I have a ONKYO HT-R520 receiver. I am connecting my audigy 2 ZS by using a mini-jack adapter. I can not get any sound to come out, and I have tried EVERYTHING. So my only conclusion is my audigy is defective, the receiver is defective, the cable or adapter is defective. Is there a way to isolate each component and see if they work? Could I test the resistance of the cable and make sure it is working, then test it with the adapter? Is there an easy method of seeing if it's the receiver that can receive the signal, or if it's the audigy not producing it? Thanks!
I can't hook my audigy 2 ZS to my receiver
- Thread starter keykenny
- Start date
vortmax
New Member
nice choice in recievers
Creative did something really shitty with their Audigy cards. A normal digial port (optical or coax) uses a particular waveform that is consistant for each channel to transmit data. Creative decided to make their cards change this waveform for each channel. This leaves the L and R channels as the only channels anything besides Creative's speakers with digital ports can translate.
If you change the setting in the card's properties to spdif pass through you should be able to get stereo out of it.
Creative did something really shitty with their Audigy cards. A normal digial port (optical or coax) uses a particular waveform that is consistant for each channel to transmit data. Creative decided to make their cards change this waveform for each channel. This leaves the L and R channels as the only channels anything besides Creative's speakers with digital ports can translate.
If you change the setting in the card's properties to spdif pass through you should be able to get stereo out of it.
vortmax
New Member
yep. I'm serious. FYI turtlebeach cards allow pure digital pass through and their top end cards (in the $70 range) have Dolby Digital Live, which is a DD ENCODER. So you can encode your game sounds and pass them to a reciever via optical for true 5.1.
if you are just hooking to computer speakers it's not a big deal. It's when you patch into a HT reciever that it gets shitty
You should be able to pull bass still. When the reciever sees normal stereo sound it will pass the signal through a crossover and send the bass frequencies to the sub.
if you are just hooking to computer speakers it's not a big deal. It's when you patch into a HT reciever that it gets shitty
You should be able to pull bass still. When the reciever sees normal stereo sound it will pass the signal through a crossover and send the bass frequencies to the sub.
Slacker7
Member
vortmax, it must have been fate the had me see your post on this because I, too, was going for the Audigy 2ZS when I happened to pass here and read. Here is the thing: I am doing a new build and I am looking for not only a solid sound card but decent speakers as well. I want/need my system to do three things:
1. Gaming (I don't listen to music from my computer; I've got stereo systems for that!).
2. Video/picture editing, copying, and burning for such things as transfer of VHS onto DVD, and mini-DVD onto DVD which means recording quality of some sort.
3. Normal office applications (which doesn't really figure into this).
Anyway, I am over at Zipzoomfly and they have the plantinum version of the audigy 2ZS with a $100.00 rebate, making the final cost $79.99. My question to you is, is this too good to pass up, or there is something else out there for good price to quality ratio? My budget is already thin but I'm figuring at the very least I can't go less that $150 for BOTH sound card and speakers. Any suggestions because what I have read so far is that it seems to be one or the other: gaming or recording quality, can't really have the best of both worlds, espcially when it comes to gaming and EX. Is this true? Thanks.
1. Gaming (I don't listen to music from my computer; I've got stereo systems for that!).
2. Video/picture editing, copying, and burning for such things as transfer of VHS onto DVD, and mini-DVD onto DVD which means recording quality of some sort.
3. Normal office applications (which doesn't really figure into this).
Anyway, I am over at Zipzoomfly and they have the plantinum version of the audigy 2ZS with a $100.00 rebate, making the final cost $79.99. My question to you is, is this too good to pass up, or there is something else out there for good price to quality ratio? My budget is already thin but I'm figuring at the very least I can't go less that $150 for BOTH sound card and speakers. Any suggestions because what I have read so far is that it seems to be one or the other: gaming or recording quality, can't really have the best of both worlds, espcially when it comes to gaming and EX. Is this true? Thanks.
vortmax
New Member
Honestly, with computer speakers, you are not going to notice much difference with sound quality. The audigy card will work fine if all you plan on running is computer speakers, as they will either be analog or creative digital.
Where you need to be carefull is when you want to be able to hook your sound card up to a seperate reciever and allow it to do the digital decoding. In that case you want to avoid the Audigy cards, and stick with someone like turtlebeach.
So if you don't plan on needing to pass raw encoded sound (DD or DTS) into a seperate reciever, then the Audigy card you are looking at is one hell of a card, especially for that price. Quality wise it is a bit better then the high end TurtleBeach. So I would go with the Audigy.
Where you need to be carefull is when you want to be able to hook your sound card up to a seperate reciever and allow it to do the digital decoding. In that case you want to avoid the Audigy cards, and stick with someone like turtlebeach.
