Have I setup Speakers and Subwoofer correctly?

[mrskelital]

Hi all,

I'm currently using a pair of Mackie CR5-bt monitors with a KRK 10S2 Active subwoofer. They are hooked up to my pc. This is where I want to know whether I setup my sound system in the best way possible.

Currently I have the green audio line out on the PC connected to the subwoofer's RCA in, and I have the monitors connected to the RCA out on the subwoofer if this makes sense?

Everything works, but I wanted to know if there was a better way of setting up the audio? There is also a very noticeable high pitched hum coming through the monitors.

I also don't seem to have any audio software so if you know of any free/cheap software that would be a massive help

Thanks for any feedback!

Monitors: https://www.thomann.de/gb/mackie_cr5_bt.htm
Subwoofer: https://www.thomann.de/gb/krk_10s2.htm
PC Motherboard: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/Z87-G45-GAMING.html

 

[jay32267]

It sounds like the way you have it is OK.

Another thing you could do is split the signals before the subwoofers RCA in....and send one half to the monitors and not use the line outs on the subwoofer.

 

[mrskelital]

Basically using a splitter then? I've seen some people using the orange jack on the motherboard to plug the subwoofer directly in, but I've also heard that this is only for 5.1/7.1 surround sound.

 

[jay32267]

I think you can use the subwoofer out...but I believe it is low pass filtered so I wouldn't do this personally because I like to be able to control the filtering with my sub.

 

[americanaudiophile]

If you can set your PC to 2.1 the advantage of using the orange sub output is that the PC will remove bass from the Mackies allowing them to play louder and cleaner. If you can't set it for 2,1 then you are fine using the splitter.

 

[mrskelital]

I've been fiddling about with the setup all day. I connect the sub to the orange Center Speaker out jack on the PC and it hasn't worked well.

I have a feeling this is because I can only set it to 5.1 on the PC and the missing center speakers are playing havoc with my setup. It's been sounding terrible and even means that I can't hear characters voices on Skyrim if I look directly at them.... I have to turn the player head left or right to hear what they are saying.

I guess I have no option but to do what I was originally doing and have the output set to Stereo