[Question] PC to Yamaha receiver

[francoba22]

Hi guys, a couple of days ago I decided to connect my old Yamaha RXV640RDS (discountinued) to my old PC with its crappy Realtek HD ALC887 and my lil' SoundBlaster Live!
The problem here is that I can't use my soundblaster because the whole connection requires a 5.1 compilant card, so I use my on-board HD ALC887 (I cancelled the mic and the AUX input so I could use the 3 inputs just for my home teather).
OK so I was looking into my receiver to see in which input could I "place" my three RCA jacks.
I have just found one that says "6 CH Input" (I looked for AUX, CD, TV and their input could hold no more than 2 channels )

OK guys so that's my first "problem" because the *** receiver doesn't have a "6 Channel" option (like CD, DVD, TV, AUX).

Well as I couldn't find any way to make it sound I decided to ask here 😀

Another question is which card should I use (I mean, which is better):
my HD ALC887 OR MY SB LIVE! (NOT 5.1).

Thanks in advance and I hope I can solve my problem. Greetings from Argentina! 😀

 

[ssddx]

the main reason for trouble here is due to how each device sends/receives signals.

on a typical 5.1 pc soundcard you use the three colored jacks. on splits a signal between the two front speakers, one between the two rears and i believe the third is your center.

home theater speakers often use one wire per speaker (two channels) so all home theater components are usually geared towards this. this is why directly hooking up HT speakers to a pc isn't as user friendly as it could be.

--

the first thing to ask would be does your receiver have a spdif optical input? does your soundcard have a spdif optical output? if so this would be the ideal connection.

if you do not, what inputs does your receiver have? either a listing of all inputs or a decent photo might help.

also, listing what ports you have on your internal (and add in) sound cards could be useful as well as if your video card uses dvi or hdmi and if your video card supports sound out via hdmi.

---

i've always liked the sblive cards i've owned. i absolutely hate the realtek software package. sound output on both devices was fine.

listing some more information in the post would help as not all of us can/want/have the time to track down details on your hardware. its easier if we can just look at what you have and offer a recommendation from there.

 

[MEgamer]

like ssddx said, i would consider teh OP to use a digital connection rather then analogue, cos ur soundcards DAC is probably not better then onboard DAC in the receiver.

if u are going for digital route, then ur probably cheapest optino is to ur optical or coaxial interconnects.. but u probably want ur soundcard to be able to encode DTS or dolby digital ( it will makes things a lot easier when u want your PC to be the source for multichannel materials)
if ur soundcard deos not have digital connection, then ur mobo should, considering that is also not too old.

 

[francoba22]

My SB has a SPDIF input and also my receiver has one. If this kind of connection does support 5.1 then I will look forward to buying a digital wire. Thanks for both answers 😀

 

[francoba22]

Best answer selected by francoba22.

 

[ssddx]

hdmi, spdif, and dvi-to-hdmi cables are the most common ways to connect a pc up to a receiver.

it can be done in other ways, but your chances of getting it to sound the same are lower. when you start trying to use the pc audio jacks on your computer and take them to a home theatre system it can be a real mess. i'm sure there is some sort of splitter box which makes it all "just work" but i've never dealt with anything like that.

the whole pc audio market should switch over to the home theater standard 2 channels per speaker, one wire per speaker deal. 6 wires, 5 speakers one sub. if soundcards have to be made larger or a special eternal plug adapter created, so be it. i'm just tired of the pc speaker market being left behind in terms of quality since pcs are becoming media centers as of late.

 

[MEgamer]

eh? 2 channels per speaker???? i have a reciever and its one channel per speaker. pre amps-out --> white and red, being the standard RCA for left and right.
and other colours for other channels which i cant remeber.

 

[anwaypasible]

i think the suggestion was positive and negative polarity from a single wire = one speaker per wire.

this can work.. but usually the slew rate is worse and the voltage from the amp needs to be higher.
when two wires are used, one for push and one for pull, then the changing of push or pull for the cone is faster.

you might design one that works really good, but then the industry leaders would come along and show you that there is also an improvement when using two wires.

you could spend $2,000 on parts to build your own amplifier that uses one wire.. then a 2 wire option will come along and totally embarass the one wire amp.

there are time constraints in the cord when you switch from a positive signal to a negative signal.
a cord could be specially made for switching between polarity.. but it wont sound as good when used as a positive or negative only.

the time domain can be said to be a factor of 4 times worse when using only one cord, because the whole scheme is quantified.

we talked about cords the other day.. and you can clearly understand, when the cord molecules push forward on the molecules in front of it.. if you ask the molecules to 'walk backwards' they would have to be connected to eachother.
that being connected can transfer more transients.. but if the polarity switched, it would be like a car pile up going forwards that needs to be stopped and done again in reverse.
the time it takes for the cars to switch gears is one slur.
the different times the vehicles start to actually move is another slur.
then, there is the voice coil and the crossover itself that has to tend to the change.

professional drivers could say 'all of our bumpers are already touching for the forward collsion.. and all of them will be touching for the reverse collision'
and that certainly helps.. but sometimes different vehicles are used and the whole line of cars has to wait until each car has switched gears.
some take longer to engage into gear than others.

