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Audigy 2 ZS with RCA Speakers?

I

Im2bz2p345

Junior Member
I am having a tough time figuring out if this will work.

I have a Creative Audigy 2 ZS sound card. I also have a Boston Acoustics "Digital Media Theater" set. It's basically a 4 speaker + subwoofer speaker system. It has two front speakers that connect to their own analog inputs on the subwoofer (front left and front right). For the two rear speakers though, it has a single analog input on the subwoofer.. for which there is a cable that has a 3.5 mm stereo to 2 RCA females (red and white). The rear speakers have RCA male connections (I think the left one is white and the right one is red).

What I want to do is connect the rears into the Audigy 2 ZS sound card. That way each of the rear speaker channels will get its own discrete sound. So how would I do that? Could I just plug in the existing cable I have (3.5 mm stereo to 2 RCA females) into one of the Audigy 2 ZS channels? Or would I need to get something like this: RCA JACK TO 3.5mm MONO PLUG ADAPTOR for each rear speaker?

Very confused on this matter, so your help would be greatly valued! Thanks all! 🙂
 
Are the rear speakers being powered by the amp in the sub?

I think you should be able to just plug in the 3.5mm stereo plug into your soundcard, but if the rear speakers don't have their own amplification (which I think would be the case), they would be very quiet.
 
Wait, so 2 fronts get a 3.5?
2 backs get an RCA?
Sub gets an RCA or 3.5?

The way you explain it is very confusing. Why don't you explain it mathematically?
 
Okay, sorry.. let me explain it better.

Currently I have this speaker system hooked up to my integrated sound on my PC in the following manner:


Subwoofer looks identical to this: Boston MediaTheater System except MINE has: a black digital input (next to that purple analog input)

I have my front two 4" speakers connected to left and right speaker (RCA female) slots on the subwoofer. You can see these from the subwoofer link above - the white and red ones respectively.

Now I also have two rear 3" speakers that are connected to the subwoofer. There is a 3.5 mm stereo to 2 RCA females (red and white) cable that gets plugged into the "Surround" connection (pink one in the picture). My two rear speakers (which have male ends) get plugged to red and white female ends of this cable, respectively.

If you notice on the subwoofer, there is a:

1) "Control Line In" (Blue) - this connects from the right front speaker to the subwoofer.

2) "Input" (Analog Input - Purple) - this is what I have going from the subwoofer to my integrated sound card line input.

3) "Digital" (Digital Input - Black *NOT PICTURED, BUT I HAVE THIS ON MY SUB*) - I have a digital cable (which has an input/pole to go into the subwoofer & the other end is a 3.5 mm male pole) that I assume is used for going from a sound card's digital out to the digital input on the sub. Right now this cable is unused... don't know if this will work with the Audigy 2 ZS, but I can possibly try it in the future.. I prefer all analog connections right now though.

I think that about explains my current configuration. I will be getting the Audigy 2 ZS (PCI) sound card shortly. I want to make full use of this sound card. Currently my rear speakers give very little sound, so I want to hook them up to the Audigy 2 ZS in a way that will amplify their sound the best. This holds true for my first speakers as well. What would be the best way to connect this speaker set?

My guess is to have the front two speakers connected to the sub (because I think this is almost required). The subwoofer would be connected to the soundcard. With two rear speakers I think I would have them connect to the Audigy 2 ZS card with the same cable I am using to connect them to the subwoofer - the 3.5 mm stereo to 2 RCA females (red and white) cable.

So, how would you all handle connecting this speaker set if you had to connect them to the Audigy 2 ZS? I hope this explains things better. Let me know if you need any further clarification. Thanks! 🙂
 
Wow, this is a very strange setup compared to what I've seen before.

I'm confused as to how the rear speakers are getting a signal now... so the subwoofer input is connected to a single analog output from your integrated sound?
So the rear speakers are just outputting the front signal again?

It sounds like the digital cable going to your speakers would work with the digital output from the audigy2 which uses a mono 3.5mm jack to output a digital coaxial signal.

As for hooking up the speakers in analog mode... it wouldn't hurt anything to try them in a regular analog out jack form your soundcard.

Maybe hook up the front L / front R jack on your soundcard to the input on your sub, and then use the 3.5mm to dual RCA adapter plugged into your surround output on your audigy.

Do the rear speakers get plugged in at all? I haven't seen any speakers being powered through a 3.5mm style jack either, so I don't know if the rear speakers are being amped at all or if they're just running off the power of the original signal.

 
I'm confused as to how the rear speakers are getting a signal now... so the subwoofer input is connected to a single analog output from your integrated sound?
Click to expand...

That's right man. I have an integrated sound card that is connected with one side of a "3.5 mm stereo male to 3.5 mm stereo male" cable, while the other side is going straight into the subwoofer analog input (the purple connection).

