X-fi subwoofer jack

[imported_Imp]

Just picked up a subwoofer to tack onto my 2 bookshelves and receiver. I'm still callibrating the thing and waiting for a y-connector for the sub end to 'fix' the fairly weak output. However, I do recall one of the jacks on the X-fi being used for center/subwoofer. Currently, I only have a single Y attached to the front jack. Is it necessary to get another rca for the center/sub jack on the X-fi Xtrememusic?

Thanks.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

What kind of receiver do you have? If it has a sub pre-out, just hook the sub up to that and set up a good crossover based on your speakers.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
What kind of receiver do you have? If it has a sub pre-out, just hook the sub up to that and set up a good crossover based on your speakers.

::shiftyeyes::

I think you meant subwoofer line input. He is asking if he should hook his sub output up to his receiver so hooking into the preout wouldn't do much

Anyway OP, it depends if you can turn off bass management on your card. If you can send a full range signal from the R/L outputs to your receiver, you should be fine just hooking those up to a decent receiver. You won't have a whole lotta punch in any movies or anything with a dedicated LFE track though.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
What kind of receiver do you have? If it has a sub pre-out, just hook the sub up to that and set up a good crossover based on your speakers.

::shiftyeyes::

I think you meant subwoofer line input. He is asking if he should hook his sub output up to his receiver so hooking into the preout wouldn't do much

Anyway OP, it depends if you can turn off bass management on your card. If you can send a full range signal from the R/L outputs to your receiver, you should be fine just hooking those up to a decent receiver. You won't have a whole lotta punch in any movies or anything with a dedicated LFE track though.

I guess I'm kind of confused.

I was telling him he could connect his sub to his receiver's sub pre-out and he doesn't have to connect the sub/center output of the soundcard to the receiver at all, just the stereo signal he's giving it now.

I don't know what this part means though
"for a y-connector for the sub end to 'fix' the fairly weak output."

What has weak output? The sub? Does it have gain control? If you do have a sub output on your receiver, does it have a level adjustment?

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
What kind of receiver do you have? If it has a sub pre-out, just hook the sub up to that and set up a good crossover based on your speakers.

::shiftyeyes::

I think you meant subwoofer line input. He is asking if he should hook his sub output up to his receiver so hooking into the preout wouldn't do much

Anyway OP, it depends if you can turn off bass management on your card. If you can send a full range signal from the R/L outputs to your receiver, you should be fine just hooking those up to a decent receiver. You won't have a whole lotta punch in any movies or anything with a dedicated LFE track though.

I guess I'm kind of confused.

I was telling him he could connect his sub to his receiver's sub pre-out and he doesn't have to connect the sub/center output of the soundcard to the receiver at all, just the stereo signal he's giving it now.

I don't know what this part means though
"for a y-connector for the sub end to 'fix' the fairly weak output."

What has weak output? The sub? Does it have gain control? If you do have a sub output on your receiver, does it have a level adjustment?

well a y input does help with a weak signal...some subs don't turn on via the auto on feature very well with just 1 input connected...however, the gain control should control everything else just fine. At least this is from what I hear on AVS with people that have subs that need to be connected this way

 

[zephyrprime]

I believe the x-fi will act as a digital crossover for the subwoofer input if you have your speakup setup in Windows set to include a subwoofer. That's probably the reason why your sub output is so weak. The x-fi is filtering out low frequencies from the front R/L. You should definitely connect your sub via the subwoofer output rather than the fronts.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
What kind of receiver do you have? If it has a sub pre-out, just hook the sub up to that and set up a good crossover based on your speakers.

::shiftyeyes::

I think you meant subwoofer line input. He is asking if he should hook his sub output up to his receiver so hooking into the preout wouldn't do much

Anyway OP, it depends if you can turn off bass management on your card. If you can send a full range signal from the R/L outputs to your receiver, you should be fine just hooking those up to a decent receiver. You won't have a whole lotta punch in any movies or anything with a dedicated LFE track though.

I guess I'm kind of confused.

I was telling him he could connect his sub to his receiver's sub pre-out and he doesn't have to connect the sub/center output of the soundcard to the receiver at all, just the stereo signal he's giving it now.

I don't know what this part means though
"for a y-connector for the sub end to 'fix' the fairly weak output."

What has weak output? The sub? Does it have gain control? If you do have a sub output on your receiver, does it have a level adjustment?

well a y input does help with a weak signal...some subs don't turn on via the auto on feature very well with just 1 input connected...however, the gain control should control everything else just fine. At least this is from what I hear on AVS with people that have subs that need to be connected this way

Yeah, the auto-turn on feature can be helped with that, but that doesn't seem like a very good method if you just have low bass output. Something is wrong if you can't get more than enough signal from a single sub pre-out.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: zephyrprime
I believe the x-fi will act as a digital crossover for the subwoofer input if you have your speakup setup in Windows set to include a subwoofer. That's probably the reason why your sub output is so weak. The x-fi is filtering out low frequencies from the front R/L. You should definitely connect your sub via the subwoofer output rather than the fronts.

I don't have an X-Fi, can you set it up for 2.0 operation so it gives the FL/FR a full range signal + downmixes everything that would have a dedicated LFE track to the stereo output?

 

[imported_Imp]

Thanks for the input.

From mad searching at Creative forums, seems like you only need to use the center/sub line out 3(?) for 5.1. Also, something (lots) about Ceative having weak LFE signals. Looks like a Velodyne rep at AVS recommends using a Y splitter to boost signal so you can lower gain. Gotta make a return run to BB tomorrow, so may as well pick one up to try. Going to do more tweaking tomorrow when I have more time. Oh ya, the Creative consle only seems to have a 2/2.1 speaker selection. With just 2.0 before, bass output, limited by the response of the bookshelves, was good. With Z-2300s, only had to plug in the front channels, so I hope it's ok. The only bass setting I've seen in the console, other than equalizer and bass/treble, is the bass boost under Game Mode. Don't see anything else about a sub in there.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Anything about bass redirect? I'm just going off what I've read in other posts since I don't have the card.

Does your sub have a gain control in the back of it?

Does your receiver have level controls for the subwoofer output?

If so, did you try turning those up?