PC MB sound to wired in-wall speakers

JEM2114

I have Polk speakers mounted in the wall (rear) with in-wall wiring to plate near media area (front). I am considering using a media center pc (I know it may not be the best idea!) as sound system using the in-wall spkrs. What are the considerations for converting connections? Are there any converters for the PC sound output (power and signal) to a banana plug and attached speaker?

Thanks!

TheReaper

The three basic options to power external speakers connected to a pc:

1) SPDIF (optical prefered, or coaxial) from the PC to an external Home Theater Receiver (which decodes the digital signal, then amplifies) to the Speakers. A variation on this, would be using separates (digital ht decoder preamp and amplifier eg. from outlaw). Many onboard sound, and many sound cards will give you 2 channel PCM stereo standard, and SPDIF pass-through of DVD DD/DTS streams. The latest and greatest also may do Dolby Live (or DTS Connect) encoding for multi-channel games and wmv files. Read the fine print and research sound cards before buying, to make sure the features you want, are available over SPDIF. If you want bit perfect 44.1khz PCM, a few usb sound cards (eg. M-Audio Transit) can do it.

2) Something like this, if you are really into the pc controlling everything: http://www.simplifidigital.com/shopsimplifi/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2

3) 6 or 8 analog wires to an external amplifier (or receiver) to power the speakers. The sound control would be using the on-board or add in sound card. Read the fine print and research sound cards before buying, to make sure the features you want, are available.


Personally, from my Gateway xpMCE pc, I am using the onboard intel hd audio, via optical spdif, to my onkyo txsr702 receiver, to my polk speakers.