1 set of speakers, two towers...

blckgrffn

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May 1, 2003
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I have two boxes, a main gaming box and a media box with an older all in wonder, etc. Well, I am putting a Audigy 2 in my main box, and an VIA Envy based card in my media box. I also just sold my Logitech speakers (the BIG 4.1's) and ordered a set of Creative Gigaworks 5.1's. My question is - how can I best hook up this set of speakers to both towers? Previously, I was running the line out from my media box's onboard sound into the Fortissmo III in my main box, and then out over the speakers. Now, I want to use the media box for my main music box and the Audigy 2 in my gaming box for games and DVD's. I have spent a good chunk of money, so I don't want to lose too much sound quality to achieve this.

Note: Please don't slam the decisions I made, I did a lot of research and this is what I chose. It's my $400, not yours ;-)

Thanks for any help you might have!
Nat
 

wfbberzerker

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Apr 12, 2001
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good point. well, i think the only way to easily do it would be to buy some kind of stereo thing with lots of buttons and knobs, which is more money than i imagine you want to spend. i think you should just swap the cables whenever you're switching what computer youre using. unless, that is, someone else has any ideas.
 

blckgrffn

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lol, I switch back and forth an incredible amount on the ol' KVM, also it is sometimes nice to listen to music while playing a game, and it works better to have media player running on the other box. A friend of mine proposed trying the splitters that you might use with a portable CD player for two sets of headphones, and run the speakers out of one side of the split and the other computer INTO the other side of the split - he thought this would work, as the signal in would get passed to the speakers out due to the design of the splitter. I may pick one up and try this tonight. But I sure would appreciate input - thanks wfbberzerker.
 

minofifa

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May 19, 2004
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i checked the creative site out but i couldn't find out what kind of inputs the speakers have. I was wondering because there are some speaker systems like the logitech z680's that have 3 different hookups: optical, coaxial and analog. Still though, even if you have multiple things hooked up, you can only listen to one source at at time.

maybe you can find some sort of mixer?
 

Treyshadow

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Jan 31, 2000
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You should have 1 optical and 1 coaxial digital audio.

This is a pretty easy answer

connect the Audigy 2 to the speakers using a 1/8 inch mono to RCA connector you can buy at radio shack for about 5 bucks. Plug this adapter into the SPDIF connector of the Audigy 2. Then get a 75 Ohm subwoofer cable or coaxial digital cable and run it from the adapted Audigy 2 SPDIF port to the Speakers coaxial digital audio port

For the Fortissimo III, it has optical, so optical to optical on the speakers.
 

blckgrffn

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I don't think these speakers have anything but analog in, but I will know for sure tonight when the friendly Fed Ex man drops off my New Egg order ;-) Also, the Fortissmo III is getting traded for the Envy, my dad wants it for the dedicated headphone jack. Wish more cards had that, by the way...
 

Matthias99

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Oct 7, 2003
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Originally posted by: blckgrffn
I don't think these speakers have anything but analog in, but I will know for sure tonight when the friendly Fed Ex man drops off my New Egg order ;-) Also, the Fortissmo III is getting traded for the Envy, my dad wants it for the dedicated headphone jack. Wish more cards had that, by the way...

Uh... get three 2-1 stereo headphone jack splitters? They work just as well splitting two outputs to one input as the other way around... that won't work well if you want to listen to both things at once, though (it may work acceptably, it may be too noisy). Then you'd need a mixer of some sort.
 

blckgrffn

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Wehoo!

Got my gigaworks last night. Holy crappola! Such a noticeable improvement over the Logitch z-640's they replaced. Who ever says these are too quiet is nuts, I gave myself a headache watching the Matrix - but it was worth it though. Plan on watching Kill Bill vol2 tonight! I may also try the three headphone splitter solution tonight. Still can't express how much nicer these Creative speakers are. Only on the very heaviest, loudest, lowest bass at full volume is there distortion. Awesome! Paired with the Audigy and Power DVD Pro Ex w/all of the sound packages (came with my fortissmo) its apparent movies are going to be awesome! Max Payne 2 was pretty incredible too, much more immersive. I am going to try the headphone splitter solution tonight as the speakers only have analog in, and let you know how it turns out. I wish I could try them and the klipsch side by side, but I am happy at this point.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I'll let you know how it works out.
Nat
 

sfmedic

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Aug 14, 2004
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To me it sounds like you need an audio switching device. Often these can be at radio shack, Best Buy, Circuit city, etc... Often are more geared toward A/V. The newer ones should be set up with digital in and out.

Also you can pick up a fairly decent Hometheater receiver that has several inputs from different sources. Also have you thought about a wireless multimedia router?