question about the turtle beach usb sound card

[abc]

http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/products/audioadvantage/indetail.asp

you'll have to click the link to see their picture...


they say insert the spdif digital adapter so you can run a toslink opt. cable when using the digital audio output of say a set of your speakers..

wait a sec, but aren't we going from analog to digital..... wasted effort here?

there should be a digital input on this usb sound card, no?

 

[moretoys]

It looks more like they are using a single jack for both analog and digital, with a small adapter to allow the digital connection. Note that the adapter is mostly plastic until the tip. The tip would be the spdif connections.
The reviews on the site indicate there are no inputs.

 

[abc]

yeah, so does that mean that the 'adapter' is just that, makes a digital part fit into an analog mechanism = no real digital signal preserved?

 

[moretoys]

I don't know positively, however it is real doubtful that the adapter has an analog to digital converter, it looks just large enough for the led for the optical output. The reviews I read indicated that it was 5.1 output dolby digital & DTS, which can't be encoded from 2 channel audio (only original dolby surround can be).
What I was curious about is if it is 16 or 24 bits. I haven't found that anywhere. It looks pretty good for dvd movies if you have the right player and connecting to a receiver or surround speakers using the optical, not much advantage if your laptop has a half decent sound card in it outside of that (unless a game has 5.1 dolby or dts).