making the switch to digital audio

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maximus1284

Limp Gawd
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Feb 18, 2007
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I'm planning to buy an x-fi xtrememusic for music, dvds, and gaming, and the logitech z-5500 5.1 speakers. I was originally looking at getting the x-fi fatality, but I don't think its necessary. anyway, I'm unfamiliar with digital audio, and I would like to switch to digital audio (play games, listen to music) and use 5.1 digital surround for dvds. will I be able to with this current set up? is there anything else I need to know about my current set up or about switching to digital?
 
Not quite sure what you mean. If the audio is coming from a computer, it is digital by definition as computers are digital devices. Can you explain further?
 
hmm...see I'm not quite sure how to explain it, but I guess basically I want to use coax or optical wires from my PC to my speakers
 
Sycraft: I was also referring to digital audio vs. analog...I guess it just refers to how it is transmitted from the PC/sound card to the speakers...digital is clearer, better

hmm...after doing some reading, it looks like the only way for digital out is with the I/O which would mean getting the Fatal1ty or other x-fi w/ I/O....and then the digital audio is only limited to 2.1 with out any support for EAX effects in gaming

wtf

oh well, I don't suppose there is a multi-purpose card that supports digital out 5.1 huh?
 
how do these compare to the xtrememusic? the xtrememusic (according to creative) sounds like it has some nice, unique features for producing good quality sound (or just great advertising)

do these 2 cards requiring more processor power?


and finally here's the dilemma...what should I value more...creative's EAX 5.0 for gaming, or digital surround....this seems to be the biggest differences in the cards, hmmmmm......
 
Now one thing to remember is that when you have a card that does surround digital out you are compressing the data. It uses whether Dolby Digital or DTS, neither of which are lossless. It will only give you a superior signal if your receiver has better DACs than your soundcard. There is no such thing as end-to-end digital audio. At some point, it becomes analogue. You can have the decoder the Logitech speakers do it, but that doesn't necessarily gain you anything, especially since you are going to compress and decompress the audio to do so.
 
Those standard compress the data to what 16 bit @ 48Khz and what are we talking for gaming audio mostly 16 bit @ 48Khz?
 
hmm, well then should I go for digital audio or not? would it be a vast difference from analog?

it seems like digital would improve sound overall more than EAX 5.0 which is limited only to games, but if it doesn't actually make that big of a difference then maybe I should go for EAX 5.0

oh and I'm open to other speaker suggestions as well, but I don't plan to spend more then $300 on speakers...I can get the z-5500's for $284 ;) I'd like to order this stuff tomorrow if possible
 
It's really a personal choice. The sound quality depends alot on what your connecting the card to. I personally have full EAX and OpenAL support and still have the ability to go fully digital in either Dolby Digital or DTS. I use two cards though and they are connected by a sound application. You have to decide which is more improtant to you. You may be better off sticking with analog in my opinion.
 
Audioguy said:
Those standard compress the data to what 16 bit @ 48Khz and what are we talking for gaming audio mostly 16 bit @ 48Khz?
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Mostly 16/44.1, actually.

Many developers have been quite stupid about sticking with 44.1kHz even though the XP kmixer operates natively at 48kHz, and all non-48kHz DirectSound content is subject to poor-quality resampling.

As for the OP, you're making too large a differentiation between digital and analog, as the signal inevitably becomes analog at some point in the pipeline in order to be reproduced by speakers. The main reason to use digital out is to have better control over which component performs this conversion, but if you don't own a preamp superior to the capabilities of the sound card, you're not really benefiting from outputting a digital signal.
 
16bit @44.1 -cd quality and if your lucky 16bit@48Khz. -Dat quality. I just wanted to point that out since alot of gamers seem to like ponting out that when using DD Live or DTS connect over a digital connection it is a lossy algo. Considering gaming audio quality it's not a real big deal. I personally just use analog connections
 
Speaking from experience, just use the analog cables between your X-Fi and Z5500s and be done with it. It's not worth it to use the digital connection on the Z5500s if your source is a PC. The X-Fi DACs are just as good as the ones in the Z5500 control pod.
 
meaning analog or digital using a X-fi and Z-5500's will give you the same sound quality more or less?
 
PCMusicGuy said:
Speaking from experience, just use the analog cables between your X-Fi and Z5500s and be done with it. It's not worth it to use the digital connection on the Z5500s if your source is a PC. The X-Fi DACs are just as good as the ones in the Z5500 control pod.
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thats probably what I'll end up doing. and I was originally planning to get the x-fi fatal1ty, but it isn't worth it. I'd only use the head phone jack on the front I/O lol. the xram is a waste and really only works for 1 game I don't play. outside of those 2 features, the xtrememusic is basically the same. as long as the xtrememusic has all the features the xtremegamer has (which I believe it does), I'll be satisfied

I don't understand why creative hasn't fully integrated digital audio support into their cards yet, thats mind boggling
 
Audioguy said:
meaning analog or digital using a X-fi and Z-5500's will give you the same sound quality more or less?
Click to expand...

Pretty much.

maximus1284 said:
thats probably what I'll end up doing. and I was originally planning to get the x-fi fatal1ty, but it isn't worth it. I'd only use the head phone jack on the front I/O lol. the xram is a waste and really only works for 1 game I don't play. outside of those 2 features, the xtrememusic is basically the same. as long as the xtrememusic has all the features the xtremegamer has (which I believe it does), I'll be satisfied

I don't understand why creative hasn't fully integrated digital audio support into their cards yet, thats mind boggling
Click to expand...

Creative's digital audio support is just fine. They do not do digital encoding on the fly like some other companies and that's what really urks most of us. They have some serious audio processing power with their soundcards, but apparently their software department consists of a bunch of monkeys. I bet they will see the light in a year or two when they offer the product line after the X-Fi (note that I'm considering the X-Fi 2 in the X-Fi product line).
 
I have been playing with this for a while now and with the upconverting capability of the X-fi card it really is a waste of time to rely on the digital decoder in your receiver.

I simply connect in analogue multi channel to the reciever ( using the creative HTPC breakout cable). The benefits are that I have been able to turn off the crossover built into the amp and make all the crossover settings in the pc to match the specifications of the speakers.

The advantage is immersive music and awesome movies.

This also overcomes some of the limitations in the receiver's digital decoder, infact in the next evolution I plan to simply use a high quality multi-channel power amp such as a Rotel and eliminate the need for my NAD altogether.
 
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