Sound Blaster Live!: Digital Out vs Analog Out

[andrey]

Is there much difference in sound quality between digital out and analog out on Sound Blaster Live! ? Right now I have Cambridge Sound Works FPS2000, which are connected to front/rear output, but would it be worth for me to spend $30 and get daughter card which has digital out ?

 

[Pariah]

no

 

[TGCid]

There is no sound difference, I think it is just an advertisement gimmick that they used. Both sounds the same trust me.

 

[mpancha]

it depends. If you have higher end speakers there is a noticeable difference, but if you have factory speakers that came with a prebuilt comp like compaq, dell, hp then no. I have Altec Lansing ADA 880s and a SB Platinum, and my sound is through the SPDIF out on the live drive. Sounds are much clearer, there is less static. MP3s sound better. CDs for the most part sound the same through analog or digital.

Basically if you are not a big audiophile, its not going to make a difference to you either way.

 

[gtd2000]

I agree with mpancha, the FPS 2000 and Live DE the digital connection does sound clearer, unfortunately I get an occasional static sound when using the digital connection method from both my digital (optical) I/O card or the built in digital output connector.

 

[Priit]

When using those so-called "multimedia speaker", there's really isn't difference cause their build-in amplifiers are mostly pretty crappy. Haven't heard any plastic speaker that sounds good, yet (probably never do)

 

[bigjon]

Make your own daughterboard and save the $30 to boot

Seriously, I did it in 5 minutes. If all you care about is the coax (electrical) S/PDIF output then you just need to connect an RCA jack to a couple pins on your SBLive Value card. Here's the gravy:

Make your own "daughterboard"

And yes, I notice a substantial improvement with digital over analog, ESPECIALLY if you had any ground loop hum with the analog connection.