Yes, I know about not mixing Powered components together, but...

[Carlton]

I'm hoping that in the following case, it can be done safely:

Need to power six 30 W active speakers, along with my DAC amp, my Sub amp, my Active Sub, my 9-band EQ, and my powered TPA 3116. Since I'm stuck with the six active speakers, and a powered subwoofer, I'm desperately trying to find a way to make them work together! And, to add insult to injury, I happened to have two headphone amps to use, but I realize that I'll probably have to use them somewhere else. Can you/someone help me sort this confusion out?

 

[tomb]

This is confusing as heck and not enough information given to permit an adequate response.

Typically, if you have active speakers - they usually are strung together with the same source only connected to one. That leaves only your sub to worry about. There are boxes out there that allow you to connect multiple end-use devices from a single source.

The Active Sub is easy, because you have your Sub amp.

As for your "powered TPA3116," the TPA3116 is a chip, not an amp. Please be more specific as to what type an amp it is. While you're doing that, you might also explain why you want to use it (along with your headphone amps) if every transducer you have is powered (except for the Sub amp - Active Sub matchup).

 

[Carlton]

This is confusing as heck and not enough information given to permit an adequate response.

Typically, if you have active speakers - they usually are strung together with the same source only connected to one. That leaves only your sub to worry about. There are boxes out there that allow you to connect multiple end-use devices from a single source.

The Active Sub is easy, because you have your Sub amp.

As for your "powered TPA3116," the TPA3116 is a chip, not an amp. Please be more specific as to what type an amp it is. While you're doing that, you might also explain why you want to use it (along with your headphone amps) if every transducer you have is powered (except for the Sub amp - Active Sub matchup).

Oh, sorry. I had a more detailed question prepared, but I kept getting consistently warned that I was over my allowed limit of words. Okay, everything is sourced by my Windows PC, with which I'm using Boom 3d sound enhancer. The TPA 3116 d2, is actually the 2x50 power amp that I just bought to help drive either all or at least some of my components, because my DAC (USB powered Fosi Q4) is limited by it's lack of RCA output ports. It has two in the back, but they seem ineffectual when attempting to drive my sub amp. So, given this limit, I'm forced to use it's 3.5 mm headphone output to drive either my six 30 watt Soundcore Motion Plus active speakers, or use it to drive my powered sub (Auna) but not both. By the way, if I try to power my sub through the Dac's 3.5mm output, it's muffled. Also, I can't seem to do much with my Fosi bt30d Sub amp, except to drive my Auna subwoofer. It has RCA inputs, but they don't seem to do a thing,when trying to connect my DAC amp to it. I also have a 9 band behringer EQ and two headphone amps. As someone who has very little idea of what they're doing, I bought the extra headphone amps thinking that chaining both together would solve my problem of getting the most performance from what I have. I hope that I filled in enough blanks to get some much-needed help! Thx

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Oh, sorry. I had a more detailed question prepared, but I kept getting consistently warned that I was over my allowed limit of words. Okay, everything is sourced by my Windows PC, with which I'm using Boom 3d sound enhancer. The TPA 3116 d2, is actually the 2x50 power amp that I just bought to help drive either all or at least some of my components, because my DAC (USB powered Fosi Q4) is limited by it's lack of RCA output ports. It has two in the back, but they seem ineffectual when attempting to drive my sub amp. So, given this limit, I'm forced to use it's 3.5 mm headphone output to drive either my six 30 watt Soundcore Motion Plus active speakers, or use it to drive my powered sub (Auna) but not both. By the way, if I try to power my sub through the Dac's 3.5mm output, it's muffled. Also, I can't seem to do much with my Fosi bt30d Sub amp, except to drive my Auna subwoofer. It has RCA inputs, but they don't seem to do a thing,when trying to connect my DAC amp to it. I also have a 9 band behringer EQ and two headphone amps. As someone who has very little idea of what they're doing, I bought the extra headphone amps thinking that chaining both together would solve my problem of getting the most performance from what I have. I hope that I filled in enough blanks to get some much-needed help! Thx

OK... this is still extremely confusing. I'm still going to need more clarifications on this.

The TPA 3116 d2, is actually the 2x50 power amp that I just bought to help drive either all or at least some of my components....

To start with...I'm not sure how that amp "helps" with active speakers, because the active speakers already have their own amplifier.

