[IMPERIUS]

 
Hi guys!
 
i'm sorry if this is the wrong subforum, but I need help so I guess it kinda fits in here.
 
Anyways, I want to use my old 5.1 speakers for my pc but I can only use a 3.1 (center and front L and R, sub) setup due to space limitations.
 
My receiver is the sony str db870 qs and the soundcard is the Asus Xonar DGX
 
So how can I connect the speakers to my pc? Also my pic of how I imagine it working in attachment
 
Thanks!
 
edit: of course I will use dual rca to 3.5mm adapters, y- splitters

 

[cel4145]

That seems about right. Check you DGX manual to make sure you are plugging into the right jacks on it (I can't read the writing in your pic). You'll have to experiment to see which RCA connects to the subwoofer vs. center (try both ways).

You shouldn't need any extra splitters, if that's what you mean by "y splitters." This kind of cable would work fine: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DI89OM6/r

 

[IMPERIUS]

That seems about right. Check you DGX manual to make sure you are plugging into the right jacks on it (I can't read the writing in your pic). You'll have to experiment to see which RCA connects to the subwoofer vs. center (try both ways).

You shouldn't need any extra splitters, if that's what you mean by "y splitters." This kind of cable would work fine: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DI89OM6/r

Thank for the reply. With y splitters i meant 2x rca to 3.5mm y-splitters. IF you meant what a y splitters is, its an adapters that combines two wires into one jack, looks like the letter Y

 

[ProtegeManiac]

 
My receiver is the sony str db870 qs and the soundcard is the Asus Xonar DGX
 
So how can I connect the speakers to my pc? Also my pic of how I imagine it working in attachment

 
SPDIF optical on soundcard to SPDIF optical on the receiver. You have three of them on the latter.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Anyways, I want to use my old 5.1 speakers for my pc but I can only use a 3.1 (center and front L and R, sub) setup due to space limitations.

 
You won't have true surround sound that way, so if you're planning to use this on games and movies, there will be some sounds that you will not hear at all.

 

[IMPERIUS]

SPDIF optical on soundcard to SPDIF optical on the receiver. You have three of them on the latter.











You won't have true surround sound that way, so if you're planning to use this on games and movies, there will be some sounds that you will not hear at all.

I hear that if you use optical the quality gets degraded since it has to convert it or something like that. And yes, I know I won't get true surround but I have my headphones for gaming and such, these speakers are more for music since they were just sitting in the corner not being used

Edit:The Xonar DGX software can only send 2-channels of PCM (uncompressed) digital audio, thru optical.

edit 2: I'm confirming that optical cables don't support uncompressed 5.1 surround audio. Yes, I don't have 5.1 but the max uncompressed audio optical supports is 2.1

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I hear that if you use optical the quality gets degraded since it has to convert it or something like that. 

 

Whoever told you that, you should stop listening to him, or you weren't paying attention. Everything needs to be decoded/converted since you can't exactly hear 11010000001010100101000000001 unless you're a crewmember of the Nebuchadnezzar, and only once in this as in most applications (there is only one other application where you have to need to have DAC and ADC in the same path, but I'd leave that for another discussion). The difference is where that happens - there is a DAC in the soundcard and there is one in the HT receiver. DAC circuits don't vary too much in performance unless one of those being compared is a badly designed one, and at this point there's no reason to suspect your receiver. If anything, maybe it has some file format compatibilities if you're outputting from a BluRay player, but your soundcard can output everything in 16/44 or 16/48 PCM anyway.

 

As it is it's preferable to output a digital signal from the computer, as it has less chances of picking up less noise from it (though this isn't your problem I suppose), and it also shortens the path that the analogue signal has to travel and minimizes the chances of noise and distortion (of course, it's not like this always has a huge impact, but still preferable). Many amps now have a "direct digital" topology where it's basically a DAC that feeds directly into an amplifier output stage (removing the analogue output stage, the preamp circuit, the cables, etc) to do that exact same thing and you use just about any optical disc player or any computer. These are so far speaker amps, but prior to this headphone users have been into one-box DAC-HPamps that, while retaining most of the normal parts of such circuits, at least shortens the analogue signal path.
 
