Does anyone have their Audigy 1/2/4 hooked up to a Receiver? (With poll)

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: sheik124
Well, my Logitech Z-5500s aren't a "reciever", but the 5.1 analog outs work just peachy with my X-Fi, and the sub control (in the X-Fi CP) actually does something.
<-- Voted "Jello, I like you"

Aww thanks.

Well the z-5500s have an internal crossover that is used with 5.1 analog input, so I know those would work with any standard 5.1 analog soundcard.

I guess I should expand this to include the X-Fi too for anyone dealing with that.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Tu13erhead
I've got my Audigy 2 ZS Platinum hooked up a couple ways to my receiver.

1- Direct optical audio connection
2- Three 3.5mm to RCA cables from the rear of the Audigy to my receiver's "Multi Channel" input

I had to fiddle a bit to get things working right in 5.1 mode. First, to get the sub working, I had to open up Creative Speaker Settings, then under Bass Management, turn the Sub Volume to High, and enable Bass Redirection. I put it to the highest setting.

This is with my Polk T90EB and Polk R15 speakers and Onkyo TX-SR603X receiver.

Also, I had tried to get 7.1 surround working, but I realized I'd need a special cable to do so. I saw one on Creative's website, I'll see if I can find it.

So you get a normal sounding output that way?

If you needed more, could you turn the other speakers down and the overall receiver volume up?

To get 7.1 I think you just need a couple cables that are often labeled "camcorder cables" with three RCA outputs on each.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: sheik124

Originally posted by: Tu13erhead
Also - is there any way to get Optical or Digial outputs to actually output anything other than Stereo signal?

Not with an Audigy no, you'd need XDA's Mystique card or nVIDIA SoundStorm (they encode output to Dolby Digital over S/PDIF, "Dolby Digital LIVE!")

If something is already DD/DTS encoded, then it should pass it through, but yeah in games you'll need something that can encode it in real time.

There are several cards out now like the HDA X-Mystique, the Turtlebeach Montego, and a few others that aren't as common.

HDA is coming out with a DTS live solution as well.

 

[Aquila76]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
So you have three different digital coaxial signals coming out of your soundcard?

(These speakers are before my time)

Pretty much. It's one cable, but carries all the speaker feeds via a proprietary interface thru a proprietary cable into a proprietary decoder.

In this pic, you can see how it connects at the bottom right (Minijack to DIN cable). Basically there are three pairs of digital signals (L/R, SL/SR, C/SW) sent thru the 3 connectors of the cable to the decoder. It's a very 'unique' setup, but works very well to eliminate noise as all the processing is done outside the PC.

 

[Tu13erhead]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
If you needed more, could you turn the other speakers down and the overall receiver volume up?

To get 7.1 I think you just need a couple cables that are often labeled "camcorder cables" with three RCA outputs on each.

First part - I'm not sure what you mean. I can turn the receiver down and my PC volume up, or vice versa, and it works like it should.

Second part - I think you're right. I wonder if Monoprice has any...

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Tu13erhead

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
If you needed more, could you turn the other speakers down and the overall receiver volume up?

To get 7.1 I think you just need a couple cables that are often labeled "camcorder cables" with three RCA outputs on each.

First part - I'm not sure what you mean. I can turn the receiver down and my PC volume up, or vice versa, and it works like it should.

Second part - I think you're right. I wonder if Monoprice has any...

I checked monoprice for "camcorder" and nothing came up.

Just an example I pulled off ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7537083845&category=43439

For the first part I meant that if the sub wasn't loud enough, you could reduce the 5 speaker levels in the A2 software so that the sub output was louder relative to their output. Then you could turn the receiver volume up to compensate for the lowered speaker levels and the sub would be even louder than before.

 

[Tu13erhead]

Actually - for some reason when I was running 7.1 my receiver turned off when I turned the volume up enough. I'm assuming it couldn't power all the speakers...is that because the receiver isn't powerful enough or because it couldn't draw enough power from the outlet? I think I remember having a lot of stuff plugged into that outlet...

