Volume Setup Help

[skylinenick]

Hi everyone,

Alright so I'm hooking a PC 5.1 system (a decade old Altec-Lansing ADA995) into my 2012 Sony tv. Based on the last few days of research I've concluded my best way to make this work is as follows:

TV Optical Out -->
Digital-Analog Converter (Optical cable in, 6x RCA out) -->
Red/White RCA - 3.5 converters x3 -->
Yellow/Green/Black 3.5s that plug into the speaker system

If thats confusing, I'll put it into words: The Altec's use the triple 3.5 cords (Green/Yellow/Black), meaning I have to convert them into RCA format (hence the three converters - each 3.5 gets split into a double RCA, leaving me with the 6 RCAs) which are then plugged into a converter, which an optical audio cable is feeding from the converter back into the TV (or xbox, etc). However, this setup leaves me with no volume control, since the Altec's have no external volume control (by original design)

My question is this: What can I insert into this setup to get volume control, and where would it go in the chain?

Extra detail: I have used these as speakers hooked up through Apple airplay (a 3x 3.5 splitter that the Yellow/Green/Black were plugged into that I then plugged into an Apple airport) and I could control volume through iTunes with that setup, so I do know that they respond to volume control.

Thanks in advance! Sorry it's a tad confusing

 

[ssddx]

provided your optical jack supports 5.1 and the converter supports 5.1 over optical connections that part should work.

given that pc speakers are self powered and have their own volume control knob (either on the front of the speakers or on a standalone knob that comes with the set) that is what you would use to control volume levels.

i'm guessing you want some sort of remote control volume adjustment but given that the optical jack is digital and not an amplified analog signal i'm not sure you can control volume at all with your tv.

 

[skylinenick]

provided your optical jack supports 5.1 and the converter supports 5.1 over optical connections that part should work.

given that pc speakers are self powered and have their own volume control knob (either on the front of the speakers or on a standalone knob that comes with the set) that is what you would use to control volume levels.

i'm guessing you want some sort of remote control volume adjustment but given that the optical jack is digital and not an amplified analog signal i'm not sure you can control volume at all with your tv.

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately, no these PC speakers really don't have their own volume anywhere on them. (Long story, but they were designed to go with a specific Dell keyboard and had no control besides that keyboard in what must be the worst design flaw (and quite a brilliant marketing ploy) in history. So while a remote would be cool, no I really do just mean any type of Volume control somewhere in that setup that would let me control volume

 

[ssddx]

that certainly is an odd predicament you have there.

given your situation you could probably use three 3.5mm headphone volume controls to adjust volume and that would be fairly cheap. not sure how much range you will get, but it should give you something.

they do make multi-channel volume controls which would give you one box to adjust everything with however given the prices at that point it would be better to just upgrade to a better speaker system.

--- just to clarify things... the pc speakers themselves (normally the subwoofer) does have an ac plug right? (that would mean powered speakers and the above should work). if it doesnt have an AC plug then you can disregard the above as it will not help (in which case you would need an amplifier of some manner)

the z506 is $65 and there are a few sets a bit cheaper than that in case you wanted to swap over. however, at that point you need to consider: would a sound bar or system with direct optical support be a better choice?

 

[skylinenick]

that certainly is an odd predicament you have there.

given your situation you could probably use three 3.5mm headphone volume controls to adjust volume and that would be fairly cheap. not sure how much range you will get, but it should give you something.

they do make multi-channel volume controls which would give you one box to adjust everything with however given the prices at that point it would be better to just upgrade to a better speaker system.

--- just to clarify things... the pc speakers themselves (normally the subwoofer) does have an ac plug right? (that would mean powered speakers and the above should work). if it doesnt have an AC plug then you can disregard the above as it will not help (in which case you would need an amplifier of some manner)

the z506 is $65 and there are a few sets a bit cheaper than that in case you wanted to swap over. however, at that point you need to consider: would a sound bar or system with direct optical support be a better choice?

Yeah, pretty bizarre I know. And yeah its all totally powered I would want a passive amp if I went that route to control the volume, but I looked around a bit and couldnt find much. And yeah I appreciate the advice on other systems, I'm still holding out hope on finding some workaround here. I actually couldn't find any options really on a multi-channel volume control that would kick out in 5.1, I found some with 3 channels worth of inputs but none with more than one basic stereo channel output.

A friend suggested I put an RCA Level controller in the middle of the RCA setup. It would be three knbos but theoretically would work. Any idea if those would still be passing the signal through in actually 5.1, or if they would all dumb it down into stereo? Link below for the type of thing I'm talking about. Thanks for the help!

http/www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003FPD3IS/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

[americanaudiophile]

The simplest way is to use an AV preamp processor or AV receiver with 5.1 preamp outputs.
Since your don't need HDMI or other more up to date features you can find a used unit that is kind of obsolete for HT but will still get the job done better than a stand alone 5.1 decoder. Anything that supports Dolby Digital in 5.1 channels would be fine. If you use a surround receiver (which has amplifiers in it) then you could upgrade to better passive speakers in stages.

 

[skylinenick]

Thanks for the response american, have also been looking into passive premaps or receivers so will double down on that search. Thanks!