How to make my subwoofer connect to sub port on my pc?

EighthGear

Honorable
Apr 28, 2013
5
0
10,510
I just bought a polk audio psw10 and wanted to connect it to my pc. I bought rca cables to hook it up with a splitter to 3.5 mm, so it connects. I currently am playing it in my green jack(the main one) but would like to set my sub to work as a sub instead of recieving channels it wont process anyways. I set up 5.1 surround sound, and while it is connected to sub port, the sub sound works when i test it, but as soon as I try to play music on my computer, it doesnt come out of the sub. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

 
Solution
I would go back to splitting it so it's always getting audio and just turn down the low pass filter so it only filters out the lowest bass and add's the umph.
It's because the music is only in 2.0 channels, so the sub won't be activated unless you play something in surround. Should also be able to set 2.1 instead of 5.1, but won't make a difference unless something is encoded with the .1 channel.

That's why I use a receiver for my sound. It has all kinds of Dolby modes that can take a 2.0 signal and make it into a 6.1 signal for my speakers so all my speakers get used. PC's though, are more straight forward. Number of channels in is number out.
 

EighthGear

Honorable
Apr 28, 2013
5
0
10,510

So what would be the easiest way to set it up as the .1 if most of music isnt surround? Should I just keep it as is or is it really worth getting a receiver?
 

ien2222

Distinguished
If your audio software supports base management, you can turn that on and regardless of content, it'll send the lower frequencies to the sub and the higher to your left/right. You'll have to have the sub plugged into the sub port as an fyi.