How to connect a receiver amp to PC? via GPU?

hobib_ali

hobib_ali

hobib_ali

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Hello

I have just bought a new receiver amp with 5.1 speakers

I bought Teufel 5.1 speakers direct from the manufacturer, now I have a Creative ZXR sound card.

Whats the best way to connect the PC to the receiver? im told in order to get the best 5.1 sound you have to connect a HDMI cable from the GRAPHICS CARD to the receiver?

But where does the ZXR come in to play, that has a daughter board with optical out/in and RCA red white connections

sorry im puzzled, so the receiver has a HDMI out, it also has 5 HDMI in, assuming they are for TV consoles ect

The main purpose its to connect the receiver to the PC and then to connect everything to the receiver, ie 2 consoles TV and wireless headphones

But where does the sound card come in to play? apparently the sound card is now redundant because the receiver is the new sound card?

sorry this is quite confusing now that I have the goods, before I bought it, it seemed so simple

any ideas?
 
You have a few options, depending what gear you have

Optical/coaxial from onboard or PCI soundcard to AVR. Video cable from PC to AVR then onto TV/LCD.
HDMI from onboard GPU or dedicated GPU to AVR, then AVR to TV/LCD. Either HDMI-HDMI or HDMI-DVI depending on gear
Soundcard analogue 5.1 out into PC speakers, or into 5.1 input on AVR then speaker outputs. Direct from PC to TV/LCD.

Really depends on whether you have legacy equipment or not, and depending if your AVR passes >certain res, ie does your AVR pass through 4K HDR at 3440x1440 144hz? Or whatever below that to say 720p/1080p.
 
Hornetstimger covers all the bases really. Practically, and from what you’ve said in the OP, you’ll use HDMI output from the graphics card which will carry the sound as well as the video. In this case, yes the sound card is redundant.

You also have the option of connecting using optical from the sound card to the receiver but personally I’d use the HDMI connection.
 
hornetstinger said:
You have a few options, depending what gear you have

Optical/coaxial from onboard or PCI soundcard to AVR. Video cable from PC to AVR then onto TV/LCD.
HDMI from onboard GPU or dedicated GPU to AVR, then AVR to TV/LCD. Either HDMI-HDMI or HDMI-DVI depending on gear
Soundcard analogue 5.1 out into PC speakers, or into 5.1 input on AVR then speaker outputs. Direct from PC to TV/LCD.

Really depends on whether you have legacy equipment or not, and depending if your AVR passes >certain res, ie does your AVR pass through 4K HDR at 3440x1440 144hz? Or whatever below that to say 720p/1080p.
Click to expand...

hello

sorry i bought the receiver and 5.1 speakers without thoroughly researching info.

Currently I have my 1440p/144hz monitor connected to gpu via DisplayPort cable, my gpu also has hdmi

My ZXR has optical and red white output, daughterboard

now what about the display port cable, does that still stay connected? (display port connection needed for 144hz)

Also will optical out from sound card to receiver carry proper 5.1 sound?

lastly can you connect display port from gpu to monitor for picture and additionally connect HDMI from the same GPU to the receiver for sound?

can you advise me the best way to connect the receiver to the PC, pictures of pc below.



so the receiver is

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"now what about the display port cable, does that still stay connected? (display port connection needed for 144hz)"
Click to expand...

You need DP to get 144hz.

Also will optical out from sound card to receiver carry proper 5.1 sound?
Click to expand...

Yes, it can pass 5.1 regular DD/DTS but not the new HD master/atmos

lastly can you connect display port from gpu to monitor for picture and additionally connect HDMI from the same GPU to the receiver for sound?
Click to expand...

Should do, on your AVR set video to none, and sound to HDMI or coaxial/optical.

Need to check what your AVR spec supports, I doubt it'll support all the way upto PC res & frequency. But try it and see what happens.

