Do I really need Audio Receiver??

C

cxz001

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 17, 2007
Messages
270
Hey Guys,

I have a question, I recently bought some bookshelf speakers: "Sony SA-W2500"
And also I bought an audio receiver, Sony STR-DH510 5.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver

My question is, do I really need that Audio receiver? Does it actually make the sound better from Striker 7.1?

Thanks in advance

btw, I have HT OMEGA Striker 7.1 soundcard.
 
you need something between the speakers and the soundcard to amplify the sound so, yes either an amplifier or a receiver (receiver is an amplifier with a built in radio tuner).
 
Hmm, can't i just amplify it using Windows Volume control thing? And does the receiver actually improve my sound quality?
 
cxz001 said:
Hmm, can't i just amplify it using Windows Volume control thing? And does the receiver actually improve my sound quality?
Click to expand...

1) No.

2) You won't have any sound at all if you don't use an amp of some sort.

Also, Sony SA-W2500 seem to be powered subwoofers, not bookshelf speakers. What are you trying to do?
 
Oh I meant Sony SS-B1000. Ahaha. But I also ordered the sub, do you think I will need the sub? I heard the speaker includes an internal sub to produce bass?

And do you think I should get a CENTER speaker? Do they really make a difference?
 
Sub: Depends on how much bass you like. The easy answer is to get the speakers, and see if the frequency response is adequate for your tastes. You didn't say if this was for movies or music or both. Watching movies brings you closer to wanting a sub than music does unless your tastes swing that way.

Center: Only useful for movies. Makes dialogue clearer.

Receiver vs Soundcard: Those are passive speakers and need to be amped. Active speakers (multimedia speakers), are just speakers that have an amp built into them. Audio from your computer needs to go through a DAC and an AMP to produce sound in the speaker. For those speakers, the amp is going to come from a standalone amplifier and use the DAC in your soundcard, or it will be digitally connected to a receiver (=Amp, DAC, Radio, DSP, Inputs/Outputs).
 
So in short, the sound card send an analog or digital signal, but no amplification. If you have amplified speakers, ala computer speakers no problem, if you have passive speakers, you need to get an amplifier. A "receiver" is an amplifier with a processor as well. It can process both analog and digital signals for effects but so can your audio card.

The Sony SA-W2500 is a powered subwoofer which you can connect directly to your sound cards subwoofer output using an rca - mini stereo cable. As for your speakers... Sony SS-B1000, they are passive and they'll need a power source. You can get something like this:

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=300-380&utm_source=googleps

A simple two channel amplifier, or you can keep your receiver if you want easy 5 channel amplification and processing for surround sound.
 
Well it's not entirely true.

Your Striker can and does always amplify the sound coming out of the analog ports (unless set to 0 in Windows).

However, the amplification is so small because the amplifier on the sound card is very very small. It is only powerful enough for low to medium power headphones and nowhere near enough power for full-size bookshelf speakers.

Digital sound can't be amplified. Digital sound is just a transport medium (1s and 0s) as it is sent from one component to the next. All sound has to end in analog as in you need to physically vibrate some sort of medium which moves the air and and thus creates sound. An analog signal uses voltages that when these voltages hit the speaker, in combination with the magnet in the speaker, the speaker vibrates.

The amplifier puts power (watts) behind these voltages. The larger the speaker, the more powerful of an amplifier you typically need.
 
Are you planning on adding more speakers in the future? Also, what are you using these speakers for? We cannot answer your questions until you tell us more about your goals.
 
Yes I'm planning to do 5.1 in the future. Primarily for music, and sometimes movies when friends are over. Not much into gaming.

Thanks in advance!
 
Okay, well for music, you'll only be using two speakers since most music is encoded in stereo and designed with stereo playback in mind. So if you have an average sized room, having 2 decent bookshelf speakers will be more than adequate for good music playback.

If you want to go 5.1 in the future, then you might as well purchase a 5.1 receiver instead of going the stereo amplifier route. I don't know much about Sony AVR's so I'll let others comment on that, all I can say is that an entry-level Onkyo or Denon will probably meet all your needs.

So to summarize, yes, you need the receiver, unless you get a standalone amplifier, but you don't want to go that route if you eventually want to upgrade to 5.1 sound anyway -- just buy the receiver now and add speakers as your budget allows.

You'll be hooking up your receiver through the digital out of your soundcard or onboard audio ports on your computer, FYI. The conversion to analog (DAC) will take place on the receiver instead of on the sound card now.
 
so the quality of the soundcard doesn't really matter that much anymore? I have a Striker 7.1... same quality as an onboard now?
 
