Solved! Rear Channels and Front Central coming out of the subwoofer?

[rianisharyne]

Hello!

I have recently got myself a 5.1 setup (Genius Home Theater SW-HF 5.1 6000) as well as external sound card (Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro) that's supposed to be for laptops specifically.

The problem is both of my rear channels and front centre are coming out of the subwoofer. Even in sound test via the sound card's interface (Creative Entertainment Console).

I have already checked the cables to ensure everything is plugged properly. The cables are labelled so unless something is misprinted I don't think the issue is there.

Thank you for help and happy holidays!

 

[alexoiu]

Hi, And happy holidays.
Can you describe how you connected the sound card to the sub and sub to speakers?

 

[rianisharyne]

Hi, And happy holidays.
Can you describe how you connected the sound card to the sub and sub to speakers?

I took some pictures.

https/imgur.com/a/qpiNWbn

 

[alexoiu]

If disconnecting the C and SUB inputs from the sub, still rear channels played by the sub?

 

[rianisharyne]

If disconnecting the C and SUB inputs from the sub, still rear channels played by the sub?

No. After I disconnected C and SUB from the subwoofer the rear channels made no sound whatsoever, not even through the sub as normally. Same if I put C back in and leave SUB out only. Only when SUB is plugged in do the rear channels and central come through the subwoofer again. Also the sounds are very muffled but I assume that's normal because it's a sub?

 

[alexoiu]

Are you sure that the connections of the "rear" cables from the card to the sub are correct?

 

[alexoiu]

Try not using those extenders.

 

[rianisharyne]

Try not using those extenders.

I added more pictures to the previous album

https/imgur.com/a/qpiNWbn

 

[alexoiu]

Apparently, the sound card does not send signal on rear and cen channels. What if connecting the front cables from card to rear inputs on sound? All other cables disconnected. Do the rear speakers ork? If yes, then I'd suspect the card. If that's he case, try uninstalling and reinstalling the audio drivers.
If still no go, I'd RMA the card.

 

[madmatt30]

If you just plug the left & right front & the sub & run a sound test is the sub working properly.

Ie - only passing the lfe channel.

Its impossible to check your wiring from photos when all those r a extensions are the same colour.

To me it's a setting on the genius itself,you maybe have a pseudo surround sound mode selected rather than proper 5.1?

 

[rianisharyne]

I tried swapping the cables out several times. No matter what I do, no sound ever comes out the rear speakers. Right now, rear channel is coming out of my front speakers and front channels are muffled through the subwoofer like rears normally are.. Might be possible I installed 2.1 driver instead? I had huge problems installing the driver to begin with; had to do it in safe mode. But I'm sure I clicked 5.1 in the installer app. But I'll try to reinstall it. Nothing lost by trying.

 

[rianisharyne]

If you just plug the left & right front & the sub & run a sound test is the sub working properly.

Ie - only passing the lfe channel.

Its impossible to check your wiring from photos when all those r a extensions are the same colour.

To me it's a setting on the genius itself,you maybe have a pseudo surround sound mode selected rather than proper 5.1?

The inputs have writing on them, otherwise I'm confused. Do you mean wiring as in from the speakers into the sub and not the plug thingies? I did the wiring one by one so not sure I could've made a mistake there.

Also the sub is working normally, always has. The sound is like 2.1 but the central and rears don't make a sound and their sound comes out of the sub instead.

 

[madmatt30]

I assume you use the dvd input on the genius for speakers connected as 5.1?

I would uninstall the creative software personally.
Drivers should remain, then just use Windows inbuilt sound settings, ensure the creative is enabled as default & set output to 5.1, then try the inbuilt Windows audio test.

It 'should' work fine

 

[madmatt30]

I trust your wiring if you've checked & double checked.

You're plainly rear & centre output but it's plainly going out as 2 or 2.1 & either the creative or genius is trying to mix channels to fill the speakers.

As I said, you don't actually Need the creative software at all.

Just use the Windows sound settings, set to5. 1, disable speaker fill checkbox.

 

[rianisharyne]

I reinstalled the driver
Removed all the Creative software I could (cannot seem to uninstall the console without also uninstalling the driver apparently)
Set the speakers as default and to 5.1 in Windows.

https/i.imgur.com/n22grqY.png

I'm including a picture. After the installation the Speakers were set to default, not the SPDIF thing.

The only difference between choosing the two is SPDIF doesn't seem to use subwoofer properly.

Otherwise we are back to square 1. Front speakers are great, subwoofer is working as it should, but rear and central are coming out the sub and are also very quiet.
The fill speaker thing isn't there and never has been (been trying to troubleshoot via Googling )

Oh also checking the full range option somehow turns off the sub too. Or, not turns off but makes it really quiet.

 

[madmatt30]

Full range will pass most of the low range frequencies put of the front speakers so that's normal.

Full range needs to be off.

At a loss though as yo whether the problem is the creative or the genius side.

So when you run the windows 5. 1 test (not the creative one)front left & right are fine, sub is fine, centre & rear comes through sub??

Try unplugging everything but the sub, plug left & right rear from the creative into front left & right on the genius.

Does the rear left/right test push audio out of the front speakers??

In this scenario is the sub output still pushing low frequency out of the sub?

 

[rianisharyne]

So when you run the windows 5. 1 test (not the creative one)front left & right are fine, sub is fine, centre & rear comes through sub??

Yes. In both Windows and Creative test.

Try unplugging everything but the sub, plug left & right rear from the creative into front left & right on the genius.

Does the rear left/right test push audio out of the front speakers??

If I leave the Creative without touching but plug the rears into the sub where frontals should be, rear signals come through the frontals without a problem.

Now this is where it gets interesting. Fronts also come out of there but it's more quiet, maybe 40%? Except I don't even have them plugged into the sub, just the card. So now I have both rear and front coming out of the front speakers clear as day.

So right now my card is plugged the same way but the only cables connected to the subwoofer are:
Rears in places of fronts.
Sub.

That's it. Fronts and centre are unplugged.
This results in both front and rear coming out of the fronts and centre still muffled through the sub. Also the fronts are now about as quiet as rears normally are.

This is really weird wtf.

 

[madmatt30]

Remove everything creative, software & drivers

See in Windows can download a generic usb audio driver from control panel, device manager.

If rear had worked fine I would have put the blame squarely on the genius itself, with a front test signal coming though without the cables connected though there is something untowards on the creative side without a doubt.
Its doing some weird cross channel mixing for some reason.

 

[madmatt30]

Some 3d setting enabled in the creative software??

Hoenstly that's the only thing I can think of, that kind of channel mixing issue is normally down entirely to software unless there is some wiring problem in the hardware itself.