Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Ivory II through Avantgrand (N1) Speakers

Hello

Has anyone had any success doing this? I have tried however I simply can't get the volume. This is outputing from a laptop headphone jack. I can get plenty of volume hooking the laptop to a cheap low power 2.1 system.

I have also hooked up a PC with a decent audio interface to the Avantgrand line ins and I can get a reasonable volume if I use pro level signals (+4dBU) but still not great and that's at full volume.

It may be an issue with the Avantgrand line inputs - on paper at least it seems like there is a reasonable amount of amplifier power in there!

Is there something else I can do to up the power? If not I am either stuck with getting an external interface for the laptop and hoping it gives me enough volume, or getting a decent 2.1 setup. I know that both together would probably be the best of both worlds but I'm trying to keep everything uncluttered, hence the reason for using the internal speakers in the first place.

Any suggestions very welcome! - including 2.1 options if you think that's the way to go (budget is probably £100 - £200).

Cheers
Nick

PS - despite listening very closely to the decay, I am unable to perceive the noise gate issue mentioned elsewhere.

A laptop's headphone output is not the best choice for driving an amplifier.

You might try adding a mixer between the laptop and the AG, one with level controls. You might be able to get some extra gain from it. Or you might try an external sound card for the laptop.

Both of those solutions produce the clutter you shun. But I don't see any alternatives.

My worry is that an audio interface isn't going to do it. Using a good interface (e-mu 1616m) with proper line outs only just gave me enough volume. I could spend a load of money on another one and find it doesn't do the job. The main problem seems to be that the AG just doesn't seem to amplify the line ins.

Maybe its because the line ins need to drive a number of different amplifiers in the AG so the signal is getting split multiple ways...

I own an AG N2 and I've already hooked up some devices to AUX input without any issue, at least these ones:
* BlackBerry phone
* Asus tablet (Android)), very noisy :-(
* Advance WTX500 Bluetooth receiver (to send audio from the asus tablet, less noisy and very handy)

I can easily get very loud sound (the N2 is very impressive as an audio playing system).

I also own an E-MU 0202 that I use to record output from the piano. I could try to use it to play audio on the piano but I think your problem is elsewhere. As you say, maybe an issue with line inputs on N1 or especially yours.

I did the same test and it works. From Macbook Pro headphones jack. No problem at all. Sounds loud enough on 50% (volume) form AG N1 and 50-70% from Macbook pro.
Reset the Amer.D settings or load some factory preset (Carnegie hall).

Thanks for this - I will give it a go.

Just to clarify, I do get sound out, just not at a very loud volume. What I am using as a benchmark is the AGs own volume.

When you say it is working, are you managing to get the same volume as the AG or are you having to turn it up more to get the same?

I have managed to get a reasonable volume with an iPhone...

To have the same volume as N1 you have to adjust the out put from the macbook pro (any laptop or external device).
Check one more time the connections: from "out" of the device to AG "in". I know it sounds a bit silly, but this kind of mistakes are not rear and might happen to any one.

I've checked all the connections. The volume in the laptop is at full. To get the volume to match the onboard sound in the AG I need to add around 10-12dB in Ivory Cantible - but at this level it just distorts. I've also tried with a different laptop - same problem.

You might try a different cable if you haven't yet.

+1. Even including the cost of cables, it's well within your budget.

. Charles

I personally think, after reading posts of people that have the same piano working, the OP has either defective cables or the aux in input is defective.

I'm gonna try a few different cables - is there any particular type I should stay away from that you'd expect to attenuate the signal?

I stress though that it's not that the output is quiet just that its just not loud enough (compared to the volume of the internal sounds) so I'm trying to see whether that's normal operation.

All the help's appreciated guys!

I have an AG but have never tried this. I have read somewhere that there is a noise gate that might be the issue.

The cable won't make any difference (unless it's outright broken).

You wrote:



To me, coupled with the successful posts, your experience seems like something is wrong.
What cable have you been using?

I've used a few different cables. Just standard jack to jack line level cable and I've just tried it with another one.

I plugged an iPhone directly in and played a track. Listening through headphones plugged into the piano the volume was ok but not super loud with the iphone and AG volume on max.

I then plugged the same headphones directly into the Iphone and the volume was much higher - enough to hurt my ears.

I assumed this was a property of the piano but this now doesn't seem right to me - what do you think? Time to call yamaha?

I can't see a different +4 mixer acting different. Were you pinning the meters on this interface when you tried it?
Maybe a mixer would solve it but I would investigate further. You really shouldn't need it especially after running a +4 interface unsuccessfully.

All the line in threads have one flaky element or another that seem to get in the way. I would think that the Line in on an instrument like the N1 would have significant headroom and could be driven hot enough to be more than loud enough.

Perhaps a visit to the dealer to try your iphone player on a different N1.

Yeah - I'll give the dealer a ring tomorrow. To be honest I can't see how an audio signal can possibly be quieter after its been through an external amplifier on max volume unless there is something wrong. I'll update when I know what's happening (bet they fix the level problem and the noise gate'll make an appearance!)

It is possible that you were running your external computer interface at -10. Some of them have switches that toggle between -10 and +4.

Well for the laptops and iphone there isn't that option and it was +4 which (just) gave an acceptable signal. Its not unreasonable to expect a decent volume out of any -10 device though.

However, I have now had the shop try out another two N1s and they are also reporting low volume.


For those who got it working (SLiX or Wess), can you be any more specific about how loud it actually got? i.e. louder, equal or lower than the onboard sound at the same volume setting? We may just have different views on acceptable volume. If you are getting it as loud as the onboard sound maybe its a firmware thing...