Hooking 2 speakers with 3.5mm outputs to soundcard?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Desidarius, Jun 17, 2011.

  1. Desidarius

    Desidarius Private E-2

    I had a Klipsch 2.1 promedia speaker system, however, the subwoofer/amp is busted but the left/right satellite speakers still work fine (I hooked them up to a stereo by themselves. Both satellite speakers have a 3.5mm jack in the back that ends in regular speaker-wire. If i use one of these on each speaker:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...mm_to_RCA_adapters-_-9SIA05W01B3462-_-Product

    and then use this to hook them up to my soundcard in my computer:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...069&cm_re=3.5mm_to_rca-_-82-196-069-_-Product

    will they work?
     
  2. augiedoggie

    augiedoggie The Canadian Loon - LocoAugie (R.I.P. 2012)

    I doubt it as the subw has an amp included, the soundcard does not have that kind of power sadly. The sats are 35W each. Too bad, Klipsch are good! I have a good sub that needs sats, too bad shipping the sub would cost more than it's worth!
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2011
  3. augiedoggie

    augiedoggie The Canadian Loon - LocoAugie (R.I.P. 2012)

    Maybe route your soundcard outputs to the stereo's aux input and power the speakers that way.
     
  4. Digerati

    Digerati Major Geek Extraordinaire

    Sadly, maybe, but still the right way to go. Most sound cards provide at most 4w of power - enough to run a set of headphones and little more.

    The problem is, in order for a sound card (or integrated sound) to run speakers directly, as noted, they would have to contain the amplifiers. But amplifiers need power - lots of power - and sound devices get their power from the computer's power supply via the motherboard's bus. Motherboards would have to be redesigned to support the kind of power needed to directly power speakers, and everyone will have to start using monster power supplies in our computers. Then we will have to equip our cases with 12 inch fans to deal with the massive amounts of generated heat from the amps.

    That is just not practical, and it limits consumer options - never good.

    Most sound cards have a line-out for the aux-in option augie mentioned.

    A side comment about mixing and matching subs and sats from different sets - be careful with that - not all speakers are created equal. Speakers have an "impedance" rating - the load, rated in Ohms (Ω) it places on the amplifiers. There is no industry standard. While 8Ω is common, so is 4Ω. Amplifiers are designed and rated (and cooled, powered, and optimized) for a specific load. If you put a 4Ω speaker on an amplifier designed for 8Ω loads Ohm's Law says with voltage remaining constant, the current will double! When current goes up, so does heat. So putting the wrong load on the subwoofer's amps could result in damaging the amps, or worse (fire!).

    We have to remember that home theater amplifiers costing $1000s struggle with the varying loads expected as buyers use their own choice of speakers (often costing many $100s or even $1000s - for one unpowered speaker). Computer speakers systems are designed as a MATCHED unit - with the amplifiers and speaker system together costing a just a few $100, at most. We cannot expect for that money the computer speaker's amplifiers are that flexible that they can take an assortment of speakers (and their varying loads) from an assortment of makers.
     
  5. augiedoggie

    augiedoggie The Canadian Loon - LocoAugie (R.I.P. 2012)

    Yup on speaker impedance digerati, they have to match the amp's specs. I know mine are 4 Ohms and am looking for suitable sat replacements as the subw still works well but I'm not using it ATM as I got a pair of M-Audio 40W monitor speakers now, and of course there's a small amp in the left speaker.

    To Desidarius, do your homework first before connecting anything.;)
     

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