Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions how to send computer sound output to stereo amp

I want to send sound output from my pc to my receiver so that I can hear through my axioms.

Anybody got any thoughts on the options below??
- 3.5mm stereo mini phone plug to RCA jack adapter
- RFG-3000 Wireless Audio & Video transmitter

If I got wireless, the signal will need to go about 5 yards with almost a clear line of sight ( without walls).
If I go with some sort of cable solution, there are 3 or 4 sharp turns to negotiate, and the journey is about 15 yards.

Any advice appreciated..

Does that receiver have a digital coaxial input?

Digital out means the receiver will convert the signal to analog, not the soundcard. Unless you have one of those fancy M-Audios or Terratecs, the receiver's DACs are probably much better than the soundcard's output, especially if it's an integrated card or made by creative.

If so, plug the digital coaxial out of your soundcard into the receiver. Unless it's one of those Creative pieces of trash it'll send relatively the same thing a CD player would. It's relatively cheap, incase your current soundcard doesn't have a digital out.

I tried wireless and I wasn't happy with the result. So I went with a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy and ran an optical cable from it to my HT system. Not the best solution but it works well for what it is.

Can you offer any solutions for a laptop that will give 5 channel sound?

Paul

you can get a usb external soundcard.

try

www.creativelabs.com

Ravi

Thanks. I see there is a pcmcia soundcard that is half the price of the usb card.

You probably are better off using the pcmcia instead of USB.
5.1 needs USB2.0 (tho, most newer laptops have this)
USB1.x wont do 5.1, only digital stereo.

Another good reason to go with the cheaper solution (my laptop is a couple years old and only has usb 1).

Thanks - Paul

If I may ask - What pcm card are you going to buy?
If it's cheap, I may buy it too.

I don't really know at this point. I just visited the Creative website Ravi provided and found their pcmcia card was $130 vs $250 USD for the usb card (which does a lot more but not features I care about).

I think I'll look around for a cheaper pcmcia card as the Creative card seems a bit expensive and from the comment Thasp made the Creative cards may not be the best anyway (could be paying for marketting, the name etc.).

The creative cards are great for what they're made for: gaming.

If you game on the computer,

a) the creative processors deal with all the audio, and doesn't put the audio burden on your CPU at all, leaving your CPU to the game so you get higher framerates

b) Their EAX for 5.1 gaming is unbeatable.

The price you pay for that is mediocre audio quality, when you check the measurements done on their cards. The op amps they use are dirt cheap, too. Check out the external terratecs and some m-audios, they may be more to your liking.

Ahh, I get it (I think). I'll check into these other cards.

Thanks for your patience, the computer end of it is new to me.

thanks for the tip thasp

I do have a coax input on reciever so all I need is that card and a long coax cable and I should be in business.

Do all coax cables come with the same terminators?

Since I went fully to digital music, my main audio source in my entertainment room is an HTPC with an M-Audio Revolution. It has 2 meter digital coax out to my Onkyo receiver.

Thasp - A big thank you for setting me on the right path here - I bought the card you suggested - using the line outputs the results are so-so. However using the toslink output the results are very nice indeed. I had a long and tortuous route to tack the cable to so I was then worried about the cost of such a long cable and the problems I might having making it turn corners. However I got 50ft of cable for 20 bucks from the link below and it works just fine. Listening to music online ( Napster), the sound is not quite CD quality but very good all the same. I can now sample endless quantities of new music for less than 20 dollars a month. Nice.

http://www.stsi.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=STSI_4&Product_Code=J823A-50

I was reading about this topic somewhere else (can't remember) but some people were stating that most/all sound cards only output 2.1 via the TOSLINK/digital connections. Is that true or can you try some testing with 5.1 source on your computer?

I'm curious becasuse if 5.1 is available then I'd hook up my computer and play some UT2k4 on my HT. I wonder how badass that would sound!

In reply to:

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If so, plug the digital coaxial out of your soundcard into the receiver. Unless it's one of those Creative pieces of trash it'll send relatively the same thing a CD player would.

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I just bought this card so I could use my laptop to listen to Rhapsody on my home theater. The sound is crystal clear, and I no longer have to endure an endless barrage of static and clicking noises through every song as I had previously. I paid about $100 for it and am quite satisfied.