So if you don't plan on needing to pass raw encoded sound (DD or DTS) into a seperate reciever, then the Audigy card you are looking at is one hell of a card, especially for that price. Quality wise it is a bit better then the high end TurtleBeach. So I would go with the Audigy.
randruff
New Member
vortmax said:
Hey Vortamax, i dont mean to play the 101 questions game but you seem to know alot about this and concurrently, i am looking into investing into this. So, like i mentioned, I have the Z-5500's which have a hardware DTS decoder. I know in the Audigy 2 ZS Audio HQ, they give you the option for SPDIF passthrough but you're saying it still is not true digital unless I have creative speakers? A friend of mine said he has his audigy hooked up to his speakers via digital and coax and when he watches movies, he enables the SPDIF passthrough but when he plays games, he has to turn that off and run analog. I understand the "whys" of that. You mentioned Turtle Beach cards and they support true digital 5.1 for games......so if EAX renders analog, how can Turtle Beach support it? Also, in your opinion, do you think its worth spending about $70.00 on an optical cord to watch movies in DTS on my current system? Will i notice a big difference in sound quality?
vortmax
New Member
He has these speakers hooked up through digital coax and he gets 5.1. Is he sure it is realy 5.1 or Prologic 5.1? The speakers have a prologicII engine which will take stereo sound and broadcast some of it to the satellites. Sometimes it's hard to tell which it is, unless it is indicated on the display. He may have to turn it off since he is running EAX, which would be native 5.1 and need the analog connection. If the game were a DD encoded game, then it should function the same as a DD encoded movie. Else it is not encoded and would be passing the info through the digital port using PCM (pulse code modulation), which would require SPDIF passthrough to be off.
The TurtleBeach cards support EAX through analog connectors and should be able to encode it using Dolby Digital LIVE. DDL encodes the sound into DD5.1, so anything with a DD hardware decoder can read it like native Dolby digital.
I don't think it's worth spending $70 on optical cable. It is worth spending up to $30 on it for a long length tho. You can find it at walmart for $15 for 6 feet. Monster cable is really overpriced and you will never notice a difference in quality unless you are running a $14,000 sound system. If you are already running digital coax, then you probably won't notice a difference between it and optical, unless your coax cable is really crappy. If it's the one you got with the speakers, then I do suggest you getting a quality one, or an optical cable, but they shouldn't cost any $70.
The TurtleBeach cards support EAX through analog connectors and should be able to encode it using Dolby Digital LIVE. DDL encodes the sound into DD5.1, so anything with a DD hardware decoder can read it like native Dolby digital.
I don't think it's worth spending $70 on optical cable. It is worth spending up to $30 on it for a long length tho. You can find it at walmart for $15 for 6 feet. Monster cable is really overpriced and you will never notice a difference in quality unless you are running a $14,000 sound system. If you are already running digital coax, then you probably won't notice a difference between it and optical, unless your coax cable is really crappy. If it's the one you got with the speakers, then I do suggest you getting a quality one, or an optical cable, but they shouldn't cost any $70.
vortmax
New Member
it doesn't matter. They both are transmitting the same signal. As long as they are quality, you won't notice any difference. By quality I don't mean fantasticly high end, but for coax, look for a mono Gold plated RCA cable and for Optical, just about any will work. They should both cost $15 to $25 for 6'-8'
vortmax
New Member
yea...well, ya know
I was going to get all worked up about it until I realized that my DVD player is already better then what I could get by hooking up my computer to the system and that would be the only surround source I needed to pipe through mine. I just run 2 channel from my music server to the reciever with RCA cable and let the reciever's PrologicII EX engine split it into 6.1. Sounds just fine. Things will be different once they start to broadcast digital cable in full surround, and I get the DVR set up, but until then I really don't care.
Which reciever do you have? Most of the Onkyo recievers support analog 6.1. My HT R520 has jacks on the back that would allow me to plug in an audigy card with analog cables if I so desired. It would just be more of a rat's nest.
I was going to get all worked up about it until I realized that my DVD player is already better then what I could get by hooking up my computer to the system and that would be the only surround source I needed to pipe through mine. I just run 2 channel from my music server to the reciever with RCA cable and let the reciever's PrologicII EX engine split it into 6.1. Sounds just fine. Things will be different once they start to broadcast digital cable in full surround, and I get the DVR set up, but until then I really don't care.
Which reciever do you have? Most of the Onkyo recievers support analog 6.1. My HT R520 has jacks on the back that would allow me to plug in an audigy card with analog cables if I so desired. It would just be more of a rat's nest.
the whole analog vs. digital thing:
unless your game was encoded for 5.1 sound from the factory, you will be splitting up a stereo signal no matter what. your simply adding more speakers. its not surround sound. its 5 channel stereo.
in this case, it doesnt matter if you come out of your reciever with a 1/8" to RCA cable, b/c its gonna be analog stereo no matter what. also remember, that in the end, your speakers are analog.
unless your game was encoded for 5.1 sound from the factory, you will be splitting up a stereo signal no matter what. your simply adding more speakers. its not surround sound. its 5 channel stereo.
in this case, it doesnt matter if you come out of your reciever with a 1/8" to RCA cable, b/c its gonna be analog stereo no matter what. also remember, that in the end, your speakers are analog.
vortmax
New Member
with the audigy card, the only way to get native 5.1 to the R520 is analog, so yes, if that's what you desire.
If you only plan on piping music through to the reciever, then just use the optical or digital coax. It will be 2 channel anyway. If you plan on running game sounds from games that do support 5.1 (either DD encoded or not), then you will want to run analog 5.1
If you only plan on piping music through to the reciever, then just use the optical or digital coax. It will be 2 channel anyway. If you plan on running game sounds from games that do support 5.1 (either DD encoded or not), then you will want to run analog 5.1