Question about hooking up speakers to computer with media portal (1 Viewer)

[nzdreamer55]

Hello everyone.
I'm running media portal 1.4 on a Windows 8 x64 pro machine and am thinking of changing my speaker set up. Now I have my single seat htpc hooked up via toslink cable to a vizio sound bar. The sound bar only can do stereo and some of my videos I would like to hear in 5.1.
Logitech has a 5.1 set up that would use the outputs outputs from my motherboard, but I don't know how this would be different from a toslink cable.

Any help deciding if I could use speakers designed to use the motherboard output to get 5.1 sound would be great.

Thanks
-S

 

[mm1352000]

What is the computer end of the toslink cable connected to? The motherboard, or a separate sound card of some kind?

 

[nzdreamer55]

Sorry about that. The toslink cable is connected to the motherboard of the HTPC running media portal.

I was thinking about getting this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003VAK1FA/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

but it does not have a toslink input. It does have the 6 channel input that I could hook up from the HTPC motherboard.

 

[mm1352000]

Logitech has a 5.1 set up that would use the outputs outputs from my motherboard, but I don't know how this would be different from a toslink cable.

Don't take my words too seriously - I don't have a heap of experience with this stuff...
Toslink is a digital connection; the six channel input/output (3 x 3.5 mm mini-jack cables) is usually an analog connection. In other words, with the six channel connection, you lose quality in the digital->analog connection on the motherboard, in the cables, and in any analog->digital conversions in the speaker amplifiers and processors. Not that that is a terrible thing. You just might want to think about other options.

 

[nzdreamer55]

Logitech has a 5.1 set up that would use the outputs outputs from my motherboard, but I don't know how this would be different from a toslink cable.

Don't take my words too seriously - I don't have a heap of experience with this stuff...
Toslink is a digital connection; the six channel input/output (3 x 3.5 mm mini-jack cables) is usually an analog connection. In other words, with the six channel connection, you lose quality in the digital->analog connection on the motherboard, in the cables, and in any analog->digital conversions in the speaker amplifiers and processors. Not that that is a terrible thing. You just might want to think about other options.

Thanks for the feed back. The six channel input/output (3 x 3.5 mm mini-jack cables) is usually an analog connection so I guess this means that the computer is doing the conversion to generate an analog signal. The speakers then only need to take the analog signal and amplify it. So I guess if I had an audio system that took a toslink then I could have the amplifier system do the digital to analog conversion and push it to the speakers.

When would there be an advantage for the amplifier to do the conversion vs having the motherboard do the conversion? Is this a really big effort for a motherboard? Seems kind of simple compared to the rendering of video. Do you get better sound quality/less distortion if you send a digital signal straight to an amplifier/converter?

One more thing. Can I get Media Portal to output in DTS digital format?

-S

 

[mm1352000]

...so I guess this means that the computer is doing the conversion to generate an analog signal.

Yes.

The speakers then only need to take the analog signal and amplify it.

Yes and no. If they really are only speakers then yes; however if they have any sort of processing in the pre-amp phase then it may make sense to do a A->D conversion for processing, then do D->A before amplification, then finally send the signal to the speakers.

So I guess if I had an audio system that took a toslink then I could have the amplifier system do the digital to analog conversion and push it to the speakers.

Exactly.

When would there be an advantage for the amplifier to do the conversion vs having the motherboard do the conversion?

In general, you want to:

1. Minimise the number of A->D (and D->A) conversions. These result in quality loss.
2. Minimise the electrical noise/interference around any analog signal.
3. Minimise the distance any analog signal has to travel. Especially unbalanced analog signals like those usually carried by 3.5 mm minijack cables.

So to answer your question, if the amp were far from the PC or the path from the PC to the amp was electrically noisy... you might want to think about using a digital link. However, if the quality of the amplilfier's D->A converters was not as good as the quality of the PC's D->A converters... you might have to think twice... or even think about 3rd party DACs (if you were an "audiophile"). But really, when it comes down to it, I think what you should do mostly depends on how much money you want to spend and how much you care about audio.

Is this a really big effort for a motherboard?

No. There are [small] special purpose chips whose sole purpose is to do D->A and or A->D conversion. All the stuff about THD, SNR, 48/96/192 kHz, 16/24 bit etc. on the motherboard audio specifications - some of that comes from the specification of those chips. It doesn't load up your CPU or anything like that.

Seems kind of simple compared to the rendering of video.

It is.

Do you get better sound quality/less distortion if you send a digital signal straight to an amplifier/converter?

Depends on the quality of the D->A converter in the amp and the distance and environment in which the analog signal would have to travel.