optical digital out
 

hi, i have a computer with a sound blaster audigy and a digital surround sound receiver. is there any point to running a digital optical cable from the audigy interface to the receiver? would i be getting any better sound quality than i am with my standard rca jacks that i have now? all i pretty much play is mp3s..

thanks

Well MP3's are not perfect audio media...

But in theory the best quality is reached through optical connections (all else being equal).

But if you can't hear the diference between 128Kb and 192Kb recorded songs (like me) you wouldn't notice the difference probably...

no, there's no point.

MP3's are low enough quality that you won't notice the minimal signal drop over the regular miniplug connectors. Besides, unless you have 2 mortgages on your house to be able to afford your stereo, your stereo introduces enough noise that minimizing distortion into it is pointless anyway.

To give you an idea, the most exacting audiophiles on the planet are broadcast engineers. If it doesn't sound 110% good, they rip it out and find something different. And most (if not all) radio stations are still using plain old wire rather than optical connectors.

thats not entirely a fair comparison as broadcast equipment is by default much better than the average home stereo and they use professional style cables \ connectors which are also better by default. Aes\ EBU for example.

sorta like comparing composite or svideo to an rca connection.

if you look at the wire running between those connectors, it's still copper, not fiber-op.

And you might be surprised to learn that a great many stations use equipment which still uses plain old stereo RCA connectors.

I know you said all you pretty much play is mp3s... so why hook it up to a surround sound reciever? If you are watchin dvds, thats a different story, because in order to rock out to DTS or dolby digital, it has to be a digital cable. That imo makes a BIG difference.

As for that, using a digital connection (optical or coax) would be the only way to get multi-channel surround from the decoder. Right?

I use an optical out for my audigy card and I do notice the difference. DVD's more than anything I notice the difference.

Separating your PC electricaly from your receiver is good, from that point optical is better than coax and RCA. Especially if you have a TV-card in your PC. The ground loop antenna-PC-receiver sounds really bad (a hum). Otherwise optical and coax is the same, i.e digital. Many perfectionists don't like the extra conversions needed when using optical cables, electrical-optical-electrical, since it can give jitter errors. But for a PC sound...

I've done a lot of testing with various optical and coax cables, and time after time, the coax has won out, even with very high quality true glass fiber cables. A big part of it IMO has to with the poor interface between the cable and the output jack. Most of the people who prefer the optical over the RCA typically have ground problems which cause noise/interference.

IMO, just stick with the RCA's and high quality cable/connectors, although even that isnt overly important when mp3 is the type of media.

BTW, when I did this testing, I used both Mirage and speakers of my own creation (a Wilson WATT clone of sorts using Scanspeak drivers), a Meridian 602 transport, a Denon DAC, various Meridian, B&K, Denon, and Mark Levinson amps, and various home-brewed and commercial cables. (I had finally settled on a particular coax cable and canary connectors with silver solder)

No. Optical cables were a nice idea, but most head to head comparisons lean towards RCA connections. Stick with what you've got. If it doesn't sound like what you're expecting, upgrade your RCA cables to something better. If you want to do this, yeah, I suppose Monster calbe would be fine. But searching out another brand like Canare or Tributaries will net you even better results for the same price. (Take a look at http://www.audioadvisor.com)

Also, broadcast engineers are not audiophiles. Might be some desparity in our different definitions of audiophiles...!

Don't think you will notice any difference. The MP3 format is sampled at a certain speed an in a certain range of frequency. This means there is a huge part missing from the original recording. Ergo the quality of the music is to low to hear any difference between the 2 cables.

As somebody who ran some concert audio gear for a college, audiophile and sound engineer are two different groups that do at times over lap.

And if you really aren't noticing anything about your system that doesn't sound good to you, don't fuck with it. Your stereo is for you, not the audiophile nut down the street.

anyone know of a card who's optical output supports more than 2 channels? mine only supports 2, and I can't find any others that support more than 2. I want surround baby, and I'm not gonna buy computer speakers when I already have a $600 stereo system in my bedroom.