The Audio Dilema...

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Zerhyn

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: Zerhyn
hmmm...

Ok.. Under Coaxial there are two inputs. One Says Video 2 and the other sayss DVD/6CH

Or better yet.... here is a picture of the back...

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y218/Zerhyn/kenwood.jpg

But from what i see, i don't think it has an analog 5.1...though i'm not sure what it is all capable of unfortuanatly.

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/spmclaughlin/web/Random/kenwood.jpg"><a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/spmclaughlin/web/Random/kenwood.jpg">https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/spmclaughlin/web/Random/kenwood.jpg</a></a>
There's your 5.1 input.

Also, you have a surround back pre-out there, so if you wanted to hook up 6.1 or 7.1 later, you need to feed that RCA output to an amplifier and then hook up a speaker or two to that external amplifier.

Either of those digital coaxials should work for you if you want to try digital. The labels are just so you know what input to select so that your receiver is using them. (You'd need to select DVD to have the receiver use the info coming to the DVD input and you'd have to have the receiver on Video2 to use the other coaxial input)

Now, to take advantage of that. Would i need to get a couple of those Headphone jack to two rca cables and hook them up from the card to the 5.1 inputs?

I appreciate all the time and help! Thanks!

Right, you'd need three of those, but the issue you may or may not face is the problem sandeep108 just asked about.

 

[Zerhyn]

but the issue you may or may not face is the problem sandeep108 just asked about

Luckily i am not a big sub woofer fan. For some reason all the subs i have heard are too droning for me.

 

[sandeep108]

On the 6 channel direct input on your receiver, the internal crossover on your receiver is bypassed and the sub gets no signal while the speakers all get a fullrange signal.

Correct. And there seems to be no way to change that.

As per Creative, the A2ZS does not send a separate sub signal unless you select 5.1 and above, i.e. 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1. It then enables full control of the sub or activates the crossover controls. Therefore it is especially galling as to why I am not getting any sub out signal from where I am supposed to get it. It does not matter what type of sound - music, games or DVD.

Yes, I had thought of splicing the adapter cable so that the center also feeds the sub, but as a last resort. But then in case of games/DVD, if the A2 is actually filtering out the low freq for the center, again I would not get true signal into the receiver / sub.

Maybe this weekend when I get some time, I will play around with the crossover controls on the A2 mixer and see if I can get it to work.

Otherwise it does seem that for music and DVD I will use the receiver setup at digital in and for games, continue using the Altec Lansing 4.1 connected to the analog out of the A2 and keep switching the speaker settings about.

 

[sandeep108]

Luckily i am not a big sub woofer fan. For some reason all the subs i have heard are too droning for me.

My Altec Lansing sub is quite punchy. But then it is meant for games. The problem for me is space - no room for floor standers, have to make do with bookshelfs. I found a decent 8" sub that matches fairly well with the bookshelfs I have and quite nicely fills out the sound. In fact since the mid/high-range drivers are the same, this bookshelfs / sub arrangement falls short by just 5% IMO as compared to the floorstanders by the same mfr. And the floorstanders are 3 times the price...

 

[sandeep108]

Well, I could finally get my sub to work from the analog outputs. It was really a stupid setting of the frequency cut-off in the Audigy Speaker/mixer settings. The digital out that was working from the stereo mini to RCA Y cable left into the receiver was working fine all these past 3 weeks stopped working yesterday. (Now that is another problem to figure out why!). So I connected a stereo mini to RCA Y from Lineout 3 on the A2ZS to the center and sub inputs and made all settings in the mixer advanced / volume / bass management to medium and set it to 5.1 analog speakers and receiver to 6 channel direct. Lo and behold, the sub worked. Co-incidentally I got the RCA L/R on the Y cable correct the first time too. I checked each of the 6 channels volume in the mixer and it was absolutely correctly sending only the low frequency to the sub and each of the F-L/R, R-L/R and center tested perfectly. I can now select surround in CMSS and MP3s, music is correctly played over the 5 speakers including center. Games also played correctly with surround and LOTR DVD sounded very nice.

Though I somehow felt that the digital connection had somewhat sharper high end, but maybe it is only in my mind... But I also felt that the LOTR DVD audio played with much better channel separation and clarity in analog than the digital. Does this mean that the A2ZS decoder is better than the receiver (Sherwood)? It obviously has more options, since there is nothing much I can select in the receiver. I need to get digital out working again to check it out.