Question PC sound - decent speakers and multiple systems

[James Blonde]

My other question was about sound cards. This is more about what they output to.

To date I've had one PC that I've run an output via HDMI to my 1080p surround amp which drives a 5.0 surround system via 2 decent bookshelf speakers and 3 smaller surround speakers. They're infinitely better than any PC speaker system I've had, but the downside is that as soon as the screen saver kicks in, the sound cuts out. Work around is using a mouse wiggler.

Problem I've got now is that it looks like I'll now be running 2 systems, and both will be running on 1440p monitors.

I think I run an HDMI output from one PC and a 3.5mm - RCA from the other PC into 2 different amp inputs and just not output from the amp back to a monitor, and just switch inputs as required - I think that would work and at least be a short term solution. But I feel like this is overly complicated.

So question is, how do you run your audio for higher quality output? Do you use an amp? Do you have top quality PC speakers of some kind? Do you do something else??

And if you have 2 systems, how do you manage sound?

 

[hang-the-9]

There are many of ways to get audio from computer to all sorts of speakers. Most people have a separate sound setup for different computers since they are most likely in different areas. Using your input switcher on the receiver/pre-amp is fine, that is pretty much what they are there for, to swap between sources.