Microsoft Digital Sound System 80  

Anyone know if there is a driver for Windows 7? My laptop recognizes it, but says there is no driver and won't use it.

Tews hate to say it but that is not a link to the drivers, if you click on the download all you get is the installer for DriverDetective.

As far as drivers for that speaker set goes, unless Windows detects and installs its native USB audio driver I think it is safe to say forget it. Those speakers came out in 1998,

Digital Sound System 80 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and I seriously doubt that they would still be receiving support.

stormy13 said:

Tews hate to say it but that is not a link to the drivers, if you click on the download all you get is the installer for DriverDetective.

As far as drivers for that speaker set goes, unless Windows detects and installs its native USB audio driver I think it is safe to say forget it. Those speakers came out in 1998,

Digital Sound System 80 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and I seriously doubt that they would still be receiving support.

Yeah, they included the drivers through XP, and strange thing is Windows 7 correctly identifies them, just doesn't make them work.

Wouldn't have taken much for them to leave the drivers in.

They may have come out in 1998, but I still haven't found any computer sound system better, and they have USB and analog inputs which you can use at the same time, and impressive thundering bass out of the subwoofer--my neighbors get to enjoy my Bad Company 2 battle sounds

If they can be connected via analogue, then just plug them in that way to your sound card (pretty sure the DAC even for today's onboard will be better than what is in that speaker set).

Also despite the name they are not digital speakers, they are still just plain old analogue speakers with their own built in sound card (same applies to any USB audio device). As far as digital speakers goes,

Digital speakers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Problems

Although digital speakers can function, there are various problems with this design which make it impractical for any normal uses at present.

Size

For the number of bits required for high quality sound reproduction, the size of the system becomes impractically large. For example, for a 16-bit system with the same bit depth as the 16-bit audio CD standard, starting with a 0.5 cm² driver for the least significant bit would require a total area for the driver array of 32,000 cm², or over 34 square feet (3.2 m²).

This is interesting--just plugged it into my desktop and the drivers installed, no problem, so it's just my Toshiba laptop which doesn't install the drivers, though they are both running Windows 7 Home Premium.

Anyone have any ideas for getting it to work on my laptop?

stormy13 said:

If they can be connected via analogue, then just plug them in that way to your sound card (pretty sure the DAC even for today's onboard will be better than what is in that speaker set).

Also despite the name they are not digital speakers, they are still just plain old analogue speakers with their own built in sound card (same applies to any USB audio device). As far as digital speakers goes,

Digital speakers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Problems

Although digital speakers can function, there are various problems with this design which make it impractical for any normal uses at present.

Size

For the number of bits required for high quality sound reproduction, the size of the system becomes impractically large. For example, for a 16-bit system with the same bit depth as the 16-bit audio CD standard, starting with a 0.5 cm² driver for the least significant bit would require a total area for the driver array of 32,000 cm², or over 34 square feet (3.2 m²).

Yeah, of course the analog works, but I have them plugged into 2 computers--one by analog, one by usb, and the computer connected to usb is how you control the master level and subwoofer level, though there are also buttons for that on one of the speakers, you can't see the level if you just use those.

The desktop computer with Win 7 recognizes them, but it's weird--the computer volume control controls the subwoofer level instead of the master volume and there is no way in the computer to control the master level.

yes, I'm also looking for a way to use these again, with my Win7 OS.
They are awesome speaker set that I've been using for 11 years. If there was anything else on the market as good, I would buy it, believe me!
But there isn't, especially as far as the floor-standing little bass unit goes: it's just amazing the LOW bass that it reproduces (if properly placed).

So ......... I'm sure there's a bunch of us owners who still appreciate this little setup and are waiting for some solution to the driver problem.

MIRACLE!! I know its been at least 2 years since the last post to this thread. But BINGO!! Just as I was about to take my set of MS Digital Sound System 80 to Goodwill or Staples to recycle, I tried one last time! And it worked!! Windows 7 recognized them, found drivers, and they're working like a charm!! Go figure!! FYI, I am running Windows 7 Professional x64 on a partitioned MacBook Pro. I have NO idea why but they're working like a charm!!

Chuck

I have a new Lenovo laptop, I lost one cable but it still connected using the usb cable and works fine. Operating on Windows 7 home..