PC optical with Z5500...worth it?

[Conscript]

How do all....my lovely new Z5500s arrived today and I must say, Im really impressed....loud, punchy, good quality and all that jazz, so loud in fact that Im afraid of turning them up in case I tear a hole reality itself. Just a quick question regarding connecting them:

I currently have the PC wired up to them via the analogue inputs from an Audigy 2 ZS. Then my Xbox is linked into it using the optical. All sounds lovely and fine, but the Audigy 2 has an SPDIF output and I was wondering if it would be worth hooking that into the Z5500s coaxial digital port. The analogue is great, and I understand neccessary for EAX and 5.1 in most games. But my PC also acts as my media centre for TV and DVD. Will I really notice much improvement using digital from the PC for DVDs and other stuff with Dolby/DTS?

I only ask because the output on the soundcard isnt a coaxial...it looks just like a 3.5mm jack, so somehow I would need to convert that to coaxial to get it to the speakers. Anyway, anyone elses experiences of using PC digital audio much appreciated. Cheers!

 

[chrismox]

Are you using Vista or XP?

In Vista, you're only allowed output from either digital or analogue, not both at the same time. I mention this because, as you say, games in 5.1 can only be done via analogue via your card, not digital.

So, if you want to output Dolby Digital or DTS from DVDs (worth doing) via the digital output, you'll have to keep swapping the outputs from the control panel (analogue for games, digital for movies).

XP can use both at once, a backwards-step in Vista.

 

[Conscript]

Vista. Hmm, I may not bother then, as I'm pretty happy with analogue and I'd also need to find a way to get the digital from whatever wierd connector it is that the Audigy has on it's digital output. I only really wanted to bother if I'd see a significant improvement in using digital. If like, you say, it's worth doing, I can still watch DVDs through the Xbox for digital sound. Thanks for the reply