Hooking up a receiver to my soundcard?

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A

Alone

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2006
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I don't think this would go in GH, so I'll post it here.

I bought a Yamaha HTR 5830 along with some Paradigm speakers, and I'm wondering what my options are to hook it up to my computer for the best sound. Should I simply go S/PDIF digital?

Picture of the back for reference.

Also, which soundcard would be recommended?
 
T

Tiamat

Lifer
Nov 25, 2003
14,068
5
71
Digital out of the sound card, into the Digital In on your receiver.

Any decent sound card should do the trick. Do, check out Jello's thread that he linked, that will probably get you to better focus on what you are actually doing so that you can optimize to your budget.
 
FeuerFrei

FeuerFrei

Diamond Member
Mar 30, 2005
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S/PDIF won't get you surround in games.
Unless you can find a sound card that digitally encodes on the fly.

Other than that, go for digital.

**Oh yeah I forgot, if you intend to listen to DVD-A music on your pc you need to use the 3 analog outputs.
 
S

Syrch

Diamond Member
May 21, 2004
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if you have an optical out you can easily hook it up to that receiver. If not go out to the store and get a S/PDIF to (red/white) analog cable and hook it up. Simple enough.
 
J

JustinGoodie

Senior member
Dec 12, 2002
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i used to use s/pdif which is basically digital coaxial. now i'm not sure how far your reciever is from your computer, but in my case i needed to use a 25 foot subwoofer cable and an 1/8" to RCA adapter to connect the two. most of the time this worked fine, but it would often cut out for half a second. i later got a soundblaster audigy platinum ex (black friday sale a couple years ago) which has optical in/out. then i got 2 12 foot optical cables and a coupler and it works great, no signal interruptions. now one thing to keep in mind is that my receiver is a high-end Denon with a good signal processor which will take any source and mix it into dolby pro logic 2 surround sound, and i'm not sure what your receiver will do.

let me know if you have any questions... i'm no YoYo, but i know my stuff pretty well.
 
A

Alone

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2006
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I just looked at the back of my computer, and the motherboard has integrated S/PDIF Digital and Optical. Woot?
 
YOyoYOhowsDAjello

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,205
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Originally posted by: Alone
I just looked at the back of my computer, and the motherboard has integrated S/PDIF Digital and Optical. Woot?
Click to expand...

Yeah, just use one of those. The only problem would be the inability to encode DD / DTS from games but already encoded material like movies will work right if you have it set up correctly.

Other than DD / DTS encoded material, you'll be sending stereo output and then if you want to get fake surround out of that, enable Prologic II or some other surround setting on your receiver.

Keeping it stereo for music is probably your best bet.
 
A

Alone

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2006
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Nice. Games aren't important to me, so if my movies and music sound alright, then woot!
 
Raduque

Raduque

Lifer
Aug 22, 2004
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I use digital output on my HTPC because that only has to output digital streams. I use analog on my main PC because my awesome 20 year old receiver only has analog inputs.

Just be warned though, that I've noticed a lot of soundcards lack any sort of bass management in conjunction with the digital output.
 
P

pulse8

Lifer
May 3, 2000
20,860
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YOyoYOhowsDAjello

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,205
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Originally posted by: Raduque
Just be warned though, that I've noticed a lot of soundcards lack any sort of bass management in conjunction with the digital output.
Click to expand...

Because you let your receiver do it?
 
aircooled

aircooled

Lifer
Oct 10, 2000
15,965
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Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Originally posted by: Raduque
Just be warned though, that I've noticed a lot of soundcards lack any sort of bass management in conjunction with the digital output.
Click to expand...

Because you let your receiver do it?
Click to expand...


Yep. I run a dry digital signal to my receiver and let the receiver deal with the rest. I still use an Audigy 2 ZX sound card and it sounds great to me.


 
A

Alone

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2006
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Alright, I connected the digital coax from my motherboard to the receiver and it works great! Music plays more than fantastic, but when I play DVD's, I have to turn the volume on the receiver right up! This happens in Windows and Linux, with different DVD's as well.

Anyone know what the problem is? Is it likely to be my external USB dvd drive?
 
YOyoYOhowsDAjello

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
31,205
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Originally posted by: Alone
when I play DVD's, I have to turn the volume on the receiver right up!
Click to expand...

What does "right up" mean?

It's normal that you'd have to turn the volume up significantly higher listening to DVDs vs. music. Are you unable to get decent volume by turning the volume up?

Is the receiver detecting the signal as Dolby Digital or DTS by the way? (As opposed to a PCM stereo stream and applying Prologic II or some other surround effect to it)
 
A

Alone

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2006
7,490
0
0
Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Originally posted by: Alone
when I play DVD's, I have to turn the volume on the receiver right up!
Click to expand...

What does "right up" mean?

It's normal that you'd have to turn the volume up significantly higher listening to DVDs vs. music. Are you unable to get decent volume by turning the volume up?

Is the receiver detecting the signal as Dolby Digital or DTS by the way? (As opposed to a PCM stereo stream and applying Prologic II or some other surround effect to it)
Click to expand...

By right up I mean the lowest volume on the receiver is -80.00dB, and I have to turn it up to 0dB to get significant volume, and I have to max it out at 16dB for it to be loud! But there seems to be a lot of...wind?

As for how it's playing... I have the coax plugged in at the back through CD in, since that's the only digital coax input. So on my receiver I can use CD, but not CD DTS?
 
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