5.1 audio in cabinet - any point??

[mkdevo]

hello all...

found a good deal on the Logitech Z-640 5.1 Speaker System, and i'm wondering if i should pick it up for my future cabinet... granted, it wouldn't be true 5.1, since i'd really have no way of putting 'rear' speakers in the cab... i'd prolly just put all 4 speakers along the top, behind the marquee..

any comments? anyone have a 5.1 system in their cab? thanks in advance..

[Silverwind]

hello all...

found a good deal on the Logitech Z-640 5.1 Speaker System, and i'm wondering if i should pick it up for my future cabinet... granted, it wouldn't be true 5.1, since i'd really have no way of putting 'rear' speakers in the cab... i'd prolly just put all 4 speakers along the top, behind the marquee..

any comments? anyone have a 5.1 system in their cab? thanks in advance..

Well.. one of the key points for 5.1 is so you can have the surround sound.. which unless you have some of the speakers outside the cab.. it's not going to happen..

But more might = better? hehe  Gives you a little bit more volume to work with...  and if you can have two speakers left, and two speakers right.. might be able to notice more stereo seperation also..

i'd say nothing wrong with using em

[atog]

There is one cab on the examples page that has surround sound.  He has the rear speakers mounted on metal rods that he has extending off the top of his cabinet.  The whole thing looks like a giant spider reaching it's legs out over the top of you.  Quite freaky.

Since MAME games aren't encoded in surround sound, it would really only be good for 5.1 PC games if you are going to play them in your cab, or you could hook your audio out from your MAME pc to an external decoder that will emulate surround sound from 2 channels, there are about a million of these on the market, I have a Hughes emulator in the closet I haven't used in years that does this.  It's a lot of work for very little return in my opinion.

[SirPoonga]

zinc uses surround.

[theblt]

If you got the money, I'd buy em.  They'll pack more of a punch than just two little speakers.

[brandon]

certain speaker setups can convert regular stereo to Dolby Pro Logic II or some form of fake surround.  Who know maybe somebody will hack mame to allow the different audio chips emulated to be panned front and back..  Like YM2151 faded to the back.. that kind of thing.. but that wouldn't be authetic and we can't have that

[Odonadon]

I'd have to say "Hell no".  Even if you had simulated surround, what game would make good use of them?  Maybe Terminator 2, GI Joe, After Burner, Space Harrier, and Aqua Jack?  Chances are the surround wouldn't sight proper anyway.  You just may get more of a "spacey" feel with them.

Since the vast majority of stand-up arcades are made with speakers in front, you'd be wasting your money.  You could probably find a better set of stereo speakers for the money.

And if your playing PC games, you really should be using a machine better setup for that - like a PC on a desk with a keyboard and a mouse.  MUCH more comfortable.

Odonadon

[SirPoonga]

I'd have to say "Hell no".  Even if you had simulated surround, what game would make good use of them?  Maybe Terminator 2, GI Joe, After Burner, Space Harrier, and Aqua Jack?  Chances are the surround wouldn't sight proper anyway.  You just may get more of a "spacey" feel with them.

Since the vast majority of stand-up arcades are made with speakers in front, you'd be wasting your money.  You could probably find a better set of stereo speakers for the money.

And if your playing PC games, you really should be using a machine better setup for that - like a PC on a desk with a keyboard and a mouse.  MUCH more comfortable.

Odonadon

You assume too much!  Mame is not the only emulator out there.  As I said, zinc supports surround sound.

Plus not all games were just standups.  

And there are arcade ports for the PC in which a cabinet is MUCH better than a keyboard and mouse.

[brandon]

even if you don't use the surround you could still just connect it as 3.1 left -center - right and subwoofer.  I think that would still sound fine for most games and  really good on newer Capcom games with Q sound.  and if you plan on play Mp3s then it would be a good thing too.  it all depends on what you are doing.  If you are just gonna be playing Pacman and such then I think is would be a waste of time and money.  but if the price is cheap enough then I would get it just for the subwoofer which makes a huge difference in games IMO.  I have 5.1 on my PC and I absollutely love it.

[Odonadon]

You assume too much!  Mame is not the only emulator out there.  As I said, zinc supports surround sound.

Plus not all games were just standups.  

And there are arcade ports for the PC in which a cabinet is MUCH better than a keyboard and mouse.

