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Good optical & coax digital soundcard - $41 + S&H

T

TerryMathews

Lifer
Zoltrix Nightingale Pro 6 channel titanium soundcard. Supports Win98, 2k, XP, EAX, A3d1.0, all that jazz. SN is > 85db.

$41 + S&H for the OEM at Inpax. Retail comes with a karaoke and WinDVD program-$45 + S&H.

I found this last night after I gave up finding a Live 5.1 Platinum for a reasonable amount.

Review at SharkyExtreme.

Manufacturer web site is Zoltrix.

I already ordered mine. 🙂
 
This looks really good. I ordered a cmedia 6 channel with optical out for about half this, but I am tempted to order this because I really wanted coax. I wonder if I can just order the optical/coax adaptor, save a few bucks.
 
Anyone ever used one of these before and have any comments? Also, I read the review and it says it doesn't support Dolby. So my question is if I send a DD5.1 signal into it via the optical toslink, can or can't it pass along the dolby signal so that it could be captured/recorded??? Anyone know? Thanks.
 
OK, here is the current DL on Dolby Digital 5.1.

The card itself does not encode/decode DD5.1... The digital output is PCM, and the input expects PCM as well. The only exception is when software writes directly to the digital out, like in WinDVD. Then, the card is not producing the DD stream but instead is just passing it, which works fine.

In short, if you connect your card digitally to your home theater system, you'll get 2.1 audio that will work fine in ProLogic mode (As ProLogic analyzes the audio stream; it doesn't just decode it). This is the way that the regular Live works.

You can't touch this price for a digital optical and coax card. Plus, everything is supported in Linux (What I was looking for anyway), whereas the Live works, but only in its basic form.
 


<< coo >>



why are your posts so short?

on the other post, it just says hehe, if you want to just boost your post, goto off topic.


anyway, this is pretty tempting, i have pioneer vsx-d510, (dts, dolby digital..) hooked up to my computer...

will i hear any difference in Counter strike between A3d 1.0 and A3D2.0?
 
Wow, this sound card comes with a lot of connectivity features. Good price too for a 5.1 card with optical and digital!! Amazing.

Also, if you want something more mainstream (more driver and technical support), you might want to consider Hercules Fortissimo II from newegg.com. It's 32 with $9 shipping. The shipping is ridiculous but that's newegg for you. The card got really good reviews when it came out. It has optical and dolby support I believe.

I'm not sure which one is the better deal.
 
Only question is, how will the driver support be? Can't be any worse than Creative's....

Also, why would you get this instead of a Platinum? It doesn't appear to have a breakout box like the Plat.
 


<< Also, why would you get this instead of a Platinum? It doesn't appear to have a breakout box like the Plat >>



Well... First off, you could make your own "Live!Drive" with a few cable extensions, some plastic, and a dremel. That's not the point tho, I don't care about the Live!Drive. I just wanted TOSLINK and coax digital input/output.

Second, I wanted this card for my Linux box. This card is fully (and I mean fully) supported in Linux under ALSA, C-Media released all of the info on the chip driving this card; I believe they are actively participating in the driver develment as well. I have to support a company that wholeheartedly supports Linux. So, I am moving away from Creative and now towards C-Media.

I would use ATi, but their "Open Source" DRI driver sucks. It works great with 3d accel, but it doesn't support any other special features like Xvideo; at least it doesn't support it correctly. I had to replace my Rage128 with a nVidia GeForce2MX because my Iomega Buz! would crash the system every time.

Not trying to start an nVidia/Opensource debate, but I am one of the people that gives nVidia all the respect for writing and supporting their own Linux driver instead of handing it off to the community.

In case anyone is wondering, this card is basically the same as the audio chip integrated into the Soyo Dragon+ motherboard. Guess which mobo I'm getting next. 🙂
 
I'm showing its $14.57 at inpax to ship that sound card from ny to MI.???-I think I'll pass--newegg has sbl for $32 +$4 shipping.
 
The Dragon+ is truly a sweet motherboard, you'll probably love it. I like being able to give each of my 4 drives their own IDE controller 😀
 
So if you're connecting this card to a DD or DTS receiver, it'll probably decode the signal and produce DD 5.1 or DTS depending on the format you are outputting. It's a pretty inexpensive card and would be good for watching DVDs with a receiver hooked up, especially with the optical and coaxial outputs. Correct me if I'm wrong...
 
