Soundblaster (SB) Audigy 2 Platinum Left/Right Channel (Stereo) Problem

Alrighty. I bought the SB Audigy 2 Platinum thinking I could hook it up to my Onkyo TX-DS474 receiver with the digital (fiber and coaxial both exhibit the same problem) outputs and get 5.1 surround sound on the receiver. My problems is I am only getting sound as if it's set on stereo. I get sound from the left and right channels only. Center/Rear left/Rear right don't produce any sound, and neither does sub.

My current settings:
Software:
5.1 Speakers in the "Speaker Settings" control panel from Creative
Synchronize with control panel is checked.
Digital output only is unchecked.
CMSS is OFF (setting CMSS 2 to ON will "fake" 3D sound but that is simply unacceptable. It does not fix games.)
EAX effects option is unchecked.

In "Device Controls":
Digital output sampling rate is 48KHz and 96KHz is available (although if I select 96KHz I get no sound at all)

For Decoder options I have Dolby Digital AC-3 Decode selected with all three of the options checked.
Selecting SPDIF Passthrough does not stop me from hearing my music (My receiver is DTS ready with a dolby digital 5.1 decoder in it)
You can find the spec sheet for my receiver here if you need to see it: http://www.cinenow.com/pdf/onkyo_tx-ds474_tech4_us.pdf

When I do the speaker test in speaker settings the only time I hear sound are on the "Left Channel" and "Right Channel" tests.

My hardware setup:
I've tried using TX-DS474 digital (fiber) input and digital (coaxial) input and neither of them solve my little problem. I have tried both inputs on the receiver (digital coaxial/fiber) and both of the respective outputs on the live drive and the same problem is exhibited.

I have my receiver set to Dolby Pro Logic surround sound mode. All of my speakers have been tested and work correctly. (each of them produces sound)



I'm out of ideas. I spent a lot of time trying to fix this before I sent this support request. I hope you guys have a solution that doesn't cost me anything! Thanks!

^^ I sent the above to Creative and they e-mailed me back with this:

If your receiver has a Dolby Digital SPDIF-In, connect it to the Digital Out jack on the sound card with a 3.5mm mono stereo to RCA adaptor.

Note: DVD-Audio cannot be played back via digital speakers.

If your receiver has discrete Line-In jacks for Front Right, Front Left, Rear Right, Rear Left, Center, and Subwoofer, connect Front Right and
Front Left to the Line-Out 1 on the sound card with a 3.5mm (stereo) to
RCA "Y" adaptor cable; connect Rear Right and Rear Left to the Line-Out
2 jack with another 3.5mm (stereo) to RCA "Y" adaptor cable; connect the Center/Subwoofer In to the Line-Out 3 on the Sound Blaster Audigy 2
card, with a 3rd 3.5mm (4-pole or stereo) to RCA "Y" adaptor cable.
Connect the white RCA plug to the Center input and Red RCA plug to the
Subwoofer input on the receiver.

----

So I did that.. I went to RadioShack and bought this:
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F007%5F002%5F001%5F001&product%5Fid=274%2D897#

I hooked it up to the digital out on the sound card itself and I still have the *same* problem. I did not think this would fix it.

Anyway have any of you guys encountered the same problem? I'm a pretty advanced computer user so feel free to hit me with the technical.

Thanks in advance!

After reading through all of the excellent information you gave regarding your problem, the only thing i don't think you included is if you are running the latest drivers for the sound blaster.?

Probably won't make a difference, but after all that you have tried, I have no clue why it's not working for you.

Using Creative's auto update feature it says I have this installed

Products on your system
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum, DR release 1.80.0

The only things that I can update are things for NOMAD which I do not use.

I'm using the drivers that came on the installation disc and when I downloaded the latest drivers manually (AUD2DRVLB030425.exe) the program exited saying no update was necessary.

*edit*

I have no idea why it's not working either...I am currently considering getting some Logitech Z-680s.

