A7N8X-E Deluxe sound

[sandman]

I have an ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe motherboard with 5.1 surround sound,
hooked through a cheap 5.1 surround speaker system. There was very
little volume to the speakers before I hooked this up. I have volume
now, but sound quality is not very good.

The speakers with the surround system are really cheap.

I have two options, but don't know if either will work. Maybe someone
can give me some pointers.

1. I have a set of Aiwa surround sound speakers as follows
2 - SX-C400 speakers
2 - SX-R210 speakers
2 - SX-NAV900 speakers
all are 8 ohm impedance...........will they work? I hate to cut the
RCA jacks off and then find out they won't work

2. I have a new Crystal PT-2620-4 PCI Digital Wavetable sound card
that I can install.

Any suggestions??

 

[Paul]

I have an ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe motherboard with 5.1 surround sound,
hooked through a cheap 5.1 surround speaker system. There was very
little volume to the speakers before I hooked this up. I have volume
now, but sound quality is not very good.

The speakers with the surround system are really cheap.

I have two options, but don't know if either will work. Maybe someone
can give me some pointers.

1. I have a set of Aiwa surround sound speakers as follows
2 - SX-C400 speakers
2 - SX-R210 speakers
2 - SX-NAV900 speakers
all are 8 ohm impedance...........will they work? I hate to cut the
RCA jacks off and then find out they won't work

2. I have a new Crystal PT-2620-4 PCI Digital Wavetable sound card
that I can install.

Any suggestions??

Computer sound chips, whether on the motherboard or on a sound
card, are generally pretty gutless. The main stereo output is 1V RMS
into 32 ohms minimum, so an 8 ohm speaker will overload the output
and you'll get no volume. The secondary channels are 1V RMS
into 600 ohms minimum, and are even weaker than the main stereo
output.

There are probably exceptions to this somewhere - there is bound to
be a sound card with a couple of watt amp on it, but really you either
need amplified speakers (amplifier is built in), which is the norm,
or, like me, connect your stereo to the computer, and get the sound
that way.

When I visited an audio shop next to a local computer store,
the guy kinda laughed at me when I asked for a small amp to
take computer output and drive speakers. I think you'll find it
cheaper to buy amplified computer speakers, than to buy a stereo
suitable for driving your 8 ohms speakers.

If shopping for computer speakers, go to a big box store that has
plenty of demo units, because there is no good correlation between
price and sound quality. The hardest part will be finding a store
that has a decent sample sound source to do the testing. Computer
speaker power ratings are typically at 10% distortion, so don't
believe the power rating spec, and rely on your listening test
instead.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Hinnerk van der Felde]

Hi,

I would dump the onboard sound and go for a decent audio card. Just compared
the sound quality of the onboard sound of my A7N8x-E with my old
Soundblaster Live! and it's obvious. The onboard sound sucks.

I'm a gamer (tactical shooter) and the weapons sound hollow and less
powerful when using the onboard sound. Take into consideration that my card
is pretty old (4-5 years), but it still offers better quality.

Hinnerk