Best $50.00 soundcard that delivers 5.1 over spdif?

To start... I keep reading that you can't transmit 5.1 audio over spdif. Well I am no audiophile, have limited knowledge, but until tonight I was able to play any AAC, AC3, DTS and MP4 HD audio track in 5.1 on my very old JVC RX-888V just fine. DTS-MA sounds the best. I get the DTS light and everything. All over optical.

What made me mess everything up was that I found a flac 5.1 that would not play in 5.1. So I spend the whole evening messing with things, and I'm done. Tired of screwing with this. Tired of Windows not giving me a speaker configuration option, even after I installed and got the unlocked drivers working.

I am running Windows 7 64-bit. I am using an MSI Z77A GD-65 Gamer mobo. That has a Realtek integrated audio ALC898 with spdif out. Which is why I got the board. I have two PCIe 3.0 slots available, and one of the PCIe 3.0 x1 things. What I want to do is very, very simple.

I want to spend $50.00 or less, including shipping, and get a 5.1 or 7.1 audio card that will go into a PCIe or PCIe x1 slot, hook up to spdif, and give me 5.1 with any 5.1 audio file I play. Drivers must be stable as well as easy to install. I understand the Xonar has custom drivers because ASUS has apparently screwed that up. I was trying to avoid Creative because the horror of their drivers, but maybe they have improved?

Bonus points for a card that automatically takes my stereo music tracks and gives me sound in the rear speakers. It usually shows up as stereo on the receiver, but if you listen to the rear speakers you hear sound coming through. That was something my ancient, long lost Turtle Beach Montego (I think it was a Montego) gave me. Man I miss that card!

I found some possibilities at NewEgg, but not posting a link to the Amazon equivalent, because I am ready to throw my keyboard at my nice TV and take a baseball bat to everything. Or my fists. So I will list them as text - sorry.

ASUS Xonar DGX 5.1
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Rx 7.1
SIIG IC-710211-S1 7.1
SIIG IC-510111-S2 DP SoundWave 5.1

Are any of these going to do what I want? Because I read in the Xonar user reviews that at least one of Asus's cards says its 5.1, but it only delivers 2.1. It was another Xonar, not the one I listed here. I know nothing about SIIG. The Creative looks like the best one so far.

If you have a better recommendation, and an Amazon link, go ahead and post it. Lower price + shipping is better. I think I have $35.00, with another $10.00 possibly coming soon. That's it. I can beg for an extra $10.00, but I would rather not.

I am really interested in a soundcard that hardware decodes the audio. That seems like a good solution, from what little I know, but tell me if I am wrong.

BTW I don't need better than 5.1, but I won't pass up a 7.1.

Thank you! I appreciate your help and suggestions!

What's actually lighting up your DTS logo on your receiver is the DTS Core, which is embedded in the DTS-MA track. The DTS Core is encoded in a lossy format with 6 channels(5.1), basically the same as old DTS tracks found on DVDs

It's not that you can't do 5.1 over SPDIF, its just that SPDIF does not have enough bandwidth to output 5.1 lossless, which what a DTS-MA is, and the FLAC 5.1 file is(FLAC is lossless).

You can't play 5.1 Lossless over S/PDIF. You were getting 5.1 Dolby Digital (AC3) or DTS on whatever surround sound you were getting with your current receiver. DTS-MA defaults to DTS core over S/PDIF. 5.1 FLAC will not play in 5.1 over S/PDIF, there's not enough bandwidth. S/PDIF can only play 2 channels lossless, 5.1 has to use a lossy codec like Dolby Digital and DTS. An HDMI receiver or possibly analog out (never tried it) will get you what you want. I just replaced an ancient receiver with DD & DTS only with a newer one with HDMI for Dolby Digital TrueHD, DTS-MA, and 5.1 FLAC, WAV, & DTS files.

A new sound card will make no difference since you are sending a bitstream to your receiver. It's your receiver doing the decoding. Unless you really have a high end system and speaker you will not notice much of a difference between lossless and lossy. I do know in terms of blu-ray- the bitrate of DD is higher (I think 640 kbps) than what is typiclally used and the DTS core (that is extracted from DTS-MA) is 1.5 mbps- which sounds pretty good. Unless you spend a lot of money to upgrade your receiver and speakers you will not see a difference.

dkz said:

What's actually lighting up your DTS logo on your receiver is the DTS Core, which is embedded in the DTS-MA track. The DTS Core is encoded in a lossy format with 6 channels(5.1), basically the same as old DTS tracks found on DVDs

It's not that you can't do 5.1 over SPDIF, its just that SPDIF does not have enough bandwidth to output 5.1 lossless, which what a DTS-MA is, and the FLAC 5.1 file is(FLAC is lossless).

Click to expand...

SPDIF will not do 5.1 uncompressed, it has to be compressed due to the bandwidth and the limitations of SPDIF cabling. DKZ is right on the money.

Indeed, I had some flac files that would come out 2 channel in my system that I built in 2011 through optical. I then went straight to Hdmi and wholia, all speakers getting sound. I didn't understand it at first until I saw the bandwidth needed when I began investigating. Other than my soundcard in my PC, everything is passed through Hdmi.