Well I went ahead and ordered some Logitech Z-680s. Someone with the Audigy 2 Platinum said they're really really great with it.

And he had no problems with the 5.1 surround sound not working. I have no idea why this is broken. The SB Live! 5.1 Platinum worked just fine with my receiver although the sound would cut out at random (due to noise I believe).

Oh well. I have Harman/Kardon satellites hooked up to my receiver now which I believe are 50 to 80 watts a piece. I can't remember and the specs aren't on the internet. They're the SAT-TS1s. They sound awesome and were very expensive when I got them. I hope the Logitech Z-680s don't disappoint me.

I have an Onkyo TXDS787. I have owned an Audigy Platinum and now recently and Audigy 2 Platinum. I also recently finished my 6.1 surround system and encountered similar problems when trying to take advantage of my new sound card. Here is what i found out:

Like you, I disabled the onboard decoders and used the SPDIF-out w/digital output only. This worked great for DVD's as my receiver decoded dolby digital and DTS formats perfectly. I still was not satisfied b/c i knew the sound for all games would not be processed properly.

After all this is what the Audigy 2 is for is processing sound. So i too went to radio shack. and by the way, that little connector you bought is a mono connector, it won't work right, you need two stripes for front left/right, two stripes for rear left/right, and three stripes for center sub rear center.
Anyways, back to radio shack, i bought 2 of these cables : http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...5Fid=42%2D2483

That takes care of everything but the center, sub and rear center. I am in search of this 3 stripe cable which supposedly has 3 rca plugs on the other end. Ideally once you have all the right cables, you plug the rca cables into the multichannel input on the back of the Onkyo receiver. Then go into the menu on whatever input you want to use and turn mulich on. So far i have the sound working on the speakers i have connected with the audigy 2 detecting them as they should.

I emailed creative labs about where to find this cable, hopefully i will have an intelligent response soon. Jeez, what a pain, i just wanted to use my speakers!

Yeah that's what I figured about the mono adapter. I gave up on this problem and ordered the Logitech Z680 speakers which I love. All of the negative review points have been taken care of by Logitech.

So now I have 10.2 6 channel surround sound hooked up to my computer. It really ROCKS! =)

That's a good idea with the cables. I am pretty sure I narrowed the problem down with the audio to being the two devices trying to decode each other.

For example, the SB Audigy 2 Platinum has a decoder on it, and so does the receiver...from what I understand it's not possible for the receiver to understand an already decoded signal. So naturally I tried the pass-through option which didn't help me out.

Your idea is good if you don't already have CEN/SUB, FRFL, RRRL hooked up analog already, and I do. I suppose I could hook up one more set of speakers with the fiber optic port if I really wanted to...Although I have my doubts as to the sound quality with so many sets hooked up.

In conclusion, the Logitech Z680s are great! I love my 10.2 surround sound (6-channels). Even if I don't get center from my harman/kardons I still get it from the Logitechs and they're closer to me anyway so games sound excellent.

My dog thinks the surround sound is pretty realistic also =) She's constantly looking around to see where the noise is coming from when I'm playing games with EAX HD.

C!

A 3.5mm, 3 striped cable to 3 RCA's, came with my sony digital 8 camcorder. This should be the cable that your looking for.

Gentlemen.....I too have shared your woes with hook up via the Creative Digital Out Jack. Luckily however, or unluckily I guess, I figured out how it works. I've used both the Creative Inspire! 5700 Digital speakers and now own the Logitech Z-680's. The digital out jack on the card is designed for Creative's speaker systems which have their own native Dolby decoder. The signal is output in such a way that only Creative's decoder can process 5.1/6.1 unique channels.

