Optical cable questions

[rifat10467]

Hey folks,

I own a pair of Kanto YU4 speakers and they work great and all.. but someone suggested that I swapped from AUX cable to an optical cable. I hooked up an optical cable to it today and it wasn't recognizing my speakers. Hopefully, this isn't a dumb question... but do i need to have the aux + optical cable attached at the same time? Cuz i have that now and it's working.

If the optical cable is supposed to work on its own, what could be the issue?
Are the settings on the Realtek HD Audio manager not right?

 

[mortemas]

Should be one or the other, not both. Select the optical digital (might be called SPDIF) as the default output of your computer and it should work with the optical cable only. Right click on the speaker icon in the lower right corner and select "Playback Devices" and you should see it there.

 

[jay32267]

No...the optical should work without the aux hooked up. I think you are actually listening to the aux when you have them both hooked up.

Either the speaker is not choosing to listen to the optical OR there is no signal in the optical cable to listen to.

So you either have to figure out why you are getting no optical signal from whatever you are getting the signal from OR get the speakers to take their input from the optical.

The speaker documentation and the documentation of whatever you are sending to the speakers should give you a clue on this.

 

[rifat10467]

If you remove the aux cable with the optical still connected and you are still getting audio, then it was never using the optical connection to begin with. Select the optical digital (might be called SPDIF) as the default output of your computer and it should work without the aux cable. Right click on the speaker icon in the lower right corner and select "Playback Devices" and you should see it there.

could you guide me to that for windows 10? :$

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

You have been guided through it.

Right mouse-click the volume icon in the System Tray near your clock in the corner of the Windows Taskbar. Choose Playback devices from the context menu.

In the Sound dialog window that opens, choose the output you want to use by single left mouse-clicking it, then click the Set Default button.

If you aren't certain which output to use as default for your TOSLINK connection, right mouse-click each one and choose Test, when only your TOSLINK is connected to your speaker set. If you leave your analog connection, you may not know which connection your PC is using when you get a successful test.

 

[rifat10467]

You have been guided through it.

Right mouse-click the volume icon in the System Tray near your clock in the corner of the Windows Taskbar. Choose Playback devices from the context menu.

In the Sound dialog window that opens, choose the output you want to use by single left mouse-clicking it, then click the Set Default button.

If you aren't certain which output to use as default for your TOSLINK connection, right mouse-click each one and choose Test, when only your TOSLINK is connected to your speaker set. If you leave your analog connection, you may not know which connection your PC is using when you get a successful test.

I'm on the sound/ playback page and it shows there's sound coming out of my speakers (the green bar is moving up and down) but there is no sound being produced. I have followed the directions as posted

 

[mortemas]

If you remove the aux cable with the optical still connected and you are still getting audio, then it was never using the optical connection to begin with. Select the optical digital (might be called SPDIF) as the default output of your computer and it should work without the aux cable. Right click on the speaker icon in the lower right corner and select "Playback Devices" and you should see it there.

could you guide me to that for windows 10? :$

Just catching up here. Sorry for the watered down instructions, but basically it's in the lower right corner of windows on the taskbar. Someone has already posted more details. Also, I reread the first part of my original post and it didn't make much sense! I was on break at work and rushing to type it and it didn't come out right and was a bit confusing. I edited it and simplified to be a bit more clear.

 

[rifat10467]

https/gyazo.com/220180422df2a01b59b8c220ce3808a5

This is my screen right now.
It says my speakers are not plugged in because i took out the aux. It only shows the speakers are plugged in when aux is in.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

The green sound meter shows you that sound is being produced on that output. If you don't hear it, it's because you don't have any audio output such as your speakers hooked up to that sound device, or your speakers are incompatible with the audio output coming from that sound device.

Test sound output from a different device.

You need to also test the Realtek Digital Output (not optical), as these have been mislabeled by drivers in the past.

There is no way for your audio output to know when an optical device is plugged in, unlike the aux connection. Optical is a one way street.

 

[mortemas]

You have been guided through it.

Right mouse-click the volume icon in the System Tray near your clock in the corner of the Windows Taskbar. Choose Playback devices from the context menu.

In the Sound dialog window that opens, choose the output you want to use by single left mouse-clicking it, then click the Set Default button.

If you aren't certain which output to use as default for your TOSLINK connection, right mouse-click each one and choose Test, when only your TOSLINK is connected to your speaker set. If you leave your analog connection, you may not know which connection your PC is using when you get a successful test.