Like...how do you even hook these up? I assume the TPA3116-based amp board will have speaker cable binding posts that either take bare wire or banana plugs and are a higher gauge than line cables used to feed a low level signal (ie not yet amplified signal) to the active speakers (which has its own amplifier to amplify the low level signal).

Like did you solder speaker cables + and - into whatever jacks the active speakers use, ie, 3.5mm TRS (ie same as on earphones), 6.35mm TRS (same as on most audiophile headphones, ie the larger one), or RCA? If you did the reverse and took a TRS or RCA cable, stripped one end, and hooked them up to the speaker binding posts, there's your problem. You're trying to push amplified signals through a very thin wire.

...because my DAC (USB powered Fosi Q4) is limited by it's lack of RCA output ports.

Because it's a stereo DAC is most audio recordings. It's not until you have surround SACD, DVD-A, and BluRay that music, even without video, is on multichannel format (OK there was LD 4ch but whatever, practically nobody bought Laserdisc when CDs are easier to use in cars and DVD can take more data). Music is recorded with just two microphones and played back on two speakers trying to project the sound as "heard" by two mics...or in the case of the main vocals or anything that the engineer places in the center, one mic.

What exactly are your goals here? Surround? Because if you want surround you need a soundcard to process the surround signal and output six channels (5 + 1 subwoofer, ie, 5.1). If you're using a PC, then get a soundcard...or check your motherboard because most motherboards have surround outputs unless you get bargain basement boards or server boards.

It has two in the back, but they seem ineffectual when attempting to drive my sub amp.

Does moving the volume knob on the Q4 affect the sound? If not then the problem is that the Q4 is outputting a fixed voltage signal, which, if it was a proper fixed voltage signal, would be limited to 2V.

Sub amplifier inputs are designed to take preamplified signalsso the sensitivity might be a bit lower and they'll rely on upstream preamp circuits to be unity gain ie master volume. Basically there's already a voltage boost through a preamp circuit, just not the full-on amplifier voltage amplification with current delivery (or it can be current drive). Examples of a preamp output: the sub out on a home theater receiver, or on a soundcard or motherboard (though the max voltage can be lower than what a receiver sub out outputs), or all the RCA outputs on a home theater receiver, car audio receiver, or a car audio processor. Some car audio receivers can go as high as 8V ie Eclipse; my old Pioneer Premiere can only do 6.5V.

So, given this limit, I'm forced to use it's 3.5 mm headphone output to drive either my six 30 watt Soundcore Motion Plus active speakers, or use it to drive my powered sub (Auna) but not both.

If you have a soundcard you can hook up five of your active speakers, set the gain on those, and then use the soundcard's volume control (either hardware of through windows) to easily control those five speakers and the subwoofer. Problem is on motherboards and some soundcards particularly those that are literal cards (ie there are external sound"cards" that work via USB to the motherboard) the Center and Sub channel are in one stereo jack sharing a ground pin and this is how Logitech etc wire up their speakers, so you might need to make your own custom splitter.

By the way, if I try to power my sub through the Dac's 3.5mm output, it's muffled.

I'm surprised there's even any sound since that DAC's headphone amp circuit is not even anything like a Schiit Asgard (the OG one) with about 500mW+ of output on its headphone output jack, and speakers typically start working out of 1w.
That assumes by "muffled" you mean "low volume" as opposed to "like putting a hand on someone's mouth or pillow over somebody's face," because a sub out on a soundcard or HT receiver or car processor does a lot more than preamp the signal. It also applies some kind of crossover to remove higher frequencies. Basically even James Earl Jones' voice would not all make it to the subwoofer. More so if that's in my car because I set my low pass to around 50hz and all I hear coming out from there wouldn't even sound like music ie it won't even sound like a clear bass guitar or viola - it just adds the reinforcing low frequencies to not make my front speakers sound thin (also because in a car since the subwoofer is out back you'd want to cut it as low as possible to make the sound source harder to localize).

If you run that signal through a sub amp first then the sub amp should have its own filter. Plus adequate power, more so if it's an active subwoofer ie they wouldn't install a plate amp onto that sub enclosure if it can't get the driver in that enclosure loud enough.

Also, I can't seem to do much with my Fosi bt30d Sub amp, except to drive my Auna subwoofer. It has RCA inputs, but they don't seem to do a thing,when trying to connect my DAC amp to it.

