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Connecting Surround Sound to PC

G

GimpyFuzznut

Senior member
I have been using Klipsch 4.1 speakers (the original) since their release many years ago. They are finally starting to crap out really bad so I've decided to unplug them and possibly try to do some maintaince ... or use them somewhere else.

Eitherway - not far from my PC I have a 5.1 surround sound setup. I was wondering if there was anyway to link my PC to the surround sound system so I can finally have 5.1 digital audio on my PC. I currently have an Audigy 2 ZS (has 3 speakers outs for 6.1 and one digital out miniplug). I really do not know much about home audio... I know I could probably use an standard miniplug to RCA adapter to plug into the receiver (will need a really long cable too) but will that provide 5.1 sound? Anyway... check links to the manual of the receiver.

http://pages.infinit.net/zaid/SAXR10.pdf

Any ideas?
 
Will that provide 5.1? Hrm let me think... presently only 5.1 sources I get on my receiver are from optical or coaxial (TV signals in 5.1). Don't have nething plugged into RCA cables so...
 
Well I only have one rca to miniplug adaptor at the moment. I have the miniplug connected to digital out going into 2 RCA cables. I plugged that into the VCR input on the back of the receiver but it is not picking up any signal. I went to the Creative control panel and select digital output only. Nothing....
 
VCR input is an analog connection.

If you have digital out going, it's in the form of digital coaxial. You'd want to hook up one of the RCA's from your digital out on your card to the orange(probably) digital coaxial in on the receiver.

That should get you stereo for music and games... and surround sound for movies.

If you want surround sound from games, the 5.1 analog input and three 1/8" to dual RCA adapters is the way to go unless you have a motherboard or soundcard that can do DDL.
 
"You'd want to hook up one of the RCA's from your digital out on your card to the orange(probably) digital coaxial in on the receiver."

The coaxial cable is already used for my TV cable box... and.. well... I don't think I have something that converts from RCA to coaxial input anway. Or are you speaking about something else? Basically the only places the digital out will be able to go into the receiver in the optical in or coaxial in right? So.. either need to find an RCA to optical or RCA to coaxial input to the receiver? Is there something that can convert miniplug to coaxial or optical (doubtful) right away?

So for true surround sound (also did reading on Creative website) - I'll need to get three cables and connect to those 3 digital inputs marked for the DVD player. That much I understand.
And anyone have an ideas how much this would probably run me... 1 more miniplug to RCA cable, and about 2 50ish+ feet long RCA cables (right and left)? I hope it won't cost me more than just buying a set of 5.1 speakers for my computer!

Thanks for the help!
 
RCA output from a 1/8" to dual RCA adapter from the digital output on your A2 ZS = digital coaxial output.

A digital coaxial cable is just an RCA cable. The signal coming from the digital jack of your A2 ZS is a digital signal through an RCA cable. If you plug that into your digital coax input on your receiver it should work. (You'll have to figure out which of the two RCA outputs actually sends the digital signal or if they both do) If you want more info on that check out the couple huge z-5500 threads in peripherals... the info is there.

"I'll need to get three cables and connect to those 3 digital inputs marked for the DVD player. That much I understand."

No, those are analog inputs.

You'll need a total of three 1/8" to dual RCA adapters and then run to the 5.1 analog inputs with some RCA cables.

You'll need 6 total cables (or three sets of stereo cables). Three of these would work.

What kind of speaker system are you hooking up to?

If they're budget-y, you might want to just give up and get a set of Logitech x-530s. Look at the bottom of this thread. I think you can still get them for $37.99 shipped. http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=40&threadid=1714972&enterthread=y


 
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