I'm on the sound/ playback page and it shows there's sound coming out of my speakers (the green bar is moving up and down) but there is no sound being produced. I have followed the directions as posted

It shouldn't be the speakers. I know it sounds confusing, but the speakers in the playback list merely refer to the analog out jack. Your Kanto speakers are an external device and you want to use an optical connection. Technically, you want the sound to be output to the OPTICAL port of your computer. See the following pic:

http/ask.creative.com/wwimages/audio_int/enable1.jpg

 

[mortemas]

https/gyazo.com/220180422df2a01b59b8c220ce3808a5

This is my screen right now.
It says my speakers are not plugged in because i took out the aux. It only shows the speakers are plugged in when aux is in.

OK, looks like you got that part correct. There are 2 optical ports on the Kanto. Maybe you have to select the correct port with the speaker remote?

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

I have no idea how your speakers work. I question however if you have to use the remote control for them to specifically switch to the Optical 1 or Optical 2 input. Also, they may be limited in what frequency range they support over optical. You may have to go into the properties for the digital output from your sound device and pick different operating ranges.

 

[rifat10467]

I have no idea how your speakers work. I question however if you have to use the remote control for them to specifically switch to the Optical 1 or Optical 2 input. Also, they may be limited in what frequency range they support over optical. You may have to go into the properties for the digital output from your sound device and pick different operating ranges.

Whoa, they work! I used the remote and changed it to OPT2 and it worked.
They sound kind of weird though. I might have to play around with the frequencies?

 

[mortemas]

The computer might be sending a 5.1 signal out the optical. Check the settings of the realtek digital output device and make sure it's not set to surround or headphone virtualization or any fancy stuff like that. You want plain old vanilla stereo.

 

[rifat10467]

The computer might be sending a 5.1 signal out the optical. Check the settings of the realtek digital output device and make sure it's not set to surround or headphone virtualization or any fancy stuff like that. You want plain old vanilla stereo.

Seems like everything else is in order ^^

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

If you hear sound, and it doesn't sound like digital noise, then the speakers are working and you don't have to adjust your frequency ranges, unless you want to try for a higher frequency setting. With a digital connection it's either going to work or it isn't, and setting the frequency range too high or low isn't going to hurt anything, the receiver, in this case your speakers, just won't understand it and therefore won't output any sound.

Optical doesn't output anything other than simple stereo unless digitally encoded. This can be DDL (Dolby Digital Live) or DTS-Connect, or bit-streamed audio from a pre-encoded source such as a movie soundtrack. If the audio is digitally encoded, you either won't hear it unless your speakers also have a corresponding digital decoder that recognizes the format, or you'll hear just stereo. The digital encoding has to conform to the limits of the original stereo only bit-stream.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Keep in mind, most analog circuitry "colors" audio output. You may just not be used to having such a clean audio signal from your computer, or it could be that you preferred the particular sound the DACs in your computer gave you over the sound the DAC in your speakers is giving you. They are not going to produce the same audio unless they use the same circuitry, and it's a reasonable assumption you'll be getting a far cleaner signal by performing the conversion in your speakers rather than inside the computer chassis.

 

[rifat10467]

If you hear sound, and it doesn't sound like digital noise, then the speakers are working and you don't have to adjust your frequency ranges, unless you want to try for a higher frequency setting. With a digital connection it's either going to work or it isn't, and setting the frequency range too high or low isn't going to hurt anything, the receiver, in this case your speakers, just won't understand it and therefore won't output any sound.

Optical doesn't output anything other than simple stereo unless digitally encoded. This can be DDL (Dolby Digital Live) or DTS-Connect, or bit-streamed audio from a pre-encoded source such as a movie soundtrack. If the audio is digitally encoded, you either won't hear it unless your speakers also have a corresponding digital decoder that recognizes the format, or you'll hear just stereo. The digital encoding has to conform to the limits of the original stereo only bit-stream.

Under settings, the DTS audio and Dolby Digital are checked. The Microsoft Pro audio is not.
Under sample rates 48.0 KHZ is checked - 44.1/96.0/192 is not.

I also set the default format to the highest possible (2 channel 24 bit 192000 hz)

Sounds okay?

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Sounds okay?

Sure! Fine by me, but do your speakers actually support decoding those formats, and receiving at those frequencies?

You should test those settings.

All those settings do is tell Windows that your speakers support those frequencies and formats. That doesn't actually cause Windows to convert anything to those formats or frequencies.

Edit: According to the manual for those speakers, the DAC supports up to 24-bit 96 kHz audio resolutions, so if you manage to send any 192 kHz content to them, you're not going to hear it.

The manual does not mention Dolby or DTS decoding, so there is likely no good reason to have those checked as features they support. You won't receive correctly decoded results if Windows sends those encoded signals to your speakers.

 

[rifat10467]

The biggest thing this changed was the static btw guys.
I was getting pretty bad static using the aux.
I have almost zero static using the optical cable )