Audio Setup Help

[nonta14]

Hi guys. My current audio setup is using a USB sound card. The Creative X-Fi 5.1 USB. As of right now I have 2 monitors connected to the system. I want to add a subwoofer. The X-fi comes with a sub output but the problem is I need help with how to setup the subwoofer onto this soundcard. The second question is, should I connect the USB sound card via USB or the optical cable? Thanks a lot. PS. The sub I have is a mirage PS-12-90.

 

[ssddx]

if you're set up with a 2.0 system the subwoofer jack doesnt trigger on a pc soundcard. the subwoofer jack is only active when using 5.1.

you're going to need to put a 3.5mm splitter on the front L/R (green) output and send one to the speakers and one to the subwoofer. since your sub has a low-pass you'll want to dial that in to eliminate the high freqs.

 

[nonta14]

if you're set up with a 2.0 system the subwoofer jack doesnt trigger on a pc soundcard. the subwoofer jack is only active when using 5.1.

you're going to need to put a 3.5mm splitter on the front L/R (green) output and send one to the speakers and one to the subwoofer. since your sub has a low-pass you'll want to dial that in to eliminate the high freqs.

What do you mean it's not going to trigger? I read the manual and it says that I need to connect it via a 3.5mm Cable?

 

[ssddx]

how pc soundcards (5.1 audio) generally operate is that the channels are divided up as such:

-front left/right
-center/sub
-rear left/right

generally if you're using a 2.0/2.1 system it is auto recognized as stereo only and you will only be using the one jack (FL/FR) since all pc sound systems just pull from this for the subwoofer and do not use a separate jack for sub. normally to get the subwoofer channel to work correctly you would need a 3.1/4.1/5.1/7.1 system hooked up, otherwise if you run it as such in the settings it will trigger just fine however you will lose out on the information being pushed to the channels you do not have connected.

this is due to how pc speaker connections are hooked up.

 

[nonta14]

how pc soundcards (5.1 audio) generally operate is that the channels are divided up as such:

-front left/right
-center/sub
-rear left/right

generally if you're using a 2.0/2.1 system it is auto recognized as stereo only and you will only be using the one jack (FL/FR) since all pc sound systems just pull from this for the subwoofer and do not use a separate jack for sub. normally to get the subwoofer channel to work correctly you would need a 3.1/4.1/5.1/7.1 system hooked up, otherwise if you run it as such in the settings it will trigger just fine however you will lose out on the information being pushed to the channels you do not have connected.

this is due to how pc speaker connections are hooked up.

So basically is I just set the system that it is a 5.1 and do not connect the rest the sub will work right? If yes then it's fine. I haven't bought the cable yet. Just got the sub today so will test it out thank you very much!

 

[nonta14]

Will this work?

 

[ssddx]

if your software and card allows you to single out just the subwoofer channel and use it alongside the front speakers then it might, but be aware the 3.5mm shares center and sub channels so you'd need to split the sub channel off by itself. worth a try i suppose.

if you try the setup and arent hearing voices and are missing other content then it would be because of what i said before.