how can i use a Hi Fi system as computer speakers?

[Rich'[ard]]

hi all,

just wanted to know if anybody knew how to, or if anyone knew of a guide, link a Hi Fi system to a PC.

my Logitech Z5400s aren't doing me. and i got a Sony 1100w 6.2 hi fi set :p
i want to play some music through the Sony system...and playing games on it wuodln't be bad either.

common sense is that it involves my soundcard right? i have the Supreme FXII bundled with my Asus mobo.

any help would be appretiated
thanks! :)

[Enablingwolf]

If you have it... Digital Optical. (TosLink)

It carries the signal you ask for. Long as the parts can talk together and produce the signal for you.

Not much past this. I use TosLink to rummage through, my audio needs. I can use the cable box or my computer to send to the big setup I have. Now if I can find a [cheapish]switchable splitter box that works good.

[Rich'[ard]]

hey thanks.
i googled a bit after i posted thread. and there seems to be a cable taht connects to your sound card, then connects to a red and white port through the Hi Fi.
that's the Digital Optical cable you're referring to yeh? :)

[thideras]

;5965240"]hey thanks.
i googled a bit after i posted thread. and there seems to be a cable taht connects to your sound card, then connects to a red and white port through the Hi Fi.
that's the Digital Optical cable you're referring to yeh? :)Red and white?? :confused:

The cable he is talking about is made of glass and carries a visible red laser.

[Enablingwolf]

No, TosLink is a fiber optic cable designed to connect a bunch of devices together. It is only one wire thingy. A Fiber optic cable...It is not fiber optic though. Even though it is... Confusing... But a HD cable box should have it as should your Sony set top box. Most HDTV set will carry TosLink signals.

Here is a sample cable.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10229&cs_id=1022901&p_id=2764&seq=1&format=2

The thing that makes it easy to spot. On a device.. It's that flap covering the red output.

Creative has made Tosliink compatible sound cards for a long time now. Even in the South Pacific, you can find a OK priced unit perhaps.

Look at the back of your Sony. It should have the Digital Audio thing on it....

[Enablingwolf]

Red and white?? :confused:

The cable he is talking about is made of glass and carries a visible red laser.
The red and white is analog. It is part of the Composite ISO. Which the yellow carries the video. Usually it is grouped in triplets. Pretty easy to spot.
There is non-fiber digital cabling for audio. Which works, but it not as clean or nice as the one TosLink cable. The Optical carries full bandwidth and will do full DTS. It is a great option if you get it going.

Another option is finding a HDMI card. Which gives even better bandwidth. Also it can do more than the DTS...

[thideras]

The red and white is analog.I know -_-

[Enablingwolf]

:D figured as much. I wanted to reinforce your post. Plus the Op seems to not know it is just stereo signaling. He wants multi-channel. For basic surround in that type of cable He will need at least.. least 3 wires. Hence the awesomeness of the TosLink or HDMI.

[Rich'[ard]]

ahh HDMI sounds good :p
this is what i was talking about, the red and white thing lol.
http://en.kioskea.net/contents/pratique/hifi.php3

i'll look for a TosLink cable. don't think any games support 6.2 surround (probably nor does my sound card), but 5.1 sounnd would still be nice.

so the 'red and white' cable outputs rubbish sound?

EDIT: i forgot to add in my original post, I'm not quite knowledgeable when it comes to Audio equipment. i'll ask my dad as well.

[Enablingwolf]

Even if the signal supports outrageous format outputs. The machine should send the proper signal as it needs to output. You can game your 5.1 easy. It will not use the other speakers as the game takes advantage of the setup. It should signal from the source. If it is only stereo, you should get that. If the media supports more than 7.1... You will get that also.

What model Sony do you have?

Keep in mind. Red and White is just Stereo... RCA is two poles.. The inner and outer.. Positive and negative... Pretty much just one wire (channel) per plug. Mono is the easy way to put it. If it was headphones. You would have one plugs for each side of the headphone. Since headphones are two wire sets and a three pole plug. Right/left and ground. You get stereo. For basic 2.1, you need thee wires... For rear,, you need a three pole for right left read and front... Which is how many poles... Minus the sub woofer.. (or center).. Which is the x.1 part of 2.1 4.1 5.1.... and so forth.

[BillG8s]

just chuck a 3.5mm to rca adapter in.

[Rich'[ard]]

hmmm. it's this one:
http://sumaria.co.in/product_info.php?products_id=2159
there was a scratch on the speaker (hidden) so it was half price :p massive sound. don't think it's the highest of the highest sound quality though...i'm pretty sure.

so. i'm all noob to this. i wiki-ed RCA and it looks like one of the those audio+video adapters used with Xbox and PS2 etc. and one for sound system just doens't have the yellow wire yeh?

just noticed. EnablingWolf explained all this before. oops

so my best bet is the Optical or HDMI. got no HDMI on my Supreme FXII so i think Optical ftw.

[Neuromancer]

Optical digital audio cable is noce.

If you have the "yellow" video RCA cable laying around your house though, you can use that for transferring digital from your mobo to your receiver.

The RCA jacks on the mobo and the digital rca looking ajack on the back of the reciever should both be orange.

The red and white jacketed RCA cables are not good enough to transfer digital audio, you must use the 75ohm video cable.

[Rich'[ard]]

since when were there so many different cables:p lol.
sorry NeurOmancer, what's noce?

i have found RCA cables for $18, but i presume they're rubbish to get good 5.1 sound?
i have also found some Optical cables for $70-80.

so is the optical outlet on the motherboard or sound card? i'm not at home atm, so i'm not sure if there is the outlet/port thing on my mobo. there's no such thing on my Supreme FX II though.

thanks for the help guys. i'm gonna be pumping some doof doof through 1510w of POWER :santa:

[Maxvla]

All optical cables are the same. Don't pay a premium for any fancy glass cables. Get yourself a cheap, but properly made plastic cable (better durability) and you'll be all set. Optical cables don't need to be shielded so don't buy into any claims about shielding. All it is is a strobe of light transferred down the clear shaft of the cable. The strobe is the digital 1s and 0s. You can't get interference in a signal like that.

