Need advice choosing a sound card.

KateB

KateB

KateB

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Hello all.

I'm about to buy a LG 32LF650V TV to use with my PC instead of a monitor mainly for watching Blu-Rays and gaming and would like to upgrade my sound card.

Now I'm a little bit confused when using a TV as the TV itself comes with speakers but I already have, although old, some Logitech Z680 5.1 THX Speakers that still work perfectly and would like to use those.

Now my current sound card is the Asus SupremeFX II 8-CH Audio which came with my Rampage Formula board that I'm still using.

So with my sparkly new TV playing beautiful 3D Blu-Rays I would like the sound to match.

Can anyone suggest an upgrade?

Also can anyone explain how the connections work?

I'm connecting the TV via HDMI to the Graphics card and the Logitech Z680's to the sound card which was fine before as my old monitor had no speakers but the new TV has built in speakers so do I connect the TV to the sound card as well and if yes, which connector?

Thank you.
 
Looking at the old review of the Logitech Z680, it would seem that it support:
- True Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround sound with built-in hardware decoding
- Dolby Pro Logic® II decoding creates a 5.1 soundfield from two-channel sound sources

Source: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2003/09/30/logitech_z-680_thx_5_1_speakers/1

So I think you might not need to get a soundcard, if your motherboard has a optical spdif out you can probably just connect a optical cable from it to the optical digital input of the Z680, and you will have 5.1 sounds for your blu-ray movies etc.
 
Thank you.

My motherboard does have a spdif out on it.

So I just plug in an optical cable into the spdif out on the motherboard and the other end into the digital optical connector on the control console of the Z680 and that's it?

No connections between the sound card and the control console and no connections between the TV and the PC except for the HDMI to the graphics card?

Thank you.
 
KateB said:
Thank you.

My motherboard does have a spdif out on it.

So I just plug in an optical cable into the spdif out on the motherboard and the other end into the digital optical connector on the control console of the Z680 and that's it?

No connections between the sound card and the control console and no connections between the TV and the PC except for the HDMI to the graphics card?

Thank you.
Click to expand...
Yes. It should work just like that. The DTS audio encoding of the blu-ray movies will be sent via the optical cable, and when this reach the Z680, it should then decode the encoding DTS audio, then send the audio to the satelites and sub accordingly.
 
To get 5.1 you'll need to get your DVD / Blu Ray software to pass through the optical signal to the z680s, rather than letting your sound device handle it.

That's only for content pre-encoded with Dolby or DTS (including DVDs and Blu-rays).

For PC generated content (like games) to have 5.1 you would need Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect (sometimes know by other names). I don't think your motherboard supports them so you would probably need a soundcard to get 5.1 functional for content that isn't pre-encoded.
 
Marine-RX179 said:
But you have to make sure on your windows sound device setting you have set the audio to the motherboard optical output.
Click to expand...

Thanks

Uriel said:
To get 5.1 you'll need to get your DVD / Blu Ray software to pass through the optical signal to the z680s, rather than letting your sound device handle it.

That's only for content pre-encoded with Dolby or DTS (including DVDs and Blu-rays).

For PC generated content (like games) to have 5.1 you would need Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect (sometimes know by other names). I don't think your motherboard supports them so you would probably need a soundcard to get 5.1 functional for content that isn't pre-encoded.
Click to expand...

Everything will be handled by my PC, the TV will just be a glorified monitor with benefits.

The Blu-Ray software is PowerDvD 14.

If I do need a soundcard do I need to get one with a spdif out on it (do they exist)?

Can you recommend one?

Thank you.
 
KateB said:
If I do need a soundcard do I need to get one with a spdif out on it (do they exist)?

Can you recommend one?

Thank you.
Click to expand...
It's entire depending on if you need Dolby Digital Live for gaming...the most mid-range Asus and Creative £50 and upward soundcard will have a Dolby Digital Live feature via optical spdif, and the higher-end ones will have both optical and coaxial.

But there's a Realtek cracked driver/method that will allow you to unlock Dolby Digital Live and DTS Interactive for generating 5.1 audio from your PC. At the moment, I have my Asus STX's Dolby Digital Live to use with my AV receiver, but I need another Dolby Digital Live output to use with my Astro Mixamp for my headphone, so I have followed a setup guide and used the cracked driver, and can now get Dolby Digital Live via my Realtek's optical spdif output.

I will see if I can find that thread and post here for you.
 
Trying the unlocked Realtek driver is worth a go, but that may not work. In theory it should do, but I've seen posts from some users who couldn't get it to work, for whatever reason.

If it doesn't I wouldn't bother with the optical route and having to use Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect. Just use direct 5.1.

