A great audio setup for PC?

[God Of Gaming]

hey guys, I was wandering, instead of buying an expensive preamp to control the gain, can't I just buy 6 cheap pots (one for each channel), put knobs on them, mount them in a box and connect them between the amplifier/subwoofer and the sound card?

Edited May 2, 2012 by God Of Gaming

[Waco]

I highly doubt it would work satisfactorily.

[xPETEZx]

I dont understand why you would potentially ruin a great sound setup with some home made pre-amp replacement.

Its only going to sound as good as the weakest link.

Imo, I would go with a nice AV reciever + cheap DTS interactive card.

[Stonerboy779]

http://shop.emotiva.com/collections/processors/products/umc1

$499 and all the inputs and outputs under the sun for an amazing setup. Plug in game consoles and whatever else as well as your PC.

 

Decoding support for Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital EX, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital True HD, Dolby PLIIx, DTS, DTSES, DTS HD, DTS Master Audio, DTS Neo 6, SPDIF, PCM 8 channel (note: some audio formats are only supported via HDMI). Multi-channel Dolby Volume.

 

The fully featured UMC-1 is an audiophile grade preamplifier and multi-channel digital audio processor with an integral high quality AM/FM tuner. The UMC-1 represents a breakthrough in performance, technology, and value. Its extensive and truly useful feature set, intuitive control interface, unparalleled sound quality, precision video processing, and advanced signal management will redefine your home theater experience.

You can go straight from your GPU hdmi out or you could use one of these.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829156014

Not sure where you could get one now tho, not sure why newegg stopped selling too.

[God Of Gaming]

I dont have consoles and I don't watch TV, so I'm only gonna plug in my PC and nothing else. So although that umc-1 looks nice, it has a lot of features that I'm not gonna use and I feel like I'm paying extra. Why won't simple potentiometers do the job just as well? Besides, is it really that bad to control the gain digitally from the PC? I think it uses dithering on it?

Edited May 2, 2012 by God Of Gaming

[Stonerboy779]

Because of the quality or lack of really when you buy them and attempt to make a preamp.

 

If you don't want to spend all the money. Grab the cheapest surround soundcard with whatever features you want and use 3.5mm jack to RCA splitters.

[Vooduu]

I am not a fan of Emotiva.But then again they are decent for an entry level pre amp and or amps.I also know the UMC-1 does have bugs/glitches that they are still working on.

If your pockets run deep,look into an Integra or anthem pre amps.

But for your doing,I would look into a A/V receiver.To save some coin,buy used and look into the older Pioneer SC models with class D ICE amplification.Try the SC-05,07 or the 25,27 series.

 

What is your budget anyways?

[God Of Gaming]

I'd say I could pay $2500 +/- for the sound system and a sound card with nice APIs including eax, ds3d and openal

[xPETEZx]

I'd say I could pay $2500 +/- for the sound system and a sound card with nice APIs including eax, ds3d and openal

 

With that kind of budget, I do not understand why you would compromise the sound by using some home-baked pre-amp replacement pots?

Surely you want the best sound possible.

 

As said before, I would go with a decent AV receiver. Then get whatever speakers you fancy to go with it.

That will be MORE than enough for whatever you are going to throw at it.

 

Your budget is much higher than mine was, but I am extremely pleased with my Onkyo amp + Tanoy speakers. I mainly use it for TV, but when using it with my PC, it just sounds fantastic. I use my X-Fi Titanium card to output over HDMI via the Graphics card encoded with DTS interactive.

 

I would recommend an ASUS Xonar card, or if you really want EAX 5, an Auzentech X-Fi card.

I would stear away from Creative, as I had a horrible experience trying to get everything working on Windows 7. Perhaps there newer cards are better, but there old cards are a nightmare on Windows 7.

[God Of Gaming]

So, let me try to conclude what I learned - what can I expect if I get, let's say, Creative X-Fi Titanium HD sound card and use Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect to output 5.1 channel audio from games, movies and music via the optical out to Emotiva UMC-1 decoder, and connect that to an Aperion Bravus IIa 10D powered subwoofer and Emotiva XPA-5 powered amplifier with 4 bookshelf speakers (Aperion Intimus 5B) and one center channel speaker (Aperion Intimus 5C). Any problems with this setup?

[Stonerboy779]

So, let me try to conclude what I learned - what can I expect if I get, let's say, Creative X-Fi Titanium HD sound card and use Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect to output 5.1 channel audio from games, movies and music via the optical out to Emotiva UMC-1 decoder, and connect that to an Aperion Bravus IIa 10D powered subwoofer and Emotiva XPA-5 powered amplifier with 4 bookshelf speakers (Aperion Intimus 5B) and one center channel speaker (Aperion Intimus 5C). Any problems with this setup?

Not that I am seeing

[God Of Gaming]

Great, then I'll probably go with that setup, as long as I find where to buy it from (shipping it from USA could be way too pricey). But first I need to upgrade my PC since it is becoming kind of outdated.

BTW, this subwoofer has 500W of power, how far away should I place it from the PC in order to keep the hard disk drives safe from the vibrations? Would it be far enough if I put the PC on the left of the desk, and the subwoofer - on the right?