Toslink Optical 6 FT $2.14 (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10229&cs_id=1022901&p_id=1419&seq=1&format=2)

This is all you need. Get a longer version if you need longer of course. There are shorter ones also.

[Rich'[ard]]

oh. hmm. i'll look around. i googled Optical cable and came up with the $70 one.
i'm in Aus btw, so stuff is overpriced compared to USA :p

i'll have another look. thanks for the heads up Maxvia. good to know i don't a real expensive one. :thup:

EDIT: i've found a $29 one. i'm getting there....i'm getting there lol

[Cuiiey]

Um cant you use a SPDIF to 3.5mil comverter or is that what an optical cord is? My friends got a Sony HIFI and he uses a cable that runs from the front of his HIFI to his sound card

[Mr.Guvernment]

S/PDIF as it is usually refered to on sound cards or mobo's, it is a digital connection out and will get you the bext quality as it dumped the raw sound to your receiver.

[Rich'[ard]]

S/PDIF as it is usually refered to on sound cards or mobo's, it is a digital connection out and will get you the bext quality as it dumped the raw sound to your receiver.

i can see a SPDIF Out inlet on the back of my mobo. (the orange one?)
so irrelevant of Sound Card, SPDIF outputs the best sound quality from the pc?

can i use the Optical cable to connect SPDIF output and Receiver?

[Maxvla]

;5966305"]i can see a SPDIF Out inlet on the back of my mobo. (the orange one?)
so irrelevant of Sound Card, SPDIF outputs the best sound quality from the pc?

can i use the Optical cable to connect SPDIF output and Receiver?

Depending on your sound card you'll have a black square with a cap on it that simply pulls out. Inside you'll see a red light, plug the optical wire into that. If you don't see that, your sound card may have a breakout cable/box with the connection on the cable/box.

[wingman99]

;5966305"]i can see a SPDIF Out inlet on the back of my mobo. (the orange one?)
so irrelevant of Sound Card, SPDIF outputs the best sound quality from the pc?

can i use the Optical cable to connect SPDIF output and Receiver?

sounds like you have coaxial cable with SPDIF out from your PC in to the Receiver

[Neuromancer]

Here are your Digital audio outputs on your mobo


Cheapest method, is to use the top port.

You do not need a special digital audio cable. A Coax cable with RCA ports on the end of it that is rated for carrying video, will also carry the digital audio quite nicely. (IE the kind with yellow RCA jackets) If you have bought many ATI cards over the years, you should have a few of these lying around :)

If you want to use TOSLINK (Fiber Optic) use the port below.

AFAIK, Realtek does autosensing but I think digital audio is exclude from this. You will have to right click the Realtek speaker in the systray and tell it to use digital output.


EDIT: oh NOCE was a typo, I meant nice ;)

[Mr.Guvernment]

Correct, the above port's if used, dump out a RAW signal to another device, why buying say an Asus sound card vs onboard is irrelevant since your dumping the raw untouched signal out of the system to a receiver.

[Rich'[ard]]

oh thanks! pictures do mean a thousand words:p i was never going to understand before someone posted another 100 posts.

thanks Neur0mancer!:)
Mr Guvernment, from my understanding, the Coax port delivers untouched/unchanged raw audio to the reciever? that sound brilliant. how come some ppl suggested the Tos Link if Coax was better? :shrug:

another question. i just looked on my Logitech z5400s control box and there's inputs for both Coaxial and Optical. would i get better sound quality if i used an Toslink/Coaxial cable? because right now my sound card connects with the 3.5mm wires to the Control box (which is the Logitech's receiver, amplifier is built into the Subwoofer though)

it's this Logitech set if i'm confusing everyone - Z-5400
http://pic.sysprofile.de/images/jDR65459.jpg

[Mr.Guvernment]

cox or toslink both dump the audio raw, just use different mediums to do it :), if you can use the Coxial or Optical, use it :)

[Old Thrashbarg]

There is non-fiber digital cabling for audio. Which works, but it not as clean or nice as the one TosLink cable.

Sorry, but that's not right. As long as you've got a good shielded cable it'll be the exact same signal. The big advantage to Toslink is that it holds up better over longer runs, >3m.

The disadvantage to Toslink is that it's more complex, and the connectors are pretty fragile... or rather they come loose way too easily.

i googled Optical cable and came up with the $70 one.
i'm in Aus btw, so stuff is overpriced compared to USA

Don't bother with that $29 cable you found, either. Any shielded RCA cable will work great, and if you can find a length of RG59 or RG6 cable TV coax with RCA connectors (or make your own), that'd be ideal. The one time I hooked up a SPDIF coax, it was with half of one of the cheapy stereo RCAs that came with a VCR or something, and it worked perfectly even without shielding. It's not the same as analog signal, a digital connection is strictly an on/off square wave, so a little bit of interference will be ironed out by the buffers and error correction in the DAC.

[t1mex]

It's not the same as analog signal, a digital connection is strictly an on/off square wave, so a little bit of interference will be ironed out by the buffers and error correction in the DAC.

Just to clarify for the OP, DAC = Digital to Analog Converter. Its a chip that should be in whatever device you send the sound to (i.e. your Sony system) to convert the digital signal into something you can hear. If you have either the toslink or the SPDIF input on your Sony set (or your Logitech's for that matter) then it has a DAC, so give it a try with one of the cheap cables mentioned.