5.1 Component Switch?

[hotshot2000]

I've got a Cambridge Soundworks DTT2500 Digital hooked up to my PC w/ a Soundblaster Live! (yes, the original) that I want to use to drive both the included 5.1 speakers (this is I have set up around my desk for games/music) _and_ to drive a second set of 5.1 speakers for when I use this computer to play DVDs on my TV.

Basically what I want is a 5.1 component switch that takes 6 components as an "in" (this would go from the receiver to the "in") and two "outs" (this would go to the two sets of speakers. Has anyone seen anything like this or put one together on their own?

I'm also open to suggestions for a _cheap_ (under $20) way to connect to the S/PDIF out of the SB Live! to a new Dolby Digital decoder to drive the second set of speakers.

In terms of quality, I'm not really an audiophile (and I hate too much bass) so mostly I'd just want to avoid any crackling or distortion as much as possible.

Thanks in advance!

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: hotshot2000
I've got a Cambridge Soundworks DTT2500 Digital hooked up to my PC w/ a Soundblaster Live! (yes, the original) that I want to use to drive both the included 5.1 speakers (this is I have set up around my desk for games/music) _and_ to drive a second set of 5.1 speakers for when I use this computer to play DVDs on my TV.

Basically what I want is a 5.1 component switch that takes 6 components as an "in" (this would go from the receiver to the "in") and two "outs" (this would go to the two sets of speakers. Has anyone seen anything like this or put one together on their own?

I'm also open to suggestions for a _cheap_ (under $20) way to connect to the S/PDIF out of the SB Live! to a new Dolby Digital decoder to drive the second set of speakers.

In terms of quality, I'm not really an audiophile (and I hate too much bass) so mostly I'd just want to avoid any crackling or distortion as much as possible.

Thanks in advance!

If I am understanding what you want correctly all you need is a mono or stereo 3.5mm to RCA plug and connect a 75 ohm coax cable to a coax input on your receiver...

 

[hotshot2000]

Sorry, maybe the use of the word "receiver" was misleading. By "receiver" I was referring to the main box of my DTT2500.

What I'm talking about is trying to connect my PC to two sets of 5.1 speakers such that the Dolby Digital gets played in its full glory on a very simple set of 5.1 speakers. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the way Dolby Digital works, but I thought you needed to connect the S/PDIF out on the sound card to a special receiver that can decode it. If that's the case, then my DTT2500 will do the decoding, and I simply need to be able to connect _its_ component connectors to two sets of 5.1 speakers (and be able to switch between them).

If my understanding of S/PDIF/Dolby Digital is wrong, though, then presumably I can plug the S/PDIF output directly into the back of this cheap set of speakers I got (which should arrive on Monday) and get 5.1 -- I doubt it, though.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: hotshot2000
Sorry, maybe the use of the word "receiver" was misleading. By "receiver" I was referring to the main box of my DTT2500.

What I'm talking about is trying to connect my PC to two sets of 5.1 speakers such that the Dolby Digital gets played in its full glory on a very simple set of 5.1 speakers. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the way Dolby Digital works, but I thought you needed to connect the S/PDIF out on the sound card to a special receiver that can decode it. If that's the case, then my DTT2500 will do the decoding, and I simply need to be able to connect _its_ component connectors to two sets of 5.1 speakers (and be able to switch between them).

If my understanding of S/PDIF/Dolby Digital is wrong, though, then presumably I can plug the S/PDIF output directly into the back of this cheap set of speakers I got (which should arrive on Monday) and get 5.1 -- I doubt it, though.

Here is my frame of thought right now for you.

Like I said hook the card up digitally to your DTT2500 to get dolby digital to that one. Then hook the card up via analog to that new set of speakers you will be getting. When you want to listen on one set, enable SPDIF passthrough(use the DTT2500 decoder). When you want to listen to surround on the other...disable SPDIF(use the sound card decoder).

 

[hotshot2000]

I'm trying to envision what you're describing. What do you mean by enabling/disabling SPDIF passthrough? If I plug in the second set via analog, then how would I get DD5.1 on them? (Which is really what I want, since the DTT2500's speakers are mainly for gaming/music use.)

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: hotshot2000
I'm trying to envision what you're describing. What do you mean by enabling/disabling SPDIF passthrough? If I plug in the second set via analog, then how would I get DD5.1 on them? (Which is really what I want, since the DTT2500's speakers are mainly for gaming/music use.)

Dolby digital is a sound format that is included on DVD's. At some point it has to be converted to analog to be played on a speaker. With a digital connection to your DTT2500's, the conversion is done at the DTT2500 itself. If you output analog from your soundcard the conversion is done in the sound card. Either way you have dolby digital 5.1 sound.

Most of the time, the software that comes with the soundcard will allow you to turn on and off the dolby digital decoder in the card itself. If it is on, then it will output 5.1 from the analog outs. If it is off, you can output 5.1 to a digital connection out to a decoder.

A word of caution, you say that you want DD5.1 on your DTT2500's speakers for music and games. Very little music is encoded in DD 5.1 and pretty much no games use DD 5.1. For this, you will either need a new sound card or you will only get surround sound by using the analog outs from your sound card.

