Stereo 2.1 to PC help

A

audionooob

Audiophyte
Hi guys. As the name implies I'm new to this stuff. I just inherited a Polk Audio PSW10 sub and 2 Polk Audio Monitor 30 speakers from a friend who's moving. I do not have a receiver or amp or anything.
I hooked the sub to my pc with a 3.55mm-RCA y-cable and the sub plays, but the speakers do not. I have them hooked to the left and right outputs on the sub (correctly I think). Like I said, the sub plays but the speakers do not.
Any help appreciated.
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
Welcome to the forum!

The issue that you're having comes down to the fact that there are to types of connections: line-level connections that are very low power, and speaker-level connections that are relatively high power. Amplifiers (and receivers) amplify a line-level signal into a speaker-level signal so that you can hear it.

Your subwoofer has a built in amplifier that does amplify the subwoofer line-level signal, but your subwoofer (or any sub that I know of) doesn't actually amplify any signal going to speakers that are connected to it. You would need to have speaker-level connections going into the "SPEAKER LEVEL INPUT" jacks in order for anything to be going out of the "SPEAKER LEVEL OUTPUT" jacks.

That's why you aren't hearing anything from your speakers. You'll need some type of amplification for them, such as a receiver.

 
A

audionooob

Audiophyte
Thanks, that explains it. So what would the cheapest solution be to get these to play?
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
Your friend wouldn't happen to also be leaving a receiver behind, would he/she? :)

There are plenty of options out there. I think the most expensive option is still under $200. How low it goes depends on what all you want to do. Are you only interested in having this connected to your PC?
 
A

audionooob

Audiophyte
He's taking the one he has, I guess.

Yes, I would just like to hook these up to my pc.
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
There are a lot of threads on this forum regarding inexpensive amplification like what you want. If you read around a bit, you might get some great ideas. I wish that I had a single wonder product recommendation, but I don't. It comes down to what you want in terms of features, power, product confidence (which I get based on user reviews), and price.

I say check out this thread and look at the Sherwood receiver that I provided a link to. It costs $100.

You can also get two-channel amplifiers, such as this Pyle 80-Watt Stereo Mini Power Amplifier for $40. I mention that Pyle because it has a number of good reviews on Amazon, but there are many others to choose from.
 
A

audionooob

Audiophyte
Thanks. Would that amp be able to accommodate the sub as well? I only see inputs for the speakers. I know you said the sub doesn't need the amp but how I would I connect everything to play both sub and speakers?
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
You could either:

(A) Use the PC to do the bass management and control the volume. This would involve setting the volume on the sub and volume on that amp so that the sub and speakers were matched well, then leaving them where they are at and controlling the master volume of your music using the PC's volume control. You would set the PC up for two speakers and a sub, run the subwoofer connection like you've done, and run the left/right line-level connections from the PC to the line-level inputs on that amp.

(B) Set the PC up so that you have two speakers and no sub, run the left/right line-level outputs from the PC to that amp, run the left/right speaker-level outputs from that amp to the speaker-level inputs on your sub, and run the speaker-level outputs on the sub to your speakers. You would then use the controls on the sub to set the cut-off frequency (for which low frequencies are handled by the sub and which are handled by the speakers - something like 80-90Hz is normally a good start), and you could use the volume control on the amp to control the overall volume of the music. You can do this because that subwoofer will accept speaker-level inputs, filter out the desired frequencies, and send the filtered signal on through to the speakers.
 
A

audionooob

Audiophyte
Hmmm, okay. Option A sounds like I'd need more than the one audio out jack I have on my pc.
Option B sounds like it could work with my pc. Basically, PC -> Amp (via 3.55mm to RCA) -> Sub (via Amp's speaker out to Sub's speaker in) -> Speakers, right?
 

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