Optical Out?

SpellowHouse · 24 Mar 2023 at 11:18

I wanted to try using my optical out for audio on my motherboard the other day, and was shocked to find I don't have one :cry:

The question is, do I need a sound card to get that optical port, and be able to output sound to it? Or is there some other way? And is quality affected by what sound card it is? ( I assume not but I'm stupid!) Can I use any? What is the cheapest or recommended card?

SpellowHouse · 24 Mar 2023 at 12:28

Oh, there is a sale on for a particular soundblaster, 25% off, so I got one just to mess with it. It has two optical out's, so is perfect to experiment with.

Purgatory · 24 Mar 2023 at 21:02

SpellowHouse said:
Oh, there is a sale on for a particular soundblaster, 25% off, so I got one just to mess with it. It has two optical out's, so is perfect to experiment with.

One of the opticals on that card is an optical in not an out, so basically 1 in and 1 out optical. You could also buy usb to optical type dongles, but the sound card route is best way if you can use that as you have more control over the sound.

The_Arbiter · 24 Mar 2023 at 21:58

A lot of boards have an optical header, but getting a good one may be an issue. Though i don't know enough about what depicts quality on something like that. Searching "spdif bracket" will net you some results. Some have a capacitor, some don't. So gives some clue to what might be useable.

SpellowHouse · 24 Mar 2023 at 22:54

Purgatory said:
One of the opticals on that card is an optical in not an out, so basically 1 in and 1 out optical. You could also buy usb to optical type dongles, but the sound card route is best way if you can use that as you have more control over the sound.

Oh, yes, you are right. I just saw "optical" and "cheap" in the same sentence and bought it, lol.

SpellowHouse · 25 Mar 2023 at 19:22

Well, the SB arrived and works just fine. The optical out is better than the original motherboard sound. In fact everything about the SB is better, but I guess that's to be expected. It only cost £49 after the discount so happy with that.