Center speaker

[alexly123]

I definitely wouldn't call my self anyone good with audio stuffs.

 

I have a center speaker, and two bookshelf speakers. The bookshelf speakers are self powered, they are fine. But the center speaker isn't: my sound blaster x7 limited edition has a output for a center channel through a 3.5mm jack.

The center speaker takes two banana plugs in.

 

How do I connect these properly while powering the center channel?

[iamdarkyoshi]

You would need an amplifier for your center channel.

It would only need to be mono.

[alexly123]

Any place to start? I have no idea what I should get for that

[SSL]

3 minutes ago, alexly123 said:

Any place to start? I have no idea what I should get for that

 

There really isn't any point.

 

The center speaker is intended to anchor the stereo image below the screen in a multi-seat (home) theater, so that panning sounds correct for every listener regardless of positional latitude. If you are just listening from a single position, you can dispense with it.

[iamdarkyoshi]

4 minutes ago, alexly123 said:

Any place to start? I have no idea what I should get for that

I'd look into something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/291834296756

 

You would need a power supply (a laptop charger should do perfectly) and a couple cables.

[alexly123]

32 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

I'd look into something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/291834296756

 

You would need a power supply (a laptop charger should do perfectly) and a couple cables.

Well quick question: would I output the positive of the left or right channel then the negative of the other to the speaker form the amp? Since the output is in a 3.5mm jack that is stereo does that mean both channels are the same? So I just choose one?

[iamdarkyoshi]

20 minutes ago, alexly123 said:

Well quick question: would I output the positive of the left or right channel then the negative of the other to the speaker form the amp? Since the output is in a 3.5mm jack that is stereo does that mean both channels are the same? So I just choose one?

One is the subwoofer, the other is the center channel. You'd need to probably cut a cable apart and put the ground and center channel into the - and + input on the amp. 

[anothertom]

4 hours ago, alexly123 said:

Well quick question: would I output the positive of the left or right channel then the negative of the other to the speaker form the amp? Since the output is in a 3.5mm jack that is stereo does that mean both channels are the same? So I just choose one?

The channel pairings for 5.1 surround are usually L&R, rear L&R, Centre & Sub. So you'll need to split the output to get what you want where you want. A 3.5mm jack to dual XLR/jack/phono should do the trick depending on the input to the amp.

 

However, I agree that unless this is a home theatre setup and you're going to add the surrounds and sub later, then adding a centre speaker is pretty pointless and you would probably be better adding the surrounds first anyway.