7.1 and Optical/Digital Out thingy (Audio)

[SteveGriff]

Hi all,

I thought I'd ask here as there are some technical minded folk here.

I'm going to get a new sound card for my Linux box here. Question is, you can get one of those cards with 5 or so jack(?) outputs, and sometimes (I think) they include a digital out. Question is - are they the same thing? As in, the digital out does the work of the 5 jacks?

Somebody clear this up for me?

Steve

[Stevieboy]

Hi all,

I thought I'd ask here as there are some technical minded folk here.

I'm going to get a new sound card for my Linux box here. Question is, you can get one of those cards with 5 or so jack(?) outputs, and sometimes (I think) they include a digital out. Question is - are they the same thing? As in, the digital out does the work of the 5 jacks?

Somebody clear this up for me?

Steve

Aye. Same thing Steve. The fibre optic route is the easiest and cheapest(?) as there's only the one cable.
Are you connecting your PC to your amp? I take it the amp has an optical input?

[SteveGriff]

Aye. Same thing Steve. The fibre optic route is the easiest and cheapest(?) as there's only the one cable.
Are you connecting your PC to your amp? I take it the amp has an optical input?

It sure does Stevieboyo. Thanks for clearing that up.

Steve

[SteveGriff]

One last thing. Digital S/PDIF Output is the technical word for the Digital Output?

[SteveGriff]

While I have your attention Stevie, Im thinking about this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-Xonar-Essence-STX-Express/dp/B001P9O894/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289774451&sr=1-1-fkmr0

I can't really go for Creative Sound devices because they don't do Linux drivers.

This is the amp system I currently have:

http://www.logitech.com/en-gb/speakers-audio/home-pc-speakers/devices/224

I only want better quality of sound, I'm not going to be doing recording or some crazy other stuff. I'm like my music (remember our Rush / Zappa conversations on CH?) so I'm willing to spend some money

Steve

Regards,

Steve

[Gryph]

I'm running the smaller brother to that card atm in my win7 box (asus xonar d2 7.1 pci ex).

It's amazing. My speakers are logitech z5500, and the setup is excellent. I tried it through my onkyo amp setup and it's even better, but the logi's are fine for the study.

Combine that card with a good set of headphones, I'm currently using ATH (audio technica) ATH-AD700, and the sound is stunning. So much so, I'm questioning the quality of many files in my collection.

Hmm, real ref? Battlefield Bad Company 2, through speakers rocks the house, you can feel the explosians, and sounds are separated much more so than on-board 7.1. Headphones, playing a MMO, and firing up Lord of the Rings 2 (twin towers?) sound track to listen in the background really is quite haunting.

edit to add: gah, my fail... you have z5500... get that card, it rocks with those speakers!!!!