Home General Chat
If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Read the community guidelines before posting ✨

Speakers

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Does anyone know of any active computer speakers (preferably a 2.1 setup) that you can also plug your DVD player/freeview box/games console into. Preferably all at the same time? Or am I going to have to buy a proper amp and a set of speakers?

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Actually scratch that question.

    Does anyone have their computer hooked up to an amplifier? If so, is it just a case of connecting the correct output on the sound card to the correct input on the amp? I assume you can get some type of interconnect that goes from the 3.5mm connections to normal phono?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    My PC runs through my amp. I've got a 3.5mm -> RCA adapter in the back of my soundcard, fed straight to one of the inputs on my amplifier.

    I'm no use with 5.1/7.1/yadda though. Never touched it...

    Find a good s/h amp and set of speakers on eBay. Lots of audio gear goes for peanuts second hand.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I was just gonna go for one of those entry level Cambridge Audio ones for £80. The idea is to use a 20" widescreen monitor as a TV. It has an S-Video input and a composite input, for a DVD player and freeview box, but obviously no sound.

    I assume I just need on of these to connect the PC to the amp?

    PGA3402big.jpg
    And then it'll just be a case of picking the correct sound settings on the PC, since it has 7.1 sound on the motherboard.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I was just gonna go for one of those entry level Cambridge Audio ones for £80. The idea is to use a 20" widescreen monitor as a TV. It has an S-Video input and a composite input, for a DVD player and freeview box, but obviously no sound.

    I assume I just need on of these to connect the PC to the amp?

    PGA3402big.jpg
    And then it'll just be a case of picking the correct sound settings on the PC, since it has 7.1 sound on the motherboard.
    thats all you need ...my pc goes into a late seventies marantz studio amp and then into large speakers.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    There won't be a problem with it being a mono signal or anything will it? Because if I'm only using 1 out of 7 outputs, I would reckon it would be. Would I have to tell the pc that it's outputting to headphones or something?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    If you have stereo output on your computer and stereo line in on your amp, then just use straight through cables.

    If you only have one line out on your computer then you should be able to buy a y-splitter at maplin or whatever that will convert it into stereo.

    For surround sound though, you'll need a digital output on your soundcard and digital input into your amp, and your amp will have to do the dolby decoding.

    ETA use line out rather than speaker out for an amp.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I was just gonna go for one of those entry level Cambridge Audio ones for £80.

    You'll get a blinder of an amp for £50 second hand. It'll almost certainly blow the balls off anything new costing £200 or less - amplifier technology hasn't really moved on much in the last decade. Designs have changed, newer opamps have been introduced, capacitor design has improved, but we're talking about the final 10% of sound quality.

    Any of the following would almost certainly be good enough to make you sit back and question why you'd ever bother upgrading :).

    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140000803407
    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280001002941
    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190001963513 <-- Proper good, but it's sought after and will make more than the CA you were looking at
    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=9745098683
    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190001639764
    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190003253497
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I like the Denon. Cheers, I might take a look at ebay for the speakers too. I'm not looking to buy this til about September though. I've got to buy this bad boy tomorrow:

    200-38594.jpg

    Followed by the computer off my other thread.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    We've got this amp -

    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/sherwood-rvd-6095-amp_W0QQitemZ250002078998QQihZ015QQcategoryZ23787QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting

    Sitting under the tv just now. It's pretty good, and has many, many connections. That particular one is missing the remote control though, which you actually need to access some functions, so I wouldn't buy that one. ;)
Sign In or Register to comment.