Connecting subwoofer to PC

[papabearster]

I have a Sony SA-W3000 Subwoofer. I want to connect it to my PC.

PC specs:
I7 2600k 3.4Ghz CPU
Asus Sabertooth P67 MOBO
XFX Radeon 6870 GPU
Corsair 750HX PSU
Corsair 8G Vengeance RAM
WD 640G Blue HD

My Subwoofers specs can be found here:
http/store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&partNumber=SAW3000

My Motherboard: http/www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/SABERTOOTH_P67/

On the back of the sub is 2 RCA plugs. One is input, the other output. I have an RCA to 3.5MM stereo cable. The RCA end is plugged into the back of the subwoofer as INPUT. The other end(3.5MM) is plugged into the back of my computer, directly into the motherboard. When I plugged it in, my sound settings pop up on my computer asking what I just plugged in. I set it to speakers(as there is no subwoofer selection). I play music, and nothing comes out of the subwoofer. I am using a 37'' Vizio TV as my monitor, which has an HDMI cable from my video card to the TV. So my sound just comes out of my tvs speakers. I just need some help getting my subwoofer to work. My motherboard sound drivers are up to date. I have tried multiple plug holes on my motherboard. None of them work. I just want to know is it even possible to connect my subwoofer to my pc? Or do I have to have some sort of receiver between the pc and sub. Any ideas or solutions would be greatly appreciated. Thank You

 

[blackhawk1928]

Haha, one of my subwoofers is also a sony WA-3000 . Its pretty bad but does its job okay. And I don't think you can connect a subwoofer straight to a sound card. You need a preamplifier or receiver with a pre-out connection for that.

 

[anwaypasible]

of course it will work.
a soundcard is nothing more than a preamp device.

but
the reason why you arent getting any audio out of the subwoofer is probably because the audio is being sent to the video card, not the soundcard.
windows only lets you pick one soundcard at a time to be the main output.
that is why there are 'virtual soundcard' pieces of software that let you tell windows to use the virtual soundcard.
and then you program the virtual soundcard software to use the video card AND the soundcard at the same time.

see, music players also have the option to choose which soundcard they use.
you could have two pci soundcards, and both of them would be in the selection list.
but
you still cant tell the music player to send the audio to both soundcards at the same time, not without some help anyways.

a program like 'virtual audio cable' can be found here:
http/software.muzychenko.net/eng/vac.htm

but
i think virtual audio cable is for more than one music player to a single soundcard.. and that makes the soundcard play both streams of audio at once.

you need something that will take a single stream of audio and send it to two different soundcards.
a directX host will do this.
it lets you choose where the stream of data goes.
like..
you could tell it to take the music from the audio player, to the onboard soundcard.. and then the output from the onboard soundcard goes to the video card audio.
the only thing is, you would have to probably use a 'stereo mix' from the recording section of the soundcard.
otherwise there wouldnt be any output from the soundcard except to the speakers.

not an easy program to hunt down and get working.. but it should be, because any video game programmer can make one themselves.. but that is probably why you dont see them very often.


anyways...
it can work, but you have to look at website after website to get the directX host that works easy.
usually you simply select the program or device, and then select the other program or device, and they show up in the area below.
then you draw a line from one thing to another to tell the data to go that way.
what it seems to be doing is combining the drivers for you at the input/output section.
it can prove to be difficult though.. because if you go through the windows architecture, windows will try to force you to use only one output.
if you ignore the windows audio architecture and build your own, then you can have multiple outputs as long as the drivers for the different soundcards allow it.

video games sometimes have the option to choose whichever soundcard you want.. so it is inevitable that sometimes you would want to choose more than one output at the same time.
that is what made the directX host popular.
game programmers wanted to make virtual adaptors and did it.

obviously, if you cant get it to work.. you would need to try any audio outputs on the back of the television.
if there isnt any.. then you would need a receiver that lets you output audio with HDMI at the same time as outputting the audio from the speaker terminals on the back of the receiver.

 

[papabearster]

Something like this program? http/www.softjock.com/rockitprodj-soundcardsetups.htm

looks like its mainly used for DJ's. Think it would solve my problem?

 

[papabearster]

Best answer selected by papabearster.

 

[anwaypasible]

looks like sample #2 is what you would be doing.
sending one to the video card, and using the other soundcard for audio as well.

the multi zone audio also seems to do the same thing.
but
it doesnt actually say you could play the same song for two different zones.
maybe you email them and ask?

anyways..
if this does work, it is only going to work for music and not video games.
but
it should prove that it can be done.

what you need is something that will showup in the soundcard list.
that way you can tell the video game to use the virtual soundcard.
and
you could tell windows to use the virtual soundcard too, that way you get audio from the computer from websites like youtube.

 

[gnomio]

Get a receiver

 

[hoggar]

Connect woofer to monitor