[Asterra]

I just got my hands on a pretty nice subwoofer, and I plan to make use of it.  For the sake of gaming, I still basically only use headphones, but can definitely see the advantages of having bass that one can feel in addition to hear.  Same deal for movies.
 
Little did I know that this was going to turn into a major ordeal.
 
I thought I had two choices: Use the line-out from the Xonar Essence ST in tandem with the powered headphone output (not ideal since it would simply pass everything, rather than, say, the audio specifically intended as LFE), or use the onboard (Realtek) audio's LFE channel.  Apparently, neither will work.  This far from cheap soundcard can apparently only handle one output at a time, even though the second output is just a line-out.  And most bizarre of all, if I enable the Realtek output in any capacity whatsoever, the Xonar Essence ST's audio ceases.
 
Since this is utter BS, I'm pretty hopeful that someone has a suggestion.  And no, using the Realtek for headphone audio is not a solution. ;p  It's underpowered and suffers from considerable noise bleeding; I paid $200 for a soundcard specifically to circumvent those issues.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

I just got my hands on a pretty nice subwoofer, and I plan to make use of it.  For the sake of gaming, I still basically only use headphones, but can definitely see the advantages of having bass that one can feel in addition to hear.  Same deal for movies.
Little did I know that this was going to turn into a major ordeal.
I thought I had two choices: Use the line-out from the Xonar Essence ST in tandem with the powered headphone output (not ideal since it would simply pass everything, rather than, say, the audio specifically intended as LFE), or use the onboard (Realtek) audio's LFE channel.  Apparently, neither will work.  This far from cheap soundcard can apparently only handle one output at a time, even though the second output is just a line-out.  And most bizarre of all, if I enable the Realtek output in any capacity whatsoever, the Xonar Essence ST's audio ceases.
Since this is utter BS, I'm pretty hopeful that someone has a suggestion.  And no, using the Realtek for headphone audio is not a solution. ;p  It's underpowered and suffers from considerable noise bleeding; I paid $200 for a soundcard specifically to circumvent those issues.

What make and model sub-woofer is it?

 

[Asterra]

Klipsch RW-12D.  Using the line-in, from Realtek's LFE out.  Works, but of course without Xonar output.

 

[reload]

An external sound card will drive that subwoofer.

 

[stv014]

If you just want to feed the same line out to multiple speakers, then simple RCA splitters like this one will solve the problem, the line output of the ST can handle the increased load. If you need actual multichannel audio, then the Xonar H6 card can be used to expand the ST to 7.1 output. If you do not use the built-in headphone amplifier of the ST, and multichannel output is needed, then getting one of the 7.1 cards (Xonar D1/DX/D2/D2X) instead of the ST is also an option.

 

[Asterra]

The motherboard's onboard audio is effectively an external soundcard.  I don't actually need to power the sub; I just need to get a line-out to it, without compromising the Xonar's output.  The problem here is that enabling the Xonar's output disables the Realtek output, and vice-versa.

 

[Asterra]

Good suggestions indeed.  My stumbling block is that I do indeed use the headphone amp - it's the primary reason I selected the ST.  I'm using HD650s and they pretty much need it.
 
Now, the H6... I just looked into that.  Asus does not go out of their way to specify that the combination of ST + H6 will = surround + amplified headphones.  If this expensive combination actually enabled that, I figure they'd mention it.  After all, one pretty much doesn't discover that you can only get one output from the ST until it's already bought and installed, so I don't exactly trust Asus.
 
But if it does work, then shrug.  At least it's an option, next time I have 60 bucks to throw around.

 

[stv014]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Asterra /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
After all, one pretty much doesn't discover that you can only get one output from the ST until it's already bought and installed

 
If you expected two independent stereo outputs (playing different signals, otherwise a splitter would be sufficient), that is of course not possible, it would require two DAC chips.

 

[Asterra]

I guess I just didn't envision the difficulty of:
 
Digital -> analog -> (amplified for headphone) & (not amplified for line-out)
 
In fact this seems frankly obvious.  You don't amplify a signal with the chip that's doing the conversion from digital.  And if I can split an analog signal, so can a $200+ soundcard.  I can simultaneously use 5.1 and 2.0 from my lowly Realtek, so expecting multiple outputs to function in tandem was, I think, reasonable in the case of a soundcard professing to be high-end and costing hundreds of dollars.
 
So now I find myself wondering if I could make simultaneous use of the headphone amp out & the digital out.  I mean after all, these are different beasts, and it makes complete sense that the soundcard could be sending the digital signal out prior to its analog conversion.  This would give me an option, albeit one still requiring me to convert the signal myself before sending it to the sub.

 

[stv014]

Try using a splitter on the headphone output, that seems to be the simplest working solution to achieve what you want (headphones + subwoofer playing the same stereo sound) without replacing the Xonar ST or buying an external headphone amplifier.