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?