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External Amplifier + X-Fi possible?

D

Dark Prodigy

Jawbreaker
Joined
Mar 10, 2006
Messages
2,803
Building an HTPC soon and it will be for use with 50" Plasma...but I'm concerned about the audio.

Being an experienced builder, I understand 'normal' computer audio. My current machine has Z-5500 speakers and an X-Fi Platinum...it sounds magnificent. But in my living room I want some nice floor speakers, Athena or Infinity..maybe Polks and huge subs. My question is I'm concerned about the X-Fi being capable of driving those types of speakers; how seamless is it to add an external component amplifier (Denon, Carver..etc..) to an X-Fi sound card or do I even need one?
 
it's not really a question, an amp/reciever of some kind is required to drive floorstanding speakers. So your next question should be what amp. I'd go Harman Kardon or Denon, though a carver would be nice.
 
Chair said:
it's not really a question, an amp/reciever of some kind is required to drive floorstanding speakers. So your next question should be what amp. I'd go Harman Kardon or Denon, though a carver would be nice.
Click to expand...


Well is more than a 1 part question...I'm interested how well will an external amplifier 'play' with a conventional pc soundcard, dts decoding, thx, digital/analogue input are what I'm interested in as well. I could easily render a very nice amp almost useless if not configured properly.

I was hoping a computer audiophile in these forums would have some experience in this matter.
 
i use an HK avr130 with beta 50's etc using an ac97 onboard (which sounds pretty bad) and all i do is run coax digital for music and movies (it will decode digital source from your amp if you tell it to spdif out in powerdvd or whatever you use) and then for games since my soundcard doesnt have dd or dts encoding, analog is necessary if you want proper channeling

works great and makes a z5500 set worthy of the trash can
 
Doesn't the digital coax on the X-Fi only put out 2.1 audio?
 
I use a mini plug to rca adaptor to run the singal to my bookself system to play my music library. I also hava a friend that uses 3 of them to run the signal to a surroud setup for his projector. Kind of round about but it works.
 
Blue Falcon said:
Doesn't the digital coax on the X-Fi only put out 2.1 audio?
Click to expand...
:confused: I don't think so? I thought the idea of digital was to output all information pre-processing.
 
The X-Fi will only output digital audio to 2.1

I have reciently run into this problem with my current speakers. Its a stupid anti piracy rights management thing. I am waiting for some community drivers that will enable digital 5.1 output. THe X-Fi is more then capable of doing it, but the big wigs of the entertainment obviously managed to push that feature onto creative.
 
I like this particular amplifier.. Marantz Amp It will look nice with my Silverstone LC18 I'm going to build plus it has the rms power and digital decoding & DTS. This is the type of amp I want to drive my floor speakers Athena Floor Speakers or some nice Infinitys..its only a 2-channel amp but I could split the signal to incorporate 2 more for surround. But I think I'd lose true 5.1 or 4.1 without at least a 4 channel amp...I think...

X-Fi has this set of cables...Home Theatre cables ..I'm thinking i could use this to hook my X-Fi to the amp and then distribute accordingly...The subwoofer hasn't been decided yet, but it will have its own power...

Any thoughts...?
 
silentwolf said:
The X-Fi will only output digital audio to 2.1

I have reciently run into this problem with my current speakers. Its a stupid anti piracy rights management thing. I am waiting for some community drivers that will enable digital 5.1 output. THe X-Fi is more then capable of doing it, but the big wigs of the entertainment obviously managed to push that feature onto creative.
Click to expand...
Oh. That's freakin' odd. Thanks for the info, though.
 
Dark Prodigy said:
I like this particular amplifier.. Marantz Amp It will look nice with my Silverstone LC18 I'm going to build plus it has the rms power and digital decoding & DTS. This is the type of amp I want to drive my floor speakers Athena Floor Speakers or some nice Infinitys..its only a 2-channel amp but I could split the signal to incorporate 2 more for surround. But I think I'd lose true 5.1 or 4.1 without at least a 4 channel amp...I think...

X-Fi has this set of cables...Home Theatre cables ..I'm thinking i could use this to hook my X-Fi to the amp and then distribute accordingly...The subwoofer hasn't been decided yet, but it will have its own power...

Any thoughts...?
Click to expand...


*sighS* Still noone knows...
 
silentwolf said:
The X-Fi will only output digital audio to 2.1

I have reciently run into this problem with my current speakers. Its a stupid anti piracy rights management thing. I am waiting for some community drivers that will enable digital 5.1 output. THe X-Fi is more then capable of doing it, but the big wigs of the entertainment obviously managed to push that feature onto creative.
Click to expand...

I thought this was ONLY for DRM'd and DVD-Audio (and in those cases NO ouptut at all). Not for Dobly Digital or DTS audio. Would kinda make multi-channel creative speakers that have a digital input pointless wouldn't it?

Note DVD-Audio in almost every player I have seen either requires analog outs or a proprierty interconnect like Denon Link.
 
1) DVD-A does require analog. There is no way that one cable can handle that bandwidth.
2) X-Fi only outputs 2.1 channels thru the digital because thats what ALL digital outputs pass through. Unless its encoded to DD or DTS

I don't think it has anything to do with DRM. Thats just how DVD-A and digital outputs work.
 
Smitty2k1 said:
1) DVD-A does require analog. There is no way that one cable can handle that bandwidth.
2) X-Fi only outputs 2.1 channels thru the digital because thats what ALL digital outputs pass through. Unless its encoded to DD or DTS

I don't think it has anything to do with DRM. Thats just how DVD-A and digital outputs work.
Click to expand...

1. IS NOT TRUE. It requires analog for DRM reason only. 1 cable certainly can handle "all that bandwidth". Firewire does it, and Denon Link does it. Those are two examples of connections that are not analog that can transport DVD-A because they meet the DRM restriction requirements.
 
silentwolf said:
The X-Fi will only output digital audio to 2.1
Click to expand...

Not true. If audio is in 5.1 (dolby/dts) then it is passed on to a receiver as 5.1
Not to be confused with DVD-A, gaming audio etcetera that have their own pile of limitations.
 
simple answer......yes. I use that hometheater cable mentioned above for eax effects and surround sound in games via the multi channel inputs of my reciever, and let the reciever decode dts.es or dd.ex...etc, via spdif or optical. You can also ue multichannel inputs for movies and let the soundcard decode the channles if you set up your dvd software as such. Works for me. One thing to note in deciding on the reciever. Make sure it has at least 6 multi-channel inputs or 8 like mine does. 6 are for 5.1 and 8 are for 7.1
 
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