AAFP to internal speaker?

[aboredguy]

I'm looking to use an Asus H97i-plus with an Antec ISK110. Unit will be VESA mounted to a monitor with a handle as a portable system. I'd like to hear audio via an internal speaker and I won't be using the front panel connector for front panel audio, but I can't find any special AAFP internal speaker. Can I take any old 2 wire speaker and plug it into a couple pins on that AAFP? If so, which 2? Is it more complicated than that?

Thanks!

 

[WyomingKnott]

I've built a few systems in my time, but I have no idea what AAFP stands for in that context. Would you please enlighten us?

 

[aboredguy]

I've built a few systems in my time, but I have no idea what AAFP stands for in that context. Would you please enlighten us?

http://www.tomshw.it/forum/attachments/schede-madre-e-ram/33963d1348852629-collegamenti-aafp-panel.jpg <- An image from TomsHardware.it that is from the H97_-plus manual...

AAFP is what ASUS uses to refer to their front panel audio connector. It is a 2x5 pin connector with a key off center (I'm sure you recognize it! 🙂 ). It can be switched from AC97 audio to HD Audio per the manual (in the BIOS?).

Thanks!

 

[WyomingKnott]

I should recognize it - I have one on my P7P55D-E Delux motherboard! The name didn't ring a bell, and Googling it didn't turn it up.

In my experience, it's more complicated than that for two reasons. The minor one is that, with two wires, you don't get stereo. The major one is that the motherboard doesn't put out enough power for a speaker - I found it a little weak with some headphones. I think that you would need an amplifier or some sort, or a very small speaker.

If you're going to vesa mount it to a monitor, would you consider a monitor with a powered speaker bar? They tend to be only a few watts, but at least they are amplified.

Otherwise, I think that you will have to use the legacy configuration, since otherwise you'd have to convince the sense pins that they were connected to an HD-audio-compliant device. I would run a speaker from Line Out (l or r) to gnd, and ignore the BLINE_OUT pins.

 

[aboredguy]

Any problem with simply bridging the L and R into a single speaker? (My brain says that will double output for sounds in common, right?)

Thanks!

 

[WyomingKnott]

That sort of stereo-to-mono mixing is best done with some sort of circuit. If the left driver is trying to drive the line to 0.7 volts and the right driver is trying to drive the line to 0.2 volts, they won't be happy with each other.

I built a stereo-to-mono downmixer for my partially deaf daughter years ago, but with the cochlear implant she listens in stereo now, so I don't remember the circuit. There are some awfully simple ones.