I'm an audiophile too but Dolby 5.1 surround is still overshooting at this point.

@faxanadu - Stereo goes far beyond that. You're not thinking from audio design perspective. Stereo promotes 2 separate channels of sound. Mono is only 1 channel of sound being transmitted to all the speakers. Let's use a live band as an example: If the band's music was in mono, all the instruments would come out of the available speakers. If it is in stereo, you can route the bass to come out of the left speaker and the guitar out of the right speaker, pan the drums (mike'd up of course) so that it's dithered between both channels to give a "centered" feel, along with the vocals. A grungy guitar and bass out of the same speaker used to distort each other's sound, which was why audio recordings switched from being mono to stereo many many years ago. Technology has gotten better since the old days, but how mono and stereo work haven't changed. Feeling a little silly now for telling me to "do my research"? Mono
@SHMUP - Yeah, as said above, MONO will transmit its 1 channel to every available output if you let it. The same sound signal will come out of every speaker. However, if you watch a movie that has surround sound, you will not hear any sound displacement.

@Rol - It's debatable. DD5 allows for a whole separate use of the subwoofer that DPL2 fails at. You'll get a lot more "theater experience" sound out of that subwoofer (explosions, etc) than DPL2 can do. From an audio programming/design side, its easier to use a program like DirectSound (part of Direct X tools) to drop an audio file into a channel and have it always played out of the assigned speaker. DPL2 takes a bit more work.

Really? How I can do it with this sound system: http://www.alteclansing.com/index.php?file=north_product_detail&iproduct_id=vs4121 ?

My TV only has a headphone socket... I guess that's the problem.

^^ Well if it s a headphone jack, it will likely be in stereo. I've not heard of a mono headphone jack, and the last one of those was proabably made in 1962. What kind of connection you have at the end of those speakers is important. Is it a male headphone jack (1/8")? If so, you should be able to plug it right into the tv, granted the hedphone jack on it is the smaller one (1/8" female). If its a bigger one, you'll have to do a little Radio Shack shopping (electronics shop). Headphone jacks come in 2 flavors - 1/8" and 1/4" . 1/4" are common for studio gear, such as audio mixers, etc. 1/8" is the standard size for most portable electronics (mp3 player, psp/ds, etc). I can probably tell you what specific adapters you need if you can tell me what the connection size is on your tv. The speakers you linked DO have a 1/8" male connector, looking at the specs. So its all about the TV connection now to find a solution for you.

I've spent the past 9 years building and reconfiguring my home recording studio. =)

@rol - It was accepted because the GC also had DPL2. Anti-Nintendo people used all their ammo on putting down the GC audio connection. The combo of non-HD and "wagglefest" was enough ammo for people to not have to resort to comparing audio for the Wii.

LOL I don't care of you believe me or not, I've experienced the difference in person, demonstrated by professionals in the game industry AND the Dolby staff themselves.

Yeah, it's a small jack on my TV (1/8" I believe). Well, all I know is that this fits in it. Also, when I plug my headphones, the sound only comes out on one side of the phone though.

And was it worth it? I love good audio myself, but I just don't have much knowledge about this male and female stuff! xD

@bardicverse:

Please read norleads post. He is a moderator on this site after all:

"Stereo is for those cheap TVs that can't split the Mono source to both speakers. So if your TV sucks, you need to use Steroe, but if you have a really good one Mono is the better choice."

q.e.d.

wow, I didn't think anyone would take my nor Faxanadu's post serious at all, but it seems as if Bard is quite serious in this thread

Anyways, if you really want to know about audio, I suggest you head over to http://www.audioholics.com/ for some good reads.

^ Nord, I didnt take yours seriously. =) I don't take you seriously at all. I guess I didnt pick up on Fax's sublety, I thought he was dumb enough to believe you for real and questioning me on my core area of knowledge. =) Guess I fell for the bait again. I like to argue. That's why I spend so much time in this godforsaken place

@SHMUP - I see what's going on. Your TV setting is in MONO transmission, but your headphone jack is in Stereo. When Mono transmits on a stereo connection, it will only work in the primary channel (left). Check your tv audio options, you should have the option to switch to either Stereo, or "Headphone" (which might be how they identify their stereo transmission) You should be able to plug the speakers directly into the tv and get the full stereo sound out of them all.

ok, I'm really confused if anyone is taking this thread serious or not, so I'll post a serious post

The reason no one complains about the lack of surround sound is that the vast majority of people either

1) only have a stereo setup (surround sound never took off like DVDs even though it is fully supported by the industry)
2) can't hear the difference (sometimes due to poor setup, sometimes because they have no ear and can't tell the difference)

Honestly, sound quality stopped mattering after people could buy cheap L/R speakers and a subwoofer with CD quality sound. While surround sound is vastly superior, it is much easier for people to see a difference in a picture, than hear a difference in a set of speakers.