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theturtle

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Joined 2002
#1
Greetings from Owosso!

This looks like a truly interesting site. Just came across it looking for some info on a project of mine, so I'm posting this message to say hello and ask a question. I'm not an expert or even familiar with how this stuff works so if i say something stupid please bear with me 🙂

I'm buying a sound card for my computer that has 4 minijack outputs (8 ananlogue outs) on it, and I want to hook these up to some home theater speakers. So i'm trying to figure out what i would need to do it. I could use a new dd ex, dts receiver to do it but they are expensive and i don't need the decoding that these receivers offer since the card already does both. All i really need is a way to connect to the home theater speakers. It seems this would be cheap to do as all i'm really doing is upping the power from the line level of the sound card to speaker level. Saying that these are just suppositions, what do you guys think? If not something retail i can buy is there a DIY project for this?

Lots of good info on this site, I'll be doing some searching on here for some info, maybe i'll find the answer on my own. The site really suits my interests at the moment, electronics and getting my home theater setup 🙂

chris(theturtle)
 
#2
Hi chris

welcome to DIYAUDIO

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you're asking - You want to use your computer for Home Theater??

I'm not sure that will be worth the hassle, although I haven't really looked into it.

Probably you need to post that question on the appropriate forum to get a better answer.

Ken
 
#4
Hi Turtle,

My pleasure to welcome another Michigander.:wave2: Hey, how ‘bout those Lions,… doh!:boggled: :yuck:

Seriously, I think the sound quality of the typical sound card is not up to “audiophile” levels. That said, there are some new computer cards out there going to 24bit D/A. The Audigy 2 from Creative has this and may work fine for HT audio. I haven’t heard it.

I have been using the mini jack output of my PCI 128 connected directly to the stereo inputs of an old Sansui quad synthesizer. It works fine. One day I may hook up all for channels.

Have you ever looked into the Turtle Beach stuff?

Anyway, enjoy it here on the forum,🙂
Rodd Yamashita
 
#5
It is totally possible to hook your card up to a power amplifier and then to your speakers. I have done it before and my brother has been doing it for over four years. When he bought the power amp he didn't want to pay for a preamp too. He figured he would get it later. Four years later he still dosent have a preamp. If you do this your computer becomes the only volume control, and the computer has to be on for the rig to work. You just need a headphone to rca cable to the poweramp and then speaker cables to the speakers. Every poweramp I have ever seen would work like this, commercial or DIY. The only problem you may have with this is that your sound card may output at a low level, in which case the poweramp may not get as loud as you would like. Note: you will need five channels of amp to listen to five speakers. That might seem simple but I thought it best to add it, a CYA thing.
 
#6
cost?

What do you think it would cost to put something like this together? You mentioned audiophile quality, not really looking for that, i don't want it to sound bad, but great quality is not what i'm looking for, just cheap. Pre-made ones look really expensive, more than a receiver.

chris(theTurtle)
 
#7
My brother used a 70W amp made by Rotel, 70W was way overkill. I think Rotel is the lowest quality premade amp i would get. NAD and another company are right in this range, you are looking at $150 per channel. If it were me, I would build an amp known as a gainclone (search this forum of the web). This amp is simple to put together and has very good protection. Apex jr. has transformers that are about the right size (18V-0-18V), the prices are very good and a pleasure to deal with.

EDIT: If you put this amp together yourself, I think the parts would cost about $50 per channel, NOT including the case.
 
#8
I thank you alot for the info. I'm going to do some searching on the forum for the gainclone after this post. I wonder though is my principle just not well thought out here. Even the cheaper of the two you mentioned is 50$ per channel at 8 channels that 400$. I've been looking around and a pioneer receiver 7.1 is only 279$. Would this gainclone amp be of a higher caliber than the pioneer then, or does it do soemthing the pioneer doesn't? I would assume the pioneer or any other receiver would be of better quality at decoding sources than the pc but that's just an assumption. All in all this wouldnt be the first time i've had a "good idea" that's turned into a not so good one 🙂


chris(TheTurtle)
 
#9
theturtle said:
Would this gainclone amp be of a higher caliber than the pioneer then, or does it do soemthing the pioneer doesn't?
Click to expand...

The gain-klones should eat up the Pioneer & spit out it's bones. At that price the Pioneer uses chip-amps too, but with only a single power supply. Also keep in mind that HT receivers push the limits of what they can get away with as far as power specs go.

The 25 W/8 ohms (more into 4 ohms) is a real number -- the Pioneer probably really starts straining under 6 ohm load or less.

There are some corners you can cut if you want to trim price. For the surround channels you might assume that they are less critical and have 2 channels share a transformer.

And if you can scrounge heatsinks & case your cost can go way down. This is the way i'm going. My clone when built should have cost on the order of $30-$35 (and my trafos cost $20). It does help that i got my chips as free samples.

Even so you can buy an entire kit of parts (less power supply, sinks & case) for $12 CAD (<$8 USD). http://www.qkits.com/serv/qkits/diy/pages/QK50.asp

dave
 
#10
I have to agree with planet10. I recently put together an amp using the gainclone chip, using one chip for each speaker cone. It has more power than my Rotel 50W amp. When I first got my Rotel I tested it against everything I could find, its fifty watts were worth about 200+ Sony watts. I will have to say that the price I gave is higher than what I thought it would cost, but I figured you would rather have a worst case. True the reciever solution may cost less and is definitely easier, but there are other considerations. Sound quality as Planet10 said, but I would also like to add flexability, you could upgrade pieces of this system. With the reciever you would have to replace the whole thing. If you ever decided to break the system up you would have at least two normal stereos (well... at least the power amps for them). Not to mention the satisfactionof building it yourself.
 
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