How do I play sound from my computer on my stereo

[Wekiva]

I've got my computer on one side of a wall and my stereo on the other w/ the ability to drill a hole and run wires between. From what I understand I can run a cable from my soundcard to one of the digital in connections on my receiver (Sony 333ES). I also recently bought Klipsch Pro Media Ultras and am obviously hooking them up to my soundcard as well. I'm just confused as to what goes where.

Here is a link to a picture of an Audigy soundcard like mine.

As you look at the picture at the link above here is how I have my speakers set up. Far right connection is firewire for my digital video camera. Black is for my surround speakers, green is for my front stereo speakers, red is for my microphone, blue is unused and orange is for my subwoofer and my center speaker. What is the blue for and is that where I run the wire out to my receiver?

What type of connection would I want on the other end of the wire coming from my card? On the card end it will have headphone looking connection to plug into the card...but what about the other end. Is the other end the same? I thought the digital connections were either optical or coax ? How would either of these connections fit in my soundcard?

Thanks for all your advice.

 

[Kelemvor]

Easiest way is to get a cable that on one end is a standard headphone type jack (fits into the plugs on the sound card) and on the other end is your standard red and white audio connectors that fit into the back of a Stereo. To the stereo it's just another input and doesn't really care what's on the other end.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Wekiva
I've got my computer on one side of a wall and my stereo on the other w/ the ability to drill a hole and run wires between. From what I understand I can run a cable from my soundcard to one of the digital in connections on my receiver (Sony 333ES). I also recently bought Klipsch Pro Media Ultras and am obviously hooking them up to my soundcard as well. I'm just confused as to what goes where.

Here is a link to a picture of an Audigy soundcard like mine.

As you look at the picture at the link above here is how I have my speakers set up. Far right connection is firewire for my digital video camera. Black is for my surround speakers, green is for my front stereo speakers, red is for my microphone, blue is unused and orange is for my subwoofer and my center speaker. What is the blue for and is that where I run the wire out to my receiver?

Blue is generally line-in (a line-level recording input), although it might also be a lineout. Sometimes it's configurable.

What type of connection would I want on the other end of the wire coming from my card? On the card end it will have headphone looking connection to plug into the card...but what about the other end. Is the other end the same? I thought the digital connections were either optical or coax ? How would either of these connections fit in my soundcard?

Thanks for all your advice.

The pictured card does not appear to have a digital coax or optical out. You would have to run 2.0, 2.1, or 5.1 analog audio to your receiver (depending on what it is capable of using), probably via stereo 2.5mm->stereo RCA adapters and RCA audio cables (readily available at Radio Shack). Basically, plug the speaker outputs of the sound card into the inputs of the receiver, just like you would with any analog source. I don't know why people find this so complex.

 

[Wekiva]

Well...the thing I was having trouble with was wondering how I would have 5.1 computer speakers plugged in and a connection to the receiver as well. I was under the impression that my audigy had a single line out (digital) that the receiver would decode and convert into stereo (or 5.1). But after a bit of research it appears this isn't the case. Looks like I'll be upgrading to an Audigy 2.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Wekiva
Well...the thing I was having trouble with was wondering how I would have 5.1 computer speakers plugged in and a connection to the receiver as well. I was under the impression that my audigy had a single line out (digital) that the receiver would decode and convert into stereo (or 5.1). But after a bit of research it appears this isn't the case. Looks like I'll be upgrading to an Audigy 2.

With the regular Audigy you would have to use splitters on the analog outs, running one side to the computer speakers and the other to the recevier (although why you'd need both I'm unclear on). The Audigy2 will encode stereo on its digital output, and can pass-through (but not encode) DD5.1 (so you'd have 5.1 when watching DVDs, but only stereo playing games with surround sound).

You can get receivers nowadays that take a 5.1 analog input (you need it for SACD/DVD-A), but it's still not an ideal solution. Basically, what's needed is an add-on consumer-level soundcard that will encode to DD5.1 -- but nobody seems willing (or able) to produce one. NVIDIA's onboard SoundStorm chip (found on some high-end NForce2 motherboards) could do it, but the product has been discontinued (see really, really long thread in GH). Intel may be putting out an onboard solution that can do it as well, but AFAIK, there are still no plans for a PCI-based solution.

 

[Wekiva]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
although why you'd need both I'm unclear on

The reason I want to do this is because I want to play games in my office and use my Klipsch Pro Media Ultra speakers for that (and other computer related sounds) and I want to be able to also hear my MP3 collection out in the living room. As I said before my computer and tv/stereo system are only a few feet apart (but on opposite sides of a wall I don?t mind punching a hole in). I just upgraded to an Audigy 2 ZS a few days ago and bought a PCM Digital audio cable. My hope is that I can connect the digital out (coax) from the Audigy2 to the receiver digital coax in to send my tunes across.

Am I heading in a wrong direction?

Thanks

 

[Matthias99]

No, that should work fine. You just won't get DD5.1 output to the receiver, but for music, that shouldn't matter. You also could have just run regular audio cables through the wall instead of upgrading the sound card...