To Use S/PDIF or Not?

[MC Webster]

I just got a laptop that has S/PDIF output and I am wondering whether I should get speakers to use it or not. I would like a good set of speakers, but I am not sure what to get. What advantage does SPDIF offer over the regular output? Do I need an additional special decoder to hook up surround speakers with this output?

 

[madthumbs]

You can get much better sound through the spdif, but I don't know if there are speakers that would use it since it needs to be run through a decoder first. I think it's there so you can hook it up to a dolby digital reciever.

 

[MC Webster]

Are there any speakers you can buy with the digital decoder built in or included?

I am assuming the using this s/pdif port is the only way to connect to multiple speakers. Please someone correct me if I'm wrong.