Integrating Swans M200 MKIII w/ Subwoofer from PC source

[ljbrandt]

I'm trying to figure out the best way (highest SQ/lowest $) to hook up a pair of Swan M200 MKIII's and a Dayton SUB-1200 12" subwoofer to a PC.

Let me qualify my questions with the following info:

The PC has the intel DH67BL motherboard with Realtec ALC892 audio (w/ optical out).

The Swans have RCA's in.
The Dayton sub has RCA's in as well, but no RCA outs.
The PC has the standard 3.5mm outs (fronts,rear,center/sub) as well as an optical output.

I have very high quality bluejeans RCA cables as well as a 3.5mm-RCA cable.


Here's are my two first thoughts:

1. Split the analog signal from the 3.5mm out (green) of the PC's mobo, send one signal to the sub and one to the speakers. However, I'm a bit weary of splitting this signal as it may degrade SQ/amplitude.

2. Buy the Fiio D3
http/www.amazon.com/D3-Digital-Converter-Optical-Toslink/dp/B005K2TXMO/ref=cm_srch_res_rtr_1

or Orei DA21
http/www.amazon.com/Orei-DA21-Optical-Converter-Headphone/dp/B008EPW7TA/ref=cm_cr_pr_sims_t

and use the mobo's optical output and have this DAC split the signal (3.5mm to sub, RCA's to speakers)

Which option would be best in your opinion...I would prefer not to use the sub's crossover handle the splitting as I want to utilize the high quality cables directly from the source.

 

[nukemaster]

The sound card should be able to remap the REAR(back) to be a second FRONT. This will let you run a cable to speakers and another to the sub.

This would need 2 of the best 3.5mm to RCA cables you can get and keep the cables as short as you can(longer cables can pick up some noise.).

Now this is Analog and some users do not like it, but its all analog when it gets to the amp one way or another.

As far as loading the sound card with a Y cable. It is very unlikely as you can connect headphones(lets say 32-64 ohm) to that plug without issues. The speakers are 28000ohm(very light load). Most computer speakers seem to be about 10000 and I can confirm that in my own testing, using to sets of 10k inputs on a y cable(so 5k because they are in parallel) did not lower or change the audio in any way(my split was only a few cm apart so it was a single cable(pair) upto that point).