Connecting Speaker System to Laptop

Hi,

I just bought an Asus laptop (M50VM) ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-N82E16834220340).

The speakers are ok for a laptop, but I would like to hook in an Altec Lansing ADA885 speaker system, which includes 4 speakers (2 surround) and a large subwoofer. Although this is a 8-year-old speaker system, it was top-of-the-line when I bought it and it still works very well.

The speaker system connects into 3 output jacks in my old Dell XPS computer. A green colored stereo cable connected the computer to a jack labeled "analog front" on the subwoofer. A black stereo cable connected the computer to a jack labeled "analog surround" on my subwoofer. And a black RCA cable connected the computer (using a yellow connector cable called a Dongle so it would fit in the sound card) to a jack labeled "S/PDIF digital" on the subwoofer.

My new laptop has 3 jacks with the sound card -- a microphone input jack, a headphone output jack, and a SPDIF digital output jack. I was able to connect the green stereo cable into the Phone Out and SPDIF Out jacks and good sound appeared to come out from the speakers, and the subwoofer and surround sound speakers appeared to be working as well. The other 2 cables did not appear to have any effect when plugged into either 2 jacks alone or in conjunction with the green cable.

What is the best configuration for connecting the speaker system with the laptop? Am I taking full advantage of my speaker system by just having the green cable connected?

Thanks!
Tyler

 

Welcome to nbr,

I do not think the other two cables serve any purpose. You already have the audio connected to your surround sound system via the green cable. I think, having the other two cables plugged in would offer negligable difference in sound quality

K-TRON

 

Hi Tszabo,

Interested in this discusssion especially in relation to your Dell XPS laptop.I have a Dell XPS_Gen_2 2.13GHz and I have just purchased a Goodmans GDVD19SWS surround sound system.Can you give me some advice as to how I can connect these two together.
Appreciate any help.
Thanks

new member.

 

I am afraid normally laptops only could support 2.1 system. You need an additinal multichannel sound card (like Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1) to connect your surround sound system.

 

Following up on my original post, so I plugged in the green cable, and the sound works great (for all 4 speakers). I have simply left the other 2 cables unplugged. However, I do hear intermittent interference/static, which is particularly noticeable when there is no sound, such as when I am surfing the web. It is not a loud noise, but rather a brief quiet crackle. It is annoying enough though that I end up turning off my speakers when I am not using them to play something.

My speakers worked fine on my old desktop computer, so I do not think the speakers are defective. I also do not think it is the soundcard, since I do not have problems when I use the speakers embedded in my laptop. Asus tech support suggested I purchase a static filter for my cable before plugging into the s/pdif jack, but before I go ahead and do this, I thought I'd get a second opinion.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

 

Do the computer and the stereo system both have 3 pin (grounded) mains power plugs and are connected to the same group of sockets?

If so, can you isolate the grounding for one of them and see if the noise goes away?

John

 

Since you do have an S/PDIF connection, you can get a converter cable/adapter to run straight digital out of your laptop into the black RCA cable with the dongle that you mentioned. This should ideally give you the best quality possible without having to resort to an external soundcard.

If you want to stay with the green cable hook-up, I'd say that if you still have the other un-used cables connected to the subwoofer but not connected to anything else, then disconnect them completely (if possible) or make sure that they aren't contacting anything metallic that might cause the crackling (wrap them in cloth or something).

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

I plugged in the laptop and speaker system to different power strips, but this didn't fix it. I also tried unplugging the laptop so it was only running on battery, and this didn't work either.

I completely disconnected the other two cables that were being unused, but this didn't do it.

As for zmatin's suggestion to "get a converter cable/adapter to run straight digital out of your laptop into the black RCA cable with the dongle," I'm not sure what exactly this means. Do I need to buy a converter? What kind?

Thanks!

 

S/PDIF is a straight digital signal out. I'm not 100% familiar with it, because I generally just use 2.1 setups where the regular audio/headphone out jack works fine. My old Acer used to have an optical out (you could see a read light shining out of the headphone jack) that would require a Toslink optical adapter cable to use (and a comparable audio system to take advantage of it). If it's not optical, I think there is some other type of adapter/cable to run it out to your speakers (it should look something like an RCA cable).

Towards the bottom of this FAQ is a section covering the actual connections. I can't see what kind of connections you have your speakers to see what you would need, but hopefully this will shed some light. Here's another article to help out, maybe.

Good luck, and hope you get your audio problems cleared up.

 

It appears I had connected the analog cable (green), so that was probably causing the interference noise. Instead, I have now connected the RCA black cable with the dongle (so it fits firmly into the S/PDIF port), which should transmit digital output. The connection on my subwoofer even says S/PDIF (digital).

In Windows Vista Control Panel - Sounds, I have made Realtek Digital Output my default device (rather than Speakers). However, when I play sound, nothing comes out of the speakers, even though I see the bar next to Realtek Digital Output pulsing to the sound. The volume setting seems fine under Properties. Any idea why it is not working? Do I need to install certain audio codecs or configure other settings?

Thanks -- hopefully we're almost there!

By the way, the manual for my speaker system is support.dell.com/support/edocs/acc/ada885/en/index.htm

 

Can anyone help me set up my digital speaker connection so my sound works? Should what I'm doing work in theory?

Thanks!

 

Have you enabled S/PDIF in the realtek properties? Or on the amplifier?

 

I think that rather than tweaking from the Vista control panel that you should be setting the digital output through the Realtek utility program (check your system tray). Aside from having all the right connectors/cables set up, I can't think of anything else that might be causing issue.

 

Hey I have the same speaker system that you have, I only have the cable with the green plug plugged in and it works just fine
The other two cables are useless

 

I have set Digital Output as the default in the Realtek HD Audio Manager, but it doesn't work, and I don't see any other way to enable s/pdif. I downloaded the most up-to-date drivers from the Realtek website, but that did not do anything. Any other suggestions? Do I have the wrong cables? There is a digital coaxial cable that connects the s/pdif input on my subwoofer with a connector cable (Dongle), which appears to be a traditional analog cable, so it fits firmly in the soundcard s/pdif output.

 

Honestly, I can't really think of what else it might be. I'd say to head in to your nearest trusted audio geek haven (be it Best Buy or Radioshack, etc.) and have them throw their $.02 in.

 

Well, Radio Shack wasn't helpful, but I did finally figure it out! I completely uninstalled the Realtek Audio drivers which came with the computer, and then I only used the Windows Vista drivers which automatically installed. No more audio problems. The final configuration is that I have the green stereo cable plugged into the headphones jack, and everything sounds great (with sound coming from all 4 speakers).

What a pain...

 

zmatin's problem is that the digital (spdif) out on a laptop is usually via an optical connection whereas the digital input on the speakers sounds like a coax connection.

To get it to all work correctly would need a 3.5" optical jack to SPDIF connector, an optical to coax digital converter box (about a tenner) and then a coax phono cable (usually used for composite video on a TV) to link the converter box to the speakers. This would then allow digital to work fine.

The usual way to tell if you have an optical SPDIF on a laptop is to enable it and then look into the socket when playing a sound clip, if you see a red light then it will be an optical connection.