You'll probably lose g-sync/freesync over HDMI
 
can i not leave everything as it is, meaning leave the display port from gpu to monitor and just make a simple connection from pc to receiver for 5.1 sound?
]nothing special

also you know the red and white connections on the zxr daughter board, can i connect that to the receiver for 5.1?

soory im very confused, this is the 1st time that ive got hands on a proper 5.1 system before that i had the corssair 2.1 speakers.
 
Bluecube said:
I would connect the sound via an optical cable. Much less fuss. I doubt the receiver will output a 144hz signal
Click to expand...
oh sorry, im not fussed about 144hz, ill get that anyway from the gpu to monitor via display port, but you mentioned optical cable, can you get 5.1 if i do that?

like just a simple optical out from sound card to receiver?
 
Yes. Connect the ZxR to the AVR with optical cable and select either Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect, so the sound card will encode the audio stream to 5.1 to the receiver in real time.
 
Marsman said:
Yes. Connect the ZxR to the AVR with optical cable and select either Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect, so the sound card will encode the audio stream to 5.1 to the receiver in real time.
Click to expand...
ok i see, ive spent hours setting up the room re arranging furniture so it can accommodate 2 floor standing 2 book self a centre and a active subwoofer, i will connect tomorrow as its time for some games now.

I haven't been in the sound scene for the past 12 years, my last purchase was separates with 2 floor-standers but they are gone now, this new tech, the receivers with all these connections are very confusing, im more use to normal stereo 2.1s, ive lost touch
 
Marsman said:
Did you buy a ZxR specifically for this set up?
Click to expand...
no, ive had the ZXR for the past 1 year, i bought it as i needed a good sound card for my HD600s, the sound card is so good it sounds better than the Fiio K5 headphone amp I had, then my brother gave me his receiver and I bought these really high end speakers, my brother tells me to get rid of the sound card as the receiver is a sound card, but i wont make that decision until i get the thing running.
I will get rid of my corsair SP2500s, for 2.1 they are very good, but I want 5.1 now

my brother also tells me you can get 5.1 via optical but I wont get master audio as thats only via HDMI, i will try to connect a HDMI cable from the GPU while its connected to the display port, will see what happens, I may have to go to PC settings and select nvidia audio out but im thinking that will disable the sound card!
 
That's OK then. No point spending that much on a sound card if you're only using the digital output.

He's correct that you'll only get uncompressed audio formats via HDMI. Give it a try, see how it goes. It has caused problems in the past for some people, because Windows sees the AVR as a second display, which for some mucked around with how their monitor was set up.

That was a good while ago now I remember some people having that problem. Prior to Windows 10 certainly. It's something I've not seen a lot of since then, so it may not be a problem now.
 
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HDMI is a better sound transport than SPDIF and USB is better than HDMI. Pretty sure you can run HDMI out to your receiver and use that as default audio device while using DP to run your monitor, all from one GPU. In win 10, at least.
 
I have connected an HDMI cable from my GPU to the receiver, however this has disabled my sound ZXR sound card

The display port cable is connected to the same gpu so im still getting the 144 refresh rate and gsync

Also I have to selected the default sound option to the nvidia sound option, looks like my sound card has been made obsolete, I prefer the sound card as it got a very good equaliser, now im using the sound settings on the receiver, so now I have to decide if im to use realtek/Nvidia sound drivers via HDMI vs ZXR via optical.
 
Well it seems the only reason to use the ZxR is for the equaliser. I wouldn't use the ZxR over HDMI because 'it's a £200 sound card', not if HDMI is giving you better sound with uncompressed audio formats.

From a digital connection point of view, the ZxR is no different from a Z. It's the better quality analogue (DAC and headphone amp) outputs that explain it's greater cost compared to the cheaper Z, but they are irrelevant when using optical.

What you need to ask yourself is: Would I still use the sound card over HDMI if I had a SB Z?

If using uncompressed lossless sound via HDMI is not bringing any sound improvements over compressed Dolby Digital via optical, then it might come down to preference of the equaliser.
 
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