The prices for adapters are pretty high compared to what I'm used to. Certainly not as high as a new system, but I'd rather get something up to date than hold on to this old thing. I could always sell this system and use the money for a new system. I'd really like to get rid of this because it doesn't have many useful ports on the back, it has a really bulky central unit, and its grey color doesn't match the rest of my hardware (yes I know, I shouldn't really care about that, but I do).
Back to my original question, I'll try to clarify because I don't think I explained it very well. I have a 5.1 surround sound card. From what I understand there are 3x 3.5mm jacks to get 5.1 surround sound: front left and right, center and sub, and back left and right.
What I want to know is if each speaker has to be specific to its use. For instance, are the front left/right speakers any different in hardware from the back left/right speakers? If they aren't, I should be able to use 4 of the same bookshelf speakers for front left/right and back left/right.
I also have a question about the sub and center. Since my sound card combines center and sub into 1 port, I'm guessing it works like stereo in that it splits the output into 2 "sides", but instead of left and right, it's center and sub. So I do need an actual subwoofer instead of a bookshelf speaker, but could I use a bookshelf speaker for the center speaker?
To combine these two questions, I'm asking if instead of buying an official 5.1 surround sound system, could I just buy a sub, and 5 bookshelf speakers? I apologize if I made that confusing.