How exactly is the DAC-HPamp connected to it? You're supposed to hook up a DAC's line outputs to the RCA inputs on the BT03D, and then you hook up passive speakers to the BT03D's speaker output binding posts using speaker cables, and then hook up either a passive subwoofer to the speaker output binding post labeled "subwoofer" or a powered sub or subwoofer amplifier to the subwoofer RCA output.

If you mean you somehow managed to do this properly ie passive speakers or rewired the active speakers to bypass the internal amp (why are you even doing it this way again?) and there's no sub output but there's speaker output it might be that its DSP only processes a subwoofer signal if it receives a digital signal, ie, via BT.

I also have a 9 band behringer EQ and two headphone amps.

OK how exactly is everything wired up because I honestly just can't imagine how all this is hooked up.

As someone who has very little idea of what they're doing, I bought the extra headphone amps thinking that chaining both together would solve my problem of getting the most performance from what I have.

Amplifiers don't work like fictional weapons where something like the ZGMF-X20A Freedom Gundam can hook up its two beam rifles in series so it can have one powerful beam for punching right through space warships instead of two beams that can punch through a couple of grunt mobile suits each.

When you hook up two audio amplifiers in series, you're just using one as an extremely powerful preamp that will overdrive the input on the second amp. You don't hook up two 10watt amplifiers in series to get 20watts much less square the power to 100watts. What will happen is the first amp will "see" the next amp's input stage as its load and try to drive that, then the second amp takes that hot (ie amplified) signal as a funnily hot line signal, but when it runs that signal through its own preamp to boost the voltage then through its own amplifier output stage, it will still produce 10watts into the load hooked up to it. Except the signal it worked on was already hot so now it will
1. Amplify any distortion and noise produced by the prior amplification process
2. Clip the signal ie reach its limits because while the signal is electronically louder due to the prior full amplification, the actual output power that will reach the transducer out of the second amp is not any higher than 10watts, so it will not have sufficient power to run what should be more like it needs 100w. This is about as squaring the power as you get ie you square the power requirement, not the actual output.

In short this is less like a Gundam hooking up two beam rifles (or in the case of the GAT-X103 Buster Gundam, a beam cannon and a beam shotgun the size of a cannon, because it doesn't work like a regular cannon that can take a solid ball or projectile and then be loaded with case shot or frag/multiple warhead munitions) and a lot more like using a V6 engine as a generator so you can charge a Tesla because you don't want to wait for 10pm to charge the Tesla.

I hope that I filled in enough blanks to get some much-needed help! Thx

Easy way to do all this: What exactly are your objectives from this system?

And then from there I might suggest you just start from scratch and return/sell all of these things you currently have.

 

[Carlton]

Well, the TPA 3116 d2 amp has both input and output ports, which allow the connection of an amp a subwoofer and powered speakers, using a 3.5 mm and an RCA cable. I hope that the wire's thickness is not an issue.

With the DAC, I'm not going after anything fancy here. I only want (goal) is to play my MP3 files, with the added components I bought. The music (mp3's) I've downloaded from internet radio. My PC's soundcard has served this purpose, as my PC served as the audio source. I just wanted to learn how I could add components to my existing setup.

Your other comments/questions regarding matching voltage, etc. is way beyond my pay grade (experience level) so I 'll be unable to add anything.

Your mention of using the computers' soundcard via USB, to connect the speakers and the sub, is part of what I hoped to accomplish. The other part is to get all these parts (including the amps) to work together as a unit. The splitter idea sounds like the optimal method of functioning.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Well, the TPA 3116 d2 amp has both input and output ports, which allow the connection of an amp a subwoofer and powered speakers, using a 3.5 mm and an RCA cable. I hope that the wire's thickness is not an issue.

If you have the right cable for the right application, it won't be. But still....how is this all hooked up again? From source all the way to the speakers. Might want to make a diagram for that.

Also why have a very powerful amp for BT speakers? Isn't that a 100wpc fullrange Class D amplifier board? I'm still not even sure how you hooked those up considering active speakers tend to only have line inputs.

ALso what exactly are the ports on that amp? I need to know what kind of connector and what the label says so I can figure out how exactly this can fit within that system. Maybe take a photo and post it?

With the DAC, I'm not going after anything fancy here. I only want (goal) is to play my MP3 files, with the added components I bought. The music (mp3's) I've downloaded from internet radio.