Like I said, doesn't matter if it supports surround or not.  You can't play Street Fighter 2 with surround sound.  What's the point?  The guy on the left of the screen sounds like it's behind you?  Pointless.  The sound should be from where the action is happening.

If you're making a stand-up cab, like this dude is, then the majority of games don't use surround.  If you're going to be playing Cruisin or whatever, why not make it a sit-down and really immerse yourself, instead of having godly speakers hanging from poles behind your head just for the handful of games?

I said it before, I'll say it again.  For the same price, you can get yourself a higher quality 2.1 set of speakers.

Odonadon

[BombProofPlane]

yah the 640s blow there a joke the 680s and 560s are way better but probably out of your price range so forget the 5.1 thing

[visciouslymamed]

I am going to use surrounds in my driving cab, but other than that I don't think it would be worth it.

... i'd prolly just put all 4 speakers along the top, behind the marquee..

I think that the delay to the surround speakers would cause this to sound very strange, ie too much echo.

[Howard_Casto]

You assume too much!  Mame is not the only emulator out there.  As I said, zinc supports surround sound.

Plus not all games were just standups.  

And there are arcade ports for the PC in which a cabinet is MUCH better than a keyboard and mouse.

Like I said, doesn't matter if it supports surround or not.  You can't play Street Fighter 2 with surround sound.  What's the point?  The guy on the left of the screen sounds like it's behind you?  Pointless.  The sound should be from where the action is happening.

If you're making a stand-up cab, like this dude is, then the majority of games don't use surround.  If you're going to be playing Cruisin or whatever, why not make it a sit-down and really immerse yourself, instead of having godly speakers hanging from poles behind your head just for the handful of games?

I said it before, I'll say it again.  For the same price, you can get yourself a higher quality 2.1 set of speakers.

Odonadon

Your misinformed on this matter.  Zinc emulates the zn1 and zn2 systems, both of which used a modified q-sound system that was designed for sorround sound.  Although they used 4 way speakers to simulated the effect(can't have speakers behind a commerical cab), it still is true surround sound and requires at least 4 speakers to pull off properly.  

Also various cockpit games of the late 90's used their own flavors of surround sound.  Ahtough many of them are still unemulated, they soon will be.  

Also the main point.... high quality speakers sound awful in mame.  You need a fairly cheap set or else the fact that most of the sound is in 22050 becomes very apparent.  So buying a higher quality set of 2.1 speakers would actually be counter productive in many cases.  What happens is they pick up the hissing, popping, and general bad quality of some of the samples in emulated games.  Kinda cheap speakers can't pick up such minute sounds and thus "smooth" it over a bit.  

I hate to butt into a thread like this, but I couldn't keep my mouth shut any longer.  

[Rasher2k]

The majority of games mame emulates output only two sound channels, closely followed by a number of older one channel games. The fact that nearly all arcade systems only have a left and right speaker setup (barring mostly sit-down games where there are speakers behind your head, and sub woofers which found their way in somehow), a 5.1 speaker system would be a little overkill on a stand up arcade - not to mention that arcade quality speakers usually means blown or dodgy rigs, emitting grungy garbled sound that most arcades are well known for (and loved for mind you).

But hell, do it anyway! If you can get a 5.1 setup for a good price just bung the bugger in there - you can always find uses for it later - and it will still give you great sound on anything you wanna play, just not arcade (grungy) perfect (but arcade quality sound ain't that great anyway (most of the time)). I recommend you put the L M R speakers under the marquee, and the rear speakers under the CP with the sub.


(P.S. Never play mortal kombat without a sub woofer!)

(P.P.S. If you end up deciding on a pedestal style setup with a big f.off rear projection TV, then a 5.1 sound setup is a must!)

[Odonadon]

(P.S. Never play mortal kombat without a sub woofer!)

Word.  Nothing beats "Liu Kang Wings" shaking the house apart

Odonadon

[cdbrown]

As most people have said, you don't need 5.1, especially not the center speaker.  I've got the 560's which are 4.1 and simulate a 3d surround a the press of a button, but it's not surround if all the speakers are in front.  ATM I have all four speakers sitting on the tv and it sounds great.  When I get to building a cab I will be doing what Rasher2k said and having L and R fronts under the marquee with the rears probably near the bottom of the cab in the front wall (subwoofer outside of the cab for optimal thump).

Are you going to be playing MP3's and such then you wouldn't want to get crappy speakers like Howard recommended (although I'm sure crappy speakers would be good for most games).  

Make it loud and proud.