FoxMajik

For some years I’ve been searching for a device that does one simple thing: Takes a Dolby Surround audio source and sends the audio to the correct channels for a set of 5.1 speakers.

There are lots of devices that claim on their packaging and in ads that they support “Surround Sound,” but for the most part they’re fooling you.   Licensing Dolby’s surround decoding technology is expensive, so they use verbal trickery to fool you into thinking you’re getting Surround Sound.

There are many devices available that contain “surround sound decoders” (in quotes) that do speaker output delay to make it sound like you’re getting surround sound.  This is what most “surround sound” sound cards and USB audio devices do.  But it’s not real, discrete channel surround sound.  You’ll notice that the packaging indicates the device supports “Surround Sound” and it may even have the Dolby Digital logo, but that the packaging verbiage is carefully phrased to avoid putting the words “Dolby” and “Surround Sound” together.

There are also many “surround sound” devices that take a sound source and convert it to a Dolby Digital sound stream, which they output via a optical or coaxial digital output.  They do this so they can print the Dolby Digital logo on their package and say they “support Dolby Surround Sound.”  These devices usually have analog output connectors for surround sound speakers as well.  However, the audio that comes out of the speakers plugged into the analog outputs is not surround sound because the device is not capable of decoding a Dolby Digital, AC3 or other Surround Sound signal.

Some devices can offer true surround sound, but only when you’re playing a DVD.

Creative Labs and Asus love to use this trick.  Creative Labs’ X-Fi USB sound adapter says “Surround Sound” all over the packaging and has Dolby logos on it too, but when you open it up and try it out you find you’re not getting real surround sound, you’re getting Creative Labs’ “Matrix Surround,” which most people who have reviewed the product agree is awful.  Asus’s top-of-the-line sound card the Xonar DX sound card claims to support Dolby Surround Sound, but the use that later trick of outputting Dolby Digital sound over an optical output, which you have to plug into a device capable of decoding a Dolby Digital signal to get Surround Sound.

So licensing is expensive and it’s impossible to get a sound card that will actually output that delicious Dolby Pro Logic II, AC3 5.1 or Dolby Digital 5.1 to your computer speakers, which have their own perfectly utilitarian amplifier.  What do?

You go to China!

Enter the Leonshop HD Audio Rush Digital Surround Sound Decoder from Competitive Gaming Audio:

This little box bridges the gap between all those “Surround Sound” sound cards and your surround sound speakers.  It will take a digital input (optical or coaxial) or an analog stereo connection and output Dolby Pro Logic II music.  Pro Logic II is a technology that takes a stereo signal and converts it to Surround Sound by using distinct differences in the timing between the channels of the audio source to split the signal into six channels.  In other words, most music is recorded in a special way that makes it so you can listen it in stereo or plug the stereo signal into a special decoder to get surround sound.

This little box can also take a digital signal from those inputs and decode it from AC3 or Digital DTS into 5.1 Surround Sound to your speakers.

Sounds simple, yes?  Why don’t more sound cards do that on their own?  Remember what we said about licensing earlier:  This little device is from China, where licensing is not a problem.

This little box will be a breath of fresh air to anyone who’s been using a “Surround Sound” sound card.

You’ve got a set of 5.1 speakers, you’ve got a sound source, why whore it up with a gigantic multifunction tuner that does a bunch of crap you don’t need?

It doesn’t amplify sound.  It doesn’t decode sound and send it to another device.  It doesn’t make coffee.

It does one thing and it does it well:  Surround Sound.

Sure, there are critics that say it could be better but if you’re looking for a simple, true surround sound solution this little box can’t be beat.