noobie question about a receiver..

A

AlphexHunter

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 9, 2006
Messages
247
Hey guy's

I've seen alot of you guy's having a receiver on your desks for your gigantic speakers..
But I dont really understand what is a receiver is used for I mean if yous speakers are plugged to your pc y not just get a descent sound card y do you still need a receiver what..? What I heard it does is that it clears the sound dunno.. :confused: Can sommeon clear this up for me.

Thanks
 
Simple, a soundcard can't power speakers of that size. Thats where the receiver comes in. You run a simple line-out to the receiver then it does the amplification.
 
So it woulnd be a very good idea to team up a Logitech Z-5500 or a Logitech X-530 with a receiver or you need more heavy duty speakers?
 
Uhh, those are powered speaker systems, which means they have a built-in amplifier. I would imagine you could plug the individual speakers from either of those systems into a receiver, but it most likely wouldn't do much for you other than make it slightly more annoying to set up.
 
The nick 'reciever' is somewhat of a misnomer...it's a combination pre-amp / amp often with a tuner built in as well or the ability to select among several sources.. Conventional stereo speakers do not have built-in amps like most pc or multimedia speakers do, so an external amplifier is required.

There would be no point of using a reciever with powered speakers like the Logitech ones you refer to.
 
Yea, what other's say is true.

A "receiver" is by definition a preamp, amp, and receiver all in one unit. Some even have video processing and DAC's, etc.

In speakers, there are two main types you find commonly. The "passive" and the "active". When you have an active speaker, it has its own power supply somewhere. Computer speakers are usually active, in that you plug them into the wall and they supply their own power. Monitor speakers can also be active (along with some expensive exotic speakers).

Your typical bookshelf and floorstanding speaker is "passive", that means they do not provide any amplification to the signal, and they rely on something else to amplify the source signal. In this case, a receiver can be used to amplify the singal from say... a computer sound card.

As for receivers "clearing" the sound, that might not be the case, especially with cheaper receivers which may actually muddy up the sound.

Anyways, hope this clears it up a bit, without being too confusing.
 
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