SurroundByUs.com

RealTek HD Audio. Yes it will depend on exactly which RealTek chip is on the motherboard and what features AMD paid to have enabled.

This will NOT be super high quality audio in any case because it will only have windows dirvers, meaning it will be difficult to get "bit perfect" sound. Maybe that's OK for 5.1 conversions and 5.1 playback (maybe only at 41KHz and 48Khz) but probably NOT ok if you want to use for your other stated goals of mixing music. For that you're going to want something with ASIO driver, although you might be able to kludge with ASIO4ALL software.

Once you get windows on there you can test and see if it will be enough for you or not. Be sure to turn off any EQ, room effects, etc., etc.

Also, on one of the disktops I've upgraded to windows 10 that had REALTEK HD, after the upgrade the rear channels are mono, meaning that whatever you put into either comes out both.

Perhaps that will get fixed with a driver update but I switched to my recommended ESI U46XL on that box and I'm back in business.

Well, I'm open for options. You make a good point that doing any multi-track 5.1 mixing on spam computer speakers probably wouldn't go so well.
I wouldn't be the next Steven Wilson, that's for sure!
If I find an old amp that doesn't have HDMI, do you think I can run the 3.5mm jacks out to spam inputs on the receiver? Or do I really need to find an amp with HDMI?
Sorry I'm a little all over the place. I'm trying to not break the bank here, while also hoping to find a reasonable solution. At least for short-term. Could always upgrade later.

It's unusual to find a 5.1 amp with preamp or 5.1 line inputs. The ones that have that feature are usually the high end or very high end ones.

Stereo in yes, optical or coax spdif in, yes. New ones, HDMI in yes. But usually not 5.1 line in.

To get around this, at one time there was a product called a creative DTS-610, witch would do DTS encoding on the fly so 5.1 spam from your computer to the DTS 610 the optical SPDIF to your Receiver.

No longer made, and very very rare on ebay.

Newer RealTek chipsets might have DTS interactive, and/or Dolby Live, which amounts to the same thing, and I've seen articles on how to activate that feature even if your MBO maker didn't enable that.

Do you suppose these DVD/6ch inputs would work?

yes. Good find.

Ah, cool. I have the opportunity to nab it, plus all six speakers for <$100.

I'm not sure exactly what model it is, but Kenwood receivers from that day and age generally (if not exclusively) topped out at 96khz for digital.
It will be interesting to see (if I like this and purchase it) if it can handle 192khz spam. Is there any reason why it wouldn't?
I'm no electronics engineer. At the spam stage is it just an electrical signal? The computer passes it to the spam inputs of the receiver, which in turn passes the signal on to the speakers?
Maybe I'll be able to hear the 192k surround, but it will be down-sampled, perhaps?

"spam" is digital converted to spam. You can ask, will I be able to hear the difference of 192Khz digital audio vs. 96Khz?, but it will have more to do with your sound card, which is doing the DtoA conversion, the the HT. You can't ask about 192 KHz spam, as there is no such thing.

Unless, you're talking about an SPDIF connection from your computer to the HT receiver, which WOULD be digital, but that format is limited to two channels at 192/24, and maybe less for an older unit like you are buying. Anything greater than 2 channels will have to be encoded into two channels. E.G. DTS 5.1 (@ 44.1 or 48Khz) can go over SPDIF.

That's an OK connection method for DVD playback, but is problematic for playing back files, as things must be in exactly the right format and playback must be "bit perfect" (which windows works really hard at screwing up).

Saying hi from my newly set-up win 7 system.
Got the Kenwood VR-606 wired up. Wish I could spin my first movie or album, but win 7 is not playing nicely with the MSI 970A-G43 motherboard yet.
I'm not the greatest at installing drivers and stuff. I did download the suggested driver installer from the Realtek site and ran it, but no luck (did reboot).
:-/
Baby steps!

Enable HD sound in Bios.
Progress - lil speaker thing in the bottom right no longer has the red "x"!!!