Sound Card for a digital connection to Cambridge Megaworks thx 250d speakers

Drizmod · 15 Oct 2020 at 14:43

So I was doing some cleaning in the attic and found my old Megaworks speakers and I remember how good they sounded back in the days with a digital connection to my Creative X-Fi sound card.

I'm looking for a sound card that has a digital output on a standard 3.5mm connection as that's the only way to make a digital connection to the speakers. I cant use a x-fi card any more as my pc does not have a PCI slot. All the sound cards I have looked at only seem to have a Toslink digital out which is not good for what I want to do. Does such a sound card exist?

EsaT · 15 Oct 2020 at 15:37

Built in DAC is unlikely to be better than in any good sound card.
Also as those are stereo set any optical output works.
They only need cable with correct physical connector in ends.
Alternate is using Toslink-3.5mm adapter.

JasonM · 15 Oct 2020 at 16:42

I use to think that digital output from a DAC made no difference, however my view has changed.

I've compared Realtek motherboard DAC with DAC from Asus Essence STX II, and there was a minor difference in tone. I put this down to differences in the sound drivers.

One thing to add, unless you have really sensitive amp / speakers, then differences above you might not notice. I would certainly be putting money in amp / speakers before buying a card just for DAC output.

Something else that I never thought was possible until recently. I use to believe that optical cables were all the same (digital after all), I purchased a fancy carbon tipped optical cable, I had to return the cable as it made the sound worse over the standard Pioneer manufactured one.

One final thing... these differences I'm talking about I would spend days listening, and switching back, then sleeping, then testing in middle of night, I wanted to be certain about the differences I was hearing.

Drizmod · 15 Oct 2020 at 17:10

Cheers for the replies guys. Think I'll go with the adaptor option EsaT mentioned as they are really cheap as well.

Also just to mention, When I had the x-fi sound card I got noticeably better sound when using the digital out. Analogue out gave me a lot of hissing on this set of speakers so that's why I was thinking maybe try a digital option again. It's even mentioned in the manual that you may get hum and his noise if using analogue connection.

JasonM · 15 Oct 2020 at 17:23

Drizmod said:
Also just to mention, When I had the x-fi sound card I got noticeably better sound when using the digital out. Analogue out gave me a lot of hissing on this set of speakers so that's why I was thinking maybe try a digital option again. It's even mentioned in the manual that you may get hum and his noise if using analogue connection.

Many things can effect the hum, these include. Sound card / analogue sound source, interference from the computer, quality of audio cables (better quality cables have improved shielding), the electronics in the amp / receiver.

As you have discovered, often the external DAC is better.