Stereo receiver 2.1 sound with PC

[wonderings]

I currently I have a small receiver that plugs into the aux jack on my PC. The small receiver powers 2 tower speakers. I want to add a powered sub as it is just sitting around from the days that I had a 5.1 cinema surround sound. Replaced all that with a sound bar. Not sure if this is possible but this is my thought:

2 displays plugged into PC GPU via display.
Use the HDMI port on the GPU to send audio to the receiver which in turn would power the 2 tower speakers and powered sub.

GPU is a 5070 Ti. Can I run just audio out of the HDMI? Would this for whatever reason slow down the response rate of my other screens? Main screen is a 34" Ultra Wide that runs at 200hz. Second screen is 27" and not sure, that is basically just use for webpages while the other is for games.

Am I dreaming or does this let me use my Denon receiver to give me 2.1 sound all coming from my PC?

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Your main issue will be audio pass through via HDMI especially when trying to use multiple HDMI connections. To even stand a chance your receiver would need to support ARC, if not it would be easier to use an optical cable (toslink) from your onboard sound to your receiver then plug your monitors into the gpu. Audio source is then separate from your display source which is what you want in a setup like that.

Would highly suggest not using HDMI and optical cables will still pass up to 7.1 uncompressed.

 

[Mrbobb]

If the receiver has HDMI-IN, that's your audio.

To incorporate a sub, (1)Your receiver has SUB-OUT, yer all set, otherwise (2)your sub has HIGH-LEVEL INPUTS, then you hookup: Receiver-Speaker-Out --> sub High-Level inputs --> L&R Speakers.

 

[wonderings]

I put this together yesterday and it works fine with HDMI for sound. So my 2 monitors are using display ports at their refresh rates and sound is going out to my receiver for 2.1 sound. Works really well and the sound when playing Star Citizen is fantastic, love having the sub, just adds a little more to everything. No settings were needed on the computer, it immediately sent audio through HDMI, was literally plug and play.

My Denon AVR-E400 also has a mic for calibrating. Sound at first was not great but I realized it was trying to send 5.1 sound out despite there not being all the other speakers. I ran the calibration and it dialed everything in for the 2.1 sound.