I swear I've attempted to go through the correct channels (no pun intended) to get this problem solved, but nobody has responded on the AMD forums SOYO site for days. Here's what I wrote them:

"Sorry if this has been discussed before, but I have a problem.

I often have an external source set up for my MP3's [the empeg]. I have it hooked up via 1/8" minijack to the line in of the onboard audio.

My speaker setup is a Klipsch Promedia 4.1 system (the first one - kicks *** like no other).

So when I'm playing something through the line-in, I've determined that I can't get it to play back through all four speakers for some reason. I've looked through all the options I know to look through, but can't get it to work. Is there some trick to it????"

To fill you guys in, the onboard audio of the SOYO Dragon KT333 has the usual line out, line in, and mic. That's all. Then there's a little device that fills the face of a PCI slot (what are those called anyway, you know the little metal things you take out?). The device has a set of digital ins and outs (SPDIF and optical, and a jack for rear speakers. I have the front speakers hooked up to the line in of the onboard stuff, and the rear speakers hooked into the add-on digital board. The audio is all set up for 4 speakers, and all my WAVs and MP3s play fine on all 4 speakers, but the empeg doesn't.

Any ideas?

(ps-Tony, I thought this was sufficiently non-empeg as to put it in the Off Topic forum. don't get mad )

It's definitely off topic because the empeg has nothing to do with it. The issue is all in the sound card, drivers, and settings. The same thing would happen if you plugged a portable CD player into your PC.

It's not something as simple as "the line-in is a stereo signal, not a surround sound signal, so you only get the front speakers because it's only stereo", is it?

Tony,
The MP3 files on the PC are (most likely) not 4.1 encoded either. It sounds to me like poor sound driver writing.
If the (onboard) sound card driver can't route/split the line in signal appropriately, I don't see how there's anything to be done save getting a proper add-in sound card (assuming it's a Windows box).

-Zeke

Yeah, I think it is that simple, but I think he's asking how to spread the music around to the other speakers. There are different ways to do this, though probably a new sound card would be easiest. You don't really improve much by having the same thing play out of the front and rear speakers, though. Many of the newer sound cards offer some sort of dolby pro-logic mode, which is a way to spread certain frequencies to the rear speakers while still leaving the stereo image in the front (i think. anyone know more?)

If you havn't found the option for your sound card, it may just not exist. Perhaps there's some sort of audio mixer program you could use? Otherwise, there is always the mini jack y plugs from radio shack, but then you'll loose all the surround options from everything else.

Matthew

PS: Yeah, I'm a fan of the Klipsh promedia line, until it breaks... Their waranty service made me appreciate the whole process of repairing my mkIIa so much more...

Those are good possibilities. I had the impression that C-Media wasn't an overall crappy sound chip, and that's why I went without a new soundcard. My old Soundblaster's rear outputs did exactly that (ie: got blasted. it seemingly blew out).

I'm going to fiddle around with the settings some more and see what I find. I like having them play through all the speakers because I have them in this sort of setup:

   O    O

O    me    O

This gives a really nice sound field. I don't need surround sound, so going with the y-splitter would be okay for me (that's how I had it set up before). I liked having good control over each speaker though. Oh well.

Go to the mixer, press the advanced button, then look in sound effects. There should be an option to enable virtual 5.1 sound.

Nope, doesn't work. I've been messing around with that advanced options area already. That's also where you tell it what your speaker setup is, and I've told it I've got 4 speakers. It just doesn't seem to be sending signals from the line in to all 4 speakers. I'll probably have to go the Y-splitter route. That's fine I suppose.

Could it be that the empeg is an analogue source whereas your wav source is digital. They could take different paths through the mixer on your sound card and for some reason, the analogue source only gets routed to the main outputs.
Possibly a shortcoming in the design of the chipset? Or crappy drivers?

Could it be that the empeg is an analogue source whereas your wav source is digital. They could take different paths through the mixer on your sound card and for some reason, the analogue source only gets routed to the main outputs.

That's what I was thinking from the very beginning. You summed it up better and more clearly than I did.

Perhaps that theory could be tested by using the external digital input and see if that gets routed to two or four speakers? Just a thought.

-Zeke

They're called "Punch outs" or "blanking panels"