The card only outputs DD5.1 if it given that format, I.E. WinDVD. The card does not have the capability to format it's 3d effects like EAX and A3d into DD5.1. At best, you'll get a soundstream that can be decoded under Dolby ProLogic that sounds pretty good and gives a nice surround effect.

In response to the $33 at newegg for a Live, that's not truly a fair comparison as the Live at newegg is OEM bare, prolly a Value. At best, it would have the minijack digital plug. Wouldn't have TOSLINK in/out or coax in/out.

For gamers, Live might be a better value. For someone who needs good audio for non-gaming needs you can't beat this value.
 
I own a nightingale value-bought if for like $14 bout a year ago-its ok for the $$. The sbl from newegg is a 5.1 version-what did they charge you for a shipping charge on your zoltrix from inpax?

Inpax has the oem Zoltrix Nightingale Pro 6 listed on ebay for I think $35 plus $10 shipping -I might buy a couple if they will combine shipping.

I think dell has the turtle beach santa cruz refurb for $39.
 
The Turtle Beach deal ended Sunday. Now, it's back up to $60ish. Plus, AFAIK, the Turtle Beach only has a minijack digital connector like the SB Live 5.1s. It doesn't have coax digital or TOSLINK digital.
 
A bit of off topic... I have audigy x gamer with digital mini jack output, and my receiver accept only digitial optical or coaxial input for 5.1 decoding. Do you have any idea hooking up the reciever and the sound card digitally? Is there any adapter out there that can go from minijack to coaxial and still maintain the digital quality? I don't want to spend $$ on live dirve. Hope any of you "experts" can help me. Please PM me or post it. Thanks in advance.....
 
AFAIK, the Live's digital minijack can be converted to TOSLINK. When you buy a TOSLINK cable, they usually come with a "minijack" adapter. This lets me plug the TOSLINK cable into the Line in port of my minidisc player.

I have never owned a Live, so I cannot say that with any certanity. My guess would also be that a minijack to composite RCA adapter would allow you to connect coax cable for digital, but I dunno.
 
I did have a mini jack digi-out connected to my receiver. And yes, I got DD5.1 and DTS pass-through, from both WinDVD and PowerDVD.

The cable can be a very cheap minijack->RCA cable (from WalMart, BB, etc.), which designed for analog audio. Even everyboady suggest a shelled cable, my plain thin cable works just fine.

I even went one more step cheap and used a cable from free cute cat (or cute mouse?), which has minijack->(1)RCA.
 
Where can you get this inexpensive minijack --> RCA cable? And is it a single RCA out, or L/R RCA out? Cuz I need the single RCA out to go into the digital-in of my receiver.
 


<< Where can you get this inexpensive minijack --> RCA cable? And is it a single RCA out, or L/R RCA out? Cuz I need the single RCA out to go into the digital-in of my receiver. >>

I said Walmart, and Best Buy. They will be L/R RCA out, you just leave one unplugged.
 
radioshack would make a single RCA to single phone jack.

and if you leave one out you would loose one channel.
 
I own one of these cards. I got it from inpax. This card is considers a hot deal among pro audio folks and tapers. I got it to transfers spdif coax from my dat>hd. I use it in my second machine which Im going to use to learn linux on. The driver support is good. I download them from cmedia site.
 


<< radioshack would make a single RCA to single phone jack.

and if you leave one out you would loose one channel. >>

We are talking about digital-in/out. One line can pass full 5.1 channels. 😀
 


<< The Dragon+ is truly a sweet motherboard, you'll probably love it. I like being able to give each of my 4 drives their own IDE controller 😀 >>



my dragon+ is a nice motherboard, but the onboard network is crap and doesnt work when im using my router, only when its directly connected to my modem. Also, the 6-channel onboard sound doesnt work too well. the 4 ide connecters on the motherboard are nice though, just make sure raid is enabled so u can use them. i think that i would have been better off with the epox 8kha+, because its all the same features that work, and i woulda saved $40 (thats when i bought it, now its different im sure). btw, y was that comment in here? doesnt have anything to do with that sound card? hmm...neither does this one...ummm....i reccommend getting a seperate sound card and not getting all the cool onboard crap, bc they can screw up like what happened to me (im just too lazy to do anything about it). this card does look nice. if ur looking for a sound card, id say go for it.
 
So, according to the various comments here it seems that this card can pass DD5.1 & DTS, it just can't do the decoding itself. If I'm using the DD/DTS capable version of WinDVD and am hooked up to a receiver which can decode these, all is good. And if I am inputing a DD/DTS signal and the capture software can decode them, all is also good. Is this correct? Thanks.
 
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