I am in the process of building a new P4 3gHz system dedicated to FS2004. I bought a Soundblaster Audigy 2 and I am considering different speaker systems. I was thinking about one of the new 5.1 surround systems such as the Logitech Z-680, but the question is: Does FS2004 offer native Dolby Digital 5.1 support?? If not, what is the advantage of spending the extra $$ to only hear sound out of 2 speakers?? Thanks!!Flightsim Phil

Hello Phil,I just replied to what was esentially this very same question earlier this morning. Here is my reply copied and pasted from the post. ;)I don't believe the following is a method to get true 3D sound, but, it will give you sound out of 4 speakers on a 5.1 speaker system, instead of the default 2. This tweak is courtesy of FFX/SGA except where I just changed their tweak from 'Channels=2' to 'Channels=4' in order to get the output to go to 4 speakers. It is a replacement for the SOUND section in your FS9.cfg file.{SOUND} <-- Use brackets here instead of curly braces. The forum does not allow brackets in posts.SOUND=1SOUND_FADER1=0.300000SOUND_FADER2=0.460000SOUND_FADER3=0.620000SOUND_FADER4=0.800000SOUND_FADER5=0.810000SOUND_FADER6=1.000000SOUND_QUALITY=2Channels=4SamplesPerSec=44100BitsPerSample=16Cheers, :-)Jim

Jim:Thanks for the response.... so if I understand what you're saying, FS2004 sound is basically a 2-channel affair but by tweaking the config file, you can force 4-channel sound. In reading the various messages posted on AVSIM, it seems like a lot of people are buying expensive 5.1 speaker systems unnecessarily.Fltsim Phil

Hello Again,Well, I wouldn't discount the advatages of having a 5.1 setup so quickly.#1. If your getting a 5.1 speaker setup it's great for other games, as well as playing DVD movies on your PC.#2. Even if you are getting just for MSFS, it works great with the above tweak. I have sound coming out of 5 speakers! :) The front center speaker and the four speakers around me. And that is a LOT different than having the sound come out of just 2 little speakers in front of me with the old 2 channel soundcard and speaker setup I used to have, believe me!I honestly don't know if anything is coming out of the subwoofer in FS2004 simply because I haven't noticed it. But I will turn up my subwoofer and check it out now. I may have been getting subtle output from it this whole time and not noticed.Jim

For fs2004: no advantage what so ever. In theory, you can get true 3D sound from just 2 speakers (if we would have more than 2 ears, this would be a different matter, but a few decade old theorem states that with 2 ears you only need 2 speakers to recreate any recording spatially accurately).However, if you want to watch dvds or play other modern games you need a 5.1 system to recreate the 5.1 recording. As I said above, a 5.1 recording isn't necessarily better than a high quality stereo recording, but since the movie / game industry has decided to go that way, you have to buy a 5.1 setup to bring the original recording into your living room.If you want to save $$, get a good stereo speaker system instead. That's sufficient for MSFS. I highly doubt that MSFS will ever go 5.1, since there really is no point, especially for a flightsim that mainly recreates the loud motor sound and headset communication. I'm probably going to get the z-680 myself soon, but for watching dvds, not flight simming :)Cheers, Christian