Please help fast need help with speakers and sound card

[Yo Whats Up]

Hello guys i'm very late and black friday here ends in exactly 3 hour, i wanna buy 

 

Edifier R1280T speakers they are on sale for 50 euro great amazing sale but someone said in the reviews i need a decent sound card for my pc to power em or else they will be wasted

 

According to my mb manual z87-k it says

 

 

But i read that the speakers is "active" and don't need to be powered up separately or smth, so do i need a sound card? And if yes, i found this one the 2nd most bought one after the Audigy FX here, again on sale for 50 euro:

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy RX 7.1

However i saw smth about omps and whatnot and it needs to be 2 omps or smth for ALC 885/889/892? Well I g uess mine is 887 so it fits right there but it says omps 600 or smth on the sound card so are they compatible?

 

[RAS_3885]

They are AC powered. Any sound card will be fine, including the one in your motherboard.

[Yo Whats Up]

1 minute ago, RAS_3885 said:

They are AC powered. Any sound card will be fine, including the one in your motherboard.

But will I benefit from having the Audigy RX over the inbuilt ALC 887?

[RAS_3885]

On $100 speakers? No.

[Yo Whats Up]

2 minutes ago, RAS_3885 said:

On $100 speakers? No.

 

Well I read they are absolutely amazing unbeatable for the price and even recommended here 

 

U sure i will have literally 0 benefit from buying the sound card? Btw I am still not sure if it's compatible lol

[RAS_3885]

7 minutes ago, Yo Whats Up said:

 

Well I read they are absolutely amazing unbeatable for the price and even recommended here 

 

 

U sure i will have literally 0 benefit from buying the sound card? Btw I am still not sure if it's compatible lol

They may very well be amazing for the price. I'm not agreeing/disagreeing with that. What I'm saying is most motherboards these days come with pretty decent onboard audio. if you are shopping for $100 speakers I'm guessing you're not a hardcore audiophile. Based on that I do not believe you will hear any benefit from a dedicated sound card. Why not just buy them, and they decide if you like the sound with the onboard audio. If you don't, then a dedicated card or stand-alone DAC can be the next route.

 

But, I virtually guarantee there will be no perceptible difference.

 

Why do you think they are not compatible? The product's own website says they are compatible with everything, including smartphones. They literally connect to anything with a headphone jack.

[Yo Whats Up]

10 minutes ago, RAS_3885 said:

What I'm saying is most motherboards these days come with pretty decent onboard audio

well my motherboard is from 2013 so it's far from "these days" i am planning to upgrade soon tho

 

i don't know if i am audiophile cuz i never had enough money to buy expensive audiophile stuff (soon tm)

 

So i have another choice to make between sound card and dac? God damn...

 

Ok I know they are compatible that's great 

 

I wouldn't know the difference with the onboard audio because i never really had expensive audio stuff, in fact i been using the 3.5W shitty monitor speakers for like 8 yrs now lol, i can hear so many more sounds on headphones but i don't use headphones anymore (neighbours are more noisy anyway than me) so i wanna get good speakers now

[RAS_3885]

3 minutes ago, Yo Whats Up said:

I wouldn't know the difference with the onboard audio because i never really had expensive audio stuff

For that reason alone I'd start with the speakers and see how they sound. You can always come back here and explore other options later. But, right now, I think you'd just be wasting your money on a new sound card since you don't really have a good bearing on what sounds "good". You'll learn in time, but for now I don't think a sound card makes sense  

[Stagea]

1 hour ago, Yo Whats Up said:

But will I benefit from having the Audigy RX over the inbuilt ALC 887?

Skip the sound card and get the R1700BT / R1700BTs instead. You can hook it up via your motherboard's toslink/optical out (if it has one). This model performs so much better than the R1280T.

 

The BTs model includes a sub-out and an internal bass management crossover, in case you're adding a powered subwoofer.

[Entropy.]

22 minutes ago, Stagea said:

Skip the sound card and get the R1700BT / R1700BTs instead. You can hook it up via your motherboard's toslink/optical out (if it has one). This model performs so much better than the R1280T.

 

The BTs model includes a sub-out and an internal bass management crossover, in case you're adding a powered subwoofer.

Dunno how much it is for them though, could be near or above MSRP, but I haven't checked. In comparison that might be pretty expensive, but I mean it is a better speaker. Higher-end components all-around, but for 50 euros the 1280ts should be fine, even if they're considering upgrading down the road. Most normal users should be satisfied by the sound coming out of the 1280ts, shrug.

[Entropy.]

