[PurpleAngel]

  I have active speakers that have a line-level sub out. 
I want to buy a powered sub.
The system is used on my PC, and I have a SBZ.
The problem is for movies, the speakers wont receive the .1 channel to send to the sub.
The speakers are connect by usb now, and they have their built in amp/dac.
If I am able to connect my speakers to the L/R line-out of the SBZ, and then connect the powered sub to the sub-out of SBZ, will this solve my issue of losing out the LFE?
Will/Can I have to use SBZ to crossover the stereo channels to the subwoofer at 80hz?
I was thinking of leaving windows and sbz as 5.1, then deselecting center, rear, and surround, and just leave front and subwoofer selected, and set the crossover, all from sbz pro studio.
Should I select the speakers as full-range or not?

 
What is the make and model of your powered (active) speakers?

 

[bigbeard]

   
What is the make and model of your powered (active) speakers?

​KEF LS50 Wireless
http://us.kef.com/ls50-wireless

 

[PurpleAngel]

 
​KEF LS50 Wireless
http://us.kef.com/ls50-wireless

 
Your KEF LS50 powered speakers are designed to work with a normal self-powered sub-woofer.
So the LS50 take in a 2.0 signal (which is normal), then shoot off a copy of the lower frequency, thru the sub-woofer output jack (single RCA jack).
 
A 2.0 signal will (normally) carry the part of the signal that goes to the sub-woofer.

 

[bigbeard]

Yes, that is true, and optimal, for music playback.

However, movies in 5.1 have a separate LFE channel sent to subwoofer...which in the normal scenario sub will miss out on.
This is why, for movies, i am asking will i be able to connect to the soundcard itself, so it can down mox and send out the LFE channel.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Yes, that is true, and optimal, for music playback.

However, movies in 5.1 have a separate LFE channel sent to sub-woofer...which in the normal scenario sub will miss out on.
This is why, for movies, i am asking will i be able to connect to the sound card itself, so it can down mix and send out the LFE channel.

 
While i think it's great that your trying to be innovative with your audio 
I think your trying to make things more complicated then needed.
 
Your attempt to get a a fully separate sub-woofer channel might(?) make you lose out on some of the center and rear channel audio clarity.

 

[bigbeard]

I am not sure if you understand...watching a movie with missing lfe channel is actually quite bad

 

[PurpleAngel]

I am not sure if you understand...watching a movie with missing lfe channel is actually quite bad

 
Buy a sub-woofer and connect it to the LS50's sub-woofer output.
Contact KEF's tech support, see what they have to say about what kind of signal the LS50's sub-woofer port feeds to a sub-woofer.
 
And yes, select full range speakers in the computer's audio settings.

 

[Casef]

I wonder if it has been confirmed that SBX Surround for Headphone is identical to THX Trusturio Pro in old Titanium X-Fi Creative cards.
I could not find any direct comparisons on Youtube (THX vs SBX).
Right now I'm picking a card mainly for Headphone HRTF, to output digital signal to external DAC and eventually to Headphone.

From tests on Youtube I figured I prefer both SBX and THX to CMSS-3D (the latter makes sound too bright and weakens bass).
Just can't choose between the two.

I know I'm replying to a fairly old comment, but - I'm the guy who made the Bioshock Infinite virtual surround comparison video. I've been long planning a much more comprehensive comparison that would include SBX, as well as several other virtual surround technologies I was able to get my hands on (though I'm still missing quite a few, but it's unlikely I will be able to get the necessary hardware in the forseeable future), but still couldn't get to actually do it - amongst other reasons because I'd like it to be as complete as possible, covering as many of the available virtual surround solutions as possible, including different settings and modes. And that's not an easy thing to do, and, worse of all, a pretty expensive thing to do.

However, I can tell you absolutely certainly, that as far as THX TruStudio Surround on the Titanium HD and SBX Surround on SB Omni 5.1 are concerned, they definitely sound different (even through the same DAC). I haven't had a chance to compare SBX Surround on different hardware to confirm the way it sounds is independent on hardware, but on those two devices, there's definitely difference. THX (to me) sounds more "studio-like", with less reverb and affecting the original sound less, while SBX sounds a bit more "cinema-like". I also hear difference in positioning of the virtual channels and in how the slider affects the overall sound - THX (again, to me - YMMV) sounds a bit more "spherical" if you will, while SBX kinda sounds "stretched to the sides" a lot, there's a more emphasis on the left/right positioning while the front/back is deemphasized even further than it is with THX.

If I set the surround slider in THX at around 20 percent, I can get a sound that kinda sorta surrounds me, even though I'd like the rear cues to be more prominently placed in the back and less to the sides. With SBX, I pretty much can't find a setting I'd like - for me, it's either the front left and right channels sound way too separated for my tastes while the rear left and right cues are at least somewhat coming from the rear, or I can tweak the settings to make the front cues sound more natural, but then I'm pretty much not able to tell side left/right cues from rear left/right one's - they just sound like they're both coming from almost the same direction respectively, too much to the sides.

