My System

I thought I would outline the equipment I have here so others will know what I face in terms of figuring things out.

I essentially have a 4.0 system here. I have USB SoundSticks for the front two speakers, and old, old, Labtec speakers for the rear speakers connected through the built-in audio. Using Audio Midi Setup, I aggregated these two speakers into a single multichannel device (Quadraphonic).

While I do have two computers with optical out, I don't have an AC-3 decoder (nor extra speakers). My only access to such a decoder is when I go to my parents' place, so AC-3 passthrough will have to come very slowly, if at all.