Adding RCA sockets to sound card output

[Ian Cowley]

Not sure if this is the right newsgroup, but it was the best match I could
find...

I've got one of those Microsoft Media Center PC things attached to the TV.
No debates about the quality or otherwise of the software please :)

I'm currently getting audio out of the beast from the 3.5mm minijack output
on the Creative Audigy sound card. Sicne I want to get the audio to TV and
hi-fi, I have a 3.5mm jack to two 3.5mm socket adapter, then two 3.5mm jack
to RCA plug leads (one goes to TV scart socket thing, one to hifi).

The problem is that whatever 3.5mm jack concoction I use, the connection
seems to crackle and die a bit if I sneeze in the room. So I want to have
RCA sockets on the back of the PC itself.

So, I've got an old PCI blanking plate and drilled 4 holes in it and screwed
4 chassis-mount RCA sockets. i want to connect two of them to the left
channel of the sound card and 2 to the right channel so I can split audio
output from the card to two sets of sockets.

Now, does anyone have any advice for the next step: conencting the RCA
sockets to the sound card? I appreciate that it's specific to the sound
card design, but I wondered if anyone had greate ideas or workarounds for
this sort of thing, or even to point me in the direction of some web
resources. A google search has thrown up nothing so far!

My audio listening pleasure is in great anticipation of any help, thanks in
advance.

--
Ian Cowley | Bishop's Stortford
email: ian@ | and
iancowley.co.uk | Cambridge

[cirejcon]

Ian Cowley wrote:
> Not sure if this is the right newsgroup, but it was the best match I could
> find...
>
> I've got one of those Microsoft Media Center PC things attached to the TV.
> No debates about the quality or otherwise of the software please :)
>
> I'm currently getting audio out of the beast from the 3.5mm minijack output
> on the Creative Audigy sound card. Sicne I want to get the audio to TV and
> hi-fi, I have a 3.5mm jack to two 3.5mm socket adapter, then two 3.5mm jack
> to RCA plug leads (one goes to TV scart socket thing, one to hifi).
>
> The problem is that whatever 3.5mm jack concoction I use, the connection
> seems to crackle and die a bit if I sneeze in the room. So I want to have
> RCA sockets on the back of the PC itself.
>
> So, I've got an old PCI blanking plate and drilled 4 holes in it and screwed
> 4 chassis-mount RCA sockets. i want to connect two of them to the left
> channel of the sound card and 2 to the right channel so I can split audio
> output from the card to two sets of sockets.
>
> Now, does anyone have any advice for the next step: conencting the RCA
> sockets to the sound card? I appreciate that it's specific to the sound
> card design, but I wondered if anyone had greate ideas or workarounds for
> this sort of thing, or even to point me in the direction of some web
> resources. A google search has thrown up nothing so far!
>
> My audio listening pleasure is in great anticipation of any help, thanks in
> advance.
>

This sounds like an overreaction to a very simple problem. Try
spraying
some contact cleaner on your adapters and spin them around a
could of times. This always works for me. Once you have it working,
rig some sort of strain relief on the cables so that the
adapters don't get moved around.

If you really insist on connecting it directly, be careful. PC
cards are mostly surface mount, so if you slip with the soldering
iron, you could really screw something up. Your best bet would
be to solder small gauge wires directly where the 3.5 mm is mounted to
the
board. Use one of your adapters and an ohmeter to figure out the
mapping between the pins and the RCA jacks (the ground will be common,
of course) and have at.

-jc

> --
> Ian Cowley | Bishop's Stortford
> email: ian@ | and
> iancowley.co.uk | Cambridge