The reality is, most onboard sound solutions will not output true 5.1 surround. Note: Even if you have an onboard soundcard with 5.1 support, chances are the quality will be sub-standard. Desktops with newer motherboards usually have it even on low-end, but laptops aren’t that lucky. As of now, not all onboard soundcards are configured to output 5.1 surround signal. Keep in mind that in order to output 5.1 audio from your PC, the sound card must have 5.1 support. Unless you properly configure the 5.1 channels in Windows 10 after connecting the hardware, you’ll most likely get a stereo output from your PC or laptop. Once you configure your system to use all the available channels to output surround sound, you can use the tests below to ensure that you’re getting the best audio quality. Before you get to the part where you test your 5.1 surround configuration, it’s important to be sure that you’ve set it up correctly.
