Gaming Sound Card with SPDIF

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saber9505

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Whats a good sound card for gaming with spdif out (optical or coax is fine) for less than 150$. I looked at some X-Fi but having the SPDIF out on the drive bay seems retarded. If I want to connect it to my Receiver, having the cable running from the front of my card would be very strange and inconvenient.
 
My Audigy 2 Value has it. You need a mono miniplug to RCA adapter then connect that to a digital coax to the receiver. You could probably pick one up for cheap on eBay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Creative-Audigy...ryZ44981QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Doesn't get much cheaper than that.

Then:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...Price/RSK/00000000/00000399&parentPage=family
and
http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...Price/RSK/00000000/00000399&parentPage=family
or
http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...Price/RSK/00000000/00000399&parentPage=family
(whatever you think looks nicer)
 
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
X-Fi XtremeMusic has digital out on the rear of the card just like Audigy2. It's called a flexijack on the X-Fi cards as it can be used as digital I/O, Line In and Mic input.

You don't need to buy any of those adapters either as you can get mono mini jack to RCA cable. I have one as it came with my digital camera, same thing as what is needed for the X-Fi digital out.

http://www.ramelectronics.net/HTML/RCA-mini-spdif.html
 
If you want to play games using SPDIF output on a Creative card, you can't get a surround sound. If you want a surround sound through SPDIF output, you need a Dolby Digital/DTS encoding card like the Oxygen HD based cards.
 
Gatticus said:
X-Fi XtremeMusic has digital out on the rear of the card just like Audigy2. It's called a flexijack on the X-Fi cards as it can be used as digital I/O, Line In and Mic input.

You don't need to buy any of those adapters either as you can get mono mini jack to RCA cable. I have one as it came with my digital camera, same thing as what is needed for the X-Fi digital out.

http://www.ramelectronics.net/HTML/RCA-mini-spdif.html
Click to expand...

dang wish I would have seen those, but they are pretty expensive.
 
Maybe a camera store has them for cheap as it is the same cable used to display an image from a digital camera onto a TV.
 
alg7_munif said:
If you want to play games using SPDIF output on a Creative card, you can't get a surround sound. If you want a surround sound through SPDIF output, you need a Dolby Digital/DTS encoding card like the Oxygen HD based cards.
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Yeah, I wan't surround sound, but I wan't is to be decent for gaming as well. What other brands have DTS encoding besides the Oxygen. Are E-mu cards any good for gaming?
 
saber9505 said:
Yeah, I wan't surround sound, but I wan't is to be decent for gaming as well. What other brands have DTS encoding besides the Oxygen. Are E-mu cards any good for gaming?
Click to expand...
There are many brands that use the Oxygen HD chip like Auzentech X-Meridian, Bluegear b-Enspirer, Club3D Theatron DTS, Sondigo Inferno and Razer Barracuda AC-1. Oxygen HD chip is the best chip with DD/DTS encoding for games, other chips also have DTS encoding but the game support is not as good as Oxygen HD chip.
 
Sound Blaster Digital I/O Module - Add optical and coaxial digital I/O to your Sound Blaster equipped PC.

Add digital I/O to your Sound Blaster equipped PC


The Sound Blaster Digital I/O Module gives you optical and coaxial digital inputs and outputs for easy connections to digital speakers or home theater systems.

Dedicated optical and coaxial digital outputs
Easy connections to your digital speakers or home theater receiver for stereo music playback and pass through of multichannel DTS™ and Dolby® Digital movie sound.

Convenient optical and coaxial digital inputs
Digital inputs for connecting to and recording from other digital audio devices.

Works with the following Sound Blaster cards:
Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro
Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS
Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum
Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series
Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
Sound Blaster Audigy 4
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value
Sound Blaster Audigy SE
Sound Blaster Live! 24 bit
Click to expand...

Just picked one up myself as they just became available over this weekend.
 
I have a audigy 2 and a decent reciever. I use the spdif for any games that output in two channels and my reciever converts it to 5.1 with prologic. Movies that output in dd or dts are good with spdif too.