With that in mind, let me just say that not all Creative products (and definitely not the one in my case) are "pieces of trash."

And no, I don't work for them.

Out of curiosity, what is the longest optical cable you can run from the card to the receiver?

It depends on the quality of the cable. You can theroetically go hundreds or thousands of feet. Optical cables work by reflecting the optical signal along the entire length of the cable. If you were to take an instantaneous snapshot of the signal within the cable, you'd see a zigzagging line from one end to the other. The purer the glass/plastic is, the better it's polished, and the tigher the cable jacket adheres to the glass/plastic's suface, the less the signal is degraded with each bounce.

The main thing you need to watch out for when running an optical cable is to not put any kinks in it. Try to keep the turn radii no tigher than a few inches -- like wrapping it around a 1 liter bottle.

I just got the new Turtle Beach Montego DDL for 70.00
I use 12 ft toslink to my onkyo 503 digital input.
The DDL stands for Dolby Digital Live and converts stereo 2 ch (Yahoo music, CD's, MP3) to surround 5.1 which my receiver decodes for HT. Sweet. Crystal clear.

My solution was pretty easy since my Pio 45TX has a USB input. I connect my Mac Mini to that port.

If you have wifi in your house, you might also consider using an Airport Express since that has an audio jack. Connect that jack to your reciever input.

Anyone have experience with the M-Audio Audiophile USB? I was looking for a USB/PCMCIA solution to add a lossless digital-out to a laptop so that I may use an outboard DAC (CIAudio VDA-1, possibly), but if this M-Audio has good sound then I'll do without the DAC. No need for surround, as I'll just use a 2-channel set-up. It uses its own power supply (wall wart) too, which I like.

So, anyone familiar?

M-audio makes great products though ive never heard that model.

Yeah, they also make a FireWire Audiophile, which has a steel chassis and may be a better solution than USB anyway. As per Thasp I've looked at the TerraTec's as well, and they make a very cool looking device called the Aureon 7.1 FireWire. Either way it looks like I'd be paying for some functions that I don't need (home recording, which is what the M-Audio's seem to be designed for), but if the sound is on par with an outboard DAC then I'd be happy.

Two big investmensts are going south ;-(

First I made a big investment in time to wire an optical TOSLINK cable from my computer to my 200 dollar Sony receiver - that investment intially worked great but..

This week I paid 900 dollar for a NAD 753 receiver and when I got it home it would not read the feed from the computer. Have been playing around with this for a couple of days and can't get it to work - girlfriend ( who was already sceptical of 'upgrade' is now thinking I have screw loose.....)

The NAD receiver plays the optical output from my CD player fine - it just cannot cope with the one from the computer - its 'Digital' indicator blinks on and off to indicate no input.

The CD player says it is outputing a sampling freq of 48KHz - when I send it to the Sony receiver, the receiver displays PCM 44.1. When I send the computer optical to my Sony receiver it displays PCM 48. It is happy to play both.

The NAD receiver does not give any indication of what sampling freq it thinks the CD player is sending it......

Sort of stumped - the sound card was a cheapish one recommended by Thasp - maybe a more expensive one would allow me to send at different freqeuencies and hope to hit on one the NAD likes??

Will be talking to NAD people today obviously....worried that becuase the CD player works, they will dismiss it as a crazy computer problem.....

1) Are you using TOSLINK or USB from your PC to NAD? If it's USB, perhaps it's a driver issue in Windows.

2) If it's TOSLINK, one test is to see if it's an issue w/ the digital connection. I did a similar test w/ my Tivo and Pio 45TX. My optical on the Tivo seemed broken. So I got an optical to coax converter box at Ratshack for $30. Then I connected to the digital coax, instead of optical, on the Pio. Still didn't work, so it meant that my Tivo optical was broken. Perhaps the NAD might like the coax better...

Using TOSLINK.

Your suggestion of using coax instead is definitely worth a try - however I am thinking that the sampling freq is at the heart of the issue and that might be the same across electrical/optical.

Another idea I have is maybe to get the latest driver for the soundcard - maybe it has more config options.