Sound Card w/ Optical Output?

[thirdeye]

is there a sound card out there that has optical output. i've seen that the audigy platinum has opt input and i also noticed the soyo k7v dragon plus has a daughter card w/ input also. what i would like is a sound card w/ optical output to link up to my reciever. lemme know if there is such a thing. i may just be overlooking it. thanx

 

[Mavrick007]

The Audigy Platinum does have optical out as well as most of the SB cards with the Live drive do as well I believe. The regular Audigy doesn't have any optical, just the connectors on the card itself(which has the firewire on the card and an optional midi connector via cable to the card).

 

[MoleX]

Fortissimo2 and MOST Vortex2 sound cards have optical out... Fortissimo2 also has optical in

 

[artemedes]

I have a fortissimo II and one of the original Live! cards w/ a Hoontech DBII card.

For awhile I played around with the optical inputs and outputs so that I had the optical output going to the input of
the other sound card then to my one set of speakers. What I found out was that the Fortissimo II will not send certain
sounds thru the optical out, whereas the Hoontech card would convert every type of sound (both analog and digital cd
audio, wave, mp3, direct sound - everything) to digital and send it out. Since the Fortissimo II wouldn't send all types, in
order for this system to work as I wanted (get sound from both cards to one set of speakers) I had to hook up the SBLive!
Optical out to the Optical input of the Fortissimo then analog out to speakers.

So be careful and check the card specs and abilities, even though it has the digital connection you want it may not send all
types of audio signals to the reciever.

Just a heads up!

 

[Imdmn04]

does your receiver have a coaxial digital input as most sound cards has a coaxial digital output

 

[MoleX]

what types of signal couldn't you pass?

I have no problems passing all sounds via Optical out on my Fort2

 

[artemedes]

MoleX,

It has been awhile since I messed with it, but I do remember not being able to listen to audio cd's if the fortissimo was the
source using the optical out to the SBLive!. That was enough to erk me. As soon as I switched it I got all sound from both
sound cards to go to the speakers.

Since I messed with it I no longer have those two computers sitting together, so it is no longer an issue.


Do you have yours set up to "main outputs" under the digital output configuration options (other tab)?

 

[Mavrick007]

<< does your receiver have a coaxial digital input as most sound cards has a coaxial digital output >>



I didn't know that most cards had the coaxial dig out.. I would like to use the coaxial for my Yamaha receiver. I haven't checked my SB Live since I got the receiver so I wonder if it's on there too.

 

[thirdeye]

my reciever does have coax but i've found that the optical seems to have a little better sound and seems to carry more volume w/ it as well which is why i'm looking for a card w/ optical out. i was planning on getting the audigy platinum but i didn't want to waste my money on it if it didn't do what i wanted it to do. another question tho.. does the audigy platinum have a rear optical output or is just available on the bay?

 

[Sniper82]

OEM Aureal SQ2500 vortex 2 chipset has optical out(or it might be in never used that feature). You have to get the OEM before it has optical out. The retail has coax. I owned both.

 

[bearmeat]

The old Aureal superQuad has a TOSlink out. Maybe the Phillips acoustic egde has some optical out too? I'm not sure.

 

[StrangeRanger]

I loved my Aureal SQ2500! used the opt. out all the time, it worked great. Plus, you could get one for less than 1/4 the price of an audigy.
j

 

[thirdeye]

will i actually be able to find drivers for these vortex2 cards for XP? i have a vortex1 with coax out now but none of the extra options work because i can never find drivers for it with windows 2000. i've personally always loved the aureal cards more than the creative but since i couldn't find drivers i had no choice but move over the dark side.

 

[Brian48]

The Herc GTXP also has optical out via the breakout box.

 

[DSTA]

my reciever does have coax but i've found that the optical seems to have a little better sound and seems to carry more volume w/ it as well which is why i'm looking for a card w/ optical out.

IMO coax digital and optical should sound the same, strange that there's difference with your setup. But anyway, if you want to keep your current sound card, you can build a coax to optical converter yourself. Look here, there are a few diy guides listed under the header "Digital Format Conversion".

 

[MoleX]

<< MoleX,

It has been awhile since I messed with it, but I do remember not being able to listen to audio cd's if the fortissimo was the
source using the optical out to the SBLive!. That was enough to erk me. As soon as I switched it I got all sound from both
sound cards to go to the speakers.

Since I messed with it I no longer have those two computers sitting together, so it is no longer an issue.


Do you have yours set up to "main outputs" under the digital output configuration options (other tab)? >>



I have mine set to "Main" unless wacthing an AC-3/DTS Signal via PowerDVD.

My guess is you were trying to pass an analog signal over digitital port and not having digital audio ticked, or using ext cable from CD to card I have no prob passing an Analog signal via Toslink to my DB-940 then via toslink to MD player, I ocaitionally get errors going straight to the MD player because the Fort2 doesn't like to go COMPLETLY silent for track breaks (My guess bad driver support or severe RFI ie., hardware default [same with GTXP which has an ext Toslink box]) which will produce one giat song with white noise every track break.


FWIW I would have SBlive Opt OUT -> Fort2 Opt IN -> Fort2 Opt OUT -> MD/Reciever etc...

You prob need to have Digital audio ticked off in both PC's CD properties for it to work
and in Fort2 panal Digital audio source ticked, (may disable Digital out hehe silly drivers)

anywho good luck
but IMO for 34$ +S/H(Newegg) you cant get a better sounding Card with OK Driver (98/Me/2k/xp) support and Toslink out


As for the whole Coaxial Vs Optical It depends on length of cable and construction. A commom mistake is running a non-shielded regular RCA cable, This will NOT work well and you will notice severe sound loss and static. I go optical beacuse as a rule light travels faster than the electric current in RCA cables

YMMV
Molex
tired

 

[jema]

Terratec Sixpack 5.1+ optical in/out, good sw, cheap, but some issues in certain games.

 

[Mavrick007]

The Audigy platinum doesn't have a rear optical out, it is just on the front bay. Now you could get the Audigy platinum EX and then point your breakout box wherever you want(it's the same as the platinum with the bay connectors but it's an external box and it's black too).

 

[thirdeye]

oh sweet....i didn't realize that the EX was the one w/ the breakout box...perhaps i will get that one instead of the internal one...thanx