1 hour ago, Yo Whats Up said:

well my motherboard is from 2013 so it's far from "these days" i am planning to upgrade soon tho

 

i don't know if i am audiophile cuz i never had enough money to buy expensive audiophile stuff (soon tm)

 

So i have another choice to make between sound card and dac? God damn...

 

Ok I know they are compatible that's great 

 

I wouldn't know the difference with the onboard audio because i never really had expensive audio stuff, in fact i been using the 3.5W shitty monitor speakers for like 8 yrs now lol, i can hear so many more sounds on headphones but i don't use headphones anymore (neighbours are more noisy anyway than me) so i wanna get good speakers now

Sound cards are basically more niche, crappy amp/dac units. They're poor value and are subject to greater interferance coming from your computer since they're actually located within your computer. I would just recommend not bothering with a sound card whatsoever. 

[Yo Whats Up]

1 hour ago, Stagea said:

Skip the sound card and get the R1700BT / R1700BTs instead. You can hook it up via your motherboard's toslink/optical out (if it has one). This model performs so much better than the R1280T.

 

The BTs model includes a sub-out and an internal bass management crossover, in case you're adding a powered subwoofer.

 

Ok you are the expert so i listen to u, also "Brok3n But who cares?" said not to bother with soundcards so i will listen to u guys

 

I found the Edifier R1700BT 2.0 for 79 euro, so i can buy that instead of 50 euro for R1280T and 50 euro for the Audigy RX, cheaper for me and apparently better, the R1700BTs is 115 euro so nope for that, can't i always add a sub-out with a transformator or smth? Like u know if you're lacking a DVI port for display u can use hdmi to dvi or dp to dvi etc. isn't there same for sub-out here?

 

Anyway here are my ports on the mb:

 

 

I see pink green and blue colored holes on the back, don't think there is what u say " toslink/optical out" so how do i connect it to my mb? I am gonna order the R1700BT now cuz black friday ends in 12 mins here and cancel the other orders hope it all goes well please respond fast when u can thanks

[Yo Whats Up]

I found this in the mb manual

 

 

Which is weird cuz i don't see that output  but i guess it's changeable? not sure what it means

[Yo Whats Up]

Ok so it turns out there is an SPDIF out

 

  

on the bottom of the motherboard

 

So I should be all good if what you're saying is correct, now i just hope they will read my 3 emails and ignore the 2nd one cuz i messed up the orders badly xd I ordered the older spaeker then audiocard then the newer speaker but i told em i want the older speaker cancelled but i sent that to the wrong site cuz i ordered the older speaker and soundcard from different sites so i sent em 3rd email now to clarify

 

good thing it was this site in google 

otherwise who knows how long i'd take before i find that optical out means s/pdif so i can ctrl+f that on the mb manual pdf

[Yo Whats Up]

This is the model that I ordered for 91 euro (earlier i said 79 i misscalculated)

 

 

It says there is bluetooth so why i need to connect to mb with spdif ?

[Yo Whats Up]

It also says there is "3.5mm to RCA" cable i imagine the 3.5mm is the green hole on the back of my mb that is normally used and rca is the hole on the speaker, so why do i need to connect it to s/pdif inside the mb?

 

 

This is taken from the amazon.com page but since it's the same model it should be the same for the one i ordered (mine is black tho but that's just color it seems)

[Stagea]

33 minutes ago, Yo Whats Up said:

It also says there is "3.5mm to RCA" cable i imagine the 3.5mm is the green hole on the back of my mb that is normally used and rca is the hole on the speaker, so why do i need to connect it to s/pdif inside the mb?

 

 

This is taken from the amazon.com page but since it's the same model it should be the same for the one i ordered (mine is black tho but that's just color it seems)

Congrats on the new pair of speakers. The 3.5mm cable would indeed work for your setup; the Bluetooth connection would work too. Here are the advantages/disadvantages:

 

1. 3.5mm to RCA cable - Pro: Will work with most devices; Con: Analogue connection is prone to noise from the computer (buzzing, humming, etc.)

2. Bluetooth - Pro: Wireless and not likely to transmit noise; Con: Compressed audio will not provide the highest fidelity

3. Optical/Toslink - Pro: Galvanically isolated (no electrical connection) therefore no noise transmission; Con: Not all computers have an optical output

 

Your motherboard needs a back plate with a toslink/optical output that connects to that SPDIF header to use an optical connection. That part looks like this:

 

[Stagea]

1 hour ago, Yo Whats Up said:

, can't i always add a sub-out with a transformator or smth? Like u know if you're lacking a DVI port for display u can use hdmi to dvi or dp to dvi etc. isn't there same for sub-out here?

