Multi-channel in or Digital in for my X-FI??

[Proprioceptive]

So I've got an X-fi card and I'm wondering which connection would be the best. I will be hooking it up to a Yamaha 5950 receiver. Now, using Y splitters from the x-fi's three analog inputs to the receiver is one option, but I also see another option. Apparently I can go from the digital I/O on the card to the digital coax input on the receiver rather than use all those Y splitters. Anyone know which of these two options would give me the best sound quality? Thanks.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Generally analog would be the best, since you can't get non-pre-encoded 5.1 over digital connections (meaning, you're generally limited to stereo over digital from most sound cards, excluding passthrough like pre-encoded Dolby Digital/DTS tracks from DVD's and such).

 

[darkswordsman17]

Yeah, the X-Fi's strength lies in its analog output. If you'll be playing games then you absolutely will want to do analog, otherwise you will only get stereo. With the exception of DVD-Audio, if you're just listening to music and watching movies, then its up to you which you'd want to use. With analog into your reciever, its basically just using it as an amplifier, whereas if you run digital the reciever will be doing audio processing. I'm not sure if most recievers would allow you to apply anything through analog (6 Channel direct is what you'd be using on the reciever), such as DTS-Neo:6 or Dolby Pro Logic (where you could upsample content to utilize all of your speakers). I don't know how well the X-Fi's decoding capabilities compare to most recievers, so I can't really say which would probably be better for movie/music playback.

 

[Auric]

It is unclear what you are asking as you variously refer to input and output.

For the best all around quality and versatility for soundcard output to receiver input, hook up both digital and analog and only toggle the latter for games. Software Dolby Digital encoders may optionally be used to maintain surround digital output for more sources (as opposed to PCM 2ch with matrixing).

In any case, the quality depends primarily upon the DAC's in the receiver vs those on the soundcard (barring any interference, particularly via analog out).

 

[Proprioceptive]

I ended up buying a digital audio coax cable and a 3.5mm mini to RCA adapter so I could plug one end into the digital output on the X-fi. Plugged the other end into the digital input on the receiver. VOILA! Amazing sound! I set up the x-fi to use the external DTS and Dolby decoders on the receiver. Everything sound wonderful.