Posted on Thursday 9 October 2008
System>Preferences>Sound
Set Sound Events and Music and Movies to “Audigy 2 ….. Multichannel Playback (ALSA)”
Then double clicked on speaker icon on top panel – Under Playback Master and PCM controlled overall volume. Under Preferences needed to add Front, Surround, Centre and LFE so the sliders appeared. Set them all quite high except for LFE (about a third volume only or even off or it sounds too boomy etc)
The 6th speaker (rear middle) is still a mystery but we are mainly there 
Hmmm changed a small switch on the back where all the speaker connections came out. Changed 5.1/6.1 to 5.1->6.1 UPMIX. Could that have been the kids? Will check to see if it works the same under XP.