Games that output in 5.1 etc, i use the analog connections to my reciever. I just switch my reciever between digital and the analog ext in depending on what i'm doing.
 
If you cant afford a oxygen HD based card. There is alower model card called the HT Striker which has DD live thats 59 it isnt a OxygenHD chip. That would be another option if you cant afford a Oxygen HD card.

But you must get a DD live card to do surround in digital,Because you cant do it on no creative card in digital. The only thing the Adaptor for creative does is let you use digital. But that addon for the creative cards will only do 2.1 and not 5.1
 
It says stereo for music and multichannel for DTS and Dolby Digital so you will get surround sound for movies and any games that support Dolby but not for anything else.
 
you do realize most decoding (EAX DTS THX) gets dropped in optical out.
 
I was looking at the Auzentech X-Meridean, but I've heard the sound lags in startup, and that it is over priced... What do you all think? I don't want to spend much over 200$ (would prefer less than that). Any suggestions?
 
Slightly off-topic but a question I've been wondering about and could end up being something the OP may want to consider:

When using a digital out like SPDIF, does it matter if your card can do "64 voices" vs. "128 voices" or is a difference in capability like that irrelevant when using a digital connection?
 
saber9505 said:
I was looking at the Auzentech X-Meridean, but I've heard the sound lags in startup, and that it is over priced... What do you all think? I don't want to spend much over 200$ (would prefer less than that). Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
I never had the sound lag problem with my X-Meridian but I had it before with X-Plosion, this issue has been fixed with X-Meridian. Btw if you only want to use digital, you can buy any of the cheaper Oxygen HD cards like the Theatron DTS, IMO the difference is only at the analogue output. FYI, Oxygen HD chip also support 128 voices, it just doesn't support EAX >2.0.
 
Will the optical connection from the x-meridian to the receiver be decoded in 5.1? I also heard that the Theatron doesnt decode in 5.1, that your receiver must do it. How would this be different from your receiver emulating surround sound from an analogue out.
 
lol I ordered the surround cables that Creative sells for the x-fi.

I ordered them 2 months ago. Still nothing. lol 30 bucks I will never see again.
 
saber9505 said:
Will the optical connection from the x-meridian to the receiver be decoded in 5.1? I also heard that the Theatron doesnt decode in 5.1, that your receiver must do it. How would this be different from your receiver emulating surround sound from an analogue out.
Click to expand...
The receiver needs to decode it, the cards will only encode the sound into DD/DTS. Did you read the first post of my X-Meridian thread?
 
spaceman said:
lol I ordered the surround cables that Creative sells for the x-fi.

I ordered them 2 months ago. Still nothing. lol 30 bucks I will never see again.
Click to expand...

That sucks, I ordred my emu Xboard 25 from them last year and it came, I guess the ups guy ran off with your cables.
 
spaceman said:
lol I ordered the surround cables that Creative sells for the x-fi.

I ordered them 2 months ago. Still nothing. lol 30 bucks I will never see again.
Click to expand...

I bet you would get a reply within a day if you emailed them.
I had a similar problem with them and they sorted it out rather quickly after a few emails. ;)
 
I really would like to get the Creative cable but I too have experienced the frustration of it. I called Creative on Friday asking about their Home Theater cable. They couldn't even tell me how long the damn thing is. I really wanted to know if it has a common sleeve but they told me they didn't know and they did not extend any offer to even try and find out beyond anyone in the office at the time.
 
I really wanted to know if it has a common sleeve
Click to expand...

Of course it does. ;)
(this is demonstrated by the fact that it is back wards compatible with the Audigy2 and live cards)

It is pretty to see why it is not obvious given the misleading nature of the information contained on that page:

Note: This cable is only intended for use with Sound Blaster audio cards, it is not intended for use with other sound cards, or with other devices that use a 4 conductor 1/8" (3.5mm) mini plug, like camcorders or portable DVD players.
Click to expand...
 
alg7_munif said:
The receiver needs to decode it, the cards will only encode the sound into DD/DTS. Did you read the first post of my X-Meridian thread?
Click to expand...

probably :p

anyway, thanks for answering all my questions, regardless of how noobish they may have been :D
 
saber9505 said:
Whats a good sound card for gaming with spdif out (optical or coax is fine) for less than 150$. I looked at some X-Fi but having the SPDIF out on the drive bay seems retarded. If I want to connect it to my Receiver, having the cable running from the front of my card would be very strange and inconvenient.
Click to expand...