OK just to be clearer, yes this is already kind of what I had in mind for what you'd do with them. What I need clarification for are whether

1. Are you setting up for surround sound? Because you have six portable speakers that you seem to not want to use wireless? I'm basically scratching my head at what six small speakers that take line inputs or wireless digital signal have to do with a DAC and an amplifier and two headphone amplifiers.

2. Were your goals for the six BT speakers to take them apart and wire them up to the amps, bypassing their internal amps? This can be harder to do unless you can design some new breadboards with caps at least because there might be some kind of crossover in there since each of these speakers are multi-driver 2.0ch speakers. Even though some BT speakers can be used in pairs via BT and have each of them handle one channel, it's because there's some kind of circuit in there that shifts it to work that way, which might not be so simple to replicate by just wiring them up to an amp.

Now if I were to just work off what you said here ie just use the PC as a source to play MP3 files, what I'd say is just set aside or sell the Soundcore speakers and either

a. get the largest passive speakers that you can get (with other details considered, like whether they fit to work with the TPA3116 amp and probably ditch the sub (since I'm not sure exactly what ports it has and how they're wired up yet), or

b. Use the BT03D via BT and hook up a reasonable sensitivity (87dB/1W or higher) 4in or 5in + tweeter speaker

Regardless, if you don't actually need those Soundcores as BT party speakers and they're new I'd return them right now because for this purpose I really don't see how they work with your other gear, let alone how all the other gear can even work together.

My PC's soundcard has served this purpose, as my PC served as the audio source. I just wanted to learn how I could add components to my existing setup.

OK...I'm not sure I'm getting it right...but you mean you have your PC set up right now, but so far most if not all the gear you said you have are not actually hooked up?

Honestly I'd just ditch the Soundcores and use two bookshelf speakers, then depending on what ports are there on the TPA3116 amp, maybe it's still possible to easily work a sub in there. If your soundcard can output 2.1 audio ie apply the crossover to a 2ch signal as to output a signal for a sub then skip the DAC and just use that if the subwoofer is really, really important for you.

Your other comments/questions regarding matching voltage, etc. is way beyond my pay grade (experience level) so I 'll be unable to add anything.

Meaning if you have two preamps or a full preamp and some kind of gain control in the same chain you need to set it up such that you only move the main preamp when you change the volume as opposed to have to constantly fiddle with the downstream preamp or gain control.

So for example if you have active speakers with gain knobs (ie pro active speakers, not those BT speakers) you set the external preamp unit to around 11:00 on the knob then start cranking the gain control on one speaker while music is playing. When you hit distortion, stop, pull back a little bit, then move the knob on the other active speaker on the other channel to the same point making sure to volume match because in some cases the markings are not an indicator of how their circuits are actually matched ie there could be some imbalance still even if you have either on the same dot on their dials.

Sound complicated? This is still less complicated than how I can't comprehend the Soundcores and a speaker amp working together. If you really want something simpler and not deal with this, at all, then ditch the sub and the active speakers and just use passive speakers with what I assume is a stereo TPA3116-based amplifier.

Your mention of using the computers' soundcard via USB...

I did not mention "using the computer's soundcard via USB "because

1. If you mean "computer's soundcard," ie, a literal card on a PCI-E slot, then those don't even have USB. Maybe there's some soundcard form factor audio interface designed for USB mics for some reason somewhere out there but by and large, it typically won't have one since USB's purpose for audio is practically nil when you have a soundcard that has dedicated audio ports. Well except for one...USB-3.0 can handle higher resolution signals like 32bit audio and extremely high oversampling like DSD ie from SACD.

2. If by "computer's soundcard" you mean whatever Gigabyte paid Sound Blaster for to get on the motherboard, that doesn't typically work that way via USB. In some cases there actually is an SB-programmed DSP chip, which can still be a Realtek chip, and that will absolutely not work via USB since the board's traces go CPU >> DSP >> audio jacks; the only part that goes audio jack >> DSP >> CPU is the mic input that the CPU can then send back to the DSP (exx if you want to hear your own voice as part of the chat or if you're recording yourself singing/any instrument and you need to hear it) or maybe to USB if you're recording all audio like when streaming.

