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Connecting High Quality Active Stereo Speakers to PC Sound Card

mj30250

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Dec 5, 2021
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For over 10 years, my PC speaker setup has consisted of a Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 speaker system connected to a Windows PC via a Sound Blaster card of some sort, which is currently a Sound Blaster Z. I am considering doing away with the multichannel speakers and going with an "end game" 2 channel desktop system in the form of Neumann KH 150s. Their primary use will be for critical music listening while at my desk. Because my current system is essentially plug-and-play, I've never had the need to know how to properly connect up an active 2 channel system.

The 150s have RCA and XLR connections (no optical). The Sound Blaster Z has a single 3.5mm output port for both L/R channels (see below). My question is, how would I connect the 150s to the Sound Blaster without compromising any of their superb sound quality and without introducing noise/hiss into the signal stream? Would I need a different sound card entirely? Would a simple Y connector / adapter do the trick? Or would I want to look at an external DAC of some kind? Apologies for my complete lack of expertise in this area, and thanks in advance for any guidance.


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twsecrest

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I would suggest an external DAC, that has balanced outputs and with a USB input connection.
Topping E50 DAC ($200-$250), plus two cables, 1/4" jack to XLR jack.
 

BeerBear

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The 150s have RCA and XLR connections (no optical)...
Note that the RCA inputs are digital (either S/PDIF or AES3, depending on the speaker model).
Your soundcard has optical S/PDIF out, which can be converted to RCA (coaxial) with a box.
But maybe your motherboard already has RCA S/PDIF out. Or you can buy a cheap dedicated soundcard with RCA S/PDIF.

You can also try connecting the 3.5mm analog out to the XLR inputs... It works with the right cable/adapter.

But a digital connection should give you the best quality, without the analog noise from the soundcard/DAC.
It's also the most direct connection for these speakers, because they operate with internal DSP (at 48kHz samplerate). Using an analog connection would involve two additional conversions (DA and AD).
 
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jmf11

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I wonder if the digital input of speakers like the KH150 have some "jitter mitigation". I imagine that the spdif of the sound card may not have a top notch clock, so that it could be a weak link in the chain.

Jmf
 
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