Hi-Fi Stunt??

[Dr. Kamolly]

We're still talking hypotheically, if I had 2 speakers that I wanted to plant in the case, but I wanted to connect them to the sound card so anything that comes out of the sound card, comes out of them, and still get to connect external speakers from the speaker socket in the sound card, how can I do that? Is it even possilbe?

[Rankenphile]

Theoretically, it is certainly possible. One way to do it would be to create a "splitter" which would basically turn the audio port into two - one of which would run right back into your case to your speaker set, the other would remain open for yout o plug in your speakers. One issue with this, besides the ugly wire running out and back in, of course, would be the fact that you're cutting the current in half, essentially, by splitting the signal. Another would be controlling the volume outside of your program controlls, but this is something you could solve with a simple potentiometer wired into the line.

[Dr. Kamolly]

I'm okay with the outside controlling, I may not need the extra power so I would turn them off. As for the weak audio, when they are turned off the current will be untouched and available for other speakers. Am I right??

I need to brush up on my physics from high school.

Can't the wire thing be solved any other way?? I mean how can there be 2 sockets for speakers, one in the front and another in the back, maybe this mechanism can be reversed for mentioned purpose??

[Rankenphile]

I think it depends on the motherboard, case setup and sound card, if any. On my home computer, which is woefully unmodded for the time being, I have a set of wires that I have to plug into my speaker and mic ports if I want my front ports to work, which of course makes the rear ports unuseable.

[crazybillybob]

There is always the option of soldering another set of leads to the mounting pads of the external spearker jack. Headphone and speaker jacks are still normaly through the board mounts (due to the physical stress placed on them be the enduser), this means the solder points are on the bottom of the board, Just tack on 3 wires and your good to go (why 3 ? easy .... 1 Rchannel positive, 1 LChannel positive and 1 common Ground- negitive side for both speakers).

If you do it this way you can place a switch inline with the ground, (easy to mount in the PCi back plate micro switch from Radioshack....do they still sell switches?) then when you plug the extrenals in flip the switch for full power (which would only be an issue if you were using unpowered speakers).

The down side to this method it assumes that you can solder (I mean really solder, cause to much heat and the SC may not work anymore), and that you OK voiding the MFg warranty (which we know you are or else you wouldn't be modding )

Crazybillybob

[DaveW]

You're not cutting the current in half if the circuit is open. So if nothing's plugged in then everything will be fine. If you turn off your internal speakers, you'll not have a circuit.

The easiest way to do this is to buy some cheap 1-2 Watt Amps, which you can probably run off your PSU with some tweaking, and plug your speakers into those. A splitter cable at the back of your soundcard can go into a switch then into your AMP.

There are audio headers on some cards for internal stuff, but like Rankenphile said, each behaves a different way.

-Dave

[Dr. Kamolly]

OK, what I understood is that if I wire the external speakers by "soldering", I can have the speakers one as well add additional speakers through the original sockets, and by adding Amps, I don't loose power from any of the speakers, soldered or otherwise.

My questions are, I gather there are audio cards that have sockets for both internal and external speakers, or just 2 speaker sets, what make and are they reliable? The second question, did I undertand correctly?? The third and final question, what is soldering??

Thank You.

[DaveW]

Umm...don't take this the wrong way, but if you can't solder the project may be a little out of your reach-you need to start on some small stuff and work your way up. Soldering is heating a soft metal, called solder, till it melts. It's used to construct electrical circuits.

There's a beginners guide to electronics here.

-Dave

[Dr. Kamolly]

Well it IS out of my reach, this is still an idea, and all I planned for is that I'll replace the metal with fibreglass, yet I'm playing with various ideas and gathering as much info as I can until the times comes for modding.

Yet, you didn't answer my question, what audio cards do you recommend that have 2 sockets, I figure I buy them ready made and keep the warranty just in case.

[DaveW]

Most Creative Sound cards will come with a couple of Audio headers. Try the Sound Blaster Audigy, a pretty popular card. I have an Audigy 2 ZS edition. Great card, crap drivers.

-Dave