X-Fi Gamer and one of these if you're going to spend $200 LOL!

Home Theater Connect DTS-610

You can still do Digital Stereo via Passthrough for Music. I'd go with Analog out first for games personally.

Review

MaxiumPC said:
The DTS-610 doesn’t require anything of the host PC, so we didn’t see any performance hit. Even better, we tested the DTS-610 with a Creative Labs X-Fi soundcard and Logitech’s Z-5500 Digital speaker system and were unable to detect any difference in quality between that card’s decoded analog audio and the freshly encoded digital audio emerging from the DTS-610. The less-than-50ms latency was equally undetectable
Click to expand...
.
 
Dark Prodigy said:
If all you want to do is connect your X-Fi to a reciever in 5.1, why not just use the Sound Blaster Home Theatre Cable.



Click to expand...

Is this what people typically do to get DTS/DD surround sound from their PCs - use analog connections? I'm currently using a P5B-Deluxe with optical out and the SoundMax software will send a DTS signal. The problem I have with that is that it causes instability issues when running games. So now I'm considering a PCI card, but really don't know what to get. I'd like to use surround sound at times, and at other times use headphones.
 
Most games don't use DTS/DD tho, right? Doom3 sure, but BF2142? Oh the whole audio things just a mess on the PC right now. :(

As for that cable, I've only got L/R and optical in on my Sony Dream. :eek:
 
3NF said:
Is this what people typically do to get DTS/DD surround sound from their PCs - use analog connections? I'm currently using a P5B-Deluxe with optical out and the SoundMax software will send a DTS signal. The problem I have with that is that it causes instability issues when running games. So now I'm considering a PCI card, but really don't know what to get. I'd like to use surround sound at times, and at other times use headphones.
Click to expand...

X-Fi Xtreme Gamer for about $65 at Buy.com or Xtreme Music if it can be found.
 
Donnie27 said:
X-Fi Xtreme Gamer for about $65 at Buy.com or Xtreme Music if it can be found.
Click to expand...

Thanks - I see that I can get this from NewEgg for 49.99 after a $20 rebate. I'm assuming that the Sound Blaster Home theater cable would work with this?
 
I'm assuming that the Sound Blaster Home theater cable would work with this?
Click to expand...


The card will send any material that is already encoded into a multichannel digital audio format right out the coax jack on the back of the card so you don't really need those cables to get multichannel audio for DVDs and such.
(you only need those cables to get 5.1 or higher audio with games or music)
But you may want to grab the Digital I/O Module so you can use your current optical cable solution.
http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=13&subcategory=55&product=1780
 
Mister X said:
The card will send any material that is already encoded into a multichannel digital audio format right out the coax jack on the back of the card so you don't really need those cables to get multichannel audio for DVDs and such.
(you only need those cables to get 5.1 or higher audio with games or music)
But you may want to grab the Digital I/O Module so you can use your current optical cable solution.
http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=13&subcategory=55&product=1780
Click to expand...

Thanks! Will that work with the X-Fi XtremeGamer Card? It's not specifically listed in the link you provided.
 
3NF said:
Thanks - I see that I can get this from NewEgg for 49.99 after a $20 rebate. I'm assuming that the Sound Blaster Home theater cable would work with this?
Click to expand...

Yes! The same cable set ships with the DTS-610.

Connections

Then add the DTS-610 for hassel free 5.1=P I didn't see that Newegg deal BTW.
 
Donnie27 said:
X-Fi Gamer and one of these if you're going to spend $200 LOL!

Home Theater Connect DTS-610

You can still do Digital Stereo via Passthrough for Music. I'd go with Analog out first for games personally.

