any help is appreciated, I'm looking at buying either the ASRock ion or the Acer Revo to use to play music in my living room, so I need to hook it up to my receiver/speakers.
The receiver I have is a nice Marantz, but it's a little old, and only has the rca type connectors on the back, no digital audio ports.
Is there a way to connect either of these boxes to a receiver to get high quality audio?
I know you can push the audio out of the hdmi port, but is there a way to convert it?
Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks!
It all depends on the connections your receiver has, I'm assuming that when you say rca connections you are meaning 6 channels, not two? If that's the case there might be some sort of conversion box, but I'm unsure, you might want to see if anyone else knows about these. The other option is to get an external usb sound card such as the soundblaster Xi-fi
http://www.soundblaster.com/products/pro...7751&nav=1
I cannot vouch for the sound quality of this product as I haven't used it, but there are similiar 5.1 usb cards on the market. You could have a snoop around on google and check out some reviews.
ok, thanks, I will check that out.
On the Acer Aspire Revo, there's no optical out, so what do people do, just use the headphone jack out to their speakers?
redtapemedia Wrote:I cannot vouch for the sound quality of this product as I haven't used it, but there are similiar 5.1 usb cards on the market. You could have a snoop around on google and check out some reviews.
One should also keep in mind that many if not all USB Soundcards are CPU intensive, so it might be a stretch for an ATOM processor to handle.
Cheers
CyberMaxX
thanks CyberMaxX, I was thinking the same thing. But is the soundblaster really a USB soundcard? It looks like it has a line input and rca output, so is the Acer or ASRock pc just outputting its audio signal to this device, and the device is handling it from there?
I guess I'll have to read more about this device first.
Ok, looks like this Soundblaster software needs to be installed on the machine, and it says it only supports windows. I was going to go with a linux build.
Are you going to use your old maranatz for surround sound, or do you only have 2 speakers hooked up to it? can your receiver even do surround sound (by "surround sound" i mean actual 5.1 or greater, not just hooking up 2 more speakers to the B ports)? 5.1 isn't even necessary since you are only listening to music anyways.
If the receiver is only stereo, you just need a 3.5mm to rca adapter. Plug the 3.5mm end into the headphone or line out jack on the pc and the RCA ends into your receiver.
Like these:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/produc...1&format=2
$0.63
or a little nicer:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/produc...1&format=2
$2.76
ericb1 Wrote:thanks CyberMaxX, I was thinking the same thing. But is the soundblaster really a USB soundcard? It looks like it has a line input and rca output, so is the Acer or ASRock pc just outputting its audio signal to this device, and the device is handling it from there?
I guess I'll have to read more about this device first.
No Problem...
They do have a line of sound devices that work off of USB ports. Plus, I'm pretty sure that you'll be able to find Linux Drivers if you want to really go that route.
BUT...
Reading your post further, it looks like all you want to do is push music thru the AsRock or Revo to an older Marantz Receiver. Since you stated that the Marantz does not have any digital inputs and only RCA type jacks on the back, I doubt that it even supports 5.1 digital surround sound sound. Also, most music still recorded in Stereo
Unless one of those RCA jacks (Orange in color) is a COAXIAL input.
Looks something like this
If you don't have any digital inputs on your Marantz receiver and you don't have any plans to upgrade it, then Pre1014's advice which was posted earlier would be your best option.
Cheers
CyberMaxX
Yes! Thanks so much, I think that's how I will go.
Will XBMC get confused with an HDMI cable in it though? In other words, I have an HDMI cable in my revo going out to my monitor, and a 3.5mm cable going out to my stereo.
Where will XBMC send the audio signal?
if youre like me its been pushing the audio through the hdmi even with out throught the 3.5...
im using an acer revo and have the same problem.
i cant get just the audio to come out the 3.5 when i have an hdmi attached
Not sure why. I have an hdmi cable going to my tv, which works fine for the video, and I have a "Y" type cable, one end in the 3.5 jack on the revo, and the other 2 red&white ends into my rceiver, and xbmc pushes the audio out just fine. I don't remember making any specific changes for this to work, but I will look over my settings again.
ericb1 Wrote:Not sure why. I have an hdmi cable going to my tv, which works fine for the video, and I have a "Y" type cable, one end in the 3.5 jack on the revo, and the other 2 red&white ends into my rceiver, and xbmc pushes the audio out just fine. I don't remember making any specific changes for this to work, but I will look over my settings again.
i had originally changed my asoundrc or something file to push the menu audio through the hdmi.. maybe thats what screwed it up.. Whats your settings under system? Analog digital etc...
im curius as to maybe i screwed something up there. Totally appreciate your help!