Pc+homeaudio cross over

May 16, 2012
4
0
10,510
hi,
well i have a question tht partly comes in home audio and partly in pc .
i installed a asus xonar dx sound card a few weeks back and was planning for edifier s730 but the online store ran out of stock and thts the only store i trust for an expensive purchase.

meanwhile ive been looking at polk too,,, can i connect a polk subwoofer with 2 of the seperately available polk speakers and connect this whole setup into my sound card ??

is it possible ??

pls help !!
 
so...

you want to buy a home theater subwoofer and two seperate home theater speakers? which will have to be fed by two speaker wires and a subwoofer cable.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5811480_connect-speaker-wires-computer.html

however....this is just for small speakers. i'm not sure your soundcard could even dr ive large speakers (you would need to check its max output) and most definitely it might have trouble on any home theater subwoofer. for this you may want a cheap receiver or amp.

i have a receiver and a full 5.1 set connected via a hdmi cable (spdif cable works too) and they do sound great. much better than average pc speaker sets.
 
May 16, 2012
4
0
10,510
hmmmm no i can put in as much $ i want coz i want a very lasting setup ..... that is classy in terms of sound reproduction.....
i can hookup an amplifier a big one ...no issue... the reason i askd abt polk is that one of my online friends is suing a polk subwoofer with his hi fi system and it works well !!

thats how i came to the idea of purchasing seperate stuff from polk !!

pls guide me on amps ... and gud quality speakers wid a 400w subwoofer !!

money isnt a constrain !!
 
another thing to keep in mind is:

since you plan on buying a decent system, do you want to hook up other sources to this system besides your pc? for example do you want to run this with your television, gaming systems, turntable, ipod, cd player, etcetera?

if you want to use more than one source i would advise to buy a receiver (which has an amplifier built into it). if you are only going to use one source then just an amplifier is good enough most likely. remember to account for the future when you decide.

i'm not the best person to ask when it comes to super high grade speakers but i could tell you what i use and i've personally heard.

i use this:

pioneer vsx-30
klipsch quintet iv 5.0 satelite speaker system
klipsch 450w subwoofer

however, thats $1500 of sound equipment! not everyone wants to spend this much. i use it for multiple devices so it was a sound investment.

--

what you need to think about and answer are a few questions to help you decide:

how many sources do i plan on hooking up to this sound system?
if more than one, what are they?
do i want a 2.1 or 5.1 system (or note what you want)?
how much space do i have?
what type of speakers do i want: satelite, bookshelf, tower?
what is my maximum budget?
what am i using as a pc monitor screen and what is the connection? the reason for this is if you buy a receiver you may want video passthrough perhaps.

just some things to think about and answer...
 
May 16, 2012
4
0
10,510
hi i guess u have a lot of knowledge on systems well ive answered the question u asked pls advice more

1.well i intend to use it with my sony 888 hifi and may b with the television later on as am a student right nw i need to jus keep the pc wid me ... but yes u r right i am thinkin of keeping this setup for 10 yrs atleast .....

2. 2.1 system wud b gud but the amp shd have 5.1 facility for later on upgrades incase i decide to ~

3. well space is rather subjective depends like right now i have a 20 ft x 10 ft room .....

4. about speakers i am not clear ..... depends which one give goood sound. i can use any i just want nice sound

5. my budget is about 40,000 INR thts a lot to spend on music in india atleast ! close to 800 USD

6. I have a benq hd monitor wid HDMI input which i am currently using .
 
i'm not too knowledgeable on amps as i've only dealt with receiver units (which contain an amp inside them). if you plan on connecting 2-3 sources in the future you may want to think about going this route.

yamaha seems to make decent products as does pioneer. sony receivers in your budget range should be avoided but i've had good luck with sony speakers. onkyo is low end but not bad for the money paid.

with your budget you are looking to spend about $200 on a receiver and $500 on speakers and a subwoofer. the extraneous $100 will be for speaker cable, plugs and other miscellaneous items so you dont blow your budget.

for $500 you have quite a few options.

you can get decent small satelite speakers and a decent subwoofer.
you can get budget bookshelf speakers and a budget subwoofer.
you can get two decent tower speakers and no subwoofer. tower speakers often are able to handle the low tones better so a subwoofer might not be required.

personally i would have loved to get a set of klipsch tower speakers but that would have broken my budget for a 5.1 but for a 2.0 setup you can probably work it in. there are tons of brands out there though. what you need to find out is what is actually available where you live. if you order online remember that shipping is going to be high for large items!

cant tell if what you picked out will work as i cannot view shopping sites but i know for a fact that a receiver can hook up to pretty much any source as long as you have the ports. i run my pc, ps3 and other sources from mine fine.
 


The PC audio OUT will go to an external amplifier, then you can drive speakers.
You cannot drive speakers with a sound card, unless they are POWERED speakers.
USE powered studio monitors.
PS all computer speakers are junk.
Use real speakers and a real amp, OR use powered studio monitors.
 
@soundguruman,

i believe we were just discussing REAL speakers and a REAL amp (or receiver). if you would have read the rest of the posts you might have realized this. considering that multiple sources will be involved in the future i was leaning towards a receiver being the recommendation. if you know for a fact that an amplifier can easily handle switching between multiple sources then post the facts.

i agree that powered studio monitors are a possible idea, however, i'm not familiar with them. since you appear to be (or at least you ACT like it) then give some suggestions instead of a vague response.

i think we all know by now that computer speakers aren't what anyone would call great but they are the easiest for average people to hook up and some models really do have a good value for the dollar. to say that they are junk is just not true if you take into account value.
 

batuchka

Distinguished
Dec 31, 2007
211
0
18,910
If you are willing to spend no reason to go for PC/Multimedia speakers and i agree with ssddx : USD $200 and even lower these days you could land a nice entry level HDMI capable receiver these days and the majority ought to go with as good speakers you could afford? The Pioneer VSX-820-K and Denon AVR 1620 are some of the well regarded sub $200 receivers and i believe these offer 4 in/1 out HDMI