|
Search Tech-Forums - link takes you to our Forum's search page. Note: The following is only a text archive! To view the actual forum discussion, please visit our website at http://www.tech-forums.net Pages:1 Audio cabling(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)Posted by: Syphanx Okay people here's the question: Can you seperately buy extra audio cabling for your pc speakers? (You know just the cord which goes from your soundcard to your speaker system). If so, what lengths does it come in? Cause I need a fairly long set to hook up my Logitech Z-5500's when they arrive. Or would I use another cabling for this, afterall the system is digital. Posted by: dnoch Ya, you can buy an extra cable. I have never seen very long ones before, but then, I have never really looked. Posted by: Syphanx Yeah because I'll probably need some ungodly amount of length like a 9m set and an 11m set lol. That plus a few Couplers should do the trick ;) Posted by: EricB go the digital route so you won't experience a loss in sound quality due to the capacitance and resistance in the long thin cable Posted by: Syphanx Right so I'm a bit of a newbie at this kind of audio stuff, now because the speakers are digital and all. Can someone just explain to me what is happening (It will have to be pretty basic) and Just tell me what I will have to buy to hook them all up (pics would be good if possible) Thanks. Posted by: Syphanx ***BUMP*** Posted by: EricB [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Syphanx [/i] [B]***BUMP*** [/B][/QUOTE] you need to post a picture of your speakers so we can tell you Posted by: Syphanx I don't actually have them yet but i really wanted to know before they got hear, they are the Logitech Z-5500's 5.1THX, they are posted on the logitech website. All I will be wanting to do is Hook the 5.1 speaker system up around my room using the wall mounts provided on the actual satellites. I will need an additional 11m of cabling for the left rear speaker and about another 9m for the right rear. The rest are in reach of the amount of cabling provided. Posted by: EricB [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Syphanx [/i] [B]I don't actually have them yet but i really wanted to know before they got hear, they are the Logitech Z-5500's 5.1THX, they are posted on the logitech website. All I will be wanting to do is Hook the 5.1 speaker system up around my room using the wall mounts provided on the actual satellites. I will need an additional 11m of cabling for the left rear speaker and about another 9m for the right rear. The rest are in reach of the amount of cabling provided. [/B][/QUOTE] you can buy the 1/8 extenders, but you will lose a good amount of sound quality. that sounds like the only way you can go though Posted by: Syphanx How much sound quality are we talking about losing here? 20%, 30%? Also can anyone provide a image of what an 1/8 extender looks like cause I have no idea. Or a website to where anyone sells them. Posted by: Syphanx Hey guy's ive put this list together of the cables I will need to connect up my speaker system, please check that it is right so I don't waste my money. 1) Acoustic Research 12' Digital Coaxial Cable with RCA Connectors x3 ([url]http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=4228703&productCategoryId=cat08057&type=product&id=1051384784420[/url]) 2) Acoustic Research Couplers (male RCA plug to female RCA jack) x3 (as they come 2 per pack) ([url]http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=4498537&productCategoryId=cat08054&type=product&id=1051384862324[/url]) 3) Obviously my speaker system lol. The thing I'm worried about is that will my system support the cables shown above? (or my soundcard for a matter of fact which will soon be a Creative X-Fi Extreme Music 24bit). Help me out here, Thanks. Posted by: Graham Bad news on that , Syphanx. Check out this e-mail I got from Creative about hooking up a digital cable to the Z-5500 RCA input: Dear Graham, Thank you for your interest in Creative products. The cable you have provided is a digital coaxial cable, RCA to RCA. What you will need is a 3.5mm mini plug (for X-Fi Xtreme Music) to RCA (for connection on your device such as a receiver with RCA connector). It will look like the following cable at [url]http://www.digiconcepts.com/cables_audio_37.htm[/url] Thank you for contacting us. I have been spending a long time trying to find a 3.5mm to RCA cable that supports good interference blockage :( One of my friends has these and uses a digital output from his comp so I am trying to find out how he did it. Trouble is that he is overseas on a studry abroad program and I hardly get to hear from him..... Posted by: Graham AH, Syphanx, our