Optical Out to Receiver; Soundcard > Onboard?

[sqlagent]

HELLO WORLD


I can't seem to get a straight answer and I find some contradicting answers with google.

I have an Asrock 990FX Extreme4 motherboard with an onboard sound using Realtek ALC892 chipset.

I am re-using my old home theater reciever Yamaha RX-V361 connected to the PC via optical cable. My speakers are my old Polk Monitor 50.

I was curious to know if upgrading to Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional will make a difference? I read that using optical out, the sound is not processed by the sound card. Instead it is processed by the receiver so upgrading won't make a difference. I also read that upgrading your sound card provides higher performance allowing you to hear more things compared to onboard.

My primary usage is games and music.

Thanks

 

[zon2020]

Depends on the audio source.

If you have a Dolby Digital audio source, then you are likely best off by using the onboard optical connection and bitstreaming the signal digitally - unaltered and unprocessed by the PC - to your receiver to be decoded and converted to analog for reproduction. For this content, upgrading your soundcard would have zero effect.

If you are dealing with analog content, then the Titanium may (or may not) process the audio better than the Realtec chip. Even if you use optical, for analog sources the audio is still processed in the pc and then transmitted digitally using pulse code modulation to the receiver. (the reciever probably lights up as receiving a PCM or LPCM signal)

But today's onboard audio is pretty good. I think the likelihood of your noticing any improvement is pretty low. If you don't already own the card, I wouldn't spend the money on buying one.

 

[sqlagent]

Depends on the audio source.

If you have a Dolby Digital audio source, then you are likely best off by using the onboard optical connection and bitstreaming the signal digitally - unaltered and unprocessed by the PC - to your receiver to be decoded and converted to analog for reproduction. For this content, upgrading your soundcard would have zero effect.

If you are dealing with analog content, then the Titanium may (or may not) process the audio better than the Realtec chip. Even if you use optical, for analog sources the audio is still processed in the pc and then transmitted digitally using pulse code modulation to the receiver. (the reciever probably lights up as receiving a PCM or LPCM signal)

But today's onboard audio is pretty good. I think the likelihood of your noticing any improvement is pretty low. If you don't already own the card, I wouldn't spend the money on buying one.

Thanks for clarifying everything! I'm going to save my money then.