Subwoofer connected to PC

BigEejit

I was sick to death of the computer speakers I had before and when i saw the chance I got a good deal in the post xmas sales and got myself a Cambridge Audio Topaz AM10 amp and my brother supplied me with a pair of JBL Control Ones and some good cables.

The new 2.0 setup sounds brilliant (compared to my old logitech speakers) but I feel it needs some bass. So my daft question is:

I am currently using just the line out/front speaker output from my motherboard and want to know if I want a subwoofer can I just use the center/subwoofer output?
(i.e. I am just using the green output for speakers and want to use the orange output for subwoofer)
The reason I ask is that the motherboard manual (Asus P8p67 Pro) has kind of odd information about setting up speakers (see attachment). They only use the centre/subwoofer in 6 and 8 channel setups.

Another question just occurred to me, do the center/subwoofer outputs on most motherboards have two channels? (a few of the subwoofers I looked at had left and right RCA inputs)


I am guessing that there would be no problem, but just wanted to ask in case there is some stupid problem with the Realtek HD audio software/hardware and 2.1 setups.

Idleater

BigEejit wrote: »

if I want a subwoofer can I just use the center/subwoofer output?
:
:
Another question just occurred to me, do the center/subwoofer outputs on most motherboards have two channels? (a few of the subwoofers I looked at had left and right RCA inputs)

You are correct in a way. The centre / subwoofer output is actually both channels as it is a stereo plug capable of driving two channels. Just like Left and Right stereo is one jack.

To get just subwoofer you will need to make sure that whatever subwoofer you buy is self powered, as in it accepts a line level input, and that you wire up the connection in the jack correctly.

Worst case you will get both the centre and subwoofer channel output through the subwoofer, though since it is only designed to play low frequencies, the centre channel will probably sound odd.

BigEejit

Cheers for that Idleater ....

I was worried about the computer playing the subwoofer like it was a center which is bound to sound poor.

I found http://www.vistax64.com/drivers/185663-no-2-1-option-realtek-hd.html which should hopefully solve any issues