diy 5.1 audio setup

[AudioJunkie]

I'm working on a short film in Final Cut Pro X. I am working right now on the sound design and would like to edit it with 5.1 audio. I want to spend as little as possible on equipment.

My idea was to use my 2.1 sound system I have now and to somehow use my two keyboard amplifiers as the Left rear and Right rear speakers.

Is this a feasible method?

 

[martyp]

Unfortunately, the only method of outputting 5.1 surround sound on a Mac is using the Optical/TOSLINK connection.

If you have a Mac Pro there is the standard optical connection at the rear, all others have the connection within the headphone jack and you need a 3.5mm to TOSLINK adapter - available on Amazon for buttons.

You can't setup a 5.1 system by adding two more channels to your existing 2.1 setup - you would still be missing the somewhat important centre channel if you did so also.

You will need a system with a 5.1 decoder which accepts an optical input. Many PC speaker systems make do with three 3.5mm jacks although as stated the Mac only has stereo out.

Logitech make systems with a DD/DTS decoder box designed for the PC/Mac/PS4/X-Box etc. You could probably pick up an old set of eBay relatively cheaply.

Hope that helps.