Computer to Receiver, new sound card...Pics!

[tec_41]

I want to get the BEST connection possible out of my new sound card (SB X-fi) and I believe that would be done by using the "Digital Out", which is the blue jack on the right of the sound card. The box says to use this for connecting to receivers.

I have an optical cable like the one pictured which can switch sides to be a standard mini plug. I figured this would be the way to tap into that blue optical out jack, but I guess I'm wrong...I can't get any sound out of the darn digital output.



So I guess my question is, what do I need to get stinking digital output from this card?! Thanks!

 

[Adam]

A few things (and there's been a few discussions on this forum about this, so there's more info out there):

1. The blue jack is not an optical jack. It is a minijack (I believe a mono jack) that you would connect to the digital coax input on the receiver (labeled "Digital Input - CD"). Give me a couple of minutes, and I'll post the adapter that you'll need.

2. The soundcard has to be set up to output through the digital jack. At least my SB card cannot output digital and analog at the same time.

3. The software that you are using must be set up to pass the digital stream to the soundcard without decoding it.

Adam

 

[Adam]

Here's the adapter that you'd want. It is a phono jack to 1/8" mono phono plug adapter. You would plug that into the sound card, and then you could plug a regular digital coax cable (pretty much any cable with a male RCA phono plug on each end) into that adapter and then into the "Digital Input - CD" jack on your receiver.

 

[tec_41]

Awesome, thanks a lot Adam! I appreciate the quick response...

Will this connection be the best choice for sound quality?

 

[Adam]

Your welcome!

Regarding if the digital is the best for sound quality, that will depend on the processors on the sound card versus those in the receiver. If they are both of similar quality, then it won't matter that much - but it's easier to connect one cable versus three. You can always experiment to see if either the digital or analog sounds better to you.

Now, if you are playing games and using the receiver to listen to them, then you might want to use the analog connections. The SB card contains some audio processing for games that receivers don't have, so you would lose out on that if you went with the digital connection. At least, that's my belief, but I'm not absolutely sure on this.