My laptop has an optical out that carries a 5.1 signal. I have a set of amp'd 5.1 surround speakers with 3 minijack leads (front L/R, rear L/R, and center/sub).
I'm aware of the tons of USB and firewire (e.g. Griffin FireWave) soundcards and processors that will output a 5.1 signal for this speaker connection but I'm looking to take advantage of the optical out.
Simply put, can somebody name a pre-pro that will take my 5.1 optical signal and convert it to separate line-level signals for the 3 minijacks on my speaker input? I'd like to avoid a full receiver, that would just be unnecessary.
Thanks.
