5.1 surround sound for mac

I have a trust 5.1 surround sound system for my computer; it works perfectly with the pc. In November I change to a mac computer & I brought a usb surround sound hub but I have no joy . The sound only coming out from one speaker and not all 5 speakers. Will the Companion® 5 multimedia speaker system work on the mac. I’m a big fan of watching movies & music.

Paul

I have the campanion 5 and it works fine with a Mac - but it isn't true surround sound. It is quite good for small speakers - but the it doesn't live up to the Bose hype of sounding like a 5.1 channel system.

What USB system did you buy?

the usb hub is a Hercules muse xl pocket lt3

Are you using an optical cable for sound output from the Mac?

no just rear front & base rca cables into the hub then hub to usb

I'm not an expert on this by any means, so take anything I say with skepticism but ... in order to get surround output from the Mac, don't you HAVE to use the built-in optical output? I would have thought so. You'd then use a proper adapter to convert the optical to analog.

No I hav'nt got a optical output on my surrond system.

Well, as I say I don't know much about it, but I don't see how you expect to get 5.1 surround sound out of a Mac without using the optical out, and then converting that to digital or analog.

Here's something that might help:
How to get AC-3 5.1 surround sound on your Mac

I have been looking round for new 5.1 sorround system with optical digital output. Will the Sony Htas5-cek 5.1Ch 3D Home Cinema System with mac. I already use hdmi from my mac to my tv. Will the tv plug into the sub the the sub into the mac? here is the spec SONY HTAS5-CEK 5.1Ch 3D Home Cinema System at cheap prices | PC World

That system will do what you want yes.

It has three hdmi inputs, one hdmi out (to your TV).

It also has two optical inputs amongst others.

http://sp.sony-europe.com/media/181/90258