Questions about hooking up stereo to computer

[perfektrtw]

I am getting a 2.1 stereo setup and I want to run it through my computer using digital. I am getting the Panasonic XR-50 and it's going to power my bookshelf speakers and a sub. This is going to be for music and games, I am not a huge movie person. What I want to know is how do I go about hooking this up? Right now I have a Audigy soundcard (the original) which I believe does not have any sort of digital connection. I have been reading about the Audigy 2ZS, Revo, and Prodigy 7.1, but something I am concerned about is supposidely the Revo and Prodigy are inferior in game sound quality.

Is this only if you are using surround sound in those games, or is it all together? This is only going to be a 2.1 setup so I am not sure...

I don't want to sacrafice music sound quality either though. Boy I am really, really confused. Any help would be appreciated.

The other thing is, it seems as though it is practically impossible to find the Prodigy 7.1 or even the Revo 7.1. I went to Frys, CompUSA, and Circuit City yesterday and the only card they had was the Creative cards and the Santa Cruz Catalina, which I bought. I have not opened it though and am planning on returning it today because I read now that it sucks.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

My setup is going to be Panasonic XR-50, ACI Emerald speakers, and a Rocket UFW-10 sub.

 

[leukotriene]

Is this only if you are using surround sound in those games, or is it all together?

Basically, yes.

Your Audigy can do digital passthrough through one of the headphone jacks. You will need a minijack to SPDIF (RCA/Coax) adapter.

I can think of no good reason to use the digital output of the Audigy instead of the analog output; the Audigy resamples all digital output to 48KHz, thereby negating the purpose of digital passthrough altogether. The output cannot be perfect because it has been resampled, with 44.1KHz content it is resampled twice.

The only good reason would be if your amp accepts only digital inputs or if the analog inputs of the amp sound horrible.

The Catalina will not resample digital passthrough and will probably have more likable drivers than the Creative card.

I'd sell the Audigy and use the Catalina if you plan to do digital out. All you'll need with the Catalina is an optical digital cable.

If you do analog out I'd probably still try the Catalina to see how the output compared. The original Audigy 1 was no prize peach and it's "24 bit " output was nonexistant.

There is no point at all to using the Prodigy or REVO for digital output if you own the Catalina. The knock against the Catalina is that it uses cheap DACs.

The DACs are not used with a digital connection at all.