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Soundcard + Optical SPDIF + DD, DTS Questions

C

Cyberia123

Member
I currently have an older SB XFi Titanium (with the DD/DTS Connect Pack) feeding DD out over optical SPDIF to a MidiLand DD/DTS 5.1 Receiver. I have full 5.1 and everything is peachy in that department.

Except....the SPDIF doesn't connect directly to the card, instead there is an external dongle-type device that plugs into the XFi and that feeds the optical SPDIF. This seems suboptimal for a couple of reasons:

1) It's just one more dangling piece of equipment.
2) Possible source of delay (although I don't hear or notice a problem there)
3) The SPDIF dongle ALSO handles the MIC-IN for headsets and you can't use both at the same time!!

So I ALSO have to activate my motherboard's ADI 1988B on-board sound and run the headset via that route. AFAIK, the ADI 1988B doesn't support DD/DTS output even though it has optical SPDIF, so I can't ditch my XFi either.

I am looking to do a full system rebuild soon and looking at getting a ASUS P8Z68-V PRO with an on-board Realtek ALC892. Can this do DD/DTS? Is the quality as good as an XFi or Auzentech?

If no, then I'm looking to replace my current XFi with either:

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829102019

or

HT | OMEGA STRIKER 7.1 (This is an Auzentech right?)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-001-_-Product

The goal being to have ONE soundcard solution that handles everything AT THE SAME TIME (general sounds out to SPDIF and headset for Ventrillo team voices ONLY, not game sounds)

Anyone have suggestions or input?
 
I think you'd be better off with the Asus Xonar Essence STX sound card, or get a DAC. (I have the NuForce Icon uDac 2 (ver 2)...think I paid @ $138. I removed my internal Creative X-Fi card when I hooked up the DAC.

I'm certainly not trying to sound like an expert here... far from it. I just wanted better sound for gaming and music listening.

Son and I play FPS games using a headset. We listen to music either thru the DAC with Grado cans plugged in, or use our M-Audio AV-40 speakers. (theses speakers are decent, but not quite as good as I expected).

Honestly, I'm confused with sound coming from games such as 'Battlefield: Bad Company 2' and the upcoming 'Battlefield 3'. Thinking about getting the Logitech G930 wireless headset for gaming. (currently have lousy lower model Logitech). Need a headset as we use a VOIP program called TeamSpeak for talking to fellow clan-mates when playing our FPS games.

When we use a USB headset we're getting the processed sound from the DAC, correct? I wonder if I can improve the sound by getting the Xonar Essence sound card....
 
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If you are worried about delay then you need to ditch the DD/DTS live altogether as it adds considerable delay (100-200 ms). Now I am just using the HDMI out on my video card for direct digital to my receiver. No need for kludgy software solutions and no loss of quality.
 
Well right, but my receiver doesn't have an HDMI input, so I need DD/DTS capability (right?)

Does the Realtek ALC892 do this? And would it allow me to simultaneously run a headset independently?
 
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