Altec Lansing ACS 56 owners, need some help setting it up with Soundblaster Live

[jaytone]

Hi
I shipped my son a computer I built with a Soundblaster Live OEM version. I also ordered online for him the Altec Lansing ACS 56.
He lives far away and is a little confused as to how to properly hook up the speakers.
He said he connected the RCA jack using the first Out of the Live to the subwoofer but could not get the sound to come through
After changing the Lives software to 4 speaker setup it works (He said it was set to 2 speaker system). Here are my questions he has
1. Is the second OUT of the Live used ?
2. He mentioned that the manual said to use the Digital out of the live to Digital in of the Sub, is this suppose to be hooked up ? again its a OEM version of the Live which has the yellow RCA jack.
3. Why didn't it work when he had the LIves software setup as Two speaker instead of Four
4. What is the surround IN on the sub used for.
5. Since it is set to 4 speaker setup in the software and since he is only using the first OUT of the Live, is he truly getting 4 independant sounds ?
6. What does the MODE on the front speaker do when pushed
Please remember I dont have the manual in front of me.\
Thanks

 

[jaytone]

anyone

 

[PliotronX]

Hey, I have the ACS56, but hooked up to a Diamond MX300 sound card. But it's basically the same, so here's my answers to your questions AFAIK:

1. To use "true surround" 4 speaker setup, the second OUT must be used in conjunction with setting the "MODE" light to green (more on this later).
2. I have no idea if your sound card has the digital (S/PDIF) jack. But if it does, by all means use it! Digital gets rid of the random pops, clicks, distortion and hissing that traditional jacks use.
3. I'm not familiar with Creative's software, so I don't know this one :\
4. Run the wire connected to the sound card's second OUT to this jack for "true surround" 4 speaker setup.
5. With only one analog wire hooked up, no, it is not using quad channels. But the cool thing about digital is that it only requires one wire to be hooked up for quad channels.
6. When the light above the "MODE" button shines of amber color, it is in "stereo mode". This means all four speakers are used, but only two channels are being used. This is good for music/general Windows use. When the light shines of green, it is in "gaming mode" which means each speaker is being sent a different channel. ie, quad channel. But the front and surround jacks must be hooked up to the first and second out jacks on the sound card in order to make use of the "gaming mode", else only sounds from the front speakers would be heard.

Good luck

 

[jaytone]

Thank you for taking the time to respond, most appreciated and now I can walk him through it

 

[PliotronX]

Welcome