Hi Tom.

Are the speakers amplified speakers?  Most newer sound cards do not have
the amplifier on the card, but rather presume that there will be an
amplifier in the speakers.  Some earlier cards such as the classic Sound
Blaster 16 had the amplifier right on the card, and some mother board based
sound cards also have the amplifier on the board.  If you use speakers that
came with a card that had an amplifier on a new card that doesn't have a
built in amplifier, you will get the results you are describing.  The
solution is to get an amplified speaker.

You can test this pretty easily.  If you put a music CD in your CD-ROM
drive (or whatever flavor of CD drive you have in the computer), and then
plug the speakers into the headphone jack of the CD drive, and you get the
same low audio, then you have a set of unamplified speakers.  The good news
is that amplified computer speakers aren't very expensive, generally $10 to
about $40 depending upon how much power and fidelity you want out of the
speakers.

Good luck, and 73.
--Lou K2LKK



At 12:44 PM 1/7/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi, all.
>
>Well, here's the latest and greatest update on my situation with the Pentium
>566 computer, and sound-blaster sound card adaptation.
>
>Thanks to Steve's instructions, we were able to get the sound blaster sound
>card to work with the 566.  The computer now uses the sound blaster sound
>card exclusively, and Jaws and the n3fjp logging software audio wave files
>work pretty well together.
>
>But, I continue to have the problem that the sound blaster gives more volume
>with my MFJ 392 communications headphones, than with the stereo speakers
>that come with the computer.  I plug the computer stereo speakers into the
>headphone jack of the soundblaster unit, and still get very low volume.
>
>I have even tried an adapter from the stereo phono plug to an RCA plug, and
>plugged the RCA into one of the stereo outputs on the soundblaster and still
>get low volume.
>
>Jim Johnson suggested that my problem could be that I need amplified
>speakers.
>
>Is that true?
>
>I've tried working with the various volume control settings in the control
>panel under entertainment with still no luck.
>
>Are there any other settings I should be checking somewhere, or do I need to
>get some amplified speakers?
>
>Best 73 from Tom Behler: KB8TYJ

Louis Kim Kline
A.R.S. K2LKK
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Work Telephone:  (585) 697-5753