Does soundcard matter when using optical output ?

Soldato
Joined
18 Jun 2005
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I'm building a mini itx rig presently and going to be using the onboard optical out to connect to a set of audyssey media speakers which have their own dac. Therefore, does having a discrete soundcard offer any benefits at all for gaming or listening to music (assuming the dac on the speakers are at least as good as the card's ?
 
Not sure if this helps but I compared my Nvidia GTX570 onboard sound through HDMI to my Xonar D2 and the difference wasn't noticeable at all. Digital is digital I guess, I've moved to ITX now and don't notice any difference in the onboard quality compared to the GTX570.

This is running everything through a Denon 1912 AVR though so that could have something to do with the leveled quality.
 
If the bit rate etc, is the same, there will be no difference. Digital is just data. Whatever is sending the data to an external DAC, is just acting as a transport. There maybe some instances when sound quality may differ, but it won't be because A Xonar Essence is better than a Xonar DX; just as an example.
 
That's pretty much what I thought. Thanks.

The speakers I am using are only 2.0 (Audyssey Lower East Side) but sound pretty good over optical. Dac is obviously decent enough. Lossless audio from itunes sounds good. Xbox 360 games which are already encoded sound good too. Not sure how PC games will fair over optical.
 
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