Hi,
This is probably pretty basic, but I wanted you guys' thoughts on this!

I got a new computer, which has the 'basic' and small external speakers. I have a JBL subwoofer and 2 bigger speakers from an older computer that I'd like to incorporate somehow.

My question is about tapping off the sound card's output jack...specifically, can I just 'tie on' in parallel and feed :whatever:, or should I buffer the output, feed the existing small spkrs., and then feed the 'secondary system' of the JBL's? It is a splitting issue - I could probably just do this with an opamp to give me good input Z and low output Z, right?

Getting power to the JBL's and all that should be straight-forward. I just don't want to run into issues like burning out the sound card by putting too much of a load on it, ha ha. I know a bit about audio electronics, zero about computer audio tho.
Thanks for ideas!

~Mike

 

I would operate just one or the other.

Your JBL system is likely much better than the built-in system the new computer came with.

Why would you want to make your sound worse?

 

Why would you want to make your sound worse?

this.

cant imagine why youd want to add two crappy speakers to two nice ones.

are you trying to do a surround sound setup for cheap?

 

Most people do not realize that surround systems for home theaters works just as well with PC's, I spent $40.00 dollars on a low end 5.1 (2 front, 2 rear, 1 center and 1 sub) speaker system and connected that to my PC and it sounds great!!

As for connecting all those directly to your sound card, I wouldn't. Most sound cards are made to work with self powered speaker systems, and do not put out that much power let alone, put out enough to drive all those speakers at once..... if you really need to connect them, get a receiver/amplifier that has an auxiliary input and tie those speakers to that..

B. Morse

 

Thank you, guys. I'll give the JBL system a try. It is self-powered (separate power cord) whereas the existing spkrs. are powered thru a USB connection. Other than that, I don't see a whole lot of conflict, either.
Bet they will sound a whole lot better, too ;o)

 

Sounds much better!