Skip ahead if you hate the tech part....
The frequency of a digital connection is output steadily so that every wave has the same height (amplitude). Meaning that when the wave is high, the corresponding decoder thinks the signal is a 1 (or on signal). When the wave is low it's a 0 (or off signal). Pretty simple digital frequency breakdown. The digital output on the Audigy 2 card sends a waveform that has three different amplitudes. One amplitude corresponds to the front channels, one to the rear, and one to the center/sub. The Creative decoder is the only decoder that can correctly decode all these signals, pass them to the right channels and give you true digital output. By using a mono-jack, all three amplitudes of the frequency are passed but only one is decoded by a normal Dolby Digital decoder (Onkyo, Logitech, Sony, whatever). This is because every third-party Dolby Digital decoder on the market only needs/looks for one signal. Creative just routed three signals into the digital out port to force you to buy their speaker system. A clever marketing ploy if I ever saw one.

Rejoin here if you skipped the tech stuff....
So then, in theory the three channel 1/8" to three RCA connector idea should work. However, remember that the Digital Out jack on the Audigy 2 card is only designed for one digital amplitude output. So this idea does indeed prove false. By connecting a 1/8" mono-to-RCA style connector in the hopes you will receive a true digital connection, you are unfortunately SOL. You, as read in an earlier post by celox, will only get one signal, MOST LIKELY, the front left and right. ( I say most likely because twice I got the rear channels blasting on all six speakers, this is the quirkiness the creative digital out signal hard at work).

About the speakers....
Logitech Z-680's are able to reproduce a digital signal to all speakers when only one digital channel is detected. When connecting the Audigy 2 via the digital connection to the speaker system, you WILL get sound from all speakers. However, this sound is IDENTICAL to the front channels, the sub sound is pulled from this, as well as the center. If one cable is your ideal goal, and sound can suffer, then this is for you. Otherwise, you'll need to use the 6-channel direct connect 1/8" connectors. The Creative Inspire! speaker system can properly decode all three amplitudes output from the digital connection on the sound card. So, indeed, you WILL get truly digital sound. The downside is that the speakers are generally weak in comparison with the Z-680's.

What I did.........
The are two ways to get a TRUE DIGITAL CONNECTION from the Sound Blaster Audigy 2/2 ZS sound card. One is to use their Live! Drive and connect via the Optical out port to the optical in of your speaker system. The second is to solder a 1/8" line cable to the IDE-style connector pins #7 and #18 of the board itself. It's a pain and looks crappy, but works I might add. In the future, I'll probably shell out the cash and buy the Live! Drive, but for now, I use the 6-channel direct connect 1/8" jacks on the back of the card. True, it's not a digital connection, but it is Dolby Digital processed and I only lose about 8% SNR (signal-to-noise-ratio) loss when compared to the Creative Inspire! 5700 speaker system.

Creative's new sound cards...........
The Audigy 2 ZS is the newest thing to hit the market. I thought I might shed a little light on this to show you guys how further screwed we are by not buying Creative speaker systems. Since there's no official hook up standard for audio these days (optical, coax, sp/dif, RCA, phono, and now D-Sub) creative has free reign to make any connection style they want, in effect, strongly pulling you toward their native speaker systems. The Audigy 2 ZS is capable of 7.1 channel surround sound found only in Dolby Digital EX / DTS II capable systems. This means the digital out port on the sound card has a frequency with five different amplitudes (on/off switches). So even if the people at Logitech figured out how to decode Creative's digital signal to 5.1, now they have to do it in 7.1. And if you try the old 1/8"-to-RCA connection again, guess what happens?!?! That's right, you just get sound out of the front channels. Thanks Creative, you make the world's best sound cards, but also make a pain in the ass of hook-ups.

Hope this resolves the issue gents....e-mail me with any further questions....egawrangler@yahoo.com

Hey folks, Lt. here....I've had a number of responses regarding what I've discovered about the audigy digital out connections.

First->
I don't own a Live! Drive or Platinum Pro system so I can't speak on the fact that people are still having problems with the optical connections. However, I HAVE done some research on this. So here goes....