I'm glad that I have a possibility for utilizing the digital connection with this speaker set.

I will try what you suggested in regard to hooking this speaket set up to my Audigy 2 ZS as soon as I receive it.

Do the rear speakers get plugged in at all? I haven't seen any speakers being powered through a 3.5mm style jack either, so I don't know if the rear speakers are being amped at all or if they're just running off the power of the original signal.
Click to expand...

Yes, the rear speakers get plugged in buddy. As I stated in my previous post... there are two 3" rear speakers on this speaker set that get connected to the subwoofer. This how they are connected:

#1) A 3.5 mm stereo to 2 RCA females (red and white) cable gets connected to the subwoofer (3.5 mm side goes into the "Surround" (pink) connection on the back of the subwoofer).

#2) Each of the rear speakers has it's own RCA male end (from one speaker it is red & from the other it is white). Each male connection gets connected to its female side of the cable that I mentioned above.

From what I can tell the rear speakers are simply running off the power of the original signal. They are good rear speakers that are going to waste right now.. I hardly get much audio from them. This is why I want them connected to the Audigy 2 ZS directly.

Thanks for all your help YOyoYOhowsDAjello, your advise/answers have been very helpful! Any other useful input/comments I could use for this type of setup? 🙂
 
I meant plugged into a power outlet (as in they have an amp) vs being powered through the 3.5mm jack.

Seems like they're not being powered at all, which would certainly explain why they're not very loud.
 
Again, from what I can tell.. the only thing that is being hooked up directy to an AC/DC power outlet is the subwoofer.

The rear speakers *must* be getting power through the 3.5mm cable. They do produce sound, but not the kind of sound I am expecting (and have heard) from other speaker sets. The rears should amplify a lot more sound than they currently are - I believe this is due to not enough signal actually being fed to them.

For example, on my MP3 tracks i'll get pretty decent background sound.. while on others.. I will simply hear the majority of the sound from the front speakers + the subwoofer. I'm hoping if I can get these connected to the Audigy 2 ZS properly, that will solve a lot of my problem. 🙂
 
Are the speakers doing sort of a Dolby Pro Logic on the signal for the rears? (That might explain why some tracks have more signal going to the back speakers than others)
 
Yes, they do Dolby Pro Logic.. so what do you recommend YOyoYOhowsDAjello with regard to hooked them up with the Audigy 2? Rears directly into the soundcard or through the subwoofer?

I think my speakers are actually 2.1 speakers but the additional 2 rears are used to give a 3D sound affect.. probably why they don't give much of a rear sound affect.

Here is what a fellow member from a different forum stated:

Firstly, I reckon your speakers actually accept a stereo input and then does some processing of its own to fill in the rear speakers for some surround ambience.

Ie; your speakers are actually stereo with some surround effects. (does that make sense?

you can connect your speakers either way (purple line in = analog) or black (digital). Both will have stereo only and should be enough to let your speakers do their processing.

As to increasing the volume levels of the rear speakers,... I've a feeling you're really stuck there, I don't think you should connect your rear speaker directly to the sound card as there is no amplifier on the soundcard (ie; only a line-level output); and the sound would be really weak... if you could hear it at all.
Click to expand...
 
Yeah, I'm really thinking the same thing as that other guy... that you're pretty stuck with your rear speakers being quiet as they aren't getting an amplified signal from anywhere.

You know... I don't know if this would be a dumb idea for you, but instead of getting a new soundcard, have you thought about getting new speakers?

I've never seen this set before, so I don't have any idea on its quality, but if you're looking for surround sound, a new speaker set would do a better job I think.

Does your onboard sound support 5.1?

If you do get the Audigy, I think you should keep using the rears as intended... hooked up to the sub.
 
Yeah. I really like this speaker set.. was one of the best when it came out (had amazing reviews) & still holds in on in terms of quality, loudness, hearing highs & low, and overall performance. Although it is fairly old (got it with a Gateway PC about 4 or 5 years ago).. I can honestly say it will beat or evenly match with any 2.1 set that has hit the market to date. Boston Acoustics has held it's reputition in terms of delivering high quality products.

But if I am not satisfied with this speaker set & my Audigy 2 ZS combo, I will possibly have to think about a PC speaker upgrade.

Thank for all your help again mate! 🙂
 
Sounds like you'd be looking at a bookshelf speaker based system as an upgrade then... or possibly Swan m200s and a sub if you wanted one. (both of which would have a pretty hefty pricetag and I wouldn't know how they would compare to your set)

Just thinking... if you wanted to power the rear speakers you have, you might be able to run an amp to them... like a sonic t-amp connected to the rear output on your Audigy2, and then adapting the speakerwire outputs to RCA ends for your speakers to attach to.

Good luck with everything!
 
Ok, firstly, your subwoofer and in a way, an amp, offers both digital and analog sound output.