and if all of the cars are the same.. the pressure on the bumpers would still cause a time delay.
they would have to have their frames welded together to be as tight as possible.
the crossover wouldnt get upset much.. because it has to deal with the polarity changes anyways.
but the component piece doing all of the flipping of polarity would draw all the way back to something as simple as having an output pin for each polarity, or a single output pin for both polarities.

some would say the component doing all of the polarity flipping would actually be faster if it only had one pin.. because it wouldnt have to wiggle its way to the second pin.
others would say the chip would have ghost traces of positive and negative, and if they mix together on the same pin.. then the output is mudded.

getting the positive ghosts on the one side for that pin.. and the negative ghosts on the other side for the other pin.. that can really remove clarity.

for a person to design one of these chips.. it all depends on the materials they have available.
if you have ghosting for both positive and negative.. then maybe you can shove all of the excess to one side and hear only half of the remnants.

we all know good and well that a DAC has more pins than four.
so it would be advised that each portion of the dac is actually doing its own part of the frequency response.
it would be good to see the DAC layed out like an real time analyzer response.
with the bass on the left, the midrange in the middle and the treble on the right.
and then something to seperate all of the digital data into the three categories.
that helps remove the problematic requests from portions of the DAC that absolutely refuse to work correctly with those requests.
and it means a possible less production cost of the DAC when the material used can be inferior for other octaves and used only for its intended purpose.

wouldnt it be weird if the DAC chip could be picked up and soldered on upside down because all of its efforts are backwards and the real quality is hidden because the DAC is upside down?
i would say that the data voltage would probably be higher at the left and lower at the right.. so if you put it in upside down the DAC is going to overheat.
and electronics people know how hard it is too cut or boost electricity without affecting its integrity.

you take the chance of ruining the DAC because it was never upside down to begin with.
and i cant solder something that small.. so i wouldnt dare try it.
and the data sheets for the DACs all say that the pins are much more detailed than simply data in and analog audio out.
meaning.. things like sync would have to be moved.

but finding this to be true.. then the quality of the DAC is that of how rectangle it is and how much quality the material is.
cutting the octaves into more pieces should help improve the materials reactive response more and more.
and if the materials are inferior to perfect, it would allow the design to at least form a template for when the higher quality materials are used.

but then again..
all of those octaves would have to feed into the same feed.. and if those feeds touch eachother, it could drown out one or more octaves.. meaning the amplifier would need to be setup for each octave seperately.. and then a stage would have to be made that allows the different octaves to finally touch eachother.
probably easier to do it with the amplifier section than the DAC.

i think the cost of the wires would inevitably go up if all of the molecules where welded to eachother AND ment for a full 180 degree of polarity flip.

certainly a fun hobby to change things around.. but consider how some amplifier components are designed for negative and some are designed for positive.
if you combine those, it will cost more for each piece and the quality would need to be re-worked again.
or if that is backwards.. it would need re-worked again anyways.
but
it should always be cheaper to ask a single piece to do half the job.
to pay the same price is to have the quality improved since it is only doing half the polarity.


my life must receive improvements.. that much i do know.
and i wouldnt be all that upset to help other people get some improvements too.
because i would love to see how society changes with all of the improvements to be had.
people should generally be happier = nicer to other people.
a more relaxed atmosphere outside from all of the ambient energy.
and a more violent atmosphere from those who simply cannot afford to participate at all?

one for all of the philosophers and psychologists of the world.

 

[MEgamer]

no im pretty sure it is not possible, with one wire, becuase that is will not complete the circuit. everything in a circuit needs a negative and positive polarity, whcich the speaker wires are.

anyway i just tried it and it didnt even move, or make a sound.

they already do one wire per speaker....for actives

 

[MEgamer]

well cars maybe different but molecules are EXACTLY the same.

 

[ssddx]

well perhaps i'm using the wrong lingo (as i'm not exactly an audio guru here) but what i meant is this:

with most audio equipment you plug two plugs into the speaker and two plugs into the receiver (probably the + and - you said, my bad). this is two "wires" but they are both usually ran side by side (in the same protective outer covering) ie, typical speaker cord.

so in total you end up with 5 cables for the 5 speakers (10 plugs ea. side) and 1 cable and plug for the sub.

with pc audio speakers you are running 5 speakers and a sub on just 3 plugs. even if it all equates out to the same number of wires coming out of the source, you'd have to have some sort of adapter to make it work.

 

[anwaypasible]

costs more to insulate higher voltages from each wire.
and what are you gonna do when the left and right is wrapped up in a single protective outer covering.. and the left speaker is 12ft away from the right speaker?

you would have to cut the outer covering and split the wires.
or
you would have to run another wire from the left speaker to the right speaker, and that costs more money because it is more wire.

this might work for a concert or band setup.. where the microphone cord is in the same protective outer covering as the front feedback monitor.. but if one cable is no good, say the connector on the microphone has a short and makes crackles when it is wiggled.. then the cord for the feedback speaker would also be no good.