Hey there folks, On a lot of lower end 5.1 systems, you have only 3 3.5mm jacks to come out of the sound card of the machine its being connected to.
These then lead to a sub or amp of some kind which then allows you to run each of your speakers off to their separate locations. I had this type of config with a Logitech 5.1 system,power went in to an amp / subwoofer device and the front rear and centre speakers run off that with standard speaker cable. I think this is more the way things should be configured but it’s the coming out of the Mac with USB and that splitting in to the 3 separate lines to the control device. From: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com [mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Christopher-Mark Gilland Sent: Thursday, 21 January 2016 9:32 AM To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Need a bit of USB sound education Wow, that's a... pardon the pun, very unorthodox, setup. Usually, you'd not have one cable to do both left and right channels unless it was a Y cable. Let me ask you this. The green cable you have for left and right... is it just one plug on each end of that cord, or two plugs? I'm trying to get my head around how you're getting left and right separation in the stereo spectrom on only one cord. The only thing I could think is it's a stereo balanced crossover cable. If that's the case, then yeah, ok, I could see it. What, however, I do! find really really strange though is why that red/orange, call it as you will, cord is doing your center and! your sub. Normally, you'd want your center speaker to be totally on a seperet channel from your left or right, and you definitely! definitely would not want those lower end frequencies say around 80HZ and lower to be sent to your center. Generally, your center should roll off everything on an average about 150HZ and lower. Your satellites should go about 150 down to about 80HZ, then your sub would crossover at that point at about 80 down to about 25-30. Again, this is only an average estimate. Each type of speaker will greatly vary in frequency response. My point though is, If you're using one cable for the sub woofer, and that same cable/jack is powerring your center, then that seems really weird to me! I'd think that would make your speakers sound horribly! out of phase. Chris. ----- Original Message ----- From: Bill Holton<mailto:bill32...@gmail.com> To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com<mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com> Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2016 1:56 PM Subject: RE: Need a bit of USB sound education Hi. Yes, it screws up on the other Mac as well, so assuming it is a sound card issue. My current speakers have three cables Black = Rear left and right. . Green = Front left and right. Orange = Center and Subwoofer. And I do not know what this type of sound interface is called. Any suggestions appreciated. From: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com<mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com> [mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Christopher-Mark Gilland Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2016 9:18 AM To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com<mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: Need a bit of USB sound education but your mac isn't what's producing the sound in this case. The question isn't does your mac have optical, at which, the answer is no, by the way. The question is, does your USB interface have optical out? I do agree that would give you a better sound. Either that, or SPDIF, sometimes pronounced spiddif. I still however tend to think this is a bigger issue than your speaker setup. It sounds more like there is something going on within the USB connection from your mac to the USB interface. I don't think your speakers are the problem here, honestly, based on what you're telling us. Chris. ----- Original Message ----- From: Bill Holton<mailto:bill32...@gmail.com> To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com<mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com> Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2016 8:02 AM Subject: Re: Need a bit of USB sound education I was told my mac mini didn't have an optical out. Is it the same jack that you would normally take audio out of? Sent from my iPhone On Jan 19, 2016, at 11:43 PM, 'Chris Blouch' via MacVisionaries <macvisionaries@googlegroups.com<mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com>> wrote: If you are trying to get 5.1 out of your Mac, does your amp have an optical input? If so, it might be easier to skip all the USB stuff and just run optical from the mini to your surround-sound amp. CB On 1/18/16 9:57 PM, Bill Holton wrote: Hi. My wife says they are green, orange—red?—and black. The USB cable goes into the box, those three cables go to my 5.1 system subwoofer, the subwoofer has the amp, I am guessing, and there are five audio cable jacks in it that lead to the left, right, satellite, and center channels. The speakers also have a large cable with a volume know, a headphone jack, and dial for bass/treble, and another that does increased separation. Does that help? The USB audio keeps dropping out, then coming back. I thought maybe it was an OS issue, but I am running VM, and after a config change it started asking me where I want the device connected, Mac or Windows, so I am guessing it is actually disconnecting and reconnecting. Tried three different USB cables;, didn’t help. From: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com<mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com> [mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Christopher-Mark Gilland Sent: Monday, January 18, 2016 6:50 PM To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com<mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: Need a bit of USB sound education OK, do you know what color those cables are? That would tell me a fair amount. Are they blue green and black? If so, I might have a possible solution. If two of them are red and white, then I'll have to think about it, as that wouldn't exactly tell me much. red and white is generally your standard RCA, then of course yellow would be for video, so I highly doubt that is what you're working with. The green, blue, and black would be digital and probably would be like a composit cable. That's why I'm kind a wonderring. We need just a slight bit more info. Chris. ----- Original Message ----- From: Bill Holton<mailto:bill32...@gmail.com> To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com<mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com> Sent: Monday, January 18, 2016 5:15 PM Subject: Need a bit of USB sound education Hi. I am currently running a USB sound adapter to a set of 5.1 speakers on my Mac Mini, connected by three color-coded cables to the subwoofer, which in turn connects to the five speakers. The device is acting up, it keeps failing and restarting. Tried different cable, same issues. I want to replace the device, but not sure what I am looking for. All the ones I see on Amazon show audio out. What do I need to look for in one that will connect via the three color coded cables? Hoping to get off fairly inexpensively, so if anyone can recommend one…much thanks. Bill -- The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries list. 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