Sub not working outside of test.

Before any changes my sub would work with my speakers for some great music.

I recently changed my motherboard to MPG X570 Gaming Plus.
I plugged my speakers into Audio Front port. They work fine. I plug my Sub into "Center / Subwoofer".
Inside the Realtek Audio Control I can click the sub to run a test and it fires. I recently played Titian Fall 2 and inside the game the sub fired. But on other applications it will not be used.
I would like my sub to get the sub audio and my speakers to function as left and right.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled realtek audio control.
I have switched to a 5.1 and disabled all but the front Left and right, and sub.
I have tried clicking the "Swap Center / Subwoofer Output" Button. ( When I do this and test the sub it does not fire.)
I have swapped the cables and plugged the sub into the front speaker and my main speakers into the other port. This made all speakers fire as if it was Stereo sound. While this does get my sub to fire when playing music it is as if all my speakers are playing one. No left, Right, and sub. Just one.

Windows 10 V 20H2

Realtek audio control v6.0.9013.1





By picking any of the "Environment" The sub will start firing at a VERY low volume. When I click test with this on, the test is much louder.

There is no such thing as 2.1 audio, it is not a recognized audio format.

2.1 is a marketing term invented by computer speaker manufacturers to sell integrated set of 2 tiny front speakers and a subwoofer.

The Windows OS and the Realtek audio drivers are never meant to be used by a set of stereo speakers and a separately purchased subwoofer at the same time.

Ideally I am still running it as 5.1.
Though I will say on my Gigabit A99FX. The motherboard I replaced. Everything worked perfectly if only as a 5.1 using just the front speakers and sub. I can only assume it is an issue with the motherboard as that was the only thing that changed. But the fact the sub will work in a video game gives me pause like something is not loaded correctly.

I know this one!

I was having the same issues, the problem lies in the channels. I found an application that allows you to copy L+R channels to the sub, its called Equalizer APO and can be found (free) on sourceforge via a quick google search.

You have to set the computer to 5.1 and disable the surround speakers via device configuration.

Kevmandigo#5890 on discord if you have any questions with the set up.

Kevmandigo said:

I know this one!

I was having the same issues, the problem lies in the channels. I found an application that allows you to copy L+R+C channels to the sub, its called Equalizer APO and can be found (free) on sourceforge via a quick google search.

You have to set the computer to 5.1 and disable the surround speakers via device configuration.

Kevmandigo#5890 on discord if you have any questions with the set up.

Necro'ing a little bit to expand on this as people have hit me up over the years- once you have APO EQ installed, you can delete (Red Minus sign) all of the pre-setup things.

From there Green Plus > Basic Filters > Copy (Copy Between Channels) and drag from the Green L+R to the Red "C".

People should stop providing the wrong answers thinking that they are correct.

There is no such thing as 2.1 format. The 0.1 in 5.1 audio format is LFE (low frequency effects), that's right --- effects as in explosions. Your music doesn't contain explosions as effects --- so there is no 0.1 channel.

Your average 2.1 computer speakers come with a single 3.5mm TRS audio jack. It contains left audio, right audio and ground. There is no 0.1 audio channel. If there is a separate channel, they would have provided you with a TRRS jack.



So how does the average 2.1 computer speakers get the subwoofer to work? You set it to full range speaker.



So what do you do if you buy a separate subwoofer. You buy a Y audio splitter.

sandyt said:

People should stop providing the wrong answers thinking that they are correct.

Maybe I'm sensitive, but seeing as I am the most recent post/update to this thread from earlier today I'm feeling a little targeted- what about my answer is wrong?

There was no center channel signal to begin with. So you dragging the green center channel to the red center channel doesn't even make sense. You could have just drag the green front left/right to the red center channel --- which is the most complicated way to do instead of a Y splitter.



People with zero post suddenly coming to a forum and announced that he has the solution saving the OP and then coming back to announce again that popular demand requires to resurrect this thread.

You are correct- there is no center channel that was a muck-up, so copying L+R to the Center (where 9/10 times is where the Sub is connected) is the trick- I'll give you that-

PSA- You'll want to copy the L+R channels to wherever you have your sub connected and it gets the sub to work.

This has worked 4/4 for those who have messaged me on discord trying to get it to work so my argument would be that you can't argue with results. I came back to resurrect in hopes of helping more people solve the problem that may come across this thread in the far off future but don't have discord, or may be socially awkward in reaching out, or maybe I'm dead and don't respond and they never get the answer.

Someone literally messaged me today from finding this thread.

Sorry to have offended you

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Actually that is still wrong as (1) you haven't set it to full range speakers and (2) set a cross-over. If you don't set it as full range speakers, then the high pass filter will filter out all the low frequency in the copy channel --- then you have people complaining why your method doesn't really work as the subwoofer is super quiet as it is not getting low frequency signal. If you don't set a cross-over, then both the stereo speakers and the subwoofer are going to play the same low frequency signal --- but that is a minor issue.

How to use your sound card as a crossover between stereo speakers and a powered subwoofer