sound system setup

[ecthellion]

right know im using windows 7 because my other pc's cpu and psu died, that one has win 10 on it. im starting to suspsect that there may be too many sounds for the speakers to handle when gaming. also all the sounds seem rreally uneven in world of warcraft. certain things are really high and other things are really low so i dont get the full sound spectrum becuase if i turn the sound up high enough to hear all the lower end and quite sounds then the high sounding effects seem way to loud and distort sometimes, which is why im tihinking i may need gaming speakers and am considering a 5.1 setup. got any suggestions or ideas?

 

[Alaric]

Logitech has a couple systems, depending on your budget https://www.logitech.com/en-us/speakers-audio/surround-sound and Creative has a set up https://us.creative.com/p/speakers?filters=289

 

[ecthellion]

maybe ill go with the logitech speakers, the creative ones seem a bit low for good quality speakers (who knows maybe they are good speakers) i wasthinking maybe something more along the lines of these https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...round_sound_system-_-9SIA1J760U5205-_-Product

id rather pay a premium or higher price for quality rather than skimp and play 300 to 500 dollars and have to replace the speakers in a few years. i'd rather get something that would last me for a while, just my thoughts

 

[Alaric]

I agree with you completely, I just wasn't sure of your budget and didn't want spend your money-that's your job. LOL The Klipsch are nice speakers. They will require a new amp/processor.

 

[ecthellion]

debating on getting the klipsch set, if you can think of anything else let me know, or possibly a 5.1 or 7.1 setup that i could run directly from the soundcard. If not any recomemendations on amps/processors. thoughts would greatly be apreciated

 

[Alaric]

The only thing you can run directly from the sound card is headphones. You'll need at least a 5 (or 7) channel amplifier with a line level subwoofer out. Pioneer's Elite series is good, https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...TCH&Description=Pioneer+Elite&N=-1&isNodeId=1

Yamaha makes some nice stuff, too. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...a&ignorear=0&N=100008233 600026818&isNodeId=1

A receiver will be the easiest solution, and it will avoid a rat's nest of cables. You can route one HDMI to the receiver and one from the receiver to the display. On the plus side, Klipsch speakers have high sensitivity, so they can be driven to reference levels with relatively low power.

If you live near a Best Buy with a Magnolia section you can probably audition the Klipsch speakers with a variety of sources to get a good idea of the sound quality. Emotiva gear sounds very good, and they are great to deal with as far as describing your needs and getting solid answers back.

 

[ecthellion]

so use the videocards audio instead of the soundcard audio? bucause my souncard has no hdmi port on it, my video card uses a display port adapter atm. also i tried using smart volume and it seems to help some with equalizing out the differences between the highs and the lows, although when i logged out of my game there was a hissing noise in the speakers, when i turned it off the hissing went away. ill keep looking, any thoughts would greatly be aprecaited.
after about 10 mins i turned smart volume back on and there was no hissing, maybe its a soundcard issue or software issue. this card is kinda long in the tooth

 

[Alaric]

My bad. I meant to say a single SPIDF cable to the receiver. It probably wouldn't hurt to make sure the card isn't covered in dust and possibly clean the contacts with isopropyl alcohol and make sure the cable is securely seated in the card and the amplifier. What cabling currently connects the sound card to the amplifier? And have you tried a different cable?

 

[ratbuddy]

I ran 3.5mm (the green port on your card) to a NAD C320BEE for a long while. You'll want to make sure the card is set for line-out rather than headphones, if your card supports it. The signal from a headphone-level output can be too hot for the input on the integrated amp, giving weird dynamic range issues. Does the 316BEE have an optical input? If so, that's definitely worth trying. HDMI from your video card is a great option too, but you'd need to replace the amp with something more modern. I'm not familiar with your card driver software, but there should be a volume compressor in there somewhere, this will narrow the dynamic range and make volume levels more even. I'll google a bit and see if there's anything I can suggest.

Alaric, I think you must not have heard Dolby stuff in a while. My Marantz SR7010 does an amazing job with Dolby Surround upconverting. Stereo sources sound better, and 5.1 surround sources (Dolby Digital+ from Netflix for example) sound amazing when upconverted to 7.2.4.

edit: Yeah, they call it smart volume normalization, and it seems you've already tried it.

