Basic PC Sound Connections

[admin_exported]

Hi everyone

,

Just joined and need your advice. Hope you can help - I am really confused. I have an existing Home Theatre setup as signature below and just bought a new PC which needs sound but am really confused over sound connections - which is best etc. Perhaps you can help. Would really appreciate it as the standard 'Mark 1 salesperson' does not seem to know enough.

I love the big movie sound my Home Theatre system produces

and have fallen in love with my (now 5 year old) Yamaha RX-V2600 and B&W CM1 speakers plus ASW675 Sub. I would like to reproduce that kind of sound from my PC in a 2.1 speaker setup. Question is, how do I get sound from various sources in/on the PC (ie internet U-Tube, CD and BD) to the speakers in the best way using the best decoder once - avoiding re-coding/decoding and resampling along the way?

Assuming my speakers will be B&W CM1s (84dB sensitivity so hard to drive - apparently the need more amp juice - Volt?) and ASW675 - though someone could tell me there is a much better option.

Question(s):

a) Would it be better to use the PC's ASUS Xonar Essence STX sound card's SPDIF into an AV Receiver (possibly a Yamaha RXV671), or use a USB into a DAC (eg a Cambridge audio DACMagic) and then into a Rotel AMP onto a 2.1. Or does one take sound from the Radeon 6850 video card's HDMI into an Av Receiver? Or, yet another option, this networking (DLNA - which is ethernet base right?). I suppose, I could even use the line outs from the sound card, though I'd assumed that a £145 sound card in the electrical noise of a PC is not going to be as good as a more expensive dedicated Receiver/Amp. Suspect that one of the main issues will be avoiding re-sampling/decoding the sound and finding a solution that works well for all the Internet/CD/BD sources.

b) I was told that configuring the PC to output its sound via the USB avoids all of the sound card and so gives a pure (even if possibly gittery - thus the DAC) sound output. Is this true and if so, then doe sit best the SPDIF, DLNA and HDMI? Not sure how outputing sound from a BD disk via USB could avoid decoding in the PC and I assume the decoder in the much more expensive AV-RX would produce better results?

c) In the 5 years since I got my Yamaha RX-V2600 receiver, has the quality of music reproduction and sound deconding improved so much that a much cheaper HT receiver would do just as well as the existing (£800 when new) RX-V2600? I am not interested in anything more than 2.1 sound and the connections from the PC to get it there - so the fact that it does 38.1 reproduction is not important to me - just sound reproduction and the right connections.

All very confusing. Sure hope you guys can help - I am sure you have felt the same pain.

Thanks.

Darren.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone

,

Just joined and need your advice. Hope you can help - I am really confused. I have an existing Home Theatre setup as signature below and just bought a new PC which needs sound but am really confused over sound connections - which is best etc. Perhaps you can help. Would really appreciate it as the standard 'Mark 1 salesperson' does not seem to know enough.

I love the big movie sound my Home Theatre system produces

and have fallen in love with my (now 5 year old) Yamaha RX-V2600 and B&W CM1 speakers plus ASW675 Sub. I would like to reproduce that kind of sound from my PC in a 2.1 speaker setup. Question is, how do I get sound from various sources in/on the PC (ie internet U-Tube, CD and BD) to the speakers in the best way using the best decoder once - avoiding re-coding/decoding and resampling along the way?

Assuming my speakers will be B&W CM1s (84dB sensitivity so hard to drive - apparently the need more amp juice - Volt?) and ASW675 - though someone could tell me there is a much better option.

Question(s):

a) Would it be better to use the PC's ASUS Xonar Essence STX sound card's SPDIF into an AV Receiver (possibly a Yamaha RXV671), or use a USB into a DAC (eg a Cambridge audio DACMagic) and then into a Rotel AMP onto a 2.1. Or does one take sound from the Radeon 6850 video card's HDMI into an Av Receiver? Or, yet another option, this networking (DLNA - which is ethernet base right?). I suppose, I could even use the line outs from the sound card, though I'd assumed that a £145 sound card in the electrical noise of a PC is not going to be as good as a more expensive dedicated Receiver/Amp. Suspect that one of the main issues will be avoiding re-sampling/decoding the sound and finding a solution that works well for all the Internet/CD/BD sources.

b) I was told that configuring the PC to output its sound via the USB avoids all of the sound card and so gives a pure (even if possibly gittery - thus the DAC) sound output. Is this true and if so, then doe sit best the SPDIF, DLNA and HDMI? Not sure how outputing sound from a BD disk via USB could avoid decoding in the PC and I assume the decoder in the much more expensive AV-RX would produce better results?

c) In the 5 years since I got my Yamaha RX-V2600 receiver, has the quality of music reproduction and sound deconding improved so much that a much cheaper HT receiver would do just as well as the existing (£800 when new) RX-V2600? I am not interested in anything more than 2.1 sound and the connections from the PC to get it there - so the fact that it does 38.1 reproduction is not important to me - just sound reproduction and the right connections.

