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hey all
I was wondering if anyone ever tested it to be working,
the ES920 has a small jack for "Line In Stereo" presumably should be working when feeding audio into it.
Was wondering if this would work, i.e feeding audio directly from the PC or from an external audio interface connected to the PC, into the ES920 speakers
thus using it to amplify VSTs, YouTube Audio et cetera
wondering whether a normal small aux cable (3.5mm) would work in such case (or perhaps an adaptor needed for the Audio interface or PC side of things)
thanks for any input
have a nice day everyone , off to work soon

Why would it not work?

(There are the possible ground loop issues if using audio in and USB at the same time, but other than it should "just work".)

It works on ES8 so I think it must work exactly the same on ES920. But the last time I tried, it did not sound very good. I believe the internal speakers are tuned to the internal audio sources. Connecting an external sound source will require some work on the frequency content for it to sound good.

So there are two things to consider:
- Works technically?
- Works in a practical usable way?

Not so trivial after all. 😀

There shouldn't be a ground loop if it's grounded only on the PC end. Does the es920 use a 3prong plug ?

Jeff, not quite so if high frequencies are involved and we have an analog and a digital(ish) channel involved.

Ground can make a loop even if not grounded Cables can act as buzz antennas in mysterious ways.

heck I'm getting some "ground buzz" in headphones connected to a DP (or a PC) not connected to any other device, using a 2-prong AC charger. But not using a 3-prong charger, or on battery...

I don't want to argue semantics but usually ground loop we're talking the 60hz hum due to improper draining in earth ground are we not?

both. Obviously if it actually works but is unusable then it shouldn't matter like EVC said. I only found out about it very recently which is why I was surprised it was doable as confirmed by the posts above me. However the ES-920 has a different speaker system than ES8. I'm gonna try this at my flat, but it's hardly a benchmark for anything due to sub optimal acoustics. Therefore I'm intrigued as to what other people have experienced and if working with those DP speakers as a monitor for your PC (not for mixing/mastering obviously) is something they found useful/reliable/pleasant to the ears, etc.

Edit: no ground loops are possible in this case, since mine has 2 prongs (EU). I once had a ground loop problem with my Jupiter 6 (which seemed to happen in the previous flat as well!) as it did not communicate well with any external audio interface and caused a constant background noise of "modem dial up" like sounds. The problem was eliminated only by using 3 to 2 plug converter (strangely no DI or "ground break" box seemed to do anything).

The ES920 has 20 watts per channel, and one loudspeaker (8 x 12 cm, roughly 3x5") per channel.

It'll be better than a laptop loudspeaker, or many "multi-media" computer speakers.

I'm looking at my Behringer MS40's -- 20 watts per channel, 4.75" woofer, 1" tweeter, with good-size ported enclosures. They're fine for TV and casual music listening. I don't think they're good DP speakers (not enough bass, not enough power).

I suspect that the ES920 amps and speaker won't be as good as the Behringer's.

. . . Don't expect miracles, even if Onkyo did the design work.

I know that some people here really like the ES920 speakers, and I'm giving you a purely "spec-based" opinion.

Let's go back to an early comment:


Get the required cable, try it, tell us if you like it.

Kawai does not specifically say that onkyo made the ES920 's speakers (only motherboard and sound hardwares) . While, for example, it says it for the CN39.
You can see it in this link at the output system.
https://www.kawai-global.com/product_comparison/detail.php?n=cn39,es920&ct=36

That makes me come to the conclusion, that it could be worth to add some quality external speakers to the es920 in order to truly benefit from it, since the internal speakers might not be at the level of the sound hardware developed by onkyo.
But I do not know which ones to buy... If some members have some ideas?