Adding a Subwoofer to my PC.

2 posts / 0 new

Fri, 10/21/2005 - 07:19

m_phoenix83

Hey all.

My audio setup is the basic, at present, with just 2 crap speakers on my desk. So in the attempt to boost my sound that little bit, I had just recently got hold of a sub woofer. It's a SONY SA-WMS215 (if that helps!). Now I have cheated a little bit to get this Sub. I have "temporarily borrowed" (not nicked it!) from my parents 5.1 setup in the front room.

I wish to add it to my PC to give it a bit of a kick up the ass in sound. Its absolute beast of a SUB and it performs magnificently! So I wish to have it for my PC!

My sound card is on-board and the driver is Realtek Audio AC97, I have the port on the back of the PC tower to plug it in, and I do get some sound from it, although, it's not the sound I expected. It's a kind of muffled sound that the 2 front speakers give. So I know it's not configured properly.

Basically, I know I need to alter some options/config/setup in terms of software on my PC to make this Sub work. But I don't know how! It's turned out Not to be a Plug and Play kinda thing!

Any help on this situation would be great.

Thanks for taking the time out to read this, and help! Very much appreciated!

Phoenix

Fri, 10/21/2005 - 11:55

Permalink

Matt Whitlock

AC97 audio is the ancient

AC97 audio is the ancient standard for built in sound on the computer's motherboard. Depending on the type and age of motherboard you have, it may not be compatible with 6 channel sound.

I attempted to look up the specs on the subwoofer you're using, but that particular sub is not listed in thier model lineup. My guess is that it came in a 5.1 setup, so I'd need the model number on the complete package. For now, I'll assume that it uses a standard line-level RCA input.

If you want to properly connect the subwoofer to the back of the PC without having to deal with aby software configuration, what you'll need is a 2-way stereo headphone splitter and a stereo 1/8" to RCA adapter.

The headphone splitter will plug into the port that your speakers are connected to, which will create two jacks for you. Plug the speakers into one of them. Next, plug the 1/8" to RCA cable into the other open jack on the splitter, and connect the other end into the RCA inputs on the subwoofer. If the sub only has one RCA input (not stereo), you'll also want to pick up a stereo RCA to mono RCA adapter.

Connect this to the RCA stereo plugs, and plug the single mono jack into the subwoofer. You may want to engage the sub's high-pass filter, and adjust the volume of the sub to your liking.