Help setting up speakers!

[Karthik 2.0]

Okay I'm sure you've seen speakers(4.1) that connect to the subwoofer and the wire to the soundcard is only 1 green wire unlike other speaker set out there which use 2 wires or 3 wires for 5.1 settings.
Problem is I'm getting front sound from the rear speakers as well but no rear sound at all. Is there any way to fix this problem?

Okay, you still don't understand my speaker settings? Well this should help:

Edit: spelling error for "souncard" it's "soundcard"!

[gullducott]

You explanation of the problem isunclear and your diagram is even more confusing. Is that a home or surround sound system you connecting to.. YOu need to clarify if you really expect to get help.

[Karthik 2.0]

It's a 4.1 speaker system. 4 speakers and one big sub woofer. All the speakers are powered and connected to the subwoofer. However my soundcard requires 2 cables to use 4.1 mode. Problem is when I do the sound test the rear speakers is repeating the same sound from the front speakers!

[Luciel]

hmm, the same problem ive had everytime i get a new system as i dont replace my speakers, basicly u need to set it up to 4.1 dobly surround, if ur mb is nforce chip, then download the audio stuff from www.nvidia.com and that will give u the setting option

[gullducott]

After much thought, I finally think I understand your problem, but for clarity please answer the following questions.

1.) do you get sound out of the rear speakers at all? eg, when playing music or a game.

2.) is the diagram of your subwoofer?

3.) is your sound card only 2 channel i.e. left and right?

If the answe to all three is yes then I believe I know what the problem is.

[Karthik 2.0]

Originally Posted by gullducott

After much thought, I finally think I understand your problem, but for clarity please answer the following questions.

1.) do you get sound out of the rear speakers at all? eg, when playing music or a game.

2.) is the diagram of your subwoofer?

3.) is your sound card only 2 channel i.e. left and right?

If the answe to all three is yes then I believe I know what the problem is.

1) Yes, but the front sound is mirrored to the rear.

2)Yes, the purple thing in the middle is the subwoofer which then powers the 4 grey boxes which are speakers.

3) No, it's an Audigy LS ES. It even says in the manual that it supports 4.1

[gullducott]

Ok The good news is it is possible to get your system working and the better news is it shouldn't require the downloading of any additional drivers or software. Howerver there are a few things that you will need to find out in order to determine if it is at all possible.

Basically your subwoofer is a 5 channel amplifier with two sets of stereo imputs set A and b or, 1 and 2 (or whatever they were called, I'm typing so can't see the diagram). The 2 inputs are simply so you can input 2 devices say a computer and your tape recorder and there is probably a switch to connect to input 1 or 2, but they are definately NOT four inputs for surround sound > front left and right, and rear left and right. At any rate these systems are fairly common with slightly older 4.1 and 5.1 dolby prologic systems.

Essestially Dolby Pro Logic is a simple form of surround sound. This is actually a two-channel source that has encoding for certain frequencies to be played in a set of rear speakers. This allows the Dolby Pro Logic stream to be compatible with two speaker systems or to utilize a second set of rear speakers for a more immersive experience. A newer version called Dolby Pro Logic II was developed and is now more common as is DTS and a host of other surround sound protocols.

So, firstly your subwoofer needs to be able to decode these signals from two channels. Lets face it, this is almost a certainty based on the the configuration as displayed in your diagram. More importantly your sound card is the cause of your trouble. Why? because it has to be sending an ecoded 4 (or 5) channle signal down just two channels... the left and right that you are plugging into your amp/subwoofer.

Using the software for your card on your pc you will need to set your sound card up for just 2 speakers! Yes we know it is 4 or 5 channel compatible but that doesn't matter because you can only send a 2 channel signal to you amp/subwoofer. Now I know many cards can do this, I know because I have just such a setup on my sons Yamaha 5.1 subwoofer system. It is amost the same as your subwoofer system with 5.1 (6 output channels with speaker connections etc) but only 2 input channels.
He has a creative card which has 5.1 output but is set to 2 speakers.
Some cards can do this but some can't even when they are set to two channes they don't encode the surround sound information. I don't know which you have, but as i said before most cards do encode the rear channel signals info into Left and Right.

If your card does not do this then you will probably either hear the same thing in the front as the rear or nothing at all in the rear. At any rate you will so know once you play a game or two.

Also some amp/subwoofer systems, are smarter than others and can create a psuedo surround sound experience from an uncoded singal. Hence you can play music which is only 2 channel and still get a 'sort of' surround experience. I have heard some of these and they aint half bad. Some of course are crap. At any rate give it a shot. Personlly I think the way to really go with surround sound these days is to use a digital output 'spliff' or whatever they call it, and an amp or receiver that can decode these signals... Or a cheaper way is to use the five or six mini outputs on your soundcard with multi powered speaker systems. That way you know your getting true surround. The 2 input amp/subwoofer systems are pretty much obsolete now and not really the way to go.

Hope this helps

[Karthik 2.0]

All right now that we cleared that.....I guess....I pretty much understand......I think!

[tbaher]

I had the same set of speakers, the soundcard has 2 stereo out plugs .. one for front (green) and one for rear (black) you already connected the front to "input1" connect the rear to "input2"