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Thread: Cd-ROM drive audio cable?

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    Ultimate Member scottluebke2003's Avatar
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    Cd-ROM drive audio cable?

    Do I need to connect an audio cable from my optical drives to the sound card/on board sound connectors? If so, what purpose does this serve?

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    Mod w/ an attitude Sterling_Aug's Avatar
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    Only if you want to play audio CD's.

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    Member Atomic Rooster's Avatar
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    In Windows XP you wont need that cable if you enable digital audio for your drives. It may be the same for W98 too. To enable digital audio in XP go to Control Panel > System > Hardware tab > Device manager. Open up your DVD/CDROM drives right click them and select Properties then properties tab and Check the box that says Enable digital CD audio for this CR-ROM device.
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    Re: Cd-ROM drive audio cable?

    Originally posted by scottluebke2003
    Do I need to connect an audio cable from my optical drives to the sound card/on board sound connectors? If so, what purpose does this serve?
    Think of the audio that is being released from a CD as being about the same as sound vibrations by hitting a stick on a hollow log...way out in the boondocks. Any creature that has the ability to 'hear', either by sensing the vibrations in the disturbed air molecules or by recreated sound from those same disturbed molecules in the air in an ear..it will get weaker and weaker the further away the log is. Finally, you will not be able to detect any sound or vibrations at all...unless...there is a way to amplify it.

    Sound, when first extracted from a CD (or old 45 RPM record) is extremely weak...and cannot be heard. If we can electronically amplify that weak sound signal..and allow it to be connected to some speakers or ear phones...we can hear it.

    The output from a CD drive is loosely like that log way off in the distance..it cannot be heard, but we can amplify the sound from the CD drive..and that amplifier is on the sound card or system.

    Its all a part of the overall system, where the sound card or system does all of the sound replication and amplification..this helps us to not have different speakers everywhere. Certainly, a CD ROM system could also have its own amplifiers...but then, it would also need its own speakers...first news we know, we would have speakers everywhere.

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