Unique Problem - Seeking Help

[orion1836]

Hello everyone, I've been lurking on the boards for a while but this is my first time posting. I've got a unique problem with my home theater/PC sound setup and I have not been able to find a solution after much fruitless searching.

Why playing MP3 music on my computer, or playing streaming videos/music from the internet, my subwoofer is not engaging (making no sound). I've tested every aspect of the connection I can think of.

The subwoofer is hooked up correctly and has power. It works fine when playing audio from my TV, DVD player, and when I run a speaker (noise) check on my computer through the Creative Audio Console. When I run games on my PC, I can hear and feel the subwoofer kicking in. However, when I try to play music, nothing.

I have tried re-installing every driver and program related to the problem. Firefox, Windows Media Player, Creative SoundWorks, the XFi Drivers and the Audio Console have all been reinstalled to no avail. What can I do to get my subwoofer to work when I'm playing music?

Here are the hardware components of my setup:

Creative SoundBlaster XFi
Yamaha RX-V663 Receiver
Definitive ProSub 800 (associated with a Definitive ProMonitor 1000 5.1 system)

The sound card is connected to the receiver via 3x minijack-to-RCA connectors and utilizes the multi-channel analog input. I changed this from an optical connection when I realized the XFi does not output discreet sound when using a digital connection (speaker test would throw rear channels to both front and rear speakers).

The receiver is connected to the subwoofer through a standard Monster subwoofer cable.

On a related note, what should I set the low freq crossover when using the sub for PC sound? I tried all settings, and it didn't fix the subwoofer problem, but I'm just trying to figure out where it should be in the long run.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[TLS Guy]

Hello everyone, I've been lurking on the boards for a while but this is my first time posting. I've got a unique problem with my home theater/PC sound setup and I have not been able to find a solution after much fruitless searching.

Why playing MP3 music on my computer, or playing streaming videos/music from the internet, my subwoofer is not engaging (making no sound). I've tested every aspect of the connection I can think of.

The subwoofer is hooked up correctly and has power. It works fine when playing audio from my TV, DVD player, and when I run a speaker (noise) check on my computer through the Creative Audio Console. When I run games on my PC, I can hear and feel the subwoofer kicking in. However, when I try to play music, nothing.

I have tried re-installing every driver and program related to the problem. Firefox, Windows Media Player, Creative SoundWorks, the XFi Drivers and the Audio Console have all been reinstalled to no avail. What can I do to get my subwoofer to work when I'm playing music?

Here are the hardware components of my setup:

Creative SoundBlaster XFi
Yamaha RX-V663 Receiver
Definitive ProSub 800 (associated with a Definitive ProMonitor 1000 5.1 system)

The sound card is connected to the receiver via 3x minijack-to-RCA connectors and utilizes the multi-channel analog input. I changed this from an optical connection when I realized the XFi does not output discreet sound when using a digital connection (speaker test would throw rear channels to both front and rear speakers).

The receiver is connected to the subwoofer through a standard Monster subwoofer cable.

On a related note, what should I set the low freq crossover when using the sub for PC sound? I tried all settings, and it didn't fix the subwoofer problem, but I'm just trying to figure out where it should be in the long run.

Thanks in advance for any help.

If you are using the analog mutli connections of your receiver, then you will not have sub output unless the source has a sub channel.

Your music mp3 files are stereo two channel and will not have sub channel.

You need to use a two channel analog line input or a digital input of your receiver from your sound card.

Then if your receiver speaker set up is correct your sub will play.

The multichannel inputs are always in a direct mode and so the crossover in your receiver is disabled on those inputs.

Your equipment is working correctly. You have a misunderstanding of how it works.

You need to set your receiver crossover point the same for all sources. The crossover on the sub should be disabled or set as high as possible if you can not disable it.

 

[orion1836]

Thanks a lot, TLS Guy, that's exactly the explanation I needed. I'm still learning how surround audio works - I've been using headphones for years.

There are two solutions I can think of off the bat, the optical (digital) connection or HDMI.

I'd love to go back to using an optical digital connection (it certainly was a lot easier to set up), but the problem I mentioned before with discreet sound output was noticeable when playing games with 3D sound. Noises that were supposed to come from behind would play from the sides. Is there a sound card you (or anyone else) could recommend that makes better use of digital output?

On the other hand, I could use my video card to output sound through HDMI. However, I've been told that the quality is noticeably less than if you were to use a dedicated sound card, especially one like the XFi. The information I have on my video card goes into great detail on the graphics capabilities, but it says almost nothing about sound quality - I don't know if it would output 5.1 or if the signal would need to be decoded by the receiver. Does anyone have experience with an nVidia GeForce GTS 250 or a similar card and could talk about the sound quality?

Being able to hook up my computer the same way I hook up my Blu-Ray player sounds nice, but something tells me it wouldn't be that simple.

I'll see about disabling the crossover, but it doesn't look like there's a switch. For now I'll put it at the highest level. What is the purpose of having a crossover selector if the best option is to disable it?

Thank you.

 

[TLS Guy]

Thanks a lot, TLS Guy, that's exactly the explanation I needed. I'm still learning how surround audio works - I've been using headphones for years.

There are two solutions I can think of off the bat, the optical (digital) connection or HDMI.

I'd love to go back to using an optical digital connection (it certainly was a lot easier to set up), but the problem I mentioned before with discreet sound output was noticeable when playing games with 3D sound. Noises that were supposed to come from behind would play from the sides. Is there a sound card you (or anyone else) could recommend that makes better use of digital output?

On the other hand, I could use my video card to output sound through HDMI. However, I've been told that the quality is noticeably less than if you were to use a dedicated sound card, especially one like the XFi. The information I have on my video card goes into great detail on the graphics capabilities, but it says almost nothing about sound quality - I don't know if it would output 5.1 or if the signal would need to be decoded by the receiver. Does anyone have experience with an nVidia GeForce GTS 250 or a similar card and could talk about the sound quality?

Being able to hook up my computer the same way I hook up my Blu-Ray player sounds nice, but something tells me it wouldn't be that simple.

I'll see about disabling the crossover, but it doesn't look like there's a switch. For now I'll put it at the highest level. What is the purpose of having a crossover selector if the best option is to disable it?

Thank you.

If you can use an HDMI connection use it. If you can set your computer to output bit stream, then your receiver will do all the decoding and that will give you the best AV quality.

The sub has a crossover in case it is used with a device that does not have a crossover. You want to use the one in your receiver.