Audigy 2 ZS & Front-Of-Case-Audio/Mic connectors

Does anyone know if there is a way to connect the audigy 2 zs to the front of a pc case? some cases come with a little compartment in the front with like 2 usb, 1 mic in, 1 audio out. Anyone know if i can hook this up to my audigy 2 so i can have my headset microphone hook there rather than have to plug it in the back?

If not, also with the Audigy 2 zs, can i hook up a headset AND a 5.1 surround system to it without having to unplug each time?

Heres what I did..I use the creative labs inspire 6.1 speakers
Connect speakers as normal, get a sterio mini plug extension cable (plugged into mic input) run the other end to the speaker remote thimgy..then plug headphone and mic in at the remote

you have a mic in at the remote?

Believe it or not, you actually can do this . It took a little while to find the right person to talk to, but here they are:

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1 - Analog Ground
2 - Analog Headphone Out Left
3 - Audio Backpanel Mute -- short to ground to mute the backpanel (when headphones are plugged in)
4 - Analog Headphone Out Right
5 - same as #3
6 - Mic input from front panel
7 - key pin (shouldn't be there)
8 - VREF out -- voltage reference for Mic
9 - MIC IN MUTE -- ground when mic isn't plugged in, +12VDC when mic is plugged in
10 - Audio cable detect -- will be ground when headphones are plugged in (not normally used)

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These are for the set of pins in the upper left of the card (in the white area - see http://www.computers4sure.com/comas...NET/I196555.jpg).

-- EDIT --
Ghostrider reminded me that I forgot to say which is pin 1. It's the one on the far right, next to the SoundBlaster logo.
-- END EDIT --

I don't remember if I had to switch the left and right output connectors to the front of my Antec Sonata case, so if it doesn't work one way, try the other. The only real problem I've had is I have to jiggle them around a bit to get them in the right position initially. I have yet to figure out a way to get the connectors to fit in tightly - right now I have the tops held together by a rubber band to try to stabilize them. If you have any questions or want me to take a picture to show you what I mean, let me know.

My computer case has the following cables:

R-in
R-out
Grnd
Mic-in

L-in
L-out
Grnd
Mic-in

The Power cable of the front-audio panel is pre-connected to the motherboard. So I don't worry about it. All I want to know is how to connect the above 8 cables to Audigy 2 ZS card? How would I connect them to Audigy 2 pin assignments (upper left white section on the sound board) following your instruction? Please reply. Thank you a lot.

The headers on the white section do not seem to support speaker input - that may be somewhere on the livedrive connector, though I have no idea where to find those pinouts. For speaker output, hook R-out up to pin 4, L-out to pin 2, and mic in to pin 6. I'm going to take off my case cover in a bit to see what speaker channels I have going to what speaker, because I don't remember if they were flipped or not, though this could be because of my case. After you hook up the leads to the pins on the soundcard, leave the side of the case off in case anything isn't completely connected. Go into the Creative Speaker Settings program, switch it to headphones, and use the test program to make sure you can hear both your left and right channels, and that they are of course on the right side of the headphones. Once it is set, you can close your door and it should stay connected properly without any problems. The only ones I have encountered is when I move my case (from school to home, to a LAN party, etc). Sometimes the leads can be jiggled a bit loose from the car ride - I'm still trying to figure out a good way to secure them on the board.

--- Edit ---
I checked my connections and I do indeed have the left and right channels flipped. I suspect this is from my case, which has it documented on their site that they mislabeled some of the other headers.
Also, make sure your headphones are firmly seated in the front panel connector - if they are only partly in you will get only one channel no matter what.

I was curious if anyone has come up with a good way to get the headers to stay properly connected to the audigy, even while moving the computer.

I used a thin strip of Scotch tape to hold the pins in. I wrapped it around the plastic headers and the wires. This holds the bundle together, and puts a bit of tension on the pins - which is good seing as the pins are a bit smaller than standard on the Audigy Card. I finished off by putting a strip of tape across the top of the pins, and the white bracket on the card. This seems to hold everything in place quite well.

I've got a Lian-Li PC 6077b, and I have the same problem.

Unfortunate, the front plate audo/mic connectors are not labeled very closely with the pinouts listed above.

This is all the information I have:

URL

Could anyone give my some guidance on which of these connectors goes where? I can guess a couple, but some of the more obscure ones I can't match.

Finally, I also found that the plastic connector head is too large for all the connectors to fit onto the pins at once. Did anyone else have this problem - and if you did, how did you solve it? I was thinking I could file down the plastic connector head a but until it fit correctly.

Any ideas?

First thx to Twisted steel...
AoErat: About your Mic configuration im not shure at the moment...
But clear is: Ear Gnd -> Pin1, one Pin of Ear L -> Pin2; one Pin of Ear R -> Pin4...
You need only one of the Left and Right Ear Pins, because this is only needed if you have a Soundcard or Sound on board which only allows Backpanel or Frontpanel, in order to toconnect both...

The J1 Pin on the Audigy is smaller, but do you know the analog Audio-cables to connect CD-Rom drives with Soundcards? There where to Types, the "old" ones had a smaller white connector, and this old connecter fits perfectly!
So what I say is, get some of this old Audio-cables and use that Pins, so the wont get loose, so easy...

After trying it, I found that tape was not enough to maintain tension. I ended up cutting small pieces of fine copper wire and placing it inside the connectors worked. I then used solid copper wire from a scrap piece of network cable. I cut pieces about 8mm long, inserted them into the connector sleve, then used needle nose pliers to bend the top over the edge of the connector, essentially making a small hook.

In some cases, I used two pieces of wire per connector. Be careful to get the end of the copper at the top/bottom of the connector, not at the sides. if you hav eit on the sides of all the connectors, you may short everything out!

The wire porvided the nescessary tightness. I then used tape to again hold the wires together, and to hold the row of connectors to the white bracket. All works perfectly now.

The old CD Audio connector is a good idea too, if you can make it fit. It's always better to go with proper connections if possible, instead of riging things up as I did. My solution works, for now.... If I have any problems with it, I'll post it.

Regards, Slince.

1) This type of connector (usually called a "SoundBlaster" type CD-ROM audio connector) fits perfectly on the first four pins on the sound card, as IkariGend points out.

2) From my attempts at this, if you are using these pins to connect to a front-panel headphone jack, and you wish to auto-mute the speakers while the headphone is connected, you must also run pins 3 and 5 to the ground wire on the audio cable. This disables the speakers when the headphones are in use. Unfortunately, I have thusfar been unable to locate one of these clips that accomodates more than the standard 4 pins.

Is there a way anyone could post more detailed instructions or a diagram to connect the Antec Sonata front audio connectors to your Audigy 2?

I have a diagram I drew in paint with those connections. I'll put it up when I get home from work.

Thank you very much!