When I talked about soundcards and USB it was using an external soundcard that you hook up via USB, like the Creative X7, which will handle all the audio processing including outputs for up to 5.1 active speakers or 2.1 passive mains + active sub via the speaker binding posts and the sub line output.

...to connect the speakers and the sub, is part of what I hoped to accomplish. The other part is to get all these parts (including the amps) to work together as a unit.

Yeah and this doesn't really make it any clearer given the gear you have.

You have two amplifiers for driving passive speakers ie they don't have their own amplifier (one of them high power)...with six active speakers ie they have their own amplifiers already, hence the whole example about the ZGMF-X20A Freedom Gundam hooking up its beam rifles in series to punch through space naval vessels not being representative of how amplifiers work ie you can't use them in series in a sensible way ie boosting the signal by as much as what the TPA3116-based amp can do and wiring them up into the line input of the tiny speakers will not change how the actual amp driving the speakers will still be the built in amp of the speakers.

And then on top of all that you have two headphone amps...are there even any headphones in here? Because while they use TRS jacks on the output side these are still signals that are more like the high level signal, but like, not so high ie not as powerful.

To be very, very clear...there is just no way to make all your gear work together as a single unit. Continuing on with the Gundam example...this isn't a military where you can use multiples of one type of individual unit or unit as in group of other individual soldiers/weapons systems like having several cruisers, carriers, and battleships, and mobile suits with similar armament working together. And even in cases where there are multiples of one specific thing in a single system other than the speakers involved is, well, above your pay grade, as you said...like Scott Buwalda using six dual monobloc stereo (2ch) amplifiers in one Nissan sedan, with one driving just the tweeters, one driving just the midrange, one driving just the midbass drivers, and then each of the rest of the three other amps are bridged to drive one subwoofer each. Confusing? Exactly. If this is confusing and I understand it, take my word for it that there's no way to integrate all the gear you have now together.

The splitter idea sounds like the optimal method of functioning.

Yeah but split what signal into what, exactly? Because I still don't understand exactly what you want to do even with that. Like sure use speakers and subs together, but now there's a splitter...when there's already a Bluetooth receiver that can split the midbass to treble from the sub bass?

Or do you mean split the Left signal to three active speakers, then the Right signal into three passive speakers? Stacking those Soundcores won't make a line array speaker, at least not as line array speakers work. They could be wired to work in stereo for example, and then can be paired to work as a stereo pair but only if you use BT. Now if you use BT then you only use two of the Soundcores and you don't get a sub output either. At best you're gonna have to perform surgery on the Soundcores and either transplant the drivers and wire them up to work as a line array - which, again, if each have more than one kind of driver, will necessitate you having to design a crossover, as opposed to just sending a fullrange signal to many small fullrange drivers.

If that sounds a bit above your pay grade...well...it is. It's above my pay grade, I just have an idea on how to go about doing it, but if I were to stick within my pay grade, well...I'd ditch the Soundcores and just get larger driver speakers than try to mimic a line array speaker.

 

[Carlton]

1. Well, I actually would like to hold on to the Soundcore Motion Plus speakers - I originally bought three, but Anker gifted me with three more, after I complained about battery duration - but that's another matter. And, other than their portability and great reviews these speakers got, I don't remember exactly what prompted me to buy them. It certainly wasn't because they were Bluetooth speakers!

Because:

2. I hate using Bluetooth, so I don't. Instead, I'm using 3.5 mm cable to power the speakers.

3. Separating everything via splitter for L and R channels, then chaining all these components together (or by some other method) should allow me to play my MP3's successfully, according to a sound engineer who responded to my question, which appeared on his You Tube channel.

4. My DAC uses both a PC-usb connection for power

5. Each of these amps' connection diagrams detail exactly where the user would be able to connect to either active speakers/a subwoofer or amps,, by using the supplied Output/Input on ports.

6. I ordered a cheap mixer/splitter, which I expect would tie all this together

Now, any more questions? No, just joking!

 

[ProtegeManiac]

1. Well, I actually would like to hold on to the Soundcore Motion Plus speakers - I originally bought three, but Anker gifted me with three more, after I complained about battery duration - but that's another matter. And, other than their portability and great reviews these speakers got, I don't remember exactly what prompted me to buy them. It certainly wasn't because they were Bluetooth speakers!