 

Anyway here are my ports on the mb:

 

 

If you'd be using the 3.5mm cable to the speakers, you can also wire your sub to the 8-channel analogue output. That will let your computer handle bass management.

 

If you'd be using Optical or Bluetooth, then the subwoofer would not get the signal that's being received by your powered speakers by default. That makes adding a subwoofer more difficult.

[Yo Whats Up]

20 hours ago, Stagea said:

Congrats on the new pair of speakers. The 3.5mm cable would indeed work for your setup; the Bluetooth connection would work too. Here are the advantages/disadvantages:

 

1. 3.5mm to RCA cable - Pro: Will work with most devices; Con: Analogue connection is prone to noise from the computer (buzzing, humming, etc.)

2. Bluetooth - Pro: Wireless and not likely to transmit noise; Con: Compressed audio will not provide the highest fidelity

3. Optical/Toslink - Pro: Galvanically isolated (no electrical connection) therefore no noise transmission; Con: Not all computers have an optical output

 

Your motherboard needs a back plate with a toslink/optical output that connects to that SPDIF header to use an optical connection. That part looks like this:

 

 

Thanks! all thanks to you guys

 

I found some dyi how to make such a bracket but it needs soldering so meeeh, apparently u can also take an old ethernet chip to make a shielded connection?

 

I found some article https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32961776637.html about how coaxial has a better sound but optical has less interference, maybe i can buy a coaxial male to optical female transformer to test em out. I found these brackets on aliexpress there's the same 2 brackets but sold by like 100 sellers, which one is better?

 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001798726144.html

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32961776637.html

 

I personally like black one cuz i can easily skip the 5V pin and not burn my motherboard... what u think?

 

I also read some comments about how s/pdif is outdated and to use hdmi, would that be possible considering the speakers have no hdmi port? The option in my mb from the last posts has an option to switch the output, would that work? The post i found in particular says "s/pdif, whether optical or not, is being replaced by hdmi, since it only supports stereo or an encoded 5.1, and pcs without that software that provides DTS Connect or Dolby Digital Live, there's no way to convert Windows 5.1 into the DTS / Dolby Digital bitstream required by the s/pdif connector. And that software licenses from DTS or Dolby, so you'll find that even though the motherboard Realtek chip can do it, it's not enabled. The least motherboard i had it enabled on was a haswell board, all newer boards don't support it" luckily for me my mb is haswell, but i am planning to upgrade when alder lake comes out so will this a problem? Do these speakers use those things? It says DVD or Bluray have a "pre-recorded stream" so it's not a problem for them, as it will go across the s/pdif just fine. Another post i found also says "many higher-end motherboards have an optical s/pdif port as one of the six audio port, some cheaper one have this s/pdif header instead. It was important in the home audio world, but is being replaced by HDMI" from 3 years ago. And another post says "S/PDIF can be on copper connections, usually RCA, or it can be on fiber optic connections", what's that? How do i use rca fiber optic, are my speakers fiber optic? There was also an old post about using the gpu audio out for the speakers and smth about connection with the mb and whatnot but i won't bother with that

 

My dad gave me a 3.5mm cable with 3.5mm on both ends what has "filters" aka big black cylinders on the cable which are supposed to defend from interferention and stuff, so could i use a 3.5mm female to optical female adapter, would that work with no negatives? I plug one end of the 3.5mm male cable to my pc while the other male 3.5mm end would  be plugged in the 3.5mm female adapter, the other side of which will be an optical rca female which the optical rca male cable from the speakers will plug in. Would the two big black cylinders on the cable protect it and make it equivalent/better than the rca-to-rca cable? Also does bluetooth necessarily compress the audio? And if no then how do i make sure it's not compressed?

 

I do not have an extra sub or idk what that is so that won't be a problem. Also I read that these speakers R1700BT are not tri-band but only dual band? Is that bad? I read that each band is for high, mid, low

[Stagea]

23 hours ago, Yo Whats Up said:

 

Thanks! all thanks to you guys

 

I found some dyi how to make such a bracket but it needs soldering so meeeh, apparently u can also take an old ethernet chip to make a shielded connection?

 

I found some article https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32961776637.html about how coaxial has a better sound but optical has less interference, maybe i can buy a coaxial male to optical female transformer to test em out. I found these brackets on aliexpress there's the same 2 brackets but sold by like 100 sellers, which one is better?

