Z-5500 and Optical

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So I've had my z-5500 set for about a month now. Very good.

Currently running them using optical. The only thing is, it doesnt feel like im getting 5.1 in games.

Is this right?

To be fair im only using optical because i originally intended to have a 5.1 headset too, for at night but since quitting wow i barely need a headset.

Would it be much better switching to the 3.5mm jacks instead?
 
Have you been selecting 5.1 in the in game audio settings?

Whether it's better to use jacks instead of optical depends on how good the dac is in the 5500s and how good the cables and sound card you would be using instead are.
 
I am selecting 5.1 in games. Sound card is a SupremeFX X-Fi (Comes with the Asus Maximus Forumla 2), i suspect its not technically an x-fi which is why it doesn't work?

Edit: after doing a bit of reading, seems the sound card that comes with the m/b is a bit crap :p

Ah well, guess il switch to 3.5mm for now.

Although, how much would it cost for a semi decent sound card?

2nd edit: I realise i don't have the xfi software that came with the mobo installed, only the driver, as the application wouldn't install on windows 7. Could this be affecting it as well?
 
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Looks like ive managed to find some proper windows 7 compatable software.

If i do buy a sound card, il probably spend a bit more than 10% of my speaker cost on it :p.
 
When using SPDIF, you would need Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect, to able to get 5.1 in real time. Not sure if the SupremeFX has either of those. If it does, you will certainly need the software, so if you have only been using drivers, that's why you wouldn't have been getting true 5.1, only upmixed stereo.

Using the 3.5mm analogue cables will mean if the SupremeFX does not have DDL or DTSC, it doesn't matter, as you will be getting 5.1 direct. DDL/DTSC are only used to send 5.1 in real time over SPDIF.

The SupremeFX is ok, better than standard onboard audio, but certainly not as good as a proper X-Fi, or a Xonar.
 
Yep - as Marsman stated you need DDL or DTS Connect for 5.1 in anything that isn't pre-encoded using optical.

SPDIF via optical is natively 2 channel so you need some clever wizardry to do 5.1.

Or you could just use the analogue cables...
 
Basically what Marsman said, To get 5.1 in games via optical you need a sound card that does DTS connect/dolby digital live encoding. sound cards like mine (Creative X-FI Titanium) have this feature.
 
A question, does dts connect/dolby live encode the game audio so that it plays the same as with 5.1 discrete over analog ?

I mean, does it sound the same, or is dolby live/dts connect basically something like Pro logic II pretty much ruining the point of 5.1 in game in the first place ?
 
Well, Dolby Digital and DTS connect are both compressed compared to PCM digital stereo. They are discreet 5.1 with fully separated channels though so in that sense are far superior to pro-logic. It's basically encoding almost exactly what the soundcard would output over analogue cables to spdif.

In practice, the best option is usually to use whichever equipment is best quality to do the digital to analogue conversion.
 
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Hi forum I was wondering this too and found out the optical out
Will only give you stereo not 5.1 so I've attached by three leads and I'm now trying to get 5.1 that way
 
You will need one with Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect. The cheapest option is a Xonar DS, which has DTSC. The cheapest card that has DDL is the D1/DX. Cheapest card that has both would be the X-Fi Titanium OEM. X-Fi Xtreme Gamer is also capable, but you need to purchase additional software to make it work, from Creative's US store for $5.
 
Marsman said:
You will need one with Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect. The cheapest option is a Xonar DS, which has DTSC. The cheapest card that has DDL is the D1/DX. Cheapest card that has both would be the X-Fi Titanium OEM. X-Fi Xtreme Gamer is also capable, but you need to purchase additional software to make it work, from Creative's US store for $5.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that I don't want to have to download extra software is there a sound card don't care on price that I can put into a pci slot and connect an optic cable and get 5.1 through my z5400

Cheers
 
delpy8 said:
Thanks for that I don't want to have to download extra software Cheers
Click to expand...

Not even if you could save £30ish by doing so?

Try searching for the X-Fi SB0770. It's a PCI equivalent of the X-Fi Titanium commonly sold as OEM X-Fi Xtreme Gamer or Xtreme Music.

Under £30 for the card and US$5 for the Dolby DTS licence.

OCUK used to sell them but haven't done so for years now.
 
Uriel said:
Not even if you could save £30ish by doing so?

Try searching for the X-Fi SB0770. It's a PCI equivalent of the X-Fi Titanium commonly sold as OEM X-Fi Xtreme Gamer or Xtreme Music.

Under £30 for the card and US$5 for the Dolby DTS licence.

OCUK used to sell them but haven't done so for years now.

Fair enough £30 quid is £30 been doing a search and I cannot see any sound card with an optical out

except this
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SC-052-CL&utm_source=froogle
Click to expand...
 
Don't get the Xtreme Audio. It's doesn't have an actual X-Fi chip and won't do DDL or DTSC.

Best place to get the SB0770 is on the auction site. Don't think I'm allowed to link directly.
 
delpy8 said:
I cannot see any sound card with an optical out
Click to expand...

Many of the cards that look they don't have an optical port, do have one. It's a toslink 3.5mm type. Socket looks any other 3.5mm analogue socket, but will accept mini toslink cable, or an adaptor. Xonar's come with an adaptor, not sure if the X-Fi Xtreme Gamer does.
 
Marsman said:
Many of the cards that look they don't have an optical port, do have one. It's a toslink 3.5mm type. Socket looks any other 3.5mm analogue socket, but will accept mini toslink cable, or an adaptor. Xonar's come with an adaptor, not sure if the X-Fi Xtreme Gamer does.
Click to expand...

So I could go for the xonar ds and it will have an optical output for 5.1

Thanks for all the help
 
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