Bookshelf Speakers + Subwoofer - How to Connect to Sound Card? Help!

[turnuptheac]

Hi everyone,

I have the Swan M200MkII's and a Polk PSW505 subwoofer. My computer has a Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ity, and a Realtek onboard audio system.

I'm not really sure the best way to connect them to my computer...I know both cards have a single jack for Center/Subwoofer, but what happens when I don't have a Center with the Subwoofer?

Here are a few tests and results:
Connected to Realtek Onboard: I changed the Speaker Configuration to 5.1 Speaker with Subwoofer On and other things off. When I test play, all the sounds except for the Subwoofer play through the Swan's, and the Subwoofer plays through the Subwoofer just fine. So this is great, except when I play any sound or music, I get no Subwoofer. This was tested with Pandora, Youtube Videos, games, music collection, etc. I'm not sure why the Subwoofer gets no sound?


Connected to X-Fi Titanium:
I connected the Swans to Green for Front Left/Front Left, and the Polk to the Orange Front Center/Subwoofer. I then changed the Speaker Configuration to 5.1 since that's what it Auto Detected. When I tested the channels, I could only hear the Front Left, Front Right, and Subwoofer (as expected). But unlike in Realtek, I can't seem to combine the channels of all the speakers into the FL/FR and keep the Subwoofer as is.

What should I do?

Can I put a splitter into the FL/FR of the X-Fi, and run both the Swans and the Polk off the splitter?

Swan: http/www.theaudioinsider.com/product_info.php?loudspeakers=swan-active-desktop-sound&p=swan-m200mkii&cPath=21_24&products_id=184
Polk: http/www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-12-Inch-Powered-Subwoofer/dp/B000092TT0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322896535&sr=8-1

 

[ssddx]

is the center port labeled "center/sub" ?

most of the pc sets i've seen go from the rear ports direct to the subwoofer which then splits out to the speakers and the control unit which is normally integrated into one speaker.

this is why direct connecting speakers to a pc often raises such questions as the one you've found out. unlucky for you i havent heard of a way to direct connect in the manner you are seeking. perhaps if you searched google for "direct connect speakers to pc" or something of the sort.

--

it might not be how you wanted to hook things up but you could get a cheap budget receiver and use that to control your audio. it likely is able to power your speakers better as well.

i run a dvi-to-hdmi out to a receiver with video-passthrough to my screen. works fine without any issues at all.