 

1. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001798726144.html

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32961776637.html

 

I personally like black one cuz i can easily skip the 5V pin and not burn my motherboard... what u think?

 

I also read some comments about how s/pdif is outdated and to use hdmi, would that be possible considering the speakers have no hdmi port? The option in my mb from the last posts has an option to switch the output, would that work? The post i found in particular says "s/pdif, whether optical or not, is being replaced by hdmi, since it only supports stereo or an encoded 5.1, and pcs without that software that provides DTS Connect or Dolby Digital Live, there's no way to convert Windows 5.1 into the DTS / Dolby Digital bitstream required by the s/pdif connector. And that software licenses from DTS or Dolby, so you'll find that even though the motherboard Realtek chip can do it, it's not enabled. The least motherboard i had it enabled on was a haswell board, all newer boards don't support it" luckily for me my mb is haswell, but i am planning to upgrade when alder lake comes out so will this a problem? Do these speakers use those things? It says DVD or Bluray have a "pre-recorded stream" so it's not a problem for them, as it will go across the s/pdif just fine. Another post i found also says "many higher-end motherboards have an optical s/pdif port as one of the six audio port, some cheaper one have this s/pdif header instead. It was important in the home audio world, but is being replaced by HDMI" from 3 years ago. And another post says "S/PDIF can be on copper connections, usually RCA, or it can be on fiber optic connections", what's that? How do i use rca fiber optic, are my speakers fiber optic? There was also an old post about using the gpu audio out for the speakers and smth about connection with the mb and whatnot but i won't bother with that

 

My dad gave me a 3.5mm cable with 3.5mm on both ends what has "filters" aka big black cylinders on the cable which are supposed to defend from interferention and stuff, so could i use a 3.5mm female to optical female adapter, would that work with no negatives? I plug one end of the 3.5mm male cable to my pc while the other male 3.5mm end would  be plugged in the 3.5mm female adapter, the other side of which will be an optical rca female which the optical rca male cable from the speakers will plug in. Would the two big black cylinders on the cable protect it and make it equivalent/better than the rca-to-rca cable? Also does bluetooth necessarily compress the audio? And if no then how do i make sure it's not compressed?

 

I do not have an extra sub or idk what that is so that won't be a problem. Also I read that these speakers R1700BT are not tri-band but only dual band? Is that bad? I read that each band is for high, mid, low

Optical vs. Coaxial Digital - In most cases the difference is a non-issue, with Optical offering galvanic isolation (no electrical connection). The added complexity of an optical setup (LED emitter and a photodiode receiver) can add some rise and fall time complexities that can result in some jitter, but this is small enough to not cause an issue in the far majority of setups. If you want the cleanest connection, then AES/EBU outperforms all the mentioned setups (though most consumer computers and audio systems do not use this).

 

SPDIF Backplate - Yeah, the black back plate should work just fine as long as you have the correct pinout for your motherboard.

SPDIF vs. HDMI - HDMI offers an advantage when it comes to multi-channel audio and of course the transmission of video, CEC, etc. As far as 2-channel audio is concerned (which is what we have here), SPDIF can handle 192/24 lossless, which is more resolution than any speaker can resolve. HDMI may even be a disadvantage for a 2-channel setup as the MUX-DEMUX setup to send audio with video introduces more jitter than any SPDIF connection. The Edifier that you got will do 96/24 reliably over Optical, which should be more than enough for your intended setup.

 

Audio Decoding - Your PC can handle that via software and stream PCM over SPDIF. This should be a non-issue for you unless you really intended to go multi-channel. If you wanted the audio system to do the decoding, you should be spending way more with an AV receiver or pre-processor (these products have the decoders for an HDMI connection).

 

3.5mm cable - Those cylinders are just ferrite cores to help choke high frequencies. They can reduce high frequency noise (often in the inaudible range), but they will not remove hum and other lower frequency issues. They really don't do much for audio in most cases because of their tuning (if they tune these to affect lower frequency noise, they will also affect signal integrity). You can use an audio isolation transformer that can fix ground loop hums, but you'd need to get a really good one to minimize the impact on sound quality.

 

2-way vs. 3-way - These are small speakers with small woofers. They will not benefit too much from a 3-way setup. Besides, you were budget constrained. A good 2-way is almost always better than a bad 3-way (at this price point, a cheap 3-way will tend to use inferior drivers, amps and crossovers that will likely provide inferior results). Once you're looking at bigger speakers (8 inch woofer or larger) and a much larger budget, then the dedicated midrange driver of a 3-way design can start to offer an advantage depending on the design.