Yes, you're gonna bypass all the analog circuity of the soundcard that would make it "good" for music -- the amp and the DAC. The receiver is going to take over those duties, so the soundcard can be removed if you have onboard digital out, which you probably do.
 
Sound card is useful for gaming and for music if you are not using a receiver and passive speakers. On the plus side, a receiver and passive speakers will have substantially higher sound quality.

If you have no use for the card, you can try to sell it.
 
keep your striker and buy this:
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Pyle-2x75W-Stereo-Power-Amplifier/dp/B001P2R1RW/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top"]Amazon.com: Pyle - Mini 2x75W Stereo Power Amplifier - PCA3: Electronics@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41EdgTjhUsL.@@AMEPARAM@@41EdgTjhUsL[/ame]

striker --> amp --> SS-B1000.

"recievers" are really whats called called in integrated amplifer. they are a pre amp and an amp built into one unit. your striker 7.1 is capable of acting as a pre amp, but not an amp.
if you add a sub, you want a sub with "high level inputs"
then you go:

striker --> amp --> sub --> SS-B1000
 
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Valaire said:
Yes, you're gonna bypass all the analog circuity of the soundcard that would make it "good" for music -- the amp and the DAC. The receiver is going to take over those duties, so the soundcard can be removed if you have onboard digital out, which you probably do.
Click to expand...

right, but the striker still does sound processing, and the preparation of the digital signal. (jitter control, frequency sampling, etc)

data on a hard drive still has to be converted to a spidf signal that a reciever can understand, and there are many factors to that process,

lets just take an example, sound card A and sound card B. both with spidf output.
lets say that Sound card A is capable of 16bit/44.1khz or 48Khz sampling but Sound card B is capable of 16bit/48khz. CDs are recorded in 16/44.1Khz, so Sound card A will be able to delver a bit perfect redbook CD audio to a DAC due to its native 16/44.1khz ability, while soundcard B will have to resample to send it to the dac.

now as far as re sampling goes, you can use a great piece of software such as foobar (there are others) that with the right plugins can upsample to 24bit/192khz [1], then supposing Sound Card A can output 24bit/192Khz through spidf, but sound card B can only output that resolution via analog and NOT through the spidf (or maybe not through either)?

now, when being converted to a spidf output, a sound card also needs to have a "clock", in which the bits of data are transfered though the spidf interface. while your correct that "analog circuity" is not used, "digital circutry" still has to be considered. imperfections in the clock, and thus the delivery of data is called jitter. This is largely a mechanical problem, many factors some including, including interference, overloading of the onboard bus by other components, power delivery, and etc can effect the delivery of data[2]

so while all the 1's and 0's may still end up in the hands of the DAC, the STABILTY, and TIMING of the delivery of those bits is as much as crucial as DAC. if the DAC has to to excessive Jitter correction, data will be lost, and artifacts will be present. if this were purely an electrical issue on not also a mechanical issue, we wouldn't be seeing $10,000 cd transports with external power supplies in the ultra high end audio market[3]

the idea that digital = everything is equal is false false false x 1000. plus 1.

[1] upsample to ease the digital-analog conversion process, maybe done, at or pre-dac which one you choose depends on which is the better upsampler. at the price points we are considering i vote foobar.
[2] this is why alot of pc audioholics prefer external sound cards (although some add on cards are superior in this regard to many external), thus the logic, external has less interference than add on card which has less than onboard
[3] a cd transport is a device that reads a cd and outputs a bit perfect 16/44.1 spidf signal to a dac.
 
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wow thanks man for typing so detailed for me hehe. So I should keep my striker 7.1?
 
You said you wanted 5.1 audio support. If you go the stereo amplifier route, you will have stereo, and need to replace that component when you go 5.1, which is a waste of money for you.
 
The stereo amplifier. If you want to hook up the passive bookshelf speakers you got, you need either the receiver or an amplifier. The amplifier lets you hook it up to your sound card's DAC/pre-amp, but would only support stereo sound. If you added new speakers, you would have to replace the amplifier with a receiver.
 
Hmm, I am using the Sony 5.1 Audio Receiver right now, so I should get rid of it?
 
Why would you do that? You've said that you plan on upgrading to 5.1 and you have passive speakers, meaning you'll need some sort of multichannel application source. Your Sony 5.1 receiver fits the bill. Why get rid of it??
 
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