 

And yes, I know I won't get true surround but I have my headphones for gaming and such, these speakers are more for music since they were just sitting in the corner not being used

Edit:The Xonar DGX software can only send 2-channels of PCM (uncompressed) digital audio, thru optical.

edit 2: I'm confirming that optical cables don't support uncompressed 5.1 surround audio. Yes, I don't have 5.1 but the max uncompressed audio optical supports is 2.1

 

It's not actually the cable, since it does carry a digital surround signal. Many people use that headphone surround processor (forgot what it's called) with gaming consoles, instead of sending out the surround signal through HDMI along with the video into an HT receiver.  Still I'm surprised the DGX can't send out 5.1 - my external USB soundcard, the Xonar U3, can send out 5.1 and downmix 7.1 for virtual surround. Then again, maybe by "compressed 5.1" it means gaming audio, which is in MP3 format, but again that's the DGX and not the cable's limitation.

 

In any case, it doesn't matter if it can't, since you're not using 5.1 speakers, and these are for music. Music is only encoded in 2.0 for the most part - you'd have to pick up SACD or DVD/BluRay audio to even have them on surround (even then not all SACDs have more than 2.0). Even then, what for? Some concert videos only have crowd sounds on the surround channels, and if you enable all five channels (assuming you can send it out uncompressed), those extra channels aren't going anywhere.

 

And ditch the center channel. You can't send out 3.1channel audio anyway as much as you can't use real 5.1. Most music, again, is only in 2.0, and there's a reason for that: most systems can image well given the right speakers and proper room acoustics. 

 

[IMPERIUS]

Snip

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/PDIF

Quite: S/PDIF is based on the professional AES3 interconnect standard.[1] S/PDIF can carry two channels of uncompressed PCM audio or compressed 5.1/7.1 surround sound (such as DTS audio codec); it cannot support lossless formats (such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio) which require greater bandwidth like that available with HDMI or DisplayPort.

As for the 3.1 system, I'm going with both L and R speakers as well as the center ones because why not? Maybe in theory its not justified but more speakers = better right?

 

[ProtegeManiac]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/PDIF

Quite: S/PDIF is based on the professional AES3 interconnect standard.[1] S/PDIF can carry two channels of uncompressed PCM audio or compressed 5.1/7.1 surround sound (such as DTS audio codec); it cannot support lossless formats (such as Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio) which require greater bandwidth like that available with HDMI or DisplayPort.

As for the 3.1 system, I'm going with both L and R speakers as well as the center ones because why not? Maybe in theory its not justified but more speakers = better right?

 
I thought you were referring to MP3 compression. Still, at the end of it you're only using effectively 2 speakers, so there's really no limitation as far as your application is concerned.

 

[IMPERIUS]

I thought you were referring to MP3 compression. Still, at the end of it you're only using effectively 2 speakers, so there's really no limitation as far as your application is concerned.

I may have used the incorrect term.
And yeah, effectively using only 2 speakers but the center one would still play sound right?

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I may have used the incorrect term.

 

It's also called compression but AFAIK it's more akin to packaging the data than shaving off some of it. Basically more like zip compression than MP3 compression, and the latter is more commonly talked about and problematized.

 

 

I may have used the incorrect term.
And yeah, effectively using only 2 speakers but the center one would still play sound right?

 

If you send a  2.0 (1 Left+ 1 Right), or 2.1 (Left+Right, Sub), no. If you send a 5.1 signal (1 Left Front + 1 Left Rear + 1 Center + 1 Right Rear + 1 Right Front, Sub), then the Center will play, but you don't have any rear audio. 

