Topic: Wanting To Use My Gaming Speaker With The Wii U- What Options Have I?

Hello Nintendo Community!

This is officially my first post here, but I'm hoping someone here can help me out with this more unusual topic.

In the last year or so, I got myself a Wii U as there are some specific games that I have been wanting to try out. There is at least 1 thing you ought to know about my setup: I'm not able to actually have a TV in my room as much as I want due to the amount of limited space I have. So, the obvious solution is to have my consoles connected to my gaming monitor as the display. And that's not too big of a dealbreaker. As the title states it, I'm wanting to use my gaming speaker with the Wii U for audio. [BTW, the speaker I have is the LG UltraGear GP9. More info about it can be found via this link: https://www.lg.com/us/gaming-speakers/lg-gp9-gaming-speaker# ] And my gaming monitor that I use for my pc is the MSI Optix MPG27CQ. Link to the product: https://www.msi.com/Monitor/Optix-MPG27CQ

Now, I may not know everything about certain consoles given that I have gotten more into them over the last 2 years, but I have learned certain things along the way & I STILL feel like I have a ways to go. Anyway, as far as troubleshooting goes, I have tried a few methods. 1.) After consulting with a GameStop agent, the guy I talked with said I could try connecting the speaker to my monitor via a 3.5 mm audio cable going from the jack on the back of the speaker to the headphone jack on my monitor. [Obviously, I had to be connected via HDMI for video, but that idea didn't work.] 2.) I also tried just for the heck of it connecting my speaker to the Wii U via the included USB cable that came with the speaker itself, but from what I've learned, that didn't work since the Wii U somehow doesn't support audio this way. [Correct me if I'm wrong.]

So, with that being said, I'm wondering what other options I have out there that might work? 🤔 I would prefer a cable or something rather than getting like a Bluetooth adapter or whatever unless I would actually NEED to get 1. But nonetheless, I'm eager to hear what sort of advice/suggestions/tips/pointers you guys might have for me on this! If you happen to need any other details or have questions, please do be sure to ask & I'll get right back with you! 👍

Thanks in advance to anyone here whom can be of help!

Nintendo have a support page for this here:

https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a...

From the looks of things you're probably going to need some kind of converter unless you can get the audio output from the monitor working with it.

In general, it's far easier to get good sound from a Wii U when using a TV set as they've got the sort of connectivity that speaker systems and soundbars require, where PC monitors typically don't.

@Matt_Barber I already checked the article & it doesn't apply to me for a couple of reasons: 1.) I'm not using a TV; I'm using a monitor instead. 2.) I'm not using AV Multi Out or via RCA or composite; I have to go HDMI into the monitor. 3.) Lastly, the final issue is that if you look at the specs for the LG Ultra Gear GP9, it does NOT have HDMI whatsoever in terms of IO.

So as far as trying to get the speaker connected to it, I need another solution that could work here. I appreciate the suggestion, but now that you brought it up, I should have mentioned in the post that I already viewed that link. Oh well, hindsight's 20/20 like they say.

It takes SPDIF though, right? Just not phono, 3.5mm, HDMI or anything else you could get from a Wii U?

If so, I'd think that your best bet would be an HDMI->SPDIF audio extractor. Something like these, maybe?

https://headphonesproreview.com/best-hdmi-audio-extractor/

SPDIF is a bit of a dying standard though, so definitely look for something that'll take HDMI when buying your next speaker.

@Matt_Barber As far as the Wii U goes, I KNOW the gamepad has a 3.5mm audio jack, but the console itself doesn't have 1. Not sure if it supports optical or not... And of course, the Wii U DOES have an HDMI port on the console. And I do already have an HDMI audio extractor for use with the Switch, but do bear in mind that my speaker does NOT have an HDMI port if you look at the IO & the specs.

[Also, no offense, but I thought you were commenting on this post assuming you were an expert. If you're not, I won't take it personally. ] But still, I'm not sure what other options I have... I may not have had this console when I was growing up & I'm FAR from an expert, but I'm still learning. So hopefully, I can somehow find the right solution.

You don't want to use the 3.5mm output on the gamepad as it only gives the audio that's sent to the pad itself which usually isn't going to be the full audio for the game.

According to the spec sheet for your speaker, doesn't appear to support 3.5mm input anyway, just output; I guess it's mainly designed for use with PCs where you've got far better options. Your choice is between Bluetooth, USB and SPDIF and the Wii U will not directly output any of those, so a converter will be required.

The audio extractors I linked to should take the HDMI output from the Wii U as their input, and output HDMI video for your monitor as well as SPDIF audio that you can connect to the speaker. If you've already got one, give it a try.

@Matt_Barber Well, like I stated earlier, I DO have an audio extractor that I've been using with my Switch, my monitor & the speaker. This is the link to the very 1 I got in case you're curious: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BIQER0E?psc=1

So with regards to what you said, obviously the Wii U won't directly output those options hence why I would need a converter of some sort. Makes sense I guess. But I really don't know which would be my better option: USB or SPDIF... 🤔 Hopefully, depending on what I go with it won't be too complicated of a process to get it all hooked up & connected properly. Still, I'd appreciate it if you can help me decide which might be the better option between those 2.

@Jennings92 Yes, that one should work just fine and I doubt you'll find a significantly better solution, at least so far as the Wii U and that speaker is concerned.

SPDIF might be getting on a bit, but it's still good enough to handle the most complex audio format the Wii U can output (i.e. 5.1 surround) and it's got a 'just works' factor that USB currently lacks.

Only once you're into 7.1 sound systems or better does USB offer any significant advantages and for those you're probably using HDMI.

@Matt_Barber Got it. Well, since SPDIF/Optical is my best bet anyway for this, do you know if the converter/extractor that I already have will work? 🤔

I would assume that if it just does, I would probably have to go HDMI In from the Wii U to the extractor/convertor, then SPDIF/Optical going from the convertor/extractor to the speaker, & then HDMI Out going from the convertor/extractor to my monitor? 🤔 No sure if I have the order right assuming this will do the job...

Correct me if I'm wrong here since I'm not 100% sure what the HDMI extractor is, but I'm assuming that it's a device with an HDMI IN port that pulls the audio signal to USB/3.5 mm/optical ports, and also has an HDMI Out on it as well. What you could do is take the extractor for your Switch, and connect an HDMI 2 in 1 cable or switch to it, then plug both your Wii U and Switch to the HDMI splitter. That way the 1 extractor could be used for both Wii U and Switch.

The other thing you could do (which I have done on X360 and PS3 before and Wii U supports), is get the composite (red/white/yellow) cables and a red/white to 3.5mm converter cable. Plug the composite cables into the Wii U, the red/white into the converter cable, then the converter cable into the speakers. The Wii U is able to output video with HDMI while outputting audio with composite according to what I googled.

EDIT: Just saw that a post said 3.5mm wasn't an option. I've seen cables for converting red/white to USB or optical, or cables for 3.5mm to USB, so use those instead.