Assuming the unlocked driver doesn't work, the OP will have to buy a sound card that has Dolby Digital Live and/or DTS Connect in order to get proper 5.1 to work when playing games, as explained by Uriel

Why not just use direct 5.1 3.5mm analogue outputs?
 
Marsman said:
Trying the unlocked Realtek driver is worth a go, but that may not work. In theory it should do, but I've seen posts from some users who couldn't get it to work, for whatever reason.

If it doesn't I wouldn't bother with the optical route and having to use Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect. Just use direct 5.1.

Assuming the unlocked driver doesn't work, the OP will have to buy a sound card that has Dolby Digital Live and/or DTS Connect in order to get proper 5.1 to work when playing games, as explained by Uriel

Why not just use direct 5.1 3.5mm analogue outputs?
Click to expand...
I supposed he can use 3.5mm cables, but considering the audio quality of onboard sound, the digital out is still probably the better option.

Also I don't think OP mention if he wants the 5.1 for games as well, as he only mentioned it is for Blu-Rays from PC to TV.
 
You guys know a lot more jargon than I do and to be honest I'm getting a little lost.

Every time a new post is made I need to go off a look up all the terms mentioned here.

It's probably very simple but like I said I'm getting lost.

5.1 3.5mm analogue outputs, spdif out digital optical.

Currently I just have Green, Black & Yellow connections going between the Z680 and the SupremeFX II. That works fine but the sound isn't great but it suffices currently with my present monitor but when I get my new TV I would like to upgrade the sound to match the picture.

Anyway the most important sound wise is for movies. That's where I want the 5.1. I did mention gaming in my original post but I'm not bothered if that's 5.1 as long as I can hear something.

So it seems like the optical cable mentioned earlier is still the way to go?

Thank you.
 
KateB said:
You guys know a lot more jargon than I do and to be honest I'm getting a little lost.

Every time a new post is made I need to go off a look up all the terms mentioned here.

It's probably very simple but like I said I'm getting lost.

5.1 3.5mm analogue outputs, spdif out digital optical.

Currently I just have Green, Black & Yellow connections going between the Z680 and the SupremeFX II. That works fine but the sound isn't great but it suffices currently with my present monitor but when I get my new TV I would like to upgrade the sound to match the picture.

Anyway the most important sound wise is for movies. That's where I want the 5.1. I did mention gaming in my original post but I'm not bothered if that's 5.1 as long as I can hear something.

So it seems like the optical cable mentioned earlier is still the way to go?

Thank you.
Click to expand...
Ah sorry I seem to have missed the gaming part.

Well, if you want no fuss and a simply solution, then you could probably spend around £50 getting a Creative SoundBlaster Z or the Asus Xonar DX soundcard, and either will be able to use Dolby Digital Live for 5.1 regarding if it's for Blu-Rays or gaming.
 
Yeah, Xonar DX or Soundblaster Z. Either will be good; whether you use digital connection or the 3.5mm analogue connections, it will be an improvement over the SupremeFX II. Despite it's fancy name, it's still onboard audio.
 
So just to clarify:

I buy one of those sound cards, plug in an optical cable into the spdif out and the other end into the digital optical connector on the control console of the Z680?

No connectors between the TV and the sound card just the HDMI from TV to graphics card?
 
No separate cables to the TV are needed. For quite a few years now, graphics cards have had built in audio controllers, so audio can be passed via HDMI to the TV if required. Obviously though, using the Logitech speakers is going to far better than using the TVs built in speakers.

Just HDMI from GPU to the TV and optical cable from the sound card to the Z680.

If you decide to go with the Xonar DX, it does have an optical port even though it doesn't look like it when you look at the pictures. It has a mini toslink port, which looks like a normal 3.5mm port, rather than the standard toslink port commonly used for optical. It comes with an adaptor so a standard cable can be used.

Either that, or you could just use the three (green, orange, black) 3.5mm analogue cables from the sound card.
 
Yes I have the DX as well, and I can confirm that it has Dolby Digital Live, and the spidif (optical out) is via the use of an provided adapter.

You could always try you luck to see if you can find one 2nd hand if you want to save some money.
 
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I think I'm going to go for the Soundblaster Zx for the added audio control module and headphone amp.

I have a pair of AKG K712Pro headphones that I use with my Kemper guitar amp that would be great for watching movies or gaming late night and the added headphone amp will work great with these and the audio control module with the speaker/headphone software switch means I never need to get on my knees again, 1 handedly shining a torch and trying to plug/unplug the headphones.

Thanks again for all the great information.

Absolutely everything I needed to know.

Kate.
 
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