New sound card, speakers, and headphones. What's the best way to hook it all up?

[elwood2]

I purchased a Razer Barracuda AC-1 sound card. I already have a set of Logitech Z-5500's and my HD555's (purchased as recommended by the guide on here) are coming in any minute now.

Yes, i realize it may not be the best sound card or speakers but they'll work for me.

My question is what would be the best way to hook all of this up?

The sound card has S/PDIF Optical out and, of course, analog.

First, should i hookup my speakers via optical or analog? Second, should i hook the headphones up directly to the soundcard or would hooking them up through the Z-5500's control center be sufficient? Not sure what kind of processing or decoding or whatever the control center will do with headphones if any.

If i hook up the speakers to the optical out, what is the best output option to set my sound card to for the speakers and for the headphones? I play a few games and listen to MP3's.

This is what is available:

Dolby Digital Live: The audio data will be encoded to AC-3 5.1 format.
DTS Interactive: Encoded to DTS Cinema 5.1
Digital Audio: 44.1KHz
48KHz
96KHz
or 192KHz

Thanks for the suggestions! This forum rocks!

[CyberTheo]

Simply put, hook it up in a way that sounds best to your ears. Experiment to see whether using the Razer built-in DAC or the DAC in the Logitech. The better sounding way is your best choice. Likewise for headphone hook up, try both jacks from the Razer and the Logitech to hear which sounds best to you.

[pez]

I have my Logitech speakers hooked up to my sound card, and I can't tell the difference b/w the headphone jack on the Logitechs and the sound card from my computer. I'm sure you will also get suggestions to get an amp for your Senn's down the line, too.

[elwood2]

I have the 50Ohm version, does that matter? Newegg only sells one version.

Pez, do you have your speakers hooked up via optical or analog?

I remember reading up on it a while back and i could've sworn i read that the optical output bypasses the soundcards processing and is like a direct output or something. /shrug

Any suggestions on if i should hookup my Z-5500's to optical or analog?

[Simpsoid]

I've just gone down this route.
So far all I have is the soundcard. I don't think I'll get a pair of speakers (I currently have Harman/Kardon HK195 cheapies that work really well). It looks like I'm going to get a good pair of headphones and a headphone amp. I can't decide which speakers to get so I don't think I'll get any.

I want:
Soundcard: Auzentech X-FI Prelude 7.1 Sound Card (just arrived)
Headphones: AKG K701 (just arrived today the 12th of May. Haven't hooked them up to anything yet but I'm very keen)
Headphone Amp: Little Dot MKIII (arrived in early May. Burning it in and loving it)

The soundcard just arrived to me 15 minutes ago. I have yet to open the box as I'm at work

One cool thing I like about my current setup is that I have the speakers plugged into my old soundcard analogue out (Soundblaster Live Digital) and I have my stereo amp (out in the TV lounge) hooked up to the digital via dodgy coax.
I can swap from Digital to Analogue with a tickbox in XP and it routes audio from my desktop to my TV (and disables the other output). A very cool system.

One thing I like about my cheapie Harman/Kardon speakers is that they have a headphone port on the front. I plug in my current headphones (Sony MDCD280. I think?) and the speakers turn off. I can then use the speaker volume knob to turn up the headphone level.

They have an active headphone port. Something most desktop PC speakers have. I've looked for a few 2.0/2.1 desktop speakers (preferably in black to match my monitor and case) but none of them have an active port. It's all passive.

I's a good setup but the speakers are 14 years old, soundcard is 8 years old and my headphones are 6 years old. I think I need an upgrade as sound is quite important to me (particularly in games you can hear where the sniper shots come from and listen to the bullet whizz past you. Play some Operation Flashpoint with the BAS dynamic sound addon and you'll know what I mean).

Anyways if any of you can reccommend a good PC 2.0/2.1 (I'd rather 2.0) setup I'd be more than happy to listen. I was looking at the Creative GigaWorks T40 speakers but I don't know. I think I'll just have headphones.

D

Edit: My box just died on the 12th. So I haven't even had a chance to hook up my K701's yet. I have no source :'(

[elwood2]

I finally got everything running and had some time to play with it. The new sound card made my Z-5500's sound 1000x's better. The headphones sound great with any type of music and the few games i tried on it.

I find using the optical out to my Z-5500's is not quite loud enough for the speakers and definitely not loud enough for the headphones. I think i'm going to keep it hooked up analog and use the soundcard.

I'm considering an amp for my HD-555's, any suggestions?