Connecting 5.1ch speakes?

B

black.hat

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 10, 2012
Messages
66
This might be a silly question, but I've never used a 5.1ch speakers in my whole life, I recently get a Edifier S550 5.1ch Speaker system that come with a subwoofer, and i am using ASUS XONAR ESSENCE STX/90 Sound Card. I am just confused about where to connect the cables?

I took couple of pictures about what the inputs and outputs i got plus the provided cables.

Appreciate your help.

http://i49.tinypic.com/33lzhtt.jpg
http://i49.tinypic.com/2mmdatx.jpg
 
as far as i can tell, the only way to ouput 5.1 out of your soundcard is via dolby digital spdif either through the optical toslink or the electrical coax connection.

I don't think your speakers input digital signals.
 
What is the solution? Any converters? Or I could try to buy a cheap amplifier and connect the cables to it? Change the sound card? or finally just return these speakers and pay 25% restocking fee and get other speakers?
 
Your speakers only accept analog 5.1 input but your sound card doesn't have analog 5.1 outputs; your sound card appears to only output 5.1 through an encoded Dolby Digital stream through the SPDIF (digital) output.

You would need a sound card with six individual 1/8" outputs designed to output 2-channels per output and you would need three 1/8" to RCA stereo cables (something like this) going from the sound card to the speakers. Most sound cards have these outputs unless you have one of those high-end cards that only seem to focus on headphone and 2-channel output, like that ASUS card.

You notice how this card has the 1/8" jacks on it. You would use the cable linked above to connect to your speaker set.
 
djoye said:
Your speakers only accept analog 5.1 input but your sound card doesn't have analog 5.1 outputs; your sound card appears to only output 5.1 through an encoded Dolby Digital stream through the SPDIF (digital) output.

You would need a sound card with six individual 1/8" outputs designed to output 2-channels per output and you would need three 1/8" to RCA stereo cables (something like this) going from the sound card to the speakers. Most sound cards have these outputs unless you have one of those high-end cards that only seem to focus on headphone and 2-channel output, like that ASUS card.

You notice how this card has the 1/8" jacks on it. You would use the cable linked above to connect to your speaker set.
Click to expand...

Thanks for explaining this, Any recommendation on the card? Seems that i got only two choices:

1. ASUS Xonar Phoebus
2. Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
You'll definitely want more opinions on this because I'm not familiar with enough sound cards to really know what's really good.

The Recon3D wasn't very popular because it wasn't better (I think it was actually worse) than the older Creative products. Creative quickly created the Sound Blaster Z series to correct where they went wrong with the Recon3D. I think one of the key selling points of these newer Creative cards is that they have a very good noise cancelling feature that allows you to crank your speakers AND use a mic without any feedback. If they're dumping the Recon3D with a front panel for $100 then it might be a good time to buy one; the cards with the drive bay accessory are usually well over $150.

Looks like that ASUS card might have a similar noise cancelling feature but I don't know much about those cards. The Xonar probably has better sound quality.
 
Most motherboards have 5.1 audio with 4 jacks. Might hold you over until the fancy sound card comes in.
 
If that speaker set is still in its return window, and you paid anywhere near its ~$600 MSRP, I'd very seriously consider returning it in favor of an entry-level AV receiver and discrete 5.1 speaker setup. For the same price, you'd end up with a significantly more flexible setup, with vastly better audio quality.
 
XenIneX said:
If that speaker set is still in its return window, and you paid anywhere near its ~$600 MSRP, I'd very seriously consider returning it in favor of an entry-level AV receiver and discrete 5.1 speaker setup. For the same price, you'd end up with a significantly more flexible setup, with vastly better audio quality.
Click to expand...

Well no, I get it a lot cheaper for $343.41 plus $25 california tax, and the good news is that I still can get my money back on the ASUS XONAR ESSENCE STX/90 as it still fall under 30 days satisfaction guarantee (my setup is hell new). so it was only a matter of spending more $16 to get an upgrade to that new card :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top