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Aquila76

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
So you have three different digital coaxial signals coming out of your soundcard?

(These speakers are before my time)

Pretty much. It's one cable, but carries all the speaker feeds via a proprietary interface thru a proprietary cable into a proprietary decoder.

In this pic, you can see how it connects at the bottom right (Minijack to DIN cable). Basically there are three pairs of digital signals (L/R, SL/SR, C/SW) sent thru the 3 connectors of the cable to the decoder. It's a very 'unique' setup, but works very well to eliminate noise as all the processing is done outside the PC.

Gotcha. I thought the digital outs on those cards were still doing SPDIF and not some proprietary signal so I was wondering how you were getting 5.1 out of it

 

[Tu13erhead]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
For the first part I meant that if the sub wasn't loud enough, you could reduce the 5 speaker levels in the A2 software so that the sub output was louder relative to their output. Then you could turn the receiver volume up to compensate for the lowered speaker levels and the sub would be even louder than before.

Ah, gotcha. Well, for now I'm using my old Logitech Z-680 sub (yeah, it's ghetto, but I don't have money for a new sub right now ) so I can just turn up the volume knob on the sub.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Tu13erhead
Actually - for some reason when I was running 7.1 my receiver turned off when I turned the volume up enough. I'm assuming it couldn't power all the speakers...is that because the receiver isn't powerful enough or because it couldn't draw enough power from the outlet? I think I remember having a lot of stuff plugged into that outlet...

How loud was it getting? Was the receiver hot?

You should be able to get very loud volumes going with those Polks and your 603.

You might have a short somewhere in the rear speaker lines that could be causing this if it only happens with the rears enabled.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Tu13erhead

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
For the first part I meant that if the sub wasn't loud enough, you could reduce the 5 speaker levels in the A2 software so that the sub output was louder relative to their output. Then you could turn the receiver volume up to compensate for the lowered speaker levels and the sub would be even louder than before.

Ah, gotcha. Well, for now I'm using my old Logitech Z-680 sub (yeah, it's ghetto, but I don't have money for a new sub right now ) so I can just turn up the volume knob on the sub.

Ok. Alternatively turning the gain on a HT sub would also do the trick if you didn't mind changing it for different inputs.

 

[Tu13erhead]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Tu13erhead
Actually - for some reason when I was running 7.1 my receiver turned off when I turned the volume up enough. I'm assuming it couldn't power all the speakers...is that because the receiver isn't powerful enough or because it couldn't draw enough power from the outlet? I think I remember having a lot of stuff plugged into that outlet...

How loud was it getting? Was the receiver hot?

You should be able to get very loud volumes going with those Polks and your 603.

You might have a short somewhere in the rear speaker lines that could be causing this if it only happens with the rears enabled.

I think it shut down with the volume around 50 or so - I'm listening to music at 45 right now and can have a conversation over it, so it wasn't _that_ loud.

I determined heat wasn't an issue as I stuck a fan blowing right into the receiver. Also, for example I could play a certain song at a certain volume and it would always cut out at the same spot.

It could have been a short, I'm not exactly sure.

 

[Aquila76]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Aquila76

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
So you have three different digital coaxial signals coming out of your soundcard?

(These speakers are before my time)

Pretty much. It's one cable, but carries all the speaker feeds via a proprietary interface thru a proprietary cable into a proprietary decoder.

In this pic, you can see how it connects at the bottom right (Minijack to DIN cable). Basically there are three pairs of digital signals (L/R, SL/SR, C/SW) sent thru the 3 connectors of the cable to the decoder. It's a very 'unique' setup, but works very well to eliminate noise as all the processing is done outside the PC.

Gotcha. I thought the digital outs on those cards were still doing SPDIF and not some proprietary signal so I was wondering how you were getting 5.1 out of it

Wackily enough, it can! If you use a mono minijack to RCA adapter in the card's Digital Out jack, you can passthrough DD and DTS to a receiver using a digital coax cable. At this point though, it acts like a normal SPDIF connection (just passes PCM) and you lose surround for games & stereo sources.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Tu13erhead

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Tu13erhead
Actually - for some reason when I was running 7.1 my receiver turned off when I turned the volume up enough. I'm assuming it couldn't power all the speakers...is that because the receiver isn't powerful enough or because it couldn't draw enough power from the outlet? I think I remember having a lot of stuff plugged into that outlet...