 

[ecthellion]

My current sound card is an asus xonar d2x, maybe its time for an upgrade on that thing its pretty old atm, as for how it connects, im using the green port not the headphone jack and 3.5 mm cable that goes to the nad. thats the current setup it does have an optical out on the card no optical in unfortunately on the amp . also what is actually coming out of the optical out? is it just one signal that then goes to the reciever and than is mixed to whatever the receiver has (5.1 or 7.1) or does the actual 5.1, 7.1 signal come out of the optical out?

 

[Alaric]

Alaric, I think you must not have heard Dolby stuff in a while.

I've heard it. I try to keep as little as possible between the source and the signal. I used to own a dolby range expander years ago along with a Nakamichi cassette deck. Didn't care for it then, either. I'm just not a fan of processed music.

also what is actually coming out of the optical out?

The optical out (and SPIDF) pass whatever digital signal the source is. It bypasses the digital to analog converter (DAC) on the card to send it to an outboard DAC. For your amp you would need to convert the signal to analog before the amp can use it. Have you tried a different cable from the card to the amp? I assume you're using a mini jack to RCA type cable? Or a male/male mini jack to the amp's front panel?

 

[ecthellion]

yah the cable im using is a 3.5 to rca but i dont think that is the problem. So if i was to use s/pdif that would be whatever signal i choose 7.1, 5.1, or stereo? Would i set through the soundcard software? Would that be the best way to run stereo? Also do you guys know of any good Dacs with an s/pdif in? Also my other pc, the motherboard is an asus rampage V edition 10, should i use the sound on that and get rid of the soundcard alltogether, or should i stick with the soundcard?

 

[ecthellion]

im still debating on wheter to keep this current sound setup for my pc or go with a really nice 5.1 or 7.1, i have a feeling theres too much goin on in games for these speakers to handle

 

[Alaric]

Here's a good one http://www.schiit.com/products/modi-2 A DAC will generally pass along whatever signal it's given. If you're upconverting to surround from stereo that would be done at the PC in software or at the receiver. If a 5.1 signal is sent to the DAC that's what it will send to the receiver. 7.1 and up are upconverted from 5.1. Most receivers will have an optical and a SPIDF input and use the onboard DAC for processing. The DAC I linked to is stereo, though.

I would still try a different cable. Even a 3.5mm from the card to the port on the front of your amp, just to make sure. If you still have the same issues that will eliminate the possibility of a bad cable or a problem with the RCA jacks on the amp. Troubleshooting is just finding out what the problem isn't. It would be easy enough to try different RCA input jacks on the amp, too (CD, Tuner, etc.).

 

[ecthellion]

alrighty, ill look into getting another cable see if that helps out at all

 

[Alaric]

One of the reasons I suggested the 3.5mm male/male cable was I figured you might have one laying around to connect your phone to a car radio, etc..

 

[ecthellion]

So im still undecided as which route to go for my pc, should i get a 5.1 or 7.1 system for gaming and just keep the bookshelf speakers for a music setup? can bookshelf speakers do game audio? or is it better to do a different setup for my pc gamming audio. i dont want to go with headphones dont like them. any thoughts or suggstions would be greatyly apreciated, Also should i think about upgrading my soundcard to something more modern? been thinking about that too

 

[Alaric]

I can't offer an informed opinion about your sound card, as I haven't heard it, looked for bad capacitors on it, etc.. If you go with surround sound sound I would stick with 5.1. That's what "surround" is. 7.1, 9.2, 11.2, and all the rest are just upconverted 5.1. Unless you have a really big room to fill (20x30). Your speakers and amp should be able to keep up, it's good gear. Can you describe what it's doing wrong? Is it distorting the sound? Volume level changing? Dropping one channel?

 

[ratbuddy]

If you go with surround sound sound I would stick with 5.1. That's what "surround" is. 7.1, 9.2, 11.2, and all the rest are just upconverted 5.1.

What are you even talking about?? That's simply factually incorrect.

edit: Hell, here is a good list of many games with their native sound formats: http://satsun.org/audio/

For video/music, 5.1 is just one of many formats. There are plenty of formats which support more channels, and they don't use upconversion to store/play them.

 

[ecthellion]

its hard to explain. certain sounds just sound like they distort, i dont know the actually frequencies. Sometimes its on the high end somtimes its in the middle, sometimes its in the bottom end. i'd just really like to get the full range of sound out of my games at a decent sound level and im not getting that right know, which is why im debating on going with a 5.1 or 7.1 setup over bookshelf speakers, but im still undecided. dont know if i should upgrade or if should get better bookshelf speakers better amp or a new soundcard or go with a suround sound setup