Remember how Creative changes the amplitude of the digital signal so that you are forced to buy Creative's native speaker systems to enjoy a pure digital connection and 5.1/6.1/7.1 sound? Well, it seems this clever ploy is at work in the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum and Platinum Pro versions of the hardware. A article at Sudhian touched on the lack of connection cables for a 7.1 hookup here, http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=485&pid=1790 . Once again demonstrating Creative's ability to push you towards the MegaWorks(Giga) or Cambridge systems.

Here's what we know so far, the Creative Digital Out connector on the Audigy BOARDS is benign to us. If you go to their website you'll see that on the specs for the Platinum Pro version, they've noted the same output on the back of the external I/O Hub as a "Digital Out for 5.1 support (6-channel SPDIF Output to Creative digital speakers) ". Albeit admitting this connection will not support anybody but Creative. Henceforth, the same one on the card is non-true-digital.

Now, several people have written that their optical connections on the external and internal I/O hubs (platinum and platinum pro) versions suffer the same calamity. This is surprising, but not past Creative's abilities.

On the techie side....
Pure optical connections (TOSLink and otherwise) provide an even easier reflexive connection for several types of digital signals. This means that Creative could use a CDI or return-to-zero signal (popular among digital audio connections) and encode their waveform for a lot more than 7.1 channels. Since most audio receivers today are built with the inability to decode multiple digital channel signals (other than the ones its' looking for, which would be 7.1), don't look for Creative's optical connection to ever become friendly for anything but Creative speakers.

More questions....
So we know that the optical connections on the external and internal drives from Creative will not connect to 3rd party hardware such as amps and receivers and give us anything more than front channel sound. We also know that on the Platinum Pro version, the digital out 1/8" mini-jack doesn't do the job. The last hope, other than 1/8" direct connection, are the SPDIF RCA connectors on the back of the Platinum Pro versions' I/O Hub.

My guess is they have the same problem as all the other outputs have, which is sound only from the front. But my question is: Has anyone out there tried this connection and got a true 5.1 signal?? The connection is not ported to a mini-jack so we at least have some hope but who knows. If anyone has tried this, I'm eager to hear???

Amazing job figuring the SB digital problem !!

Regarding your 2/4 question: on the SB Audigy 2 Plat (internal drive); the RCA SPDIF connector on front panel only triggers left & right front sound, (I think I understood your posts to mean my harman/kardon is getting a multi-level digital that it can only decode the one level of, which means I get only sound out of left and right front speakers).

I further understood your posts to mean that any form of "un descrimination" of the SB digital signal (ie tying together seperate speaker channels) will result in getting all sound data, but it coming out (usually) just the front two stereo speakers. In short, you lose the difference between front and rear channels completely?

OK, now my question regarding the soldering job on pin #7 & #18; my h/k has only SPDIF RCA and optical inputs, no mini 1/8" or digital speaker connectors. So a regular old RCA cable would work for me? Solder center conductor of cable to #7 or #18?

This will give me true 5.1 (my h/k only goes to 5.1!!) pulled out of SB, run through, #7/#18, through RCA coax cable, into h/k input, through h/k decoder, .... out LF, CNT, RF, RR, LR speakers?

Thanks for help and clarification!

jonriegel at earthlink.net

My setup:

Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
Logitech Z-680s
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe mobo (built in sound card with digital decoder)

I am dying to hear what these DVD-Audio demos on the Creative CDs sound like, that will be the satisfaction of figuring this out I guess...

I have disabled the on-board audio chip, setup the soundblaster for digital output and 'passhthrough', and connected an optical cable between the digital out on the front bay, and the z680 control center pod.

This should work, its a very simple setup, but I am having the same problem where I am only receiving sound on the front 2 channels.

I have read in this thread that people have gotten this to work with the optical cable, did I read something wrong?

Here is another question:
What is a better decoder, the one on the sound card or the one on the z680 control pod? I am surprised nobody has talked about this yet since this seems to be a common setup.

I tried using the 3 RCA connectors for analog between the soundblaster and control pod, and having SB do the digital decode, same freakin thing...

Why in the hell is this setup such a pain in the ass to get working right?

Does anybody have tips for me?

Andrew