How loud was it getting? Was the receiver hot?

You should be able to get very loud volumes going with those Polks and your 603.

You might have a short somewhere in the rear speaker lines that could be causing this if it only happens with the rears enabled.

I think it shut down with the volume around 50 or so - I'm listening to music at 45 right now and can have a conversation over it, so it wasn't _that_ loud.

I determined heat wasn't an issue as I stuck a fan blowing right into the receiver. Also, for example I could play a certain song at a certain volume and it would always cut out at the same spot.

It could have been a short, I'm not exactly sure.

Is your receiver on a dB scale?

Like 45 is louder than 50? (sorry, I haven't played around with the Onkyos in a long time)

Unless you have them calibrated extremely, that should have been no problems.

So if you had it going 5.1 it would be fine but 7.1 is would cut out? Could you go louder with 5.1 and have it be ok?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Aquila76

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Aquila76

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
So you have three different digital coaxial signals coming out of your soundcard?

(These speakers are before my time)

Pretty much. It's one cable, but carries all the speaker feeds via a proprietary interface thru a proprietary cable into a proprietary decoder.

In this pic, you can see how it connects at the bottom right (Minijack to DIN cable). Basically there are three pairs of digital signals (L/R, SL/SR, C/SW) sent thru the 3 connectors of the cable to the decoder. It's a very 'unique' setup, but works very well to eliminate noise as all the processing is done outside the PC.

Gotcha. I thought the digital outs on those cards were still doing SPDIF and not some proprietary signal so I was wondering how you were getting 5.1 out of it

Wackily enough, it can! If you use a mono minijack to RCA adapter in the card's Digital Out jack, you can passthrough DD and DTS to a receiver. At this point though, it acts like a normal SPDIF connection (just passes PCM) and you lose surround for games & stereo sources.

Too bad they didn't adapt this to a DD live / DTS live solution by now in their newer cards.

If they were already doing a digital live solution back then, you'd think they would have adapted by now with that ability.

 

[Tu13erhead]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Tu13erhead

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Tu13erhead
Actually - for some reason when I was running 7.1 my receiver turned off when I turned the volume up enough. I'm assuming it couldn't power all the speakers...is that because the receiver isn't powerful enough or because it couldn't draw enough power from the outlet? I think I remember having a lot of stuff plugged into that outlet...

How loud was it getting? Was the receiver hot?

You should be able to get very loud volumes going with those Polks and your 603.

You might have a short somewhere in the rear speaker lines that could be causing this if it only happens with the rears enabled.

I think it shut down with the volume around 50 or so - I'm listening to music at 45 right now and can have a conversation over it, so it wasn't _that_ loud.

I determined heat wasn't an issue as I stuck a fan blowing right into the receiver. Also, for example I could play a certain song at a certain volume and it would always cut out at the same spot.

It could have been a short, I'm not exactly sure.

Is your receiver on a dB scale?

Like 45 is louder than 50? (sorry, I haven't played around with the Onkyos in a long time)

Unless you have them calibrated extremely, that should have been no problems.

So if you had it going 5.1 it would be fine but 7.1 is would cut out? Could you go louder with 5.1 and have it be ok?

It's not a dB scale.

I didn't calibrate them in any weird ways.

I can go as loud as I want with 5.1 (well, without losing my hearing) with no cutting out.

 

[PurdueRy]

::raises hand to option 1::

3 stereo miniplug to RCA females. 2 component video cables used as analog audio cables to receiver. Pretty simple

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Tu13erhead

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Tu13erhead

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Tu13erhead
Actually - for some reason when I was running 7.1 my receiver turned off when I turned the volume up enough. I'm assuming it couldn't power all the speakers...is that because the receiver isn't powerful enough or because it couldn't draw enough power from the outlet? I think I remember having a lot of stuff plugged into that outlet...