Because:

2. I hate using Bluetooth, so I don't. Instead, I'm using 3.5 mm cable to power the speakers.

Well maybe return the other stuff like the TPA3116-based amplifier, the BT DAC-amplifier with subwoofer line and amp output, and maybe even your EQ? Because if you're asking how to make these all work together, the simple answer is, technically they don't.

Now if you want to get into the complex version of that and actually make them work together as opposed to just say getting real, larger 2.0 speakers and relegating these Soundcores to the patio or something:

1. Disassemble the Soundcores. Make a note of how the speakers work, ie if they're just left-right, straight up mono, and most importantly, if they have crossovers.

2. From this point you have to decide whether to
Option A : Just completely rewire the Soundcores and bypassing their built in amplifiers, and most likely their crossovers too because these could be digital and happens before the signal hits the amp circuit. The next thing you need to do if they have crossovers is to make new crossovers, even just caps on a breadboard, and for simplicity, just mimic the exact cut offs. If they're analogue but you can't just tap into the traces, you can at least try to measure the impedance there and compute what frequencies they start attenuating the signal and by how much. If they're digital though either you get the firmware details or just guess based on running a sine sweep. Either way if you can't just tap into and block off the useless parts of the board, you need to make new crossovers.

Now if you really want to use all six then you need to be able to design the crossover so as to send the signal out to all the pertinent drivers without causing a shift in the effective impedance load that will be "seen" by the amp you will use to drive these since too high and you lose power, too low and even if power increases the amp will become unstable (think of it like just putting too high clock multipliers into your motherboard BIOS and then just cranking up the voltage for the CPU and now it crashes and won't boot so you have to reset the BIOS).

After that maybe just hot glue all of them one to end into two sets of stacked speakers (three each), then hot glue one end to a board to act as a stand. Now you can set them over your desk while minimizing the distance variance between each Souncore to your ears. Note: if they have different driver types in there that means this isn't a real line array speaker and the distance variances will be all over the place with different drivers insterspersed in the column as opposed to two columns with different drivers on each channel.
Now wire up the drivers to the crossover, but the rest of the cable runs will depend on which of the other equipment you decide to keep.

Option B : Instead of just rewiring the Soundcores, you move their drivers to a new enclosure to make a real line array speaker. You need to have the same type of driver from top to bottom on one column, then another type of driver in another column. You need to get the T/S parameters of those drivers to make sure the internal volume and port dimensions will not cause distortion. Given they're from tiny BT speakers, chances are good that the overall enclosure as a single chamber might be too large for them individually, so you need to make walls to close off each and every driver (still keeping each of these to spec). They may not work in a ported enclosure either unless there's a port on the Soundcores (it might be hidden by the grill, so you really have to disassemble them completely; which you need to do to get to the drivers anyway). Stuff polyfill into the chambers behind each speaker driver or just the single main chamber if you did not have to do the individual tiny enclosures in the large enclosure.

After that work on the crossover as usual with the same concerns as above and wire up the drivers to the crossover, then wire the input of the crossover to the inner side of the binding post that will go onto the enclosure.

3. After all that, how to drive these will depend on what other stuff you will keep or have to buy.

Since you said you don't like using BT, then let's just ditch the Fosi with the BT receiver and sub outputs, so the TPA3116 will be your amplifier, and then you have that DAC.
So just hook up the DAC to your PC's USB, then hook up the DAC's RCA line output to the TPA3116's RCA inputs.

From here it can get tricky...what outputs exactly are on the TPA3116? You mentioned it has RCA outputs, but what kind and do they work even with speaker cables on the speaker outputs? If there's a selector switch between those, then assume they don't, so no, you can't use a subwoofer, so sell the subwoofer and the subwoofer amp too. Alternately, your subwoofer if it's an HT subwoofer may have a high level (ie amplified) input and a high pass crossover-effect output, so you can just wire up the speaker amp's speaker output to that input on the subwoofer, then wire up the speaker output on the subwoofer to the Soundcore-turned-line array speaker cabinet's input.

Alterrnately you can just sell the DAC and get a soundcard that can run 2.1 audio. And then depending on the sub amp you have you may not need the 2.1 amp. Or if you have an active amp you don't need either of them.

NOTE: These alternate options being alternates and numerous are partly because I don't know exactly what gear you have and what inputs and outputs they have. That's why I'm asking for photos of the TPA3116-based amp. Plus the subwoofer and the subwoofer amp that so far seems like it is not the same as your BT 2.1 amp? And also the subwoofer.

