Amplifiers

[fr56]

Is there a prefered way to connect an amplifier to an htpc ?

I see some people use hifi phono leads and others HDMI.

and does it matter what type of amplifier you use? dont know yet wether i'll be going for surround sound

thinking about it, i should check if my soundcard has hdmi first!

[fixiehipster]

(01-18-2010 10:59 AM)fr56 Wrote:  Is there a prefered way to connect an amplifier to an htpc ?

I see some people use hifi phono leads and others HDMI.

and does it matter what type of amplifier you use? dont know yet wether i'll be going for surround sound

thinking about it, i should check if my soundcard has hdmi first!

I use an old set of phono leads for my sounds atm. sounds great, even in plain old stereo! i think MP3s kill the sound anyway, so i wouldn't bother with getting too fusy about it unless going for the home cinema experience of course

[elootos]

(01-18-2010 10:59 AM)fr56 Wrote:  Is there a prefered way to connect an amplifier to an htpc ?

I see some people use hifi phono leads and others HDMI.

and does it matter what type of amplifier you use? dont know yet wether i'll be going for surround sound

thinking about it, i should check if my soundcard has hdmi first!

I currently just use phono cables on my main home cinema pc in the lounge. It requires 3 stereo leads coming out the back of the PC to the amp; one for Left/Right, one for Rear Left/Right, and the third for Centre/Sub. These then go into the same inputs on the back of my amp and all decoding/mixing is done by the PC. The drivers for the Realtek soundcard are really good and give me Dolby Pro Logic II on stereo sources filling all the speakers with a faux surround, then for pukka surrounds formats it outputs it verbatum from the selected soundtrack on whatever film I'm watching. There are limitations with the playing software though that 'degrade' the audio quality from the extreme hi-def formats to that of standard broadcast quality, but the average home user would never know the difference.

To get audio over HDMI, ironiclly you'll need a graphics card with an HDMI output and that supports sound. The ATi's were the best ones a whle back. I'm not sure what the current situation is but even some onboard graphics chips now support audio over HDMI. I think the trick for the real audiophile is to get bitstreaming, whereby the sound is sent over the HDMI lead to the amplifier with no signal processing whatsoever by the PC. This is supposed to be audio nirvana but I'm sticking with my belt n' braces method of phono leads for the forseable future.

So what amp you need comes down to your preference of sound connectors; phono for ease of use and cheapness, HDMI for quality and the audiophile route.

[cliffwright]

As elootos says, which amp is 'best' and how it's connected is just down to your situation, budget and requirements.

I have 1 amp that is connected via standard phono leads as elootos says but this is purely because the Zone 2 function of my amp doesn't work via optical.

In my lounge setup, I connect the amp via the optical connection for 5.1 . . .

What's your situation . . . what do you want to achieve and with what budget?

[fr56]

(01-22-2010 10:24 PM)cliffwright Wrote:  What's your situation . . . what do you want to achieve and with what budget?

Well I guess Id like to achieve simplicity, so 3 pairs of phono leads it is for me then

I think analogue connections are going to be best. Im trying to hide the amp away but it involves running the cabling behind a wall to hide it, so i want to make sure i am running the right cables i guess before doing all the hard work

[newstuart]

remember you can not control dvd volime using the mce remote when outputting over optical, only phono

if you are looking to hide the amp you need to bear this in mind as youll need an ir extender

[huxley]

I just upgraded to an ATI 5850 so the only connection to the amp is via a single HDMI.
Newstuart I have a Harmony One so I set the volume control on my mce button set to the amp, but dont forget the official remotes second power and volume buttons can be made to control another device.

[newstuart]

Hi

Yes I know they can be taught but I was meaning if you were looking to hide the amp away.

"if you are looking to hide the amp you need to bear this in mind as youll need an ir extender "

For example in my set up the amp is up in the attic with the PC but the MCE IR Receiver is in the living room attached to a usb extender. Without some sort of IR sending kit I would not be able to contol the amp volume from the living room using Optical but with the 3 phono leads I can

[elootos]

(01-29-2010 11:45 PM)newstuart Wrote:  remember you can not control dvd volime using the mce remote when outputting over optical, only phono

(02-16-2010 02:27 PM)huxley Wrote:  I just upgraded to an ATI 5850 so the only connection to the amp is via a single HDMI.

(02-16-2010 05:37 PM)newstuart Wrote:  For example in my set up the amp is up in the attic with the PC but the MCE IR Receiver is in the living room attached to a usb extender. Without some sort of IR sending kit I would not be able to contol the amp volume from the living room using Optical but with the 3 phono leads I can

I see what you're getting at. If utilising the optical output of Windows, the remote doesn't always control the volume of certain sources (e.g. for DVD 5.1), so you then have to control the amp's volume directly, which if not local in the room will require an IR extender.


This harks back to my original MCE setup of an optical connection to my amp from the PC and I had stereo sources (i.e. TV) controllable via the remote, but 5.1 material (i.e DVDs) played out at full volume and I had to then control the Amp's volume instead. A right pain in the arse. Avoid old-fashioned optical at all costs if possible for smooth integration

[huxley]

Sounds like a Keene IR amp is the best option.