Digital Out or Not?

intelly · 4 Nov 2006 at 10:08

I have a set of Logitech 5500 5.1 speakers. currently i'm running a Santa Cruz sound card and thinking of upgrading to an X-Fi. My question is would it be better to stick with my current configuration, get the X-Fi and use digital output, or get the X-Fi and use 6-Channel direct?

I listen to a lot of music, play games and watch DVD's. I don't do recording or mixing. I'd like to have high quality sound reproduction (as good as you can get for a PC based sound solution with my speakers).

Cheers guys,

WotDa · 4 Nov 2006 at 11:53

I found, that with the supplied cables that it would be static heaven at higher volumes using 6 channel direct, switched over to digital and its so much better.

So, grab yourself a Toslink cable and use the digital out, or a co-ax cable.

touch · 4 Nov 2006 at 12:32

yeah, optical or digital co-ax is the way to go

intelly · 4 Nov 2006 at 15:47

with an X-Fi or with my current Santa Cruz?

james.miller · 4 Nov 2006 at 15:57

touch said:
yeah, optical or digital co-ax is the way to go

no it isnt. digital is a compromise. although i do use digital myself, analogue 6 channel will always be better. Let's forget for a moment that his santa cruz or the xfi wont do surround sound in gaming with a digital connection

and concentrate on the other things first. firstly, It'll only be as good as the decoder on the other end, which in most cases isnt brilliant especially true for computer speakers but that may be a moot point since computer speakers arent all that great anyway. Secondly, there's a delay with digital outputs. Not a lot, but its clearly evident when you compare to analogue from the same source, and its far worse on cards that encode multi channel in to dolby live! or DTS connect, reason being is that everything has to be encoded on the fly which incurs a latency hit.

Also, there's the fact that x-fi wont do multi channel gaming over digital. I've mentioned it twice because its worth mentioning twice

. Now as i said, i use a digital hookup as it does have its merits. The fact that i only have to run 1 10 meter RCA from my pc to my amp instead of 6 is a good one. Over long distances digital will retain signal quality far better than analogue. secondly my yamaha is known for its poor analogue stereo performance and indeed in my case it works with a digital input far better. However if i had the freedom of choice, id get an xfi and use analogue over my current hda x-mystique card any day of the week