optical vs analog

[skouras]

hey guys i need a little help

 

i've got the Z906 speakers from logitech and since im playing games and watching movies i wonder which connection is better and should i use?

analog or optical?

[cichlidfan]

To me, it is optical any time it is available for any audio connection.

[Buzzles]

Honestly, unless you're using utterly cheap bargin cables that have poor connectors (and poor also connections), it doesn't really matter.

 

Optical is the best on paper for a mulitude of reasons, but for audio unless you're using professional studio equipment in a proper sound studio you're seriously not going to notice a difference.

 

The quality of the audio being sent over the connection rather than the connection itself is the item that you should be concerned about and unless it's your own music you've made/ripped from a CD, it's not something you normally have control over.

 

That all said, if you've got optical available, might as well use it.

[skouras]

ok thanks a lot guys

right now im using analog but i should try optical just to give it a go...

[skouras]

ok guys it seems that theres a problem with DTS dolby not supported on windows10 at the moment with optical cables a lot of people have this issue...

[Feuerfalke]

You specs don't state any soundcard at all. Which one are you using?

 

As long as you are using the onboard soundcard, neither cables nor speakes will make a large difference.

 

That's the pitty fate of sound. Everybody know how to read FramesPerSecond and nobody would play DCS or any AAA-Title with onboard-graphics. But with sound, most players use onboard-chip even with surround-sound and claim there is no difference in quality... :music_whistling:

[Socket7]

Depends on your soundcard, what decoders you pay for, and what you are doing.:)

 

SPDIF (optical) is only capable of transmitting stereo sound by default. It can only do 5.1 with some kind of compression algorithm such as DTS or Dolby Digital Live.

 

Your onboard realtek sound card does not have DTS or DDL, and is unable to provide 5.1 output for computer games over SPDIF. You have to use analog. Your onboard realtek soundcard CAN bitstream a DTS or DD encoded file though.

 

The result is that if you use just an optical cable with a cheap soundcard, you can play your movies in 5.1 with DD or DTS by bitstreaming the signal to your reciever, but when you try and play games or MP3s or whatever, you only get stereo output. :helpsmilie:

 

The realtek chipset can support DTS and DDL output, but it is disabled for licensing reasons. your motherboard manufacturer was too cheap to pay the fees. :mad:

 

I believe there are add-on packs you can buy to enable DTS and DD output on realtek chipsets, but I've never looked them up. There used to be a highly convoluted driver hack too, but I refuse to get into that nonsense.

 

If you get a sound blaster or something, it comes with DTS and DDL licences (it will tell you on the box). Then you can set the soundcard to run in DTS or DDL mode at all times. All your games and applications will have 5.1, all your movies will have 5.1, all over a single optical cable.:D

 

Everything will be magical and perfect until you realize that your keyboard volume and mute buttons no longer do a damn thing and there is nothing to be done about it, because windows doesn't let you assign them to a different volume mixer.:doh:

 

Ah well, in life every problem you solve creates two more. The trick is to make sure the 2 new problems are smaller than the first. :joystick:

[skouras]

hey guys thanks for the responce the upcoming build for w10 fix the issue and brigs digital live however will this soundcard will make any difference?

 

https://www.asus.com/us/Sound-Cards/ROG_Xonar_Phoebus/

 

or should i get another one

what recommend?

[Socket7]

Dolby Home Theater V4 on that card looks like it will do what you want on paper, but I've never used it, and only heard of it today, so caveat emptor. I'm completely ignorant of it's actual capabilities.

 

I wound up getting a Sound Blaster Z series after going through the whole analog/optical conundrum myself. I hate their software, their documentation is worse than awful, but in the end it does what I want, and the normalizing / dialog enhancement DSP's are really nice.

[skouras]

Dolby Home Theater V4 on that card looks like it will do what you want on paper, but I've never used it, and only heard of it today, so caveat emptor. I'm completely ignorant of it's actual capabilities.

 

I wound up getting a Sound Blaster Z series after going through the whole analog/optical conundrum myself. I hate their software, their documentation is worse than awful, but in the end it does what I want, and the normalizing / dialog enhancement DSP's are really nice.

thanks man!!!