2. I hate using Bluetooth, so I don't. Instead, I'm using 3.5 mm cable to power the speakers.

3. Separating everything via splitter for L and R channels, then chaining all these components together (or by some other method) should allow me to play my MP3's successfully, according to a sound engineer who responded to my question, which appeared on his You Tube channel.

You could just do that instead of operating on the speakers, but you can't use all the stuff you have. Well, even if you did operate on your speakers, you can't use absolutely all that stuff anyway, but hey at least a custom line array speaker out of those Soundcores will be able to use one of your amplifiers.

4. My DAC uses both a PC-usb connection for power

But the outputs are only 2.0, right? If you really wanted to use a subwoofer it'd be simpler to just use a soundcard, just make sure that it has 5.1 or 7.1 output that works as 2.1 rather than just relying on what the manufacturer assumes will be a speaker box set that has all the amps on the plate amp mounted to the sub and therefore has the subwoofer crossover there.

5. Each of these amps' connection diagrams detail exactly where the user would be able to connect to either active speakers/a subwoofer or amps,, by using the supplied Output/Input on ports.

Yes but I need to know exactly what ports those are and how they work.

Like it may have line outputs, but if you're going to use the line output and speaker amplifier output together, the circuit may favor the speaker output. Or there's a switch that manually selects one over the other. This means you can't use the speaker amp circuit to drive 2.0 speakers while using the line output to send the x.1 signal to a subwoofer.

And again if you're not gonna perform surgery on the speakers, then the amp's amplifier stage is useless. At best you'll be sort of using the TPA3116 as a preamp.

6. I ordered a cheap mixer/splitter, which I expect would tie all this together

Dude we haven't even sorted out how to use the stuff you want to use together and you want all of them to be used even if I don't think they can and I'm not getting the exact info I need to at least make a suggestion on how to make this Byzantine system work even if it's not necessary because that's how you want to roll and then you go and added one more thing?!

I mean at least if you're gonna get more stuff, at least get me all I need so I can lay out a plan for you, then you can have more detailed options on what to get rid of and then buy something that actually will simplify everything.

 

[Carlton]

Yes, I see that you're a well-versed expert in the field of audio/visual equipment, but I used a portion of my setup successfully for at least two years, before these now proposed additions, notwithstanding.

Furthermore, given the fact that the manufacturers took the effort of designing several connection schemes, allowing for the use of powered speakers to use with their products, I feel pretty confident that the additions to my current (working) system , won't pose any problems for me.

Yes, I'll be happy to share with you my equipment and how its' expected to work together "technically" as you say.

Yes, I'm expecting the mixer/splitter to tie everything together. I'm no expert like you, but I trust in what I 'm doing, since some of this stuff has already worked before.

Maybe yes, maybe no, but a try won't do any harm. Either way, it's experience.

By the way, the TPA3116d2 amp is equipped with both Aux In/Out ports, which should clue you into the fact that they'll work with Active/Powered components.

I will take pictures of the documents (technical details) then send photos of my hardware.

 

[Carlton]

Here's some photos of my system setup and potential.

Yes, I see that you're a well-versed expert in the field of audio/visual equipment, but I used a portion of my setup successfully for at least two years, before these now proposed additions, notwithstanding.

Furthermore, given the fact that the manufacturers took the effort of designing several connection schemes, allowing for the use of powered speakers to use with their products, I feel pretty confident that the additions to my current (working) system , won't pose any problems for me.

Yes, I'll be happy to share with you my equipment and how its' expected to work together "technically" as you say.

Yes, I'm expecting the mixer/splitter to tie everything together. I'm no expert like you, but I trust in what I 'm doing, since some of this stuff has already worked before.

Maybe yes, maybe no, but a try won't do any harm. Either way, it's experience.

By the way, the TPA3116d2 amp is equipped with both Aux In/Out ports, which should clue you into the fact that they'll work with Active/Powered components.

I will take pictures of the documents (technical details) then send photos of my hardware.

 

[Carlton]

It All Works (headphone amps and all)!

This latest pic (bottomost) shows the setup that a few folks said was "technically impossible". That might be why I got the amount of help that I did/didn't with this project. That, and obviously people have more things to do in their lives, than look at a project (unusual; unsound,) pun intended such as this.

At any rate, it's life experience.

Thanks,

Carlbooze