Using Home Speakers For Your Computer

[bobdole118]

Hey guys, I'm having a little trouble hooking up my home speakers to my computer. I don't really know all that much about speakers and I got all these things from my dad.

I'm not sure exactly what each of the speaker things are, but if its important i can call my dad and ask him. The two speakers are ADS (tag says ADS200C?) and the subwoofer is this big silver thing that says Martin Logan Dynamo on the bottom. The two amplifiers are made by Rotel, im not sure what the model is. If it helps, the bottom one has no knobs or anythign on it, just the power button, and theyre both big and black.

So i hooked all the stuff up, the ADS speakers and subwoofer to my amplifiers and then the amplifier to my sound card (X-fi XtremeGamer). My problem is, when I do the sound check for the speakers its supposed to say "left channel" on the left speaker and "right channel" on the right speaker. for the "left channel" it says it very very softly. At first i thought it wasnt saying anything at all but if i turn my volume all the way up i can just barely hear it.

Music seemed to play out of both speakers, but now im wondering if its just playing the same thing in both speakers (isnt it supposed to play some on the left and some on the right at some parts of a song?). Also, in songs like "Mr. Brightside" by the Killers, the song is supposed to start on the left side at the begining, and then go to both speakers about 10 seconds in. That's not happening though, i hear the music coming out of both speakers and its very soft. I checked the connections and everything, but nothing seems to be loose. Any idea what the problem is?

Thanks in advance,
-Bob

 

[MDS]

I'm not familiar with the X-FI card but most Creative cards use 1/8" (3.5mm) jacks. How did you connect the card to the amp?

If it does have mini jacks you would need a cable with one stereo mini plug on one end and 2 RCA plugs on the other end. The cable would be connected to the Green jack. From the description of the problem it sounds like you may be using a mono 3.5 mm plug or have the cable connected to the wrong output on the card.

 

[bobdole118]

Yeah, i do have one of those cables. One end is hooked up to the green port in my sound card and the other end splits off into two RCA connectors that goes into the two ports labeled "CD" on the amplifier. Also, now that i have listened to it a few more times i believe that the very faint "left channel" sound is coming from my subwoofer, not my speaker. Also, the "right channel" sound comes from both speakers at the same time.

 

[bobdole118]

I just tried plugging in my headhpones and they work just like theyre supposed to, so I'm thinking its hardware related after all.

edit: Problem fixed. I had two wires mixed up (they all look the same ><)

Thanks alot for your help!

 

[rumble]

edit: Problem fixed. I had two wires mixed up (they all look the same ><)

You must be the electrician that wired my house!