surround sound with 2 sets of speakers, no bass from rear

microzee

New Member
Messages
6
So as the title says, I have set up a surround sound system using 2 sets of speakers. The first set is set up as the front speakers in the realtek audio manager, and the second set is set up as rear speakers. I have it set up as 7.1 with no sides, subwoofer, or center speakers. Front, left, and right is checked, as well as surround sound. The sub is on my front speakers, and works fine. The rear speakers however get absolutely no bass, only treble, and sound super tinny and terrible. The speakers are fine, and work and sound great if there set as front speakers. What's the problem? I originally had another subwoofer/speaker combo hooked up as the rear, but the subwoofer didn't vibrate at all. I thought maybe I should just hook up some normal speakers with built in subs. Same thing though, they just sound terrible. I also have dolby home theater on, and if I shut it off the rear speakers don't even work when playing music. They work if I click the speaker icon in realtek.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
In many cases if you don't have an actual 5.1 or 7.1 system you can't "assemble" a surround system, or a system that works properly. In a surround system, there are three connections to the PC's audio and they go to the main unit (bass speaker) that has amplifiers and sound distribution.

Trying to duplicate that with separate speaker systems can result in problems such as you are encountering.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Built
    CPU
    i7 6700K
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero
    Memory
    16 Gb G Skill TridentZ DDR4 3400
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel (i7 CPU)
    Sound Card
    RealTek Integrated
    Monitor(s) Displays
    27" Dell SE2717HR
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1080
    Hard Drives
    500GB Samsung 850 SSD, 3TB for backups
    PSU
    EVGA Supernova 750 G2
    Case
    BeQuiet Silent Base 600
    Cooling
    Deepcool Captain 120EX
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Wireless
    Mouse
    Logitech wireless
    Internet Speed
    Cable - 100MB Downlink
    Browser
    Edge/Firefox
    Antivirus
    Microsoft
    Other Info
    Sonar Platinum 64 bit recording studio software with MOTU 896Mk3 Hybrid recording interface unit.
Okay, thank you. I am trying to get a nice speaker system for my computer, and am still learning. I see when browsing through speaker systems, there is a section containing av receivers. What exactly are these, and do I need one for a computer? Or are they just for theater setups?


Also, I saw this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enn_YC9gryU

And was a little confused how he did it. Both of the subwoofers are plugged into a y adapter, what does the subwoofer power? Does it run the subwoofer and the centerspeakers? So then the sides fronts and rears all have there own cable going into the computer?

See my speaker right now has one wire coming from it. And that one runs the sub and the speakers.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
You actually have two 2.1 sets of speakers, right ? If a sub-woofer is not connected to appropriate connector on the audio card and does not have it's own amplifier, then you can't control it from software on the computer and you are at the mercy of it's own electronics.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
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