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Digital Audio

I am not sure what your question is. Clearly it translates a digital input to actual sound output. Are you asking if you can use it without having another sound card so to speak? The answer would be yes.

Same for optical out, neither of these things will have audio quality strictly affected by your sound card. Though with the headphones there's sort of a soundcard built in, optical out is just passing on the (hopefully undisrupted) signal for some other soundcard.
 
thanks for the reply, im just trying to get a grasp of what this digital audio stuff is, i heard that digital audio is better than normal analog, but im also wondering if its worth it to get a ?receiver? with optical in.. Would it be cheaper and better to go with digital without a soundcard, or analog with a soundcard and amp/receiver.
 
Everything has to be translated to analog eventually before it can be heard. The difference between "digital" and "analog" audio in your case is where that translation happens. Typically analog would mean it's done in the computer and you use the colored jacks in the back, while digital means the translation is done in an external device like a receiver. With that USB headset the translation is done by a chip in the headset.
 
digital audio doesn't always mean USB either, theres various methods, but basically a simple breakdown:

you have audio files in your PC -> they are digital -> digital source -> lots of digital/digital processing -> digital to analog stage

for that USB headset its like this:

digital audio from PC -> USB audio device (which is basically a "soundcard") -> analog output (headphones)

as opposed to a more conventional setup:

digital audio from PC -> PCI/PCIe audio device (a soundcard or onboard solution) -> analog output (plugs on the pack) -> whatever (headphones or whatever)

OR
PCI/PCIe audio device (soundcard or onboard or whatever) -> digital output (from that device, this will be in the form of S/PDIF) -> digital input on a device (like a receiver or whatever) -> analog -> whatever (like speakers)

there isn't really "better", its usually just more efficient (for example with S/PDIF you can run 5.1 audio via a single cable, vs three of them, thats an advantage for a lot of users), and a lot of audiophile/techie whining to go with that

now to answer your question:
in the case of your USB headset, it is its own soundcard, so it will influence its own sound, and you can't upgrade/change that (because its all built in), however in the case of a digital output from something like a soundcard, the soundcard still influences the signal because it generates it (so you still have all of the DSP effects and processing being done on the soundcard's side), you're just using an external device to decode that signal (vs built in decoders on the card)

you can go with digital or analog from most any soundcard, and there isn't going to be a lot of difference depending on the hardware you've got connected together (this is a general statement, take it for what it is)
 
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