Thread: soundcard to amplifier questions

Just slap on of these:



inbetween and your set. It takes the 1/8" stereo jack to 2 mono RCA plugs. Then just regular RCA's to your amp's RCA's on the back:

Just slap on of these:

inbetween and your set. It takes the 1/8" stereo jack to 2 mono RCA plugs. Then just regular RCA's to your amp's RCA's on the back:


is this the same thing as that? or am I going to have to find another product? if so does newegg or another really trustworthy store that you know of carry these?

Yes it does the same thing pretty much. Only difference is that that will take a plug and give 2 plugs, like what would go into your amp. Perfect, as long as your PC is within 6feet (cable length). If you get one that has a headphone plug (3.5mm) to 2 RCA jacks, then you can use a standard RCA cable, of longer length (cheap), to get sound farther.

So the same, just depends on the next step from cable to amp!

Oh, and if you are in the states, radioshack has some for about $3.00

Tooby, i have a whole bunch of them. PM me how many you need. radio shack, around here atleast, sells em for around $5-$6 each. Mine have a right angle 1/8" plug which are neat. They'll be realy cheap, i promise you that!

guys - at least warn this guy that he won't be getting good sound this way at all!

because the OP said that he is a big car audio guy, I assume that means that he's interested in some at least simi high quality sound.

going the route you all have mentioned, he will not have a high enough line level voltage going into the amplifier, which means his noise floor will be extremely low which means he will have a lot of room for induced noise, which means poor quality sound.

yes. you can get a much nicer amp for the same price. go to the elemental designs web site and look at there nine.4 amp. it is 65wrms x4 and will perform a lot better then that pioneer amp. and the soundcard. you could go with a soundblaster live 5.1 pci card and an audio control eq/line driver in conjuction with the kxproject drivers. that'll get you some decent sound from the computer. or you can go with a usb dac (god i feel like a broken record) this will set you back about 100 bucks or more (depending on what you choose) but you'll have closer to 4 volts on the rca output and if you go with the amp i suggested, it'll have a set of pre-outs on the amp that will allow you to add a second amp if you wanted to run a sub off another amp and the interior speakers off the nine.4

if you do go with Elemental designs' equipment, let me know i can hook you up with a 'forum discount price' that they extend to anyone on the icixsound forums. the amp will cost you $185 (and if you want another 400 wrms amp for a sub they have a nine.2 for $175)

I figured that since he wanted to use a sub-$30 sound card, then those should be fine. If you want high quality for competitions and such, then no way! Do as scott said.

I think I may have similar aspirations but am an extreme noob to the PC environment. That said, my research and reading on this BB lead me to believe or directed me in a certain direction.
1. I was going to be HU' less.
2. Was interested in a MB that was alittle newer and little more powerfull than the Via line.
3. Was very interested in the prospects of surround sound (5.1).
4. Aside from having a serial cable connection for my Megasquirt EMS, was interested in the ancilliary options available to me - WIFI, GPS, AM/FM, DVD/CD-RW, rear camera, large HDD, etc.

So this is where I've been focusing toward;
1. A MB that has a 5.1 soundcard. As well, it has to have Tos-Link out. As Red GTi VR6 as mentioned, there are better ways to get sound from the PC and to the amplifier. You've selected a 7.1 ch soundcard so it appears your very interested in surround sound. Most recent MB's already have the AC97 codec OB giving you 5.1 already. My Commell LV675D has the 5.1 codec and Tos-Link out and I'll see how that goes initially. The souncard you selected doesn't have the Tos-Link out but this one does;
http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_t...terid=1145294/


2. You've selected a 4 ch amplifier. I'm not sure where you're heading since you opted for a 7.1 ch sound card initially. At any rat, it may be a good idea to try and source an amplifier with optical (Tos-Link) input. Preferreably with ProLogic II and DTS decoding, but I believe quite a few do have it anyway.
I opted for the Performance Teknique ICBM 5.1 because it had all of the above mentioned options and I'll only require one amp (I like to keep things simple).
http://www.millionbuy.com/pericbm51.html

Sweet part about the Tos-Link is that there's only one cable running from the MB to the amplifier (keeping it simple) and it's supposed to be about the cleanest way of acquiring sound from the MB itself. Try going through this for 5.1 optical amplifiers;
5.1 Amplifiers with Optical inputs
If you prefer to go with the 4ch amplifier, you'll find lots to source here;
http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/millionbuy/amplifier.htm
And if you're really into the high end audio scene, perhaps contact "Red GTi VR6". I believe she competes with her CarPC sound system. I imagine a lot will depend on your $$ spending comfort level. Mines kind of taken on a life of it's own and keeps on growing. It will be about $1,100.00 cdn for the carpc once it's finished and I'm up to $1,100.00 cdn on speakers and amp already. I haven't got the wiring, power distribution block or connectors yet, not to mention all of those other little things needed. But it's all good and a lot of fun. Hope this helps,

John