Runnin an X-Fi Xtreme Gamer in 5.1 through an amplifier...

Richdog · 12 Jul 2008 at 18:32

I have a Sherwood RV-60330R that i'm trying to work out how to run my X-Fi Xtreme Gamer through for full 5.1 sound and I just can't figure out exactly how to do it. When I was using my Creative T6100 speaker set it just simply has a wire with 3x 3.5mm jacks in the end that I plugged into the back of the X-Fi and voila... 5.1 sound. At the moment I have my X-Fi plugged in through stereo so obviously aren't getting any 5.1 gaming action.

The thing is on the back of the amp it has only two connectors for AUX... and that is the one providnig me with the stereo sound. However i've done some reading around on the tinterweb and it seems to suggest that I need three seperate 2x RCA to 1x 3.5mm jack cables and plug each one into each port of the X-Fi seperately into the amp. The thing is as I said earlier I can only see one AUX set of inputs for the X-Fi to go into.

Is this because the amp is so old or am I missing something significant? :confused:

malachi · 14 Jul 2008 at 00:06

Ive have the same problem with my X-Fi Xtreme Gamer. I can get 5.1 through my amp in movies but never in games. I gave up looking a solution after months of searching.

james.miller · 14 Jul 2008 at 02:42

there are 3 ways to get surround sound from a pc now

1) audio over hdmi
2) spdif (coax or optical)
3) multi channel analogue

by the sounds of it, your amp (is that model number correct? i cant find any reference to it) doesnt have a multi channel analogue input (3, or 4 sets of rca sockets grouped together).

another way is to use spdif. however, the soundcard must support DDLive or DTS:Interactive encoding otherwise all you'll get is 2 channel stereo for games and windows. your soundcard does not have these features, but i think daniel_k's hacked drivers provided this functionality in some form. you'd have to investigate this.

if that doesnt work, they you have 2 choices. change the sound card for a card that can do DDLive or DTS:I over spid, or buy a new amplifier with a mutl-analogue input.

benjo plz. · 14 Jul 2008 at 03:35

james.miller said:
your amp doesnt have a multi channel input

fixed.

Richdog · 14 Jul 2008 at 08:49

Thanks for the replies guys... I did actually manage to research the answer to this yesterday morning, and as you very rightly say james my amp doesn't have the multi-channel connections... which isn't really an issue as i'm upgrading it in a few weeks for one of the new Denon 1909/2309's or similar.

Where can I find Daniel K's hacked drivers though... the Creative forum has removed all the links and I googled briefly yet unsuccessfully yesterday.

malachi said:
Ive have the same problem with my X-Fi Xtreme Gamer. I can get 5.1 through my amp in movies but never in games. I gave up looking a solution after months of searching.

As james said, you need three multi-channel inputs on your amp... then what you do is get 3x single RCA to 3.5mm cables and hook each port up on the back of your soundcard to one multi-channel input to create the 5.1 sound.

Personally i'm going to buy a new soundcard... either the Prelude or the DX2... not quite sure which yet.

james.miller · 14 Jul 2008 at 09:48

benjo plz. said:
fixed.

the reason i call it a multi channal ANALOGUE input (which is what it is) is so it cant be confused.

benjo plz. · 14 Jul 2008 at 10:36

james.miller said:
the reason i call it a multi channal ANALOGUE input (which is what it is) is so it cant be confused.

yer, it doesn't have digital either

.

malachi · 14 Jul 2008 at 10:43

Richdog said:
Where can I find Daniel K's hacked drivers though... the Creative forum has removed all the links and I googled briefly yet unsuccessfully yesterday.

As james said, you need three multi-channel inputs on your amp... then what you do is get 3x single RCA to 3.5mm cables and hook each port up on the back of your soundcard to one multi-channel input to create the 5.1 sound.

Personally i'm going to buy a new soundcard... either the Prelude or the DX2... not quite sure which yet.

My soundcard is connected to the amp using an digital optical cable, so it is able to auto detect which sound output is coming out the soundcard. Just like you, Im searching for the Daniel K's hacked drivers too, so far Ive had no success either

Richdog · 14 Jul 2008 at 10:47

malachi said:
My soundcard is connected to the amp using an digital optical cable, so it is able to auto detect which sound output is coming out the soundcard. Just like you, Im searching for the Daniel K's hacked drivers too, so far Ive had no success either

Ok i've just done some Googling and there's a torrent for it... so just Google "daniel k creative drivers" or "daniel k creative drivers torrent" and you'll see it.

benjo plz. · 14 Jul 2008 at 11:32

Daniel_K's website is here, you'll want the DDL unlocker and the Auzentech drivers.

malachi · 14 Jul 2008 at 11:32

Cool, thank you

Richdog · 22 Aug 2008 at 18:32

Ok guys I need a bit of help here please...

I jave just bought a Pioneer VSX-LX70 and am having real trouble hooking up my POS X-Fi XtremeGamer to the amp using the multi-channel inputs on the back... i'm getting non sound at all. Is there any way of finding out which port on the back of the X-Fi corresponds to which set of speakers (front/center/back) as i'm a bit stumped at how to get it all running at the moment! I want games and moview in 5.1.