Review

.
Click to expand...

Why would someone want to encode an analogue signal into DTS signal? You will still need a lot of cables for that device, it is much better to connect your card directly to the receiver with analogue cables than using a DTS-610? With DTS-610 you still need 3 analogue cables connecting the card to the stupid device, you need to connect the device to a power supply and also you need to use a digital cable to connect the device to your receiver. Less than 50ms latency is just another way of saying latency up to 50ms, 50ms is high. If the device has a low latency, they will say that it has less than 20ms latency but no, they said less than 50ms. It is better to use the 3 high quality analogue cables to connect your card directly to the receiver, you will get less latency and most probably a better sound than the DTS-610, the DTS-610 is compressing an analogue signal. If you want to use digital connection, buy a DD/DTS encoding card and you will only need a single cable to connect your card to your receiver. DD/DTS encoding card will have a lower latency than the DTS-610 because it uses less process, DD/DTS encoding cards encode the digital surround sound directly from your computer and send it directly to the receiver. When using DTS-610, the digital surround sound from your computer is converted to analogue first by your sound card, after that the analogue signal is converted back to digital surround sound by the DTS-610, this digital surround sound will then be encoded into DTS signal and finally sent to the receiver. Too much process will degrade the sound quality and also add latency. Btw a sound card communicating with the CPU through PCI bus won't add latency to the sound because in Vista ALchemy is processed by the CPU and the sound card communicate with ALchemy through PCI bus=P
 
alg7_munif said:
Why would someone want to encode an analogue signal into DTS signal? You will still need a lot of cables for that device, it is much better to connect your card directly to the receiver with analogue cables than using a DTS-610? With DTS-610 you still need 3 analogue cables connecting the card to the stupid device, you need to connect the device to a power supply and also you need to use a digital cable to connect the device to your receiver. Less than 50ms latency is just another way of saying latency up to 50ms, 50ms is high. If the device has a low latency, they will say that it has less than 20ms latency but no, they said less than 50ms. It is better to use the 3 high quality analogue cables to connect your card directly to the receiver, you will get less latency and most probably a better sound than the DTS-610, the DTS-610 is compressing an analogue signal. If you want to use digital connection, buy a DD/DTS encoding card and you will only need a single cable to connect your card to your receiver. DD/DTS encoding card will have a lower latency than the DTS-610 because it uses less process, DD/DTS encoding cards encode the digital surround sound directly from your computer and send it directly to the receiver. When using DTS-610, the digital surround sound from your computer is converted to analogue first by your sound card, after that the analogue signal is converted back to digital surround sound by the DTS-610, this digital surround sound will then be encoded into DTS signal and finally sent to the receiver. Too much process will degrade the sound quality and also add latency. Btw a sound card communicating with the CPU through PCI bus won't add latency to the sound because in Vista ALchemy is processed by the CPU and the sound card communicate with ALchemy through PCI bus=P
Click to expand...

I used to wholeheartedly agree with you (and wonder why Creative even made the DTS-610 since it really doesn't simplify things at all), however there is some merit to it as this way you can have a Creative card do the full EAX treatment, send it to the DTS-610, and then have a single optical cable go from it to your reciever.

Of course I'd say this would be better only in one of two ways, the first being that you have a long distance between the computer and the reciever in which case doing a short analog run to the DTS-610 and then optical for the rest of the way. The second would be if you happen to like how it ends up sounding.

I agree that you'd most likely be better off just doing the 6-8 channel direct analog.
 
Thanks! Will that work with the X-Fi XtremeGamer Card? It's not specifically listed in the link you provided.
Click to expand...

The I/O dongle doesn't work wiht the XGamer but it is not neccesary because it has an optical miniplug output in the flexijack, you just need a mini to toslink adapter/cable.
 
HSE said:
The I/O dongle doesn't work wiht the XGamer but it is not neccesary because it has an optical miniplug output in the flexijack, you just need a mini to toslink adapter/cable.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but I think that will only support stereo SPDIF. But maybe that's all I need - I don't know :)
 
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