It is highly likely that the "surround" RCA input was intended for an AMP, and thus when trying to connect speakers to them, will produce little or no sound regardless of the input device's signals.

According to my knowledge, the "input" jack should be coming for your computers 3.5 jack, and should not matter if it comes from the "control line in." Because that "control line in" may be a control panel settings for sound adjustment settings, am I wrong? Because if it is another "input" module, I'm not sure if it needs to be utilized unless it is a proxy for digital input, which should offer better sound quality if it is.

The primary RCA jacks, "red" and "white" should be able to utilized for a 2.1 respectively. You can obtain four speaker sound from just two jacks -
-"white" = front left and rear left
-"red" = front right and rear right
=> you can achieve this kind of speaker setup by purchasing a Y-Splitter that will plug into the RCA jack and offer split ends, you will need two of these splitters as it will allow you to then connect 4 speakers together and receive amplified sound and near equal sound output.

Because this system is "Dolby" qualified, you will be able to achieve surround sound, but my require an amp to be plugged into it. However, you will not be promised to get a 4.1 or 5.1 surround from the amp which will be plugged into the surround, because standards and specifications even for Dolby are not always a reliable source for 3rd party connectivity (this is something Dolby will almost never admit).

Upon receiving your Audigy soundcard, you can plug speaker set 1 into "front" and speaker set 2 into "rear" - then ofcourse there will be another jack for "subwoofer" = all to be 3.5 jacks. So three inputs will give you a 5.1 surround sound. This means, you will not connect anything into the sub, as it will connect only itself into the "sub."
I'll be honest, you're not promised to get surround sound if you just plug your speakers into the "front" or "rear" jacks of the Audigy card with 4.1 or 5.1 enabled, it sometimes will just not work. You need to get a qualifed surround system from a retailer for this to become more promising.

I would suggest with the Audigy card, you plug from digital to digital and nothing else, and enable 2.1 in the Audigy software environment (not all hardware will be detected by the Audigy when digital is enabled). With digitial enabled, you will still have the option of chosing 2.1, 4.1, 5.1, 7.1, etc. Chose 2.1, you will then have a 4.1 system without the surround, but it even with a surround 4.1 you will not notice the difference if it has surround or not.

So here's one more breakdown for you =
-digital to digital with 3.5 to 3.5/or if it's an RCA input on the theater system, then RCA, the sub will automatically be powered and take advantage of the sensors from the Audigy and the sub will give you the dynamic bass thundering of the Audigy technology
-"white" = front left and rear left
-"red" = front right and rear right
=again this will be a 2.1 setup but offer you a 4.1 similar system.

Sorry, but this seems to be the easiest approach I can put you through without the hassle. You don't need to upgrade your speakers unless you want something new. The Audigy's advantage is that it is more powerful than onboard sound, even to this day, and it has a sound processor which will help free up CPU resources compared to onboard audio devices. Don't worry about the speakers' sound quality, you can break any of its bottlenecks with the Audigy software.
 
So here's one more breakdown for you =
-digital to digital with 3.5 to 3.5/or if it's an RCA input on the theater system, then RCA, the sub will automatically be powered and take advantage of the sensors from the Audigy and the sub will give you the dynamic bass thundering of the Audigy technology
-"white" = front left and rear left
-"red" = front right and rear right
=again this will be a 2.1 setup but offer you a 4.1 similar system.
Click to expand...

Okay.. I am guessing I will probably have to spend some time playing around with my speaker configuration once I get the Audigy 2 ZS until I am satified with it. The thing that I am confused about with your suggestion is.. why connect the front speakers (left and right) to the Audigy 2 ZS sound card? I mean, there is a place to connect them on the back of the subwoofer (analog inputs) & the front speakers get plenty of sound this way.. so why would I need to connect the fronts to the soundcard directly? I doubt the soundcard can amplify them if I did this anyway, right? My goal was just to get some better use of my rear speakers (as they get very little sound in my current configuration).


Also, I will add something else that mabye you guys can help suggest for a better speaker setup...

I have a BA735 Digital Speaker set: (http://www.directron.com/ba7351.html) that is lying around my house unused. Could I possibly use this set in combination with my other one to achieve better sound?

For the BA735, this is how it connects to a sound card:

- The left speaker connects to the right speaker directly (via 3.5 mm cable)
- The right speaker has a blue "Control Line in" which gets connected to the subwoofer (just like my other speakers).
- The subwoofer has an analog & digital connection on the back (just like the sub for my other speakers). Only the analog is being used at the moment because I never had a digital sound card before.


