optical output on a sound card?

[metaxasm]

I want to pump my comp sound to my Digital reciever. Which sound card provides optical or coaxil output for 5.1?

 

[NutBucket]

Soundblaster Live/Audigy and prolly the Herc GTXP.

 

[Huma]

almost all modern soundcards can do coax with a mini to rca adapter.

for optical, an audigy or sblive with a hoontech adapter will work, or an audiotrak maya 7.1 / gold will too.

 

[LordAccord]

even as far back as Live! 5.1 with / livedrive has optical out.... so if you need a cheaper solution.... thats what im running now, havent upgraded sound lately....

 

[GoSharks]

the fortissimo II has optical out that will do 5.1 with dvds

 

[madthumbs]

For Digital, or SPDIF out you can use either a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, or a Philips Acoustic Edge. Neither is optical, but both are digital. If you play mpeg4's with AC3, you may need to enable spdif output through the media player if you want Dolby digital 5.1 to go to your reciever. Sasami2k isn't capable of this, but about half the media players I've tried support it including wmp 6.4 or mplayer2.exe.

 

[nortexoid]

two types of digital on sound cards: 1) optical via toslink, and 2) coaxial via RCA plugs

the santa cruz, which i own, has a versajack is actually a mini-stereo jack, so u need a 3 dollar stereo-to-RCA cable or adapter...i have one, works fine, but that's still coaxial

if u're looking for optical, and dont' need 5.1 analog, i'd get the hercules fortissimo II...i find it one of the best values out there right now w/ both digital in and out via toslink, 4.1 analog, and a dedicated headphone jack.

the yamaha based cards otu there (i.e. the aopen ones) also have optical out...some of the extremely cheap c-media cards (i.e. zoltrix nightingale pro 6) also have optical out.

the hercules GTXP has it, the audigy platinum has it, the terratec DMX 6-fire, and a bunch others.

EDIT: i should mention, u don't need a "5.1" sound card to do 5.1 out via AC3 pass-through to a dolby decoder...the 5.1 label just means 5.1 analog, u're doing 5.1 digital..any card sporting digital out can do 5.1 via pass-through

 

[metaxasm]

Thank you for you responses. Here is something I found in another fourum.

__Proven & Recommended Sound Cards for SPDIF pass through->

Audio Excel-Theater Excel-$19 USD
Hercules Fortissimo I & II-$45 USD
Hercules Game Theater XP- $110 USD
Terratec DMX XFire 1024-$58 USD
Philips Acoustic Edge - $??
M-Audio Dio 24/96 - $??

Any C-Media 8738 based sound card have given great results whether it?s built-in to the motherboard or a PCI card. They also pass both DTS and DD without issue. Here are a few -

AudioExcel MD-Mate - $??
Yamaha X-Wave 7000 Pro - $??
Zoltrix Nightingale Pro 6 - $40 USD

Philips Acoustic Edge is reported to work very well in VIA motherboards as well. It?s advised the sound card be installed to the farthest PCI slot from the CPU.

Note: Creative cards are purposely not listed due to the numerous hardware/software issues on most of the models. Issues range from bad drivers, jitter, SNR to out of voltage specifications which could damage your external amp. Also worth noting is that few of the above mentioned cards might not be suitable for audiophiles. The intent was to show cost effective sound cards which are easy to configure for multi-channel and SPDIF playback

 

[nortexoid]

the audioexcelt is an aka chaintech c-media based card...virtually the same as the zoltrix nightingale pro 6...i'd ad actually stay away from them in favor of the better hercules fortissimo II

yamaha based cards i'd stay away from too, as they're beginning to lack support, from what i've heard.

i'd either go w/ the terratec or fortissimo II for optical out...otherwise i'd go santa cruz again for coax. out...i love this card.

 

[metaxasm]

I think the santa cruz card has won.

 

[MisterDuck]

I know the turtle beach has a digital out (spdif) and an OEM is about 55 bucks. Great card, excellent support and sound....the audigy, philips, and herculese card should have a digital out too.

 

[DieHardware]

metaxasm if you pick a soundcard without an optical output but need one, Radioshack sells a mini-plug to toslink converter for $5Cdn(around $3US), Canadian sku #: 42-9566 .

 

[Auric]

DieHardware, will you clarify that? Is that an electrical mini RCA to optical adapter? If so that is tres kewl. I did not know such things existed in one l'il unit.

 

[flood]

Originally posted by: Auric
DieHardware, will you clarify that? Is that an electrical mini RCA to optical adapter? If so that is tres kewl. I did not know such things existed in one l'il unit.

They do exist, but that link doesnt have them. the mini to toslink there is just a piece of plastic that allows light to pass through. it changes the toslink connecteor into a smaller one (minidiscs and such need this smaller plug).

There are a couple of usb->toslink converters here as well as some analog -> toslink

 

[DieHardware]

Thanks flood, and sorry for the confusion everyone. RS does sell a converter for $50Cdn.($30-35US). Link