Help with the BIC America F12

[crisscross]

I am planning to get these

I have a PC with a X-Fi Gamer Soundcard Pic Output

What do I need to hook it up? I don't have a receiver, I want to hook this up with a pair of Swan M200 and just wanted to make sure it will work.

Thanks!

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Well unfortunately, that could get a little tricky.

I think the main issue is that there isn't a good way to have the Swan M200's volume control also control the volume of the subwoofer.

What inputs does the BIC have?

Looks like Left/Right High Level Input/Output
and
For the RCA connections, does it have Left/Right Input/Output, or Left/Right input, or Mono input?

 

[crisscross]

Hey there.. I am not sure about all the inputs, but here is a picture i found.. http://media.photobucket.com/i...ng/Random/SubBack2.jpg

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Yeah, I found that too. I'm not sure if that's accurate or not.

If it is, it looks like you only have stereo high level and then a mono RCA input.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Hi crisscross.

Your IM got me just as I was selecting a movie to watch with thecoolnessrune.

I had forgotten that I had PMs with you about a similar issue in the past (I've hit my limit and exported my PMs since then). Based on what we discussed before, the other sub you were looking at had a Left/Right RCA input that would allow the subwoofer to pull the low frequencies off both channels of a stereo signal.

With the F12 sub, it looks like it just has a single RCA input.

I haven't messed around with mixing stereo channels to mono to know if you could simply get a 2-to-1 cable and just combine the L/R signals that way to send to the sub.

 

[cheesehead]

All you need are a few resistors, some RCA jacks from RadioShack, and a bit of wire.

http://www.tkk.fi/Misc/Electro.../circuits/linesum.html

Do NOT use a 2-to-one cable. You run a very strong risk of damaging your soundcard.

 

[crisscross]

Thanks Yoyo and Cheesehead. I actually need some help on choosing a sub/going diy etc. I live in India and was planning to get my brother to get it for me in the next couple of weeks, however it looks he might struggle to get it as the sub weighs around 43lbs and his weight limit is 50 pounds! He could still try and get it but if there are better alternatives I would love to hear them.

Should I just get an amp and driver and build an enclosure here? or is there a DIY kit you can buy where I just need to put all the parts together? this will be my first attempt at any of this so the simpler the better.

Thanks!

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

It's probably not worth the hassle to ship it?

India... you use 220V and 50Hz over there maybe?

Whatever sub (or amp) you buy, you're going to have to make sure that it's compatible with that unless you have another plan.

 

[s44]

Originally posted by: crisscross
Should I just get an amp and driver and build an enclosure here?

If you have the skills, absolutely.

 

[crisscross]

Originally posted by: s44

Originally posted by: crisscross
Should I just get an amp and driver and build an enclosure here?

If you have the skills, absolutely.

I don't know if I do but I don't think I have a choice really

YoYo: I found this amp and it's rated up to 220volts. I am planning to get that along with the Shiva woofer.

What do you guys think?

 

[s44]

Should work, though that Shiva-X can take a looooooot more power.

 

[crisscross]

Originally posted by: s44
Should work, though that Shiva-X can take a looooooot more power.

i know i am really really stretching my budget to get the Shiva. The Cerwin Wega is the only 220v driver i could find. The Dayton series at Parts Express all seem to be rated only for 110.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I believe the other option is to get some sort of power converter and then buy whatever kind of amp you want. That's probably not the best way to keep costs down though... and I don't know how much sub you really need. If it's for a computer speaker setup and you're basically going to be right on top of the sub, then you shouldn't need gobs of power.

Do you know if you can buy a reasonable subwoofer over in India? Or an amp in India?

 

[crisscross]

Hey Yoyo. A step-down transformer is definitely an option unfortunately, I am not sure where I can get a good quality one, the ones I found are fairly cheap $10-$15 at most but very poor qualitythe last one I got, ended up getting fried taking my cordless phone with it.

I checked the prices in India for a subwoofer and they are the very least at least 4 times the price in America

 

[crisscross]

s44: can you recommend a driver/sub-woofer for around $300?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: crisscross
Hey Yoyo. A step-down transformer is definitely an option unfortunately, I am not sure where I can get a good quality one, the ones I found are fairly cheap $10-$15 at most but very poor qualitythe last one I got, ended up getting fried taking my cordless phone with it.