How loud was it getting? Was the receiver hot?

You should be able to get very loud volumes going with those Polks and your 603.

You might have a short somewhere in the rear speaker lines that could be causing this if it only happens with the rears enabled.

I think it shut down with the volume around 50 or so - I'm listening to music at 45 right now and can have a conversation over it, so it wasn't _that_ loud.

I determined heat wasn't an issue as I stuck a fan blowing right into the receiver. Also, for example I could play a certain song at a certain volume and it would always cut out at the same spot.

It could have been a short, I'm not exactly sure.

Is your receiver on a dB scale?

Like 45 is louder than 50? (sorry, I haven't played around with the Onkyos in a long time)

Unless you have them calibrated extremely, that should have been no problems.

So if you had it going 5.1 it would be fine but 7.1 is would cut out? Could you go louder with 5.1 and have it be ok?

It's not a dB scale.

I didn't calibrate them in any weird ways.

I can go as loud as I want with 5.1 (well, without losing my hearing) with no cutting out.

You might want to try to hook up each speaker individually to do 6.1 to see if one wire speaker combo works and one is causing an issue.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
::raises hand to option 1::

3 stereo miniplug to RCA females. 2 component video cables used as analog audio cables to receiver. Pretty simple

Any insight on what the issues are and why yours works for games while others are having problems?

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: PurdueRy
::raises hand to option 1::

3 stereo miniplug to RCA females. 2 component video cables used as analog audio cables to receiver. Pretty simple

Any insight on what the issues are and why yours works for games while others are having problems?

Well its worked with my HK and my cheap Kenwood. I think if anything its the settings that suck. For instance I also had a digital connection for the times where I want to watch movies on my computer screen and listen to the sound through my receiver(headphones). I would have to change it to use the digital out and the receivers decoder.

For instance, with the speaker settings I have to change it to the analog out and turn on the "bass redirection". I haven't tried it since creative now has a new "audio console", that option is no longer there, so I don't know if it would still work that way.

There is also the switch that needs to be made to tell the card to use the Receivers decoder with the digital connection and use the receivers decoder when using analog.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

With the audio console is it still working to get sub output?

Did you have to turn the sub level all the way up too in order to get reasonable output?

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
With the audio console is it still working to get sub output?

Did you have to turn the sub level all the way up too in order to get reasonable output?

The problem isn't that the sub is too quiet...its that the other speakers are too loud. I am glad to reminded me of this too. I think I ended up setting my speakers to about 50-60% of their max volume. Then I left the sub on 100%. These settings worked very well.( The creative audio settings allowed for individual volume setting for each speaker)

I can't tell you if the audio console works as at college I don't even bother to rehook up the analog connection, just the digital. At home, I have much more time to play around with all the stuff. But last year I was bored so I did hook it up and that is the experience I speak from.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Thanks.

I'm glad to hear a confirmation that it's possible and seems to work without issues really.

This was working for both movies and gaming?

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Thanks.

I'm glad to hear a confirmation that it's possible and seems to work without issues really.

This was working for both movies and gaming?

Worked with Warcraft III's positional audio, WMV w/ analog surround sound and SACD/DVD-A.

And yes, I have watched many movies via the digital connection and DTS/DD/DDEX/whatever else are all recognized by the HK.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: sheik124
Well, my Logitech Z-5500s aren't a "reciever", but the 5.1 analog outs work just peachy with my X-Fi, and the sub control (in the X-Fi CP) actually does something.
<-- Voted "Jello, I like you"

Aww thanks.

Well the z-5500s have an internal crossover that is used with 5.1 analog input, so I know those would work with any standard 5.1 analog soundcard.

I guess I should expand this to include the X-Fi too for anyone dealing with that.

Don't know if its worth anything or not, but when I turn on the X-Fi's crossover (from the THX panel) and start sending out that .1 signal, it kills the Z-5500's crossover and just uses the LFE signal its getting from the card, not its own.