All very confusing. Sure hope you guys can help - I am sure you have felt the same pain.

Thanks.

Darren.

Assuming you mean to buy extra everything, I would seriously consider a similar setup to mine.

Rather than cluttering up you PC space with a hefty, underutilised AV amp, consider active speakers.

I have some Avi ADM9T speakers which are around £1100. They include amps and a high end DAC, and only need an optical connection (or RCA analogue) so I assume would run straight from your soundcard. You could buy the dedicated sub (£800), or get one of your choice. I have a BK XXLS 400 which compliments them extremely well. The overall quality is extremely good.

Or you could go for a cheaper Audioengine/Aktimate option, again with sub.

Or you could go for more studio style monitors, which really suit also, for close listening, think Adam Audio, Yamaha, Behringer. Most cme with dedicated subs. You would need a preamp for these though (Maybe a Beresford Caiman DAC/pre?)

My PC setup...(sub not in picture)

 

[AnotherJoe]

If your graphics card supports it use HDMI or DVI with converter (most AMD cards have dual hdmi or dual dvi) to send sound from your pc.

Failing that spdif/optical is next best.

 

[Anonymous]

Guys, thanks for the replies - love the picture of your setup. Might investigate active speakers a bit further. Have looked at AVIs before - bit expensive at £1100, plus Sub. Yes I am thinking all new sound kit for my PC. Really I wanted to stay with my B&W CM1/ASW675 2.1 setup to be interoperable with existing Home Theatre in the future - plus I know their sound suites my ear. Good suggestion though - will look at it again.

Am interested in the HDMI out of the Vidoe Card... Can see this as best for listening to a BD disk. No re/de coding in PC. It goes straight to AV Receiver. What about listening to a CD or U-Tube... the PC encodes this sound to HDMI???? the AV receiver decodes it? I had assumed this resamples the sound rather than the SPDIF in some way not re-sampling. Can you help me understand what sampling/deconding goes on in the PC for the music from internet V a BD playing in the PC.

THe sound card has HDMI, DVI and VGA. I was going to use all 3 for displays. The sound card has an SPDIF. Suppose I could split the HDMI to get the video on a display and the sound to an AMP / AV receiver.

Anybody got any online sources that explain how all Internet and PC based sound sources get converted in PCs and output?

Cheers.

Darren.

 

[Overdose]

The simple answer, if you are looking to connect the Pc to your existing system, is to connect the Pc via HDMI, soundcard to AV receiver. The sound quality will be excellent.

You can then enjoy multi channel music if you have any, or adjust the receiver settings to output stereo only.

If you want a separate system entirely, then an active system similar to mine, could be had for around £500 (used prices), but that price level also buys you a whole variety of amps and speakers.

 

[AnotherJoe]

The graphic cards mentioned basically include a soundcard and output the sound through one of the HDMI/DVI ports.

I would add that the sound through spdif/optical from your ASUS Xonar is about as good as it get for music.

The only things it lacks are support for DTS-HD-MA, Dolby TrueHD and DTS.

 

[Anonymous]

Am interested in the HDMI out of the Vidoe Card... Can see this as best for listening to a BD disk. No re/de coding in PC. It goes straight to AV Receiver. What about listening to a CD or U-Tube... the PC encodes this sound to HDMI???? the AV receiver decodes it?

A HDMI signal can carry audio signals in any format, it's down to your PC to deliver it and your receiver to decode it. There is no specific "hdmi" sound encoding.

I had assumed this resamples the sound rather than the SPDIF in some way not re-sampling. Can you help me understand what sampling/deconding goes on in the PC for the music from internet V a BD playing in the PC.

There is no additional resampling. The HDMI signal can carry the same 16/48 PCM signals that the s/pdif can (even more, because spdif can't go above 96/24 iirc). Most video drivers also support raw bitstream mode, where you can send whatever data directly to the receiver without processing, exactly as a dvd/bd player would do.

THe sound card has HDMI, DVI and VGA. I was going to use all 3 for displays. The sound card has an SPDIF. Suppose I could split the HDMI to get the video on a display and the sound to an AMP / AV receiver.

Yes, that can work fine. Just remember that s/pdif does not support high-bandwidth signals such as multi-channel PCM or DTS HD.

 

[Anonymous]

Guys, thanks so much - all good advice. Think I will go the AV Receiver route then. It will have both HDMI and SPDIF which I can connect and see if my ears can tell the difference on different sources. In the end, hearing it is the best test and it sounds like the AV Receiver will give me the options I need plus support various compatability options.

Cheers.

Darren.