I checked the prices in India for a subwoofer and they are the very least at least 4 times the price in America

When I was asking about this a few years ago, it was suggested to go to a military supply / military surplus store and asking about a step-down transformer there.

 

[crisscross]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: crisscross
Hey Yoyo. A step-down transformer is definitely an option unfortunately, I am not sure where I can get a good quality one, the ones I found are fairly cheap $10-$15 at most but very poor qualitythe last one I got, ended up getting fried taking my cordless phone with it.

I checked the prices in India for a subwoofer and they are the very least at least 4 times the price in America

When I was asking about this a few years ago, it was suggested to go to a military supply / military surplus store and asking about a step-down transformer there.

Thanks Yoyo... I will go with that.

 

[crisscross]

Guys going with this amp Oaudio Bash 300

What do you guys think? comes in 220v version as well which is a plus.

What do I need to hook this to my PC?

 

[s44]

That's 300W RMS (to 4 ohms), not cheap "max" rating or something. Nice... and they ship to India.

Just plug a cable from the sub out of your card (might need an adapter for that, but I assume the card came with it) to either the L or R line input (or both with a Y-cable if you want). Turn the sub crossover off and let your computer set the crossover in software.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: s44
That's 300W RMS (to 4 ohms), not cheap "max" rating or something. Nice... and they ship to India.

Just plug a cable from the sub out of your card (might need an adapter for that, but I assume the card came with it) to either the L or R line input (or both with a Y-cable if you want). Turn the sub crossover off and let your computer set the crossover in software.

Since he's probably not really going to have those options on the soundcard, I'm thinking he'd probably want to use a couple y-adapters to split the green stereo output of the soundcard to send to both the speakers and the L/R input on the sub.

Can his soundcard be set up to do a discrete subwoofer channel with crossover control? (I have not been keeping up with soundcards in several years)

 

[s44]

Even my integrated Realtek chips do sub channel with crossover, so I was sure any discrete card could do it... Maybe it's old though.

 

[crisscross]

Originally posted by: s44
Even my integrated Realtek chips do sub channel with crossover, so I was sure any discrete card could do it... Maybe it's old though.

well it is old how do i check if my card can do sub channel crossover? also.. could you guys send me some links to the adapter and cables i need?

thanks!

 

[cheesehead]

What soundcard do you have? Almost anything with a ".1" next to the number of channels it outputs - 4.1, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1, et cetera, has a separate LFE output.

You want a cable like this one (http://www.amazon.com/3-5mm-Mi...-Stereo/dp/B000FEHO0U) for cards that have a separate jack for the subwoofer. Some cards use one jack, with the subwoofer on the "right" channel and the center channel on the "left" (or vice versa); for these cards, you'll want the aforementioned cable plus a RCA to 1/8" female mono adapter.

Or you could wire one together yourself with a lot less mess and hassle.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

In my experience, 4.1 tends to be 2 two-channel connections and no discrete sub channel. 5.1 and higher certainly have that.

In order to use the .1 LFE output, won't he have to set the soundcard to 5.1 for example?

If he does that and only has 2.1 speakers hooked up, is that going to work as intended? So windows and the sound drivers are set up to see a 5.1 speaker set, but then he'd set up the actual programs he wants to use to 2.0 or 2.1 and then that will work?

If he doesn't have a subwoofer crossover adjustment, he'd only get sound from the sub when there's a dedicated LFE channel like in a DVD movie, correct? If he does watch a DVD movie, does he have to select the 5.1 DD track (or equivalent) to access that LFE channel? I don't use my computer to watch DVDs. If he does select the 5.1 DD track, would he get the LFE track properly (along with center channel info, etc.) since either the DVD program or something else along the way would need to be set to 2.1?

I haven't done this before (I've been doing digital audio connections for several years), so I don't know if these things I'm thinking about are even issues.

Not knowing if this sort of stuff was easy to get around, that's why I thought that just splitting the L/R analog output and a running full range signal to both would be easier (with subwoofer set to pick up where the speakers start to roll off).

 

[crisscross]

I have the x-fi xtreme gamer 7.1 here is what it says in the specs

"Connectivity
Speaker and Headphone connections for stereo to 7.1 (Line Out via three 3.5mm mini jacks)
Line In / Microphone In / Optical Out* (shared 3.5mm FlexiJack)
Auxiliary Line level Input (via 4-pin Molex connector)
Intel HD Audio Compatible Front Panel Header (2x5pin)