't hurt to use your existing setup before it finally gives up on you. Check out this old thread on a 4.2 setup.

http://www.techenclave.com/pc-peripherals/which-5-1-speakers-3-5k-106765-2.html

greenhorn said:
Btw, can i post another alternative?

A center channel is not that important for gaming, I mean , duh, you certainly don't need a speaker to let you know whats in front of you.

Rears should be all you need. thats brings us down to a 4.1

to pare your budget down further, you can buy a new 2.1 , say an ATP3 for your fronts, and use your SBS for the rear. It is certainly do able , using two sets of stereo speakers for the front and back. check out superczar's home setup. Right now he has a kicka$$ phase tech speakers for fronts , and some aiwa music system for the rear. that way you get good sound from your front and surround ( which doesn't need high quality speakers) without spending too much cash

Even i have floor standers for the front , and satellites for the rear.

and you end up with a 4.2 speaker system for 2.7k which will beat the $h1t out of any sub 4k 5.1 system !
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-D.Payne- said:
The 4.2 route is one of the simplest to maintain and implement. I've had Altec Lansing ACS54 (4.1) for the front coupled with a old Cambridge Soundworks for the rear. I had 4 speakers in front and 2 in the rear with 2 subwoofers hidden away.

This was mainly done cuz the ACS54 had hardly any length to the cord and my old 2.1s were just rotting away.

As greenhorn has mentioned, it's damn easy to set them up and you would notice a very cool surround effect depending on how you set it up. All you need for a clean set up is> 2 plug points - one near your comp and one near the rear wall - otherwise you'll be running both your audio cable and your powerline from the front to the back, some neat cabling/wiring tools to clean up the mess.

I used to mount both speakers up high near my curtain-rods at the rear facing downwards and had the front 4 speakers setup at ear-level. It was great for movies.

I was using an ancient SBLive! (1999) model which is still in use, messing around a bit in Creative Soundmixer also helped.

Payne

(Once_upon_a_time_4.2_user)
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Originally Posted by Kumar

if the speakers are crappy, nomatter what the soundcard might do, the weak link in the chain are the speakers.

Sound quality wise, this is the order

[good speakers+ good soundcard]>>[good speakers+average sound card]>[bad speakers+average soundcard]>[bad sound card+bad speakers]
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a 3.5mm splitter will also do the trick.. i have my Logitech X-230 & an old Sony Music system connected this way (although there is loss of some output the overall performance is decent)
 
I'm not sure what you want to do.

1. if you want to get sound from 4 speakers and a sub, just get two extra speakers and wire them in parallel to your existing ones.

2. If You want surround, connect a speaker across the + terminals of both channels to get the difference as the surround signal. it will work as a crude decoder for pro logic encoded signals. Connect the other speaker across the - terminals of both the channels. If the amp is single ended, possibly the second speaker will not work, in this case, connect it in the opposite phase , across the + terminals of both front speakers. This will work as a crude Pro Logic Decoder.

In both cases remember not to turn up the volume too much if you want to play them loud to prevent the amp from overloading. Try to get 8 ohm speakers for the rear to reduce overloading the fronts
 
Gannu said:
This would sound like crap! Get a 5.1 system instead.
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nitant said:
You could connect the 2.1 speakers to the front L&R and other 2.0 to Back L&R. Not sure how good that will sound though.
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Yes, been there, done that. Does sound like crap !!!
 
Use a splitter like this:

DealExtreme: $1.33 3.5mm Audio Jack Splitter

Costs just about 70rs and does the job.

Sound becomes somewhat muted and you need to jack up the volume of both. However, I just tried it out for academic interest. I am not an audiophile and I was in the mood of experimenting.

Cons:

1.Muted, somewhat muffled sound from both speakers.

2.Two power connections

Where are you located? If you are in Pune, you can get this even cheaper (I got one for 40rs)
 
altec vs4121 2.1 converting to 4.1 without any sound error

rahulbmg said:
I have an altec lansing vs4121. I need to make a 4.1 out of it with additional 2.0 speaker...What can i do...Suggest me some methords
Click to expand...

-----------------> from 1 semi table speaker or both make wire outside (2 wires black and red)which connected to speaker.
-----------------> to these wire connect a two audio pins (audio pins(connected between tv and dvd player white and red))...
----------------->this 2 audio pins giving the input to any amplifier(suitably for 2 speakers wattage(speically computer hi fi 2 speaker))...
----------------->adjust their sound eq. as per 2speakers.
----------------->u also use a stereo pin ...
----------------->Enjoy with great surround sound with enough bujget and really works great without any loss of sound power like splitter.etc
----------------->precaution makes open speaker carefully...
-----------------> hardware 2 audio pins(2 male and (2 female optional)) or stereo pin.
..............................khatmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.............................
 
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