Is it possible to use Creative DSP while using S/PDIF out? (SBZ)

I bought a Schiit stack recently, but from what I can tell, when I use optical out on my Sound Blaster Z (Win 10) it just passes the sound through, because I'm no longer able to control the audio at all with the SBZ control panel. I'm not actually positive if this means the card is no longer doing any sound processing in games, but that's what I've been thinking.

Is there any way to keep Creative's DSP over optical? I've been having trouble getting a definite answer. I never heard back from Creative support, I got the impression from Schiit in a brief email that it wasn't, but it's been suggested to me on an audio forum and reddit that it might/should be possible.

I'm not even sure how much of a difference Creative's sound processing makes, but I do quite a bit of gaming (swapping frequently between 2.1 and headphones), so it seems like something I'd want to keep if it's possible (barring it being just totally irrelevant or something).

The optical out sends out 2 channel stereo PCM unless your computer is encoding the audio to Dolby whatever compressed format. So you're 'outsourcing' the DA conversion from your computer to the outside device entirely and the Schit stack plays the stream as it wishes.

Any chance there any sound cards that will? Or is Creative DSP something I'll even particularly miss during gaming sessions? (Particularly with headphones, but with 2.1 as well)

The headphone dsp only works via the headphone out on the card. Same for the speaker out.

I finally did hear back from Creative support, this is what they said:

Regarding your inquiry, when you say "Creative audio processing", are you referring to the configured audio effects?

If yes, for audio effects to play through optical output, please enable "Play Stereo Mix" under Advanced Features. This feature also allows sound to play from both Speaker-Out and SPDIF-Out simultaneously but "Speakers" of Sound Blaster Z has to be selected as the default playback device under Windows Sound Control Panel.

Note: Please do not enable Encoder (DDL/DTS Connect) when this feature is activated.

Click to expand...

I'm not 100% certain if "digital audio effects" = DSP (heck I'm still unsure of how much and in what ways of a difference DSP even makes for gaming purposes), but using that option to enable stereo mix to the digital output is promising. Doing that, I don't have to change the audio device to S/PDIF in Windows, and I can still control the audio with the SBZ control panel.

Shocked said:

I finally did hear back from Creative support, this is what they said:


I'm not 100% certain if "digital audio effects" = DSP (heck I'm still unsure of how much and in what ways of a difference DSP even makes for gaming purposes), but using that option to enable stereo mix to the digital output is promising. Doing that, I don't have to change the audio device to S/PDIF in Windows, and I can still control the audio with the SBZ control panel.

Click to expand...

DSP = Digital Signal Processing. DSP can be for example encoding the audio to DTS or applying digital equalization effects. If you want your games to play through multichannel via spdif, you have to enable the dts encoder and decode the audio in your receiver for multichannel output. Just like watching movies.

It is possible however that the encoding/decoding will add a noticeable delay in the sound and render the function useless. Games have a built in multichannel audio in many cases, which is without delay. But you can't 'pipe' that through spdif because spdif is two channel only for PCM. It's an antique system.

HDMI audio is the only practical way.

B00nie said:

DSP = Digital Signal Processing. DSP can be for example encoding the audio to DTS or applying digital equalization effects. If you want your games to play through multichannel via spdif, you have to enable the dts encoder and decode the audio in your receiver for multichannel output. Just like watching movies.

It is possible however that the encoding/decoding will add a noticeable delay in the sound and render the function useless. Games have a built in multichannel audio in many cases, which is without delay. But you can't 'pipe' that through spdif because spdif is two channel only for PCM. It's an antique system.

HDMI audio is the only practical way.

Click to expand...

I think what I was thinking of specifically was CMSS-3D (I vaguely remember it now from my days of owning X-Fi cards but just completely eluded me until I finally stuck the right search terms into Google). So that's only available over Dolby/DTS etc.? After some googling it seems it was renamed and stuck into the SBX Pro Studio section of the control panel. I just fooled around with the slider and it seems to have the same affect on audio whether I'm using line out or the optical stereo mix, but if it does really only work with encoded audio then I'm sure there must be more going on under the hood

Would I be better off foregoing the sound card entirely and using USB along with a software solution like Razer Surround? (Or something else if there's anything better as I haven't so far read particularly great things about that one, although I only just discovered it last night so I've only just started looking at it)

Shocked said:

I think what I was thinking of specifically was CMSS-3D (I vaguely remember it now from my days of owning X-Fi cards but just completely eluded me until I finally stuck the right search terms into Google). So that's only available over Dolby/DTS etc.? After some googling it seems it was renamed and stuck into the SBX Pro Studio section of the control panel. I just fooled around with the slider and it seems to have the same affect on audio whether I'm using line out or the optical stereo mix, but if it does really only work with encoded audio then I'm sure there must be more going on under the hood

Would I be better off foregoing the sound card entirely and using USB along with a software solution like Razer Surround? (Or something else if there's anything better as I haven't so far read particularly great things about that one, although I only just discovered it last night so I've only just started looking at it)

Click to expand...

I can't really tell. I'm using a regular headset for gaming (and I don't even game any longer) so I have no real experience on that setup. Having said that, HDMI has full bandwith multichannel audio capability so that's most likely going to work best. Many display cards are hdmi audio capable so you don't necessarily even need a sound card. Just a receiver.