Inexpensive usb digital out?

[Pooptacular]

Hello all, I am currently trying to find a cheap usb dongle that will let me get digital out. I dont care if its optical or coax and I dont need surround sound. Just want to get pcm to go to my receiver and bypass my shitty onboard card. thanks in advance, having a little troble finding one.

 

[EvilYoda]

There are plenty of options out there, but most of them are designed for audiophile purposes, so it's not as simple as a dongle, as there's a bit of processing involved...the cheapest (in all senses of the word) I've come across is the one offered by Yeo at diyparadise:

DIYparadise.com

he's also got quite the following for affordable amps, preamps and DACs too.

The USB -> DAC I'm looking at is made by twisted pear audio, twistedpearaudio.com...it'll be more like $300-400, as the USB module is outputting I2S into a fully dual mono DAC with Wolfson chips, along with the usual SPDIF inputs.

Hopefully that first one can help you out.

 

[Pooptacular]

that is exactly what I was looking for, thank you very much. One quick question, does the os matter with any of the usb devices such as if im using this on xp or on vista?

 

[EvilYoda]

Originally posted by: Pooptacular
that is exactly what I was looking for, thank you very much. One quick question, does the os matter with any of the usb devices such as if im using this on xp or on vista?

From what I've read, depending on the chip they use, they tend to be pretty flexible...I know XP works, probably Vista and even Linux usually. Don't know about OSX though, as this would be nice to pair up with an Apple TV or Mac Mini.

 

[Pooptacular]

damn went to order and its sold out

 

[PurdueRy]

Why not just get a Chaintech AV-710 sound card? Simple, cheap and effective.

 

[Pooptacular]

I dont want to be limited to a pci card, I have laptops that can make use of such a usb device.

 

[Excelsior]

http://www.buy.com/prod/turtle...loc/101/202293396.html

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: Excelsior
http://www.buy.com/prod/turtle...loc/101/202293396.html

Yeah, just get a USB sound card like this.

 

[montypythizzle]

Originally posted by: Excelsior
http://www.buy.com/prod/turtle...loc/101/202293396.html

The Micro has optical out, and is probably cheaper, but I couldn't find it on Buy.com.

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: montypythizzle

Originally posted by: Excelsior
http://www.buy.com/prod/turtle...loc/101/202293396.html

The Micro has optical out, and is probably cheaper, but I couldn't find it on Buy.com.

Indeed it does, and yeah, its like $5 cheaper.

 

[Pooptacular]

that amigo usb sound card sounds good, but no vista support which sucks. I might still get it and just use xp.

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: Pooptacular
that amigo usb sound card sounds good, but no vista support which sucks. I might still get it and just use xp.

No, it supports vista.

http://www.turtlebeach.com/pro...amigo/whatdoineed.aspx