So as you can probably tell, I'm not overly thrilled by SBX. I still prefer THX Surround over the SBX one, and I much prefer Dolby Headphone over both of them, despite its reverb (which you can get used to, kinda) - not just because thanks to the virtual speaker shifter, I can position the virtual speakers EXACTLY where I want them, tweaking the surround experience precisely to my needs.

 

[x7007]

I know I'm replying to a fairly old comment, but - I'm the guy who made the Bioshock Infinite virtual surround comparison video. I've been long planning a much more comprehensive comparison that would include SBX, as well as several other virtual surround technologies I was able to get my hands on (though I'm still missing quite a few, but it's unlikely I will be able to get the necessary hardware in the forseeable future), but still couldn't get to actually do it - amongst other reasons because I'd like it to be as complete as possible, covering as many of the available virtual surround solutions as possible, including different settings and modes. And that's not an easy thing to do, and, worse of all, a pretty expensive thing to do.

However, I can tell you absolutely certainly, that as far as THX TruStudio Surround on the Titanium HD and SBX Surround on SB Omni 5.1 are concerned, they definitely sound different (even through the same DAC). I haven't had a chance to compare SBX Surround on different hardware to confirm the way it sounds is independent on hardware, but on those two devices, there's definitely difference. THX (to me) sounds more "studio-like", with less reverb and affecting the original sound less, while SBX sounds a bit more "cinema-like". I also hear difference in positioning of the virtual channels and in how the slider affects the overall sound - THX (again, to me - YMMV) sounds a bit more "spherical" if you will, while SBX kinda sounds "stretched to the sides" a lot, there's a more emphasis on the left/right positioning while the front/back is deemphasized even further than it is with THX.

If I set the surround slider in THX at around 20 percent, I can get a sound that kinda sorta surrounds me, even though I'd like the rear cues to be more prominently placed in the back and less to the sides. With SBX, I pretty much can't find a setting I'd like - for me, it's either the front left and right channels sound way too separated for my tastes while the rear left and right cues are at least somewhat coming from the rear, or I can tweak the settings to make the front cues sound more natural, but then I'm pretty much not able to tell side left/right cues from rear left/right one's - they just sound like they're both coming from almost the same direction respectively, too much to the sides.

So as you can probably tell, I'm not overly thrilled by SBX. I still prefer THX Surround over the SBX one, and I much prefer Dolby Headphone over both of them, despite its reverb (which you can get used to, kinda) - not just because thanks to the virtual speaker shifter, I can position the virtual speakers EXACTLY where I want them, tweaking the surround experience precisely to my needs.

Nice, I didn't like the SBX at all. as I bought the Creative ZXR I really didn't enjoy games as before.
S
What can you say about the Asus Strix Raid DLX Virtual Surround ? you can choose and shift the surround a bit there in the Strix Sonic Studio.

 

[Casef]

Nice, I didn't like the SBX at all. as I bought the Creative ZXR I really didn't enjoy games as before.
S
What can you say about the Asus Strix Raid DLX Virtual Surround ? you can choose and shift the surround a bit there in the Strix Sonic Studio.

Sadly nothing as I had not had a chance to test it. It's a pretty expensive card (as are most soundcards nowadays). I'd love to get my hands on one, but it's not likely to happen any time soon.

 

[bigbeard]

Do you think it is beneficial to apply sbx to a speaker stereo setup when gaming, or is it only good for using it with headphones?

 

[BrightCandle]

Do you think it is beneficial to apply sbx to a speaker stereo setup when gaming, or is it only good for using it with headphones?

I think so. It is applying some sense of directionality beyond basic stereo with natural crosstalk but its clearly not as good as the headphone mode especially for gaming.

 

[Garzhad]

Yes, dont spend money on ZxR and opamps .... I've done this and well it's "lost" money ... better to by a schiit dac ....

From my experience, for best combo at "good" price :
Z => optical out => schiit mudi2 multibit => vala 2 or project ember

Best budget :
Z => optical out => xduoo xd-05

There's people in the zxr vs thread that would probably disagree with you. The v5i's are obviously pricey as hell but theres a 'budget' op-amp set for like 20 bucks or so.

This is the kind of thing i've worried about, though, whats the more cost effective solution. On a sale you can get the ZxR for under $200, and swap the op amps for an extra Jackson, and according to the vs thread they say it sounds better than a schitt stack(in this case, $518 for the Z card and schiit stack) . And for all intents and purposes it seems the ZxR uses higher quality DAC/AMP on it's board vs the schiit stack suggested. Just seems like everyone has their own opinion on whats better or not which ultimately Really doesn't help other people decide on a mid to high range audio solution.

 

[Darch]

Anyone hear anything about a new Sound Blaster card announced today?

 

[Elocai]

Sound BlasterX AE-5, should be released in july ... it has RGB lighting but specs sound interesting

If this one has swappable op amps i'll probably buy it

I know Im perverted nerd if the first think I want to do with a new soundcard is to see her naked
http://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2017/06/soundblaster_ae5_y-100725528-orig.jpg

no swapable opams... such a turn off