wallets are going to get beat up even further. In order to use crisp, clean digital output cabling you need to buy one of the sound card setups with the I/O box (the front 5" hardware with all the audio ports that goes in a optical drive bay) to get it to work. With a sound card alone you have to get a 3.5mm to RCA cable that will have terrible audio quality and make the whole digital experience ruined. I am going to have to save up a bit and either get the X-Fi Platinum or possibly the Fatal1ty version in order to be happy :( Posted by: Syphanx Alright Graham, So just once again in English... lol I should be able afford the Platnium version of the x-fi series which has an external bay in it. The reason the Elite Pro and Fidel1ty are so expensive is because they have the "x-ram" in them. So Graham, what do I need to buy? (Apart from the soundcard)? Posted by: Graham You will need either a digital coaxial or optical cable. I believe the new I/O bays on the new X-Fi cards support those. [B]DO NOT[/B] buy these cables at radioshack, best buy, or any other retail store. They will overcharge you like all ****. Use either [URL=http://electronics.listings.ebay.com/Audio-Speaker-Cables_Digital- Interconnects_W0QQfromZR4QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQsacatZ6 4592QQsocmdZListingItemList]eBay[/URL] or some other online superstore to find them. They will run about $20-30 online while in stores they will charge like $80-100 Posted by: EricB [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Graham [/i] [B]You will need either a digital coaxial or optical cable. I believe the new I/O bays on the new X-Fi cards support those. [B]DO NOT[/B] buy these cables at radioshack, best buy, or any other retail store. They will overcharge you like all ****. Use either [URL=http://electronics.listings.ebay.com/Audio-Speaker-Cables_Digital- Interconnects_W0QQfromZR4QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQsacatZ6 4592QQsocmdZListingItemList]eBay[/URL] or some other online superstore to find them. They will run about $20-30 online while in stores they will charge like $80-100 [/B][/QUOTE] you can get them cheaper at [url]www.partsexpress.com.[/url] don't believe what people say about optical cables either. a $5.00 one will sound as good as a $1000.00 one. these cable are digital in nature and you won't experience any degradation for either 500 or 5000 miles (I forget which). just don't bend they cheap ones as that will stop the signal from going through to the digital to analog converter (the expensive ones make sure you can't bend them) which is usually a receiver or amp Posted by: Graham I think I may invest in a SPDIF coaxial-doable port of some kind. Setting up 5.1 audio with most of the DVD software and music players is tough.... The only thing that works with 5.1 on my computer is the **** games. Music and DVD-playback software can't detect the 5.1 for ****. Posted by: EricB you usually have to configure it yourself and they don't make it easy. you're right. digital is the best way to go. you just have to set everything to pass through if your source (receiver and amplified speakers) has dolby digital Posted by: Syphanx So if I were going to do what Graham has done, would i be better of getting the X-Fi Platnium instead of the Extreme Gamer as it has the additional external bay? What advantages does this have? And more importantly what does it do? Posted by: EricB I personally woudn't spend 500 on a card to play them through 100.00 speakers Posted by: Syphanx More like $450 speakers and 500W's, which isn't bad for a computer sound system. Posted by: Graham I'm just going to burn DVDs with my burner and play them off my DVD player that has coaxial out to the digital decoder station. The direct 96/24 6-channel for games on PC sounds great as it is so no reason to spend $200 on the X-Fi platinum. Only thing that sucks is that I have not figured out what music software does 5.1 channels if the MP3 file is capable. A lot of mp3s, divx movies, etc are only ripped with 2.1 channels so the 5.1 is useless. Overall though, I am really impressed with this system. The subwoofer definitely is up there with most home theatre systems. Posted by: EricB [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Graham [/i] [B]Only thing that sucks is that I have not figured out what music software does 5.1 channels if the MP3 file is capable. A lot of mp3s, divx movies, etc are only ripped with 2.1 channels so the 5.1 is useless. [/B][/QUOTE] intel hd audio does this. so does older nforce3 or nforce2 chip Posted by: Graham and Winamp Surround Edition :D vBulletin Copyright ©2000 - 2003, Jelsoft Enterprises Limited. PPC Management vB Easy Archive Final - Created by Xenon |