 

If you're playing music, nearly all of the recordings out there are 2.0, and the DSP on the soundcard (if you hook up 2.1 cables) or HT receiver (digital output), or the crossovers on the multimedia speaker (if you hook up 2.0 wires) split the signal to the sub. There are some DSP features that can force 2.0 encoding to work on all five channels, but this is redundant for a couple of reasons:

 

1. When you listen to a live performance, the whole band or orchestra is on a stage in front of the audience. You don't have any of them behind you, which is why music isn't recorded to have a Left Rear and Right Rear channel. Even if the vocalist jumps off the stage to crowd surf and keeps on singing the speakers that broadcast his voice aren't going with him.

2. As for the Center, that is played through both channels, and will image in the middle as long as the two speakers are at the same output level.

 

[cel4145]

+1

If this is purely for music, 2.1 is the way to go instead of 3.1. The center channel is really only useful for multichannel recordings.

 

[IMPERIUS]

 

 

It's also called compression but AFAIK it's more akin to packaging the data than shaving off some of it. Basically more like zip compression than MP3 compression, and the latter is more commonly talked about and problematized.

 

 
 

If you send a  2.0 (1 Left+ 1 Right), or 2.1 (Left+Right, Sub), no. If you send a 5.1 signal (1 Left Front + 1 Left Rear + 1 Center + 1 Right Rear + 1 Right Front, Sub), then the Center will play, but you don't have any rear audio. 

 

If you're playing music, nearly all of the recordings out there are 2.0, and the DSP on the soundcard (if you hook up 2.1 cables) or HT receiver (digital output), or the crossovers on the multimedia speaker (if you hook up 2.0 wires) split the signal to the sub. There are some DSP features that can force 2.0 encoding to work on all five channels, but this is redundant for a couple of reasons:

 

1. When you listen to a live performance, the whole band or orchestra is on a stage in front of the audience. You don't have any of them behind you, which is why music isn't recorded to have a Left Rear and Right Rear channel. Even if the vocalist jumps off the stage to crowd surf and keeps on singing the speakers that broadcast his voice aren't going with him.

2. As for the Center, that is played through both channels, and will image in the middle as long as the two speakers are at the same output level.

+1

If this is purely for music, 2.1 is the way to go instead of 3.1. The center channel is really only useful for multichannel recordings.

 
So I guess I could only make use of the center speaker in games, but then I loose all other directions except the front which ain't really good. I guess I will go with the 2.1 setup. So the new cabling will go like this:
 
From the orange jack on the soundcard to the "subwoofer" jack on the receiver, and from the "front" jack on the SC to the "front" jacks on the receiver (of course I will use rca-3.5mm adapters). Or just connect them all via 1 optical cable, right? Thanks guys!
 
edit: or I could use all my 5 speakers for music even though I won't get surround sound from it but it will create that "music from all directions" feel

 

[cel4145]

So I guess I could only make use of the center speaker in games, but then I loose all other directions except the front which ain't really good. I guess I will go with the 2.1 setup. So the new cabling will go like this:
 

From the orange jack on the soundcard to the "subwoofer" jack on the receiver, and from the "front" jack on the SC to the "front" jacks on the receiver (of course I will use rca-3.5mm adapters). Or just connect them all via 1 optical cable, right? Thanks guys!

You can hook it up to your receiver optimized for both ways--music (2.1) and gaming (3.1)--then switch back and forth via the computer and your receiver depending on which you want to use. Unless buying the cables are prohibitively expensive for you, I'd say try it with the 3.1 hooked up via analog and get an optical cable to try for music with 2.1. See which you like best

 

[cel4145]

Here's a decent optical cable for cheap: http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Digital-Optical-Audio-Toslink/dp/B00NH11H38/

 

[IMPERIUS]

Here's a decent optical cable for cheap: http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Digital-Optical-Audio-Toslink/dp/B00NH11H38/

 
Edited previous post: says: edit: or I could use all my 5 speakers for music even though I won't get surround sound from it but it will create that "music from all directions" feel