subwoofer ideas for a desktop

[Dude#1279435]

Haven’t followed this thread tightly so you can laugh me off. But I just got a pair of 305’s for my son. I happened to have this but would be easy to find. I just split the signal at the monitor and sent one out to the sub with a 1/4” to rca that I made(readily available though). It did lower the signal to the R monitor, but we just balanced them manually.
I think if you wanted to go from the PC. I’d go 3.5mm splitter, then split again. Run a 3.5 to 1/4 to the monitors. Then 3.5 to rca to the subs.
Btw, I’m very impressed with these. They sound amazing.
Again, I’ve only skimmed this so, if I’m stoopid, I’ll shut up.

My concern is a lot of em say for headphones, or will they work on speakers too?

 

[nbk13nw]

My concern is a lot of em say for headphones, or will they work on speakers too?

Yes that should work fine.

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

My concern is a lot of em say for headphones, or will they work on speakers too?

That’s interesting. It’s exactly what my son said.
Truth is, it’s only a connector and doesn’t know or care what’s it’s connected to. It’s only for making a connection and passing a signal. The reason they say “for headphones” is because most headphones use that type of connection, and it’s probably the most common use for those types of splitters and cables. They will be fine for speakers. Especially when you understand they’re not actually driving the speakers, only carrying the signal which is very low voltage. The amps in the JBL’s will do all the amplification so all you have to do is send the signal!

 

[ryanosaur]

The only further advice I can offer is to look carefully at your options and work to minimize the number of adapters used in making the connections.
In my experience, the weakest connection is the TRS which requires a good spring to keep it tight. Even then, how many of those 1/8” and 1/4” phone jacks have we seen fail over time?
This is why I suggest getting to RCA right away... I think you can get or build your own 1/4” TRS from RCA... the more simple you keep it, the better you will be in the long run.

 

[Dude#1279435]

The only further advice I can offer is to look carefully at your options and work to minimize the number of adapters used in making the connections.
In my experience, the weakest connection is the TRS which requires a good spring to keep it tight. Even then, how many of those 1/8” and 1/4” phone jacks have we seen fail over time?
This is why I suggest getting to RCA right away... I think you can get or build your own 1/4” TRS from RCA... the more simple you keep it, the better you will be in the long run.

Do you mean going from speaker to sub?

 

[ryanosaur]

mini phone out
convert to rca, two stereo pairs
1 pair rca to sub
1 pair rca to whatever fits your speakers

you could build your own cable with the right parts and completely bypass any need for extra adapters in the chain. everything you would need is pretty widely available with the possible exception of the 3.5mm phone plug.

 

[stalag2005]

Thinking about this further, an analog connection to a subwoofer as well as the speakers would work, but you are dependent on the amplification capabilities of the onboard sound as well as subject to the noise floor of the sound system embedded on the motherboard. I personally run to a DAC/Amplifier on my computer via a USB cable and Windows 10 is smart enough to pick that up. That moves the digital to analog conversion off the motherboard to the DAC/Amp device. At that point there are a number of devices that will do 2.1 stereo out there. You can take the analog out of the motherboard, you are then subject to the design of the motherboard. I prefer to do it my way, but either will work. If you do run off the motherboard, set the crossover on the subwoofer appropriately to match your speaker pair. That way the subwoofer takes on the low bass and the speakers match what they can output. It is recommended that you run a stereo 1/8th inch to dual RCA and run them to the RCA left and right on the subwoofer in this case. LFE won't work because the motherboard driver won't do LFE.