Hi
after a little (but not enough!) research I bought some speakers that were on special : Boston Acoustics BA7500G - a special model for gateway systems that are digital only. Upon getting them home I discovered that my soundcard didn't do digital output - so whilst looking magnificent they were also spectacularly silent.

OK, I need a soundcard I thought, and after a lot more research than before I bought one - a hercules Gametheatre XP. On its arrival I have a good look at it - yes it has digital output - coaxial and optical - but my speakers connector is a standard headphone jack !

What i would like to ask is : Can I get these things to work ? - is there a simple convertor jack that will connect the coaxial output to a headphone jack ?

or do I _have_ to buy a creative live digital in order to get these speakers to work ?

I really liked what I read about the gametheatre Xp - but it is useless to me if it cannot work with my speakers.

I don't understand your problem about the "headphone jack"

-Gxcad

Okay - the speakers digital only connection appears to be designed for the sblive series of sound cards - ie using the 1 point DIN connection that is for the cambridge soundworks speakers. - it looks like the same kind of connector you see in walkman headphones - or analogue speakers.

The game theatre xp has 2 digital outputs - coax and optical. The jack that my connector will fit into are the ones clearly labelled analogue - so I wont get any sound unless i somehow manage to connect the coax digital connector to my speakers.

The speakers are the problem - the boston acoustics site would have saved me a lot of trouble if they'd bothered to say sb live only on their page about the BA7500G

I think u can a converter to convert the plugs to suit your souncard but you will only get 2 channels.
so the best solution is try and return the soundcard. wait till Audigiy comes out, and grab it.

I think u can use a converter to convert the plugs to suit your soundcard but you will only get 2 channels.

so the best solution is try and return the soundcard. wait till Audigiy comes out, and grab it.

Hi,

Lemon? No!

Try these:
http://www.sbfilmaudio.com/midiman.html
http://www.sescomputers.com/prices.htm ("Jack to DIN converter", bottom of page)

By the way, I'd reserve judgement on the Audigy until it actally appears, going on the quality of Creative's previous sound cards and the claims made about them. Just ask Roj

This might be useful for some general info on Home Recording and digital:
http://www.bway.net/~rongon/home_rec/digi_audio_concepts.html

(btw, all the above links were found with Google, search: digital coax stereo jack converter)


Moots

This message was edited by Moots on Sep 24 2001.

thank you for your helpful posts. Now I realise - after a bit more research - (what did we do before Google ??) that i have described the connection conversion needed incorrectly - it is coax to stereo minijack that i need to convert.
digital coax on the gametheatre
digital stereo minijack on the boston BA7500G

Plugging it into the analogue outs of course produces no sound at all.

I can see a picture of such a cable on a minidisc / DAT site. I'll try to track one down.

Maybe it'll even work !!

best of luck d00d! Post back your findings, esp if you get it to work!

Success !

I now have very loud and clear sound from my digital only speakers !

I connected it using a stereo minijack to dual coax cable and a dual coax to single coax. Thus I could connect the stereo minijack on the speakers to the coax digital out on the soundcard.

I can only control volume on the speakers adjusters - changing volume balance etc on the gametheatre Xp doesn't affect anything. I am assuming this is because the digital outs just send what to play and not how loud - that is all controlled by the recieving device. If I should be able to control volume from the gametheatre XP on digital speakers please let me know !

The other thing is that I havent yet succeeded in getting it to play cds in my dvd drive (and I have tried both connectors on the XP). There is probably something simple I am overlooking - any suggestions would be most welcome!

Thanks again for all your help
Craig

Hi Craig,

Well done! I'm not sure what to suggest on the CD playing front - I'll have a dig...

Yay - now everything works - or possibly it does. I got the CD to play with a bit more fiddling - and it sounds pretty darn good - and then I get an email reply from support at boston acoustics (fast turnaround there - not!).
Heres what they say :

"How to Interface 3rd Party Digital Cards with the BA7500GG:
Known Interfacing options.

1. If the card in question has no SPDIF digital output. The BA7500GG will not pass audio. The BA7500GG only works with a digital input.

2. If the card has a mini 1/8th inch digital output. Connect the card to the 7500 with a mini 1/8th inch stereo (Tip, Ring, Sleeve) cable. The system will work for stereo. If the card outputs AC3, the system will work for Dolby Digital. If the card outputs 2 digital channels (one in the Tip, and one in the Ring) and supports EAX gaming, the system should work for EAX gaming. The customer will have to select a some sort of four channel setup in the soundcard software.

3. If the card has one RCA digital output. The customer needs to buy an RCA to mini 1/8th inch mono (Tip, Sleeve) adapter. The system will work for stereo. If the card outputs AC3, the system will work for Dolby Digital. The system will not work for EAX gaming.

4. If the card has two RCA digital outputs. The customer needs to buy a dual RCA female to mini 1/8th inch stereo (Tip, Ring, Sleeve) adapter. The red RCA female connection is usually the rear speaker set, and the black or white RCA female connection is usually the front speaker set. If the card supports EAX gaming, the system should work for EAX if set up to do so. The system will work for stereo. If the card outputs AC3, the card will work for Dolby Digital. "

Okay - so the system I've used to connect the gametheatre XP (if I understand what they're saying) will not work for EAX gaming ???

Can I set the game theatre XP to use both its digital RCA output and it's digital RCA input as output channels ? - if so then I can get EAX gaming.

Or does the gametheatre's rca digital output have 2 digital channels ? (thus giving me EAX output now)

I'm a gamer - that's what I'd use this setup for mostly. Am I imagining that EAX is working ?? (must do some testing now

)

you need to buy a a standard toslink cable with a toslink mini-plug adapter and a Digital Fiber Optical (Toslink) to Digital Coaxial (S/PDIF) Converter because the speaker input is digital coaxial.

Hope this helps

...said one guest to another seven and a half years later.

lol yeah i know. i just ran into this problem myself. up until now i hadn't tried connecting these speakers to anything other than my old gateway pc. some of the threads i ran into were unclear. just wanted to help in case anyone else needed this info maybe another 7 years from now lol.

Wow - the zombie thread from hell ...

I still have those speakers! The still sound great today.

What I eventually did to fix my problem was sell my soul to creative and went from first a sblive digital to now an audigy 1. The gametheatre xp was a bit over the top for my needs anyway.

What I'll do when motherboards stop coming with pci slots is anyones guess....