 

[hotshot2000]

Ah, that's _very_ helpful, thank you. Unfortunately, I have an original Soundblaster Live! which isn't able to do hardware DD5.1 decoding. (Side question: Were the soundcard able to do onboard digital decoding, would there be any requirement on the 5.1 speaker end, or the single analog connection would pass along the different analog streams properly to any 5.1 setup?) My SB Live! has three different sorts of relevent "out" ports: A special digital DIN connector for the DTT; an S/PDIF; and a regular analog line-out. I use the first one for games, etc. Maybe you can explain what S/PDIF is and how it relates to DD5.1 -- but I'm assuming that that's the one that needs to be connected to the Dolby Digital decoder (in my case, the DTT2500).

Also, just to clarify, I wasn't interested in DD5.1 for the games/music side of things. However, it seems like I'll need to use the DTT2500 to do DD5.1 decoding via the S/PDIF and then plug _both_ sets of speakers into the DTT2500 -- which I guess brings me back to my original question, of whether you or anybody else knows of an inexpensive switch-like solution to switch between two sets of speakers. (Although maybe I should just try to get an SB Live! 5.1, then I could follow your suggestion.)

Thanks again for your ongoing assistance.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: hotshot2000
Ah, that's _very_ helpful, thank you. Unfortunately, I have an original Soundblaster Live! which isn't able to do hardware DD5.1 decoding. (Side question: Were the soundcard able to do onboard digital decoding, would there be any requirement on the 5.1 speaker end, or the single analog connection would pass along the different analog streams properly to any 5.1 setup?) My SB Live! has three different sorts of relevent "out" ports: A special digital DIN connector for the DTT; an S/PDIF; and a regular analog line-out. I use the first one for games, etc. Maybe you can explain what S/PDIF is and how it relates to DD5.1 -- but I'm assuming that that's the one that needs to be connected to the Dolby Digital decoder (in my case, the DTT2500).

Also, just to clarify, I wasn't interested in DD5.1 for the games/music side of things. However, it seems like I'll need to use the DTT2500 to do DD5.1 decoding via the S/PDIF and then plug _both_ sets of speakers into the DTT2500 -- which I guess brings me back to my original question, of whether you or anybody else knows of an inexpensive switch-like solution to switch between two sets of speakers. (Although maybe I should just try to get an SB Live! 5.1, then I could follow your suggestion.)

Thanks again for your ongoing assistance.

If there is a switch like you are looking for...I imagine it would be fairly expensive.

Might be best to look into a new soundcard and follow the digital and analog steps I said earlier. The Chaintech AV-710 is a very nice card that is inexpensive and may suit your needs.

If you want DD 5.1 from games to the speaker set that will be connected via digital(SPDIF) then you might want to look into the Auzentech X-Mystique. This card can ENCODE into DD5.1 and send it to your DTT2500 for decoding.

 

[hotshot2000]

The thing I'd like to keep is the Digital DIN connection between my SB Live! and the DTT2500, because I also have another system I'd like to connect to the analog line-in port on the DTT2500. (Although I suppose if I follow your suggestion I can just plug the S/PDIF into the DTT2500 for _all_ my sound needs from that system and the analog out to the speakers for movies, so that takes care of the need for the Digital DIN. Hmm.) I'll keep doing research into whether my best bet is a new soundcard or whether I can rig something of the sort I'm thinking of. Thanks again!

 

[hotshot2000]

Quick update -- I got my 5.1 setup today, and fortunately it has separate "in"s for C/L/R/LS/RS/S, which means I can just hook them in via standard RCA splitter cables to my DTT2500 and just turn off the second set of speakers when using the computer. Now I just need to figure out how to keep the sound from going to the computer speakers when using the DVD -- maybe I'll just turn the volume very low on the DTT2500 and turn up the volume on the new speakers. To be continued, after a quick trip to Radio Shack.

 

[shortylickens]

Mr PrudueRy Sir,

As you well know I am not very intelligent.
Perhaps a block diagram of what you are suggesting could help some of us understand better?

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
Mr PrudueRy Sir,

As you well know I am not very intelligent.
Perhaps a block diagram of what you are suggesting could help some of us understand better?

Why would you say that? I am sure your plenty intelligent, I just suck at explaining stuff in words sometimes.

What do you want a diagram of specifically?

 

[shortylickens]

No need. I got it figured out. Although I was wondering about those Dalco speakers he ordered.
Why did hotshot specifically get that low-powered system?
Wouldnt the cheap Logitech or Klipsch 5.1 systems be just as good?

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
No need. I got it figured out. Although I was wondering about those Dalco speakers he ordered.
Why did hotshot specifically get that low-powered system?
Wouldnt the cheap Logitech or Klipsch 5.1 systems be just as good?

Must have really wanted 5.1 for a really low cost...must sound pretty bad

 

[hotshot2000]

The real reason: I needed some cheap internal cabling and the shipping was going to come to twice what the cable were (ignore the fact that I later found the same cables from a different place for even less with less shipping, oh well), so I poked around in their clearance section and got those speakers on impulse, since they made the shipping for the whole order worthwhile. Cheapest I can find the cheapest Logitech set is $40 pre-shipping. Anyway, I'm no audiophile and watch movies maybe once or twice a month, so I don't need anything fancy at all. I'm going to finish hooking them up today and if they sound really bad, they'll go back. But thanks for caring!