OK, so I can't do loseless 5.1 through spdif, but I can do some sort of losey format.

So is there a $50.00 soundcard that will, through its hardware, take a loseless format and give me a losey 5.1 version? Which would seem to me to be what hardware decoding is, but nobody clarified this.

I do not have the physical manifestation of funds or income to purchase an HDMI receiver. I already knew that this would be one way to fix the problem. But it is not a way open to me at this moment.

I guess ultimately what I want to know is what other options, outside of purchasing an HDMI receiver, so I have available to get 5.1 sound over spdif? I don't care about it being loseless, just that it is multichannel, 5.1.

Thank you for your replies and clarifying things.

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Rx this is a pci express version of a sound card i have.


the reason they brought these back ....the new sound blaster sonar are kinda pointless windows vista and windows 7 changed how sound is done. the audgy and xi-fi chip soundcards was the last real cards that did real sound processing









how do you get them to play uncompressed multi channel...simple. let it do all the sound processing and plug each speaker into the analog ports. it will play what ever is being played by the pc and decode the dts and dolby digital on the chips not the reciver

i wont get into how they do eax on windows7 now with that card..

the xi-fi line can do studio quailty out put on the analog audio ports the audagy can do home theater level. i dont know what you are using it for.


maybe you want this version that uses home theater size rca cables and not mini jack








this probabley will not work with blurays that need hdmi copy protection/ it will play the dvd dts not the master audio or true hd if it runs into copy protection issues.



also the xi-fi line is no longer made or sold but the audagy line is.

you will need adapter cables. of you do not have that input then you are probably screwed.

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Sound-Blaster-Audigy-SB1550/dp/B00EO6X7PG

DreamBliss said:

OK, so I can't do loseless 5.1 through spdif, but I can do some sort of losey format.

So is there a $50.00 soundcard that will, through its hardware, take a loseless format and give me a losey 5.1 version? Which would seem to me to be what hardware decoding is, but nobody clarified this.

I do not have the physical manifestation of funds or income to purchase an HDMI receiver. I already knew that this would be one way to fix the problem. But it is not a way open to me at this moment.

I guess ultimately what I want to know is what other options, outside of purchasing an HDMI receiver, so I have available to get 5.1 sound over spdif? I don't care about it being loseless, just that it is multichannel, 5.1.

Thank you for your replies and clarifying things.

Click to expand...

Well you have no choice other than going multi channel analog for your 5.1 stream lossless. Accessories4less has great deals on solid refurb Denon and yamaha receivers that will make this an easier task for you.

I looked on the back of the case and I also have a coaxial out. Is that the same as spdif, just a different connecter?

Do I have to do hardware decoding on the soundcard hooking each speaker up like that? Is there any way for the decoded audio to just be passed through coaxial or spdif?

Thank you for the information and very comprehensive replies so far.

DreamBliss said:

I looked on the back of the case and I also have a coaxial out. Is that the same as spdif, just a different connecter?

Do I have to do hardware decoding on the soundcard hooking each speaker up like that? Is there any way for the decoded audio to just be passed through coaxial or spdif?

Thank you for the information and very comprehensive replies so far.

Click to expand...

Coax and optical are equal in both sound quality and bandwidth limitation, so no the coax won't gain you anything.

You state your avr is pre Hdmi , therefore it should already have colored RCA for multi channel in. The avr will decode it right from analog then out to the speakers if you bit stream it , otherwise the soundcard will decode it.

OK, thanks. So if I get a card, I guess that is the route to go.

I have turned off the Encode Mode in FFDSHOW and turned off the AAC and Flac Transform Filters. Getting multichannel output now.

Would getting a sound card, using these settings, work better in this regard?

No sound card is going to work for you. Your receiver doesn't have 5.1 analog inputs from what I've been able to gather from looking at the manual as there doesn't seem to be any pictures of the back of the unit on the internet.

You might be able to find a program to convert the 5.1 FLAC into Dolby Digital or DTS however I was never able to get .AC3 or .DTS files to play in 5.1 over S/PDIF. The only 5.1 music I was able to play over S/PDIF were DVD-Audio discs that would play in any DVD player like:

http://www.amazon.com/Metallica-DVD-Audio-Surround-Sound/dp/B00005ATQM/ref=tmm_dva_title_0
http://www.amazon.com/Blackwater-Pa...UTF8&qid=1399436589&sr=1-7&keywords=opeth+dvd
http://www.amazon.com/Lightbulb-Sun-Porcupine-Tree/dp/B0013URJTG

JRiver might be able to transcode the 5.1 FLAC to DD or DTS but I never tried that option. The program is $50 but it has a 30 day free trial period you could test it out on or sign up to their forum and ask if that'll work.

Other than that you're pretty much stuck with having to buy a new receiver if you want 5.1 music. Like Venomous recommended pick up a cheap one from Accessories4Less like this Denon for $109:

http://www.accessories4less.com/mak...3-5.1ch-home-theater-receiver-3d-ready/1.html