So could I possibly use this speaker set in some type of combination with my other one to achieve a better 4.1 (or higher) setup? Thanks guyz! 🙂
 
Your subwoofer has a built in Amp that powers all of your speakers, anything coming from the Audigy 2 ZS is an unamped or very low power signal, so when you move your rear speakers from the Amp on the back of your Sub to the output on your Audigy 2, you loss amplicafication, what you need to do is just get a seperate amp for the rear channel or just replace the rear channel speakers w/ a amp'd 2.1 or 2.0 speaker set.
 
Originally posted by: Im2bz2p345
So here's one more breakdown for you =
-digital to digital with 3.5 to 3.5/or if it's an RCA input on the theater system, then RCA, the sub will automatically be powered and take advantage of the sensors from the Audigy and the sub will give you the dynamic bass thundering of the Audigy technology
-"white" = front left and rear left
-"red" = front right and rear right
=again this will be a 2.1 setup but offer you a 4.1 similar system.
Click to expand...

Okay.. I am guessing I will probably have to spend some time playing around with my speaker configuration once I get the Audigy 2 ZS until I am satified with it. The thing that I am confused about with your suggestion is.. why connect the front speakers (left and right) to the Audigy 2 ZS sound card? I mean, there is a place to connect them on the back of the subwoofer (analog inputs) & the front speakers get plenty of sound this way.. so why would I need to connect the fronts to the soundcard directly? I doubt the soundcard can amplify them if I did this anyway, right? My goal was just to get some better use of my rear speakers (as they get very little sound in my current configuration).


Also, I will add something else that mabye you guys can help suggest for a better speaker setup...

I have a BA735 Digital Speaker set: (http://www.directron.com/ba7351.html) that is lying around my house unused. Could I possibly use this set in combination with my other one to achieve better sound?

For the BA735, this is how it connects to a sound card:

- The left speaker connects to the right speaker directly (via 3.5 mm cable)
- The right speaker has a blue "Control Line in" which gets connected to the subwoofer (just like my other speakers).
- The subwoofer has an analog & digital connection on the back (just like the sub for my other speakers). Only the analog is being used at the moment because I never had a digital sound card before.


So could I possibly use this speaker set in some type of combination with my other one to achieve a better 4.1 (or higher) setup? Thanks guyz! 🙂
Click to expand...

If you can't find a way of getting the rear speakers, amped, adding that 2.1 set would definately work.

Use your current set with only the two loud speakers attached and hook it up to the Front L & R output on the Audigy2. Then plug that second set into the Rear L & R output on the Audigy2.

For getting the second set behind you, you can use a 3.5mm audio extension cable if the cable on the second set isn't long enough to get it behind you.

It would be harder to get 5.1 or 6.1 working with your equipment I think.
 
Originally posted by: Arcanedeath
Your subwoofer has a built in Amp that powers all of your speakers, anything coming from the Audigy 2 ZS is an unamped or very low power signal, so when you move your rear speakers from the Amp on the back of your Sub to the output on your Audigy 2, you loss amplicafication, what you need to do is just get a seperate amp for the rear channel or just replace the rear channel speakers w/ a amp'd 2.1 or 2.0 speaker set.
Click to expand...

Are you sure his rear speakers are getting amped when attached to the sub? I just want to know if you know that's the case, since from his description it sounds like they're not being powered or at most they're underpowered.
 
Firstly,

I can't thank you enough for all the help & advice you have give me thus far gentlemen. I would be *SO* lost without the suggestions you guys have been giving. Thanks! :thumbsup:

Secondly,

I think the rear speakers are indeed powered by the subwoofer. I *DO* get sound from them.. but it really depends on what I am playing (the source). Most of the time, I get very little or discerete sound/signal from them. Now.. if I plug these rear speakers into my front speaker jacks.. they are freakin awesome! haha. That's the type of power I want them to amplify.

Thirdly,

YOyoYOhowsDAjello - I think I will take your advise in hooking two sets of speakers together. You said "Use your current set with only the two loud speakers attached and hook it up to the Front L & R output on the Audigy2. Then plug that second set into the Rear L & R output on the Audigy2." But my only questions with hooking two sets of speakers are -

#1) Should I connect one of the sets analog and the other digital.. or simply both analog? Both sets have digital capability, so I am just wondering what would deliver the best sound performance.

#2) Since both speakers have subs.. will I get double the bass power or something? lol. That would be freaking cool. Or will only the front sub give bass & sound?

#3) With two speaker sets hooked up, should I set the Creative software to decode in a 2.1 speaker system configuration or in a 4.1 speaker system configuartion?

Really getting down to perfecting my strategy to get the best sound now with the speakers I currently have! Looking foward to your response. Bye all!

~ Im2bz2p345
 
I would stick to analog for both sets.

Both subs should work.

Set it up for 4.1
(this may or may not play music out the rears though as soundcards differ in how they output sound and music is intended to be listened to in stereo, not surround... you should be able to select CMSS in your Audigy control panel to get surround going for everything)
If you set it up for 2.1, no output would come out the rear jack.
 
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