5.1 Amplification Question

[Cr0nJ0b]

Hey everyone.

I need some help soliving a sound issue on my system. I have a 5.1 (soon to be 7.1) stereo sound card (Actually I have a SB Audigy Gamer and an on Board solution from an ASUS motherboard). In my room I have stereo speakers mounted on the front wall and mini powered speakers for the back. The problem is...how do I drive the front speakers? The Card and MB solutions don't put out enough power...

I've looked at Off the shelf speaker systems, but most don't have plain speaker inputs and are just too expensive.

I used to have an AMP that I could use for this, but it's too big and bulky..and isn't working too well.

I'm looking for a small cheap AMP that would boost the power from the PC for the speakers...

Any suggestion?

thanks

 

[LED]

You can hook them up via 1 Auto Audio Amp with a Convertor or get some amplified 5.q's or just buy 1 new Amp/Receiver

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

If you just need to power two speakers and they are reasonably efficient (mid 80s or higher for dB/watt) then a sonic t-amp might be a good solution for you.

It has a 1/8" stereo input and speaker wire outputs, is that what you need?

It's battery powered but you can get a power adapter for it it you want.

At that point, you might want to consider just getting a cheap stereo receiver to power them...

 

[LED]

I geard the Sonic T Amp and was definitely quite impressed :sun:

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: LED
I geard the Sonic T Amp and was definitely quite impressed :sun:

I only read about it, but from what I've read it seems like an amazing product.

 

[LED]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: LED
I geard the Sonic T Amp and was definitely quite impressed :sun:

I only read about it, but from what I've read it seems like an amazing product.

Parts Express is 1 of my Suppliers and I also buy for them ...They just recently got this item in ...For the size nothing short of Amazing and I plan on running the Bass Sharhers thru them in my Wagon

 

[imported_crypt33]

so yoyohows, you're saying that simply running optical out from my mobo (in my case an Asus A8V as my sig shows) will NOT do 5.1 in games that support it? only for movies? why is this? (not trying to hijack this thread, I just saw the subject & realized it may relate to what I want to try some rainy day, which is get Doom 3 working in 5.1 on my home theater setup)...wow, if it indeed does not work, that's very annoying/problematic...what's the point of having optical out if you cant hook it up tp a receiver & have everything work....? we tried t with a friends computer & it didnt work properly, but i assumed it was his older gear/software...troubling

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: LED

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: LED
I geard the Sonic T Amp and was definitely quite impressed :sun:

I only read about it, but from what I've read it seems like an amazing product.

Parts Express is 1 of my Suppliers and I also buy for them ...They just recently got this item in ...For the size nothing short of Amazing and I plan on running the Bass Sharhers thru them in my Wagon

Just a warning: I bought a cheap $40 receiver off ebay for the purpose of running bass shakers and I needed to turn the volume practically all the way up on it to get them to shake at all. Then I connected the lfe signal to the phono input on the receiver and it's working a lot better now.

Just thought I'd let you know I had to go through that to get decent strength out of them.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: crypt33
so yoyohows, you're saying that simply running optical out from my mobo (in my case an Asus A8V as my sig shows) will NOT do 5.1 in games that support it? only for movies? why is this? (not trying to hijack this thread, I just saw the subject & realized it may relate to what I want to try some rainy day, which is get Doom 3 working in 5.1 on my home theater setup)...wow, if it indeed does not work, that's very annoying/problematic...what's the point of having optical out if you cant hook it up tp a receiver & have everything work....? we tried t with a friends computer & it didnt work properly, but i assumed it was his older gear/software...troubling

Just about every digital output from soundcards/motherboards is not capable of getting a 5.1 signal out because in order for a receiver to get a 5.1 signal through digital it needs to be in Dolby Digital or DTS format.

You need a card that can encode one of these formats in real time and that will allow a multichannel signal to be sent to your receiver.

There are only a few Dolby Digital Live solutions out there (soundstorm motherboards, HDA X-Mystique, Turtlebeach Montego).

Other than with one of these products, the only way I know of getting true surround sound in games is to get a receiver that has 6 or 8 channel direct input and hooking up via analog as you would for any set of computer speakers.

Did that answer your question?

 

[LED]

So with the 25 wts RMS they are rated into 4Ohm go ahead a Series a pair and run them thru a 50 wt per channel Car AmP?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: LED
So with the 25 wts RMS they are rated into 4Ohm go ahead a Series a pair and run them thru a 50 wt per channel Car AmP?

I think that sounds like a plan. I'm running them in series to my sherwood receiver for an 8ohm load.

 

[LED]

Heheh...just found This one hanging round :shocked:

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: LED
Heheh...just found This one hanging round :shocked:

Like around your house?

(I know 0 about car audio by the way )

 

[LED]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: LED
Heheh...just found This one hanging round :shocked:

Like around your house?

(I know 0 about car audio by the way )

Yep 4 Shelf down.... We tried to hook up 25pairs within Specs on a Marantz Amp and it didn't work wel...Of course we were like @ 2048 Ohms

 

[imported_crypt33]

doesnt Doom 3 produce true Dolby Digital 5.1 ? or is all 5.1 not necessarily dolby digital? I KNOW D3 supports 5.1, but perhaps not DD 5.1...is that correct? very confusing really...I wish games DID support DTS by the way...would be sweet

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: LED

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: LED
Heheh...just found This one hanging round :shocked:

Like around your house?

(I know 0 about car audio by the way )

Yep 4 Shelf down.... We tried to hook up 25pairs within Specs on a Marantz Amp and it didn't work wel...Of course we were like @ 2048 Ohms

lol

You have 25 pairs :shocked:

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: crypt33
doesnt Doom 3 produce true Dolby Digital 5.1 ? or is all 5.1 not necessarily dolby digital? I KNOW D3 supports 5.1, but perhaps not DD 5.1...is that correct? very confusing really...I wish games DID support DTS by the way...would be sweet

Pretty much everything supports 5.1.

I have no idea what games have DD 5.1 support as I don't have to worry about it.

 

[LED]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: LED

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: LED
Heheh...just found This one hanging round :shocked:

Like around your house?

(I know 0 about car audio by the way )

Yep 4 Shelf down.... We tried to hook up 25pairs within Specs on a Marantz Amp and it didn't work wel...Of course we were like @ 2048 Ohms

lol

You have 25 pairs :shocked:

No Client does as we ended up going with 16Ohm via serial + Parallel method

 

[alcoholbob]

The analog compression of games are already far superior than DD5.1 or DTS, which is why they probably don't support it. It's up upmixing 128kbps mp3s to 320. Yay.

 

[LED]

Originally posted by: Astrallite
The analog compression of games are already far superior than DD5.1 or DTS, which is why they probably don't support it. It's up upmixing 128kbps mp3s to 320. Yay.

Superior??? not in this lifetime :roll:...I'd be hard pressed to say it'better than Analogou LP's which it's not