I'd like to have sound output through 2 sets of speakers at same time

biggles1000 · 15 Sep 2012

I have a rather cheap and poor quality Trust 5.1 surround system and a rather awesome View Quest SonicDock.

While my current, best, computer was away being repaired, I wired up all the speakers in a rather complicated manner which enabled me to have c/sub, the two front side speakers, and the SonicDock output simultaneously, at maximum volume. However, the read side speakers never worked with that cabling and I thought they had both died until I got this computer back and connected the surround properly.

Why do I want the audio to output through two sets of speakers at the same time? The subwoofer from the surround set is awful. The SonicDock produces some literally desk-shaking bass.

So, the computer has the following audio ports:
(rear)
in (blue), out (green), mic (pink), c/sub (orange), rear (black), side (grey)
(front panel)
mic (pink), headphones (green)

Basically, I don't WANT surround. My room isn't big enough and the speakers can't be strategically positioned, I just want the maximum sound output. I.e. I don't want WMP to just be sending audio to the front speakers, I want sound to come out of all the speakers, even if it's just stereo sound but through all 6/7 speakers.
I've fiddled with all the Realtek HD Audio manager settings and can't get it to work how I want it to. When I tried stacking earphone splitters and connecting the four speaker cables into that stack and plugged into the rear green out port, it didn't work as intended.

I think what I'd like to do is to get the system to send louder output to the SonicDock, as I can hear it if the system is on the highest volume, but then the surround is too loud (as I have the surround volume on highest so I can just use the media center remote for volume)

oxymoron02 · 15 Sep 2012

First off, I use a Trust 5.1 surround system and I bought it knowing that I was getting what I paid for :I

But on to your problem, with Realtek it is easily possible to output to two sets of speakers at once (as long as your dock has a single 3.5mm for input).
Unfortunately I don't have Realtek anymore since I bought my X-Fi so I'm going purely from memory here. In the Realtek control panel (accessible through Windows control panel), there is the ability to toggle front panel audio concurrently with your normal, rear port audio. Luckily Google has a far better memory than I.

by clicking "Device advanced settings" in the Realtek HD Audio Manager and then clicking "Make front and rear output devices playback two different audio streams simultaneously"

How to get headphones and speakers working at the same time? - Super User

You may or may not have to reassign some of the speaker functions through the port connections in Realtek, but I never had to.

biggles1000 · 15 Sep 2012

Those options don't appear for me; not the first time that my Realtek audio panel hasn't corresponded with other people's

(last time it was when I was trying to get all the surround speakers to play at the same time). I think using a splitter in just the rear green output port and carefully balancing the volume levels by hand seems to just about work. Thanks for the help though, maybe one day audio manufacturers will have options for people who want maximum volume rather than maximum reality from their music :)

oxymoron02 · 15 Sep 2012

Ahh balancing is never pretty but don't give up just yet! I remember having to hunt high and low for the one specific option as they've tucked it away not so much out of sight, but hiding in plain sight in the most ridiculous place possible to put any function in any piece of software ever created.

But if you're happy with your setup then there's not much more for me to do than fade into the background!