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Help with PC Audio Setup

C

chr

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 8, 2004
Messages
86
Components:
Logitech Z-5500
HT Omega Claro Plus PCI Sound Card
MSI P67 // 2600K // 16GB Corsair
Optical audio cable (Toslink)
(3) 3.5mm audio cables
RCA cable

I am relatively new to using decent sounding PC audio components, and am a little confused on all the different connections, and what to use, and what components are actually doing any kind of processing.

The way I understand it, if I use an optical cable from the HTO to the Z-5500, the signal is passed from the HTO to the control pod, and it is processed by the control pod. Does this mean the sound card isn't being used at all and is a waste of money?

Second, if I connect the HTO to the Z-5500 via (3) 3.5mm audio cables, is the sound card now doing the processing and just outputting it to the Z-5500 (6-channel direct) ?

Is there a different/optimal setup that any of you can recommend? I just feel as if I am not getting my money's worth having the sound card, as the onboard sound also has an optical out I could probably use and get the same quality. Thanks in advance for any replies.
 
chr said:
The way I understand it, if I use an optical cable from the HTO to the Z-5500, the signal is passed from the HTO to the control pod, and it is processed by the control pod. Does this mean the sound card isn't being used at all and is a waste of money?

Second, if I connect the HTO to the Z-5500 via (3) 3.5mm audio cables, is the sound card now doing the processing and just outputting it to the Z-5500 (6-channel direct)?
Click to expand...

Yes, this is true.

A digital signal being sent across an S/PDIF interface is also pretty highly compressed and the analog cables are not compressed at all.

There is nothing special about the hardware in the Z-5500s so just about any sound card is going to have a better DAC in it to do the conversion to analog.

The reason you don't want to just use the digital S/PDIF out on your motherboard is that it most likely will not allow you to send surround sound for video games, because the output from a video game isn't encoded into that compressed Dolby Digital or DTS codec.

You would need a sound chip that supports Dolby Digital Live or DTS Interactive if you want 5.1 sound out of the S/PDIF port for video games.

I would just recommend using analog as it will most likely sound better anyways and since you already have a sound card.
 
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