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XPS 15 surround sound???
So I recently purchased a 2011 model XPS15 (has not made it to me yet, APO address), it has the JBL 2.1 waves maxxaudio. My question can this be swapped out for a 5.1 or greater card? Also why isn't it an option to build them with one? I have a 7.1 headset that I love. But I want true surround sound. Any suggestions?
DELL-Terry B
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July 17th, 2012 14:00
carl7276
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I am afraid that audio on the XPS 15 is integrated on the system board, short of using an external card you will not be able to swap it out.
TB
carl7276
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July 17th, 2012 14:00
Do you know of any that are good? The issue is my 7.1 headset has a USB. I've looked around and all the ones I find do not have a USB out. Only headphone jacks. Plus they say they are for stereo headsets
carl7276
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July 17th, 2012 15:00
Will it support 7.1? Or just send a stereo signal to my headset? From what I have read it won't. I don't doubt the quality it has for stereo. It's the surround sound I need
ejn63
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July 17th, 2012 15:00
If it connects by USB it won't use the onboard sound system at all - it must have its own audio processor onboard. Basically, you have a 7.1 external sound card built into the headset -- what's onboard the system makes no difference.
carl7276
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July 17th, 2012 15:00
No I was referring to exactly what you said thank you. Only thing now is to find out my specific model since when I purchased it it simply said 2011 model xps 15 and when I look at purchase order it only said xps 15. Thank you
DELL-Terry B
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July 17th, 2012 15:00
Yeah I have read up on Razer Tiamat headsets. They look pretty impressive, and claim to have 10 individual drivers built into the headset. They use a USB port to provide extra power for the headset. I wish I had better news for you but it doesn't look that the Tiamat will work, at least not with7.1 surround sound on the XPS 15.
Razer also has the Blackshark headsets which may be a better choice.
Really any good set of USB controlled headsets with sound reduction will certainly sound as good as anything while gaming. I have a set of Creative SoundBlaster Arena headsets that I really like.
TB
carl7276
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July 17th, 2012 15:00
See I have a razer brand headset that does have a controller. However their site says it must have a 5.1 or greater source for true surround sound. Otherwise you are digitally making the stereo sound like surround sound. But it's not true surround sound
Jim Coates
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July 17th, 2012 15:00
Hello. If it is the XPS L501x or XPS L502x, it has a 5.1 surround integrated audio system. It has 2 headphone/line out jack sockets on the right side. One is a normal one and the other is a combination regular and s/pdif port. Both of these and the mic jack are configurable jacks, and you can configure them from their normal functions to be the 3 outputs jacks for a 5.1 speaker system.
Plus with the s/pdif port you can connect to a surround decoder if you have that kind of setup.
Sorry if I misunderstood your question. Re-reading it I see that perhaps you are asking why it doesn't have 6 speakers in the case.
Jim Coates
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July 17th, 2012 15:00
Sorry I didn't see the reply from Terry before posting -- I was researching the XPS L521 model to see if it also has 5.1 but apparently not.
DELL-Terry B
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July 17th, 2012 15:00
I simply suggest waiting until you get the system and try out your USB headset with the system, I think that you will be impressed. If you do have audio problems after getting the system please report back here.
TB
carl7276
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July 17th, 2012 20:00
That's not true. There are several headsets that use USB that do not have external cards.
ejn63
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July 18th, 2012 05:00
Those are better suited to desktops than notebooks, for certain.
Jim Coates
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July 18th, 2012 06:00
Were you replying to what ejn63 wrote? "If it connects by USB it won't use the onboard sound system at all - it must have its own audio processor onboard. Basically, you have a 7.1 external sound card built into the headset -- what's onboard the system makes no difference."
I don't know about ejn63, but I thought you were talking about a usb headphone even though you did not say that. Usb headphones are essentially external "sound cards" as he said. The digital-to-audio-converter is built into that device and it does not use the converters of the integrated audio system.
Terry's explanation about how your headphone uses the usb port for power got me curious. I looked it up and I see that it is an analog headphone that just uses the usb port as a power source, not a usb headphone as I had assumed. I was not previously aware of that type of device so I've learned something new.
When you asked Terry for suggestions for an external 7.1 sound card, you said that the ones you have seen do not have usb ports. Couldn't you get around that by plugging into the laptop's usb for the power and the sound card's analog jacks for the audio? I have to admit that I am not very familiar with 7.1 audio.