Help with my new setup 5.1 xfi

**easyryder0934** · 10-28-2009, 02:44 AM

Hi I'm planning on installing a carputer and I'm trying to figure out the best way to setup my sound. My amp and some cables are comming through the mail, however my computer and my sound card came so I have been messing around with them on my onkyo surround system. I have http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829102020 sound card and I found that the subwoofer only plays on 5.1 but the bad thing is the rear speakers don't really kick in that much so I want to run a 5.1 system as 3.1 so my 6x9s(rear) will play all the time.

I have a honda accord with 6 speakers and 2 subs and 2 amps one 1200 watt mono(powering the subs right now) and a 1200 watt 4chan(comming). Id like to make the tweeters up front my center speakers. and have the 2 6.5 and the 2 6x9s run as the front port and turn my subs and my tweeters mono and connect them both using 2 of these and connect thoes to female rca to male 3.5 jack. Question is would the xfi sound card be able to read both sub and center like that?

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2103709

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...t=1#largeimage

heres a pic to hopefully make things a little clearer.

thx for the advice

**soundman98** · 10-28-2009, 10:45 AM

probably not. program like Console to tell the sound card where to send everything.

i had both that sound card, and console a while back, though, i had to move to a different setup, my motherboard and that card didn't play nice.

using something like Console, VAC(virtual audio cable), and asio4all, you can setup Console to 'see' all the outputs of the card-- and you could select what signal goes to what output jack on the x-fi.

i would never recommend running a system mono like that-- you will loose so much clarity, you will be very disapointed in the overall effect(and music that pans right to left will now pan from your tweeters, to your mids).

also, you did not mention anything about crossovers, which would be required somewhere if you will be running them directly off the amp-- what are you planning to do to keep the tweeters from trying to play bass and commiting speaker suicide?

**easyryder0934** · 10-28-2009, 01:37 PM

Originally Posted by soundman98

also, you did not mention anything about crossovers, which would be required somewhere if you will be running them directly off the amp-- what are you planning to do to keep the tweeters from trying to play bass and commiting speaker suicide?

I was gonna run the tweeters through a HPF so little or no bass comes out.

also if the sound card has a port for center/sub isn't it center/sub gonna be mono anyway?

**soundman98** · 10-28-2009, 03:44 PM

Originally Posted by easyryder0934

also if the sound card has a port for center/sub isn't it center/sub gonna be mono anyway?

yes, the center and sub channels are both mono, but the center channel will only work with 5.1 channel encoded audio(i believe that the sub channel does the same)-- that tells the soundcard to send a signal to the center channel.

it is also the same for the rear channels, but those need at least 4 channel audio to work. the front channel is the only pair that will work with all audio sources.

another way to get audio out of the card would be to use some y-adapters to split the stereo front signal output to the different amps.