Analogue sound and usb sound, at the same time?

**MikeHunt79** · 03-25-2002, 08:14 AM

I`m finishing my system, and i came up with this idea...

Would it be possible to have a USB soundcard as well as an analogue soundcard, in the same system? Would it be possible to output sound to both soundcards, at the same time? Would special software be needed?

The reason i`m asking this is this: My setup will go in the boot, and i also have a 4 channel amp in the boot, and a headunit up front. I plan wire the four channels of the analogue SBlive straight to the amp (maybe with some sort of signal switcher, so the headunits sound can go to the amp). I could then use the usb soundcard to take the sound to the headunit, which will result in higher quality sound.

Any help appreciated

**Scrapez** · 03-25-2002, 08:49 AM

I'm not following. If you are going to use the USB soundcard to output sound to your headunit, why would you need to also output a signal from computer straight to your amp?
The signal will pass through usb soundcard->headunit->amps.
Am I missing something here?

-Jesse

**MikeHunt79** · 03-25-2002, 09:14 AM

Ok, my description was a little unclear.

At the moment, my sound goes from the SBlive soundcard, to the head unit, then to the amp. The sound quality is ok, but sound quality is lost with every metre of wire.

What i would rather do is wire the output of the sblive soundcard straight to to the amp, as the amp is also in the boot. I could then use a USB soundcard to get the audio to the headunit in the front. This would result in higher quality sound, since the lead from the sblive to the boot amp would be less than 1 metre (instead of the 5+ metres, to and from the headunit). Also, since USB is a digital connection, very little quality would be lost in getting the audio to the front of the car. Another advantage would be that i could adjust the volume of the front and rear speakers separately.

Maybe i`m making things a little too complex here, as i`m not sure how much quality would be gained, and if it would even work. Hope you understood this ok?

**MikeHunt79** · 03-25-2002, 09:31 AM

A picture is worth a 1000 words:

Hopefully, somthing knocked up in windows paint in about 10 minutes should suffice for, say, 342 words?

old.bmp:
Okay: Here is the old system.... the oval things are speakers

All the connections are analogue, and there is quite a lot of wiring.

new.bmp:
As you can see, because the wires carrying analogue sound are short, the audio quality should be higher. BUT... I'll need to but/build a signal switcher to allow the headunit to continue using the amp (this is not in the diagram).

Hopefully this should be more understandable. Any ideas & opinions are appereciated.

**surfer6262** · 03-25-2002, 08:11 PM

i dont think enough sound quality would be lost for you to even notice, let alone be worth it. I wouldn't bother.

**MikeHunt79** · 03-26-2002, 07:34 AM

Ok, thanx. I`ll do a little experimenting, but I think i`m just gonna use a USB soundcard to get the sound to the headunit, and stick with the current headunit > amp setup... U R right surfer6262, It is possible to over complicate things. I should have something up and running soon (mp3car wise anyway), with any luck.