STI_FFY

I did not see this discussed in the FAQs or a search on things like NX and subwoofer. Maybe I'm the only one who sees this problem - or maybe it's not even a real problem (operator error?)...

I am using only 2-channel amp and front door speakers with a single channel amp powering my sub. This is all being driven with an audigy 2 NX from my M-10000 motherboard.

The problem I am having is that I have to select either 5.1 or 7.1 before the subwoofer output becomes active on the NX. If I choose 2-channel, of course it goes away. There does not appear to be a 2.1 choice.

It seems obvious to me that the sound from the front speakers is drastically different if I select 5.1 or 7.1 (with or without bass redirection selected) from what it is when I select 2-speaker stereo mode. I am guessing that some of the audio is being redirected to the rear 2 channels or center channel when in 5.1 or 7.1 - even though I have no surround sound synthesis effects selected (to my knowledge).

Is it truly the case that one caanot select 2.1 speaker mode, or have I missed some selection parameter buried in the layers of control panels for the NX that give it this capability?

Assuming there is no 2.1, am I stuck with less than optimal front speaker response when in 5.1 or 7.1 with only 3 speakers, or is there some menu selection to tell it not to redirect any front channel audio to center or rears (basically leave it alone and only redirect bass to the sub)?

Should I buy a lottery ticket?

Does my wife still love me?

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SeeYa! -Jim-

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hari-bhari

does anyone have an answer to this? same problem....

durwood

Well there are ways to get what you want. Why don't you use it in 4 channel mode and connect your subwoofer to the rear channels? You would need an external crossover or a built in crossover on your amps to do this. Otherwise...

Or are you trying to use the crossover/bass redirection feature to cutoff bass to the fronts and only send it to the subwoofer? If this is true try the following:

On my audigy2 ZS PCI card, All you had to do was select 5.1 speaker setup and then go into the CMSS settings and change the type to "CMSS stereo". That takes it out of surround mode and you are running 5 channel stereo mode instead. Then use the bass redirection to activate the crossover feature. I assume the Audigy 2 NX can do this the same as the 2 ZS but I don't have one to try.

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hari-bhari

Yea I wanted to use the digital crossover because I figured it would be better than the analog one in my amp. So I basically want to send my lows to the sub. I think what you mentioned with teh CMSS should work. What I had done was enabled CMSS, and then faded all the way to the front, so nothing would get sent to the rear anyways. The center channel was still receiving sound tho, but I guess I'm not 'losing' any of my music. Some questions tho:

-What's your opinion on the bass redirection?
-What frequencies are you sending to the sub?
-Do you still leave your amp on low-pass or full-range (or does it even matter)? I figured it would be better to still keep the amp on low pass so its not sending out null noise to the woofer at high frequencies, even tho there is no input in that range.
-Does the Audigy ZS leave room for another card above it, or is the part that juts out too tall. I'm asking because I've got a fat USB 2.0 4-port card that I need to use as well, so I'm gonna keep it in the top slot. Will the Audigy ZS fit underneath?
-Did you ever look into the Echo Indigo IO?

Sorry for all the questions!

durwood

1) The bass redirection wasn't bad. I could not find out what crossover slope the were using though. (6,12,18dB per octave...my guess its a 12db/octave slope)

2) 80Hz is a "safe" setting. Works well for most types of music in a basic setup. In my car, I run a complex 4 way setup and my sub is crossed over at 36Hz...the details on why I dod this are VERY lengthy so i will nto go into it. Somewhere in the 60-80Hz range should work for you.

3) There is no reason to run 2 crossovers unless they are identical, or work exactly the same. I wouldn't do it in your case. It makes it too hard to tune. Again I won't go into details.

4) I can't answer that really. My board only had 1 PCI slot and I used a single riser car in a custom case I built. If I had a dual riser card, and built another custom case I could have fit 2 PCI cards in. But I didn't have the room for that since it was mounted under my seat. Your case might be different.

BTW, I no longer use a PCI sound card becasue I decided to go with an external processor. It served its purpose back in the days though.

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hari-bhari

thanks for the help!

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