Best Sound Card for 44.1KHz SPDIF Passthrough?

[pieroxy]

It is time for me to change soundcard. The main reason is that my SB does not output SPDIF at 44.1KHz (as any SB if my infos are correct). I need this feature because I want to be able to play my DTS CDs out of my computer. Since I have only SPDIF btw my cmoputer and my amp, it has to be a passthrough.

Has anyone had success with a sound card playing a DTS CD? Which one?

Additionnally, which software did you use?

 

[GlocksRock]

The latest full version of Power DVD will play DTS DVD's, not sure about DTS CD's. You can buy soundcards and read reviews on them at www.newegg.com I've bought lots of stuff from Newegg, they are an awesome company.

 

[jonnythan]

I have the super cheapo sound card built into my motherboard (Geforce 6100/nForce 410) and it does SPDIF passthrough just fine.

Anything with an optical output should work fine. Look at:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829130002
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829117108

Also, depending on your model of sound blaster, you might be able to get an optical daughterboard

 

[pieroxy]

Anything with an optical output should work fine.

Thanks for your replies, but I am looking for something really specific. None of the reviews do speak about playing a 44.1KHz dts file - and rightly so since it's not very common to say the least.

I have 4 soundcards at home (one being an SB Live 24bit), and while every single one of them will play a DVD with SPDIF passthrough, none will play passthrough at 44.1KHz. AC97 soundcards do not, as they resample everything to 48KHz in order to be able to mix the various sounds coming from the 'puter.

I don't even know how they claim 44.1KHz ... I have virtually never been able to output any signal at 44.1... Maybe the hardware is able, but the driver doesn't permit it for sure.

Is this site affiliated with newegg in some way?

 

[jonnythan]

Sorry about that. I didn't realize they resampled the stream. Odd.

AFAIK the site isn't affiliated with NewEgg... it's just a site with great prices, massive selection, and good customer service. It's the gorilla of online computer parts retailers.

 

[MDS]

AC97 soundcards and all SoundBlaster models resample to 48 kHz but that does not mean you can't play PCM at a different sample rate. DD and DTS are a different story because they are a compressed format. The act of resampling a 44.1 kHz DTS file will destroy the encoding, making it unrecognizable to a DTS decoder.

 

[jonnythan]

AC97 soundcards and all SoundBlaster models resample to 48 kHz but that does not mean you can't play PCM at a different sample rate. DD and DTS are a different story because they are a compressed format. The act of resampling a 44.1 kHz DTS file will destroy the encoding, making it unrecognizable to a DTS decoder.

I'm not sure if I've tried to play a DTS soundtrack through the computer, but I do DD all the time. Are you saying DTS won't work, but DD will?

 

[pieroxy]

I'm not sure if I've tried to play a DTS soundtrack through the computer, but I do DD all the time. Are you saying DTS won't work, but DD will?

The DD you are playing is probably a DVD DD track, so encoded in 48KHz. Thus, no resampling takes place in your case, and DTS works fine as well. The problem is for a 44.1KHz dts file.

 

[jonnythan]

Learn somethin new every day

 

[ichigo]

The Chaintech AV-710 could work for you, it has an optical out with bitperfect SPDIF output--or resample to a select frequency: 44.1, 48, 96, 192.

For analog has 7.1 line outs, as well as a seperate 2-channel 106db SNR Wolfsenn DAC. The chipset is the Envy24HT, which is the same one used on more expensive M-audio Revolutions.

All for $20.

On the downside, for gaming, it only supports up to EAX2.

 

[kingdaddy]

The latest generation of creative sound cards called the X-FI series have finally included the pass-through option and AISO support as well as playback of all known sampling rates. I have the same problem as you but I want to rip my DTS Music tracks to me HD and play from there which is evidently a whole list of other problems and apparently next to impossible without buying some expensive software.

 

[Audiacc]

Yep, that's right. I can select clock rate of my X-Fi in the Audio Creation Mode.
If you are not gaming, not recording and using the card only in connection with a receiver then av710 is a good cheap option. If you need anything more then that X-Fi probably has that, and the 44.1 kHz SPDIF passthru, too.