post #1 of 1
2/26/11 at 1:21am
Thread Starter 

Okay guys im verrrrry new to this so i know im about to ask alot of dumb questions. I have always love my music and sound quality and thus recently began the search for a kickass soundcard for my PC.

This will be the first soundcard i have bought and used other than onboard sound.

Anyway i have got my heart set on the ASUS Xonar Essence ST PCI soundcard.

I recently purchased some nice Sennheiser PC360 Headphones and have Logitech Z5500 5.1 Speakers.

That brings me to my questions- After my initial reading i have learnt that when you get a soundcard you can choose to plug in your speakers analogue OR Digital.

1.) Firstly- What gives you this choice? How do you choose? As far as i know you plug cables into holes and don't have a choice.

2.)Next i Know the z5500s have their own DAC. I have read that i should preferably use analogue so that i am using my new soundcards DAC and not bypassing it. ( getting a soundcard for a reason not just so i can keep my speakers doing all the work).
How do i do this?

3.) I have also found out about the H6 extension card and would like to know exactly what it is this card does? What difference it makes. I read some people with a similar problem suggesting using 3x 3.5mm rca to 2x phono cables. So that you can separate the speakers.

My question is what would the above setup allow? - And is it analogue or digital?

Here is a link to the above :[url]http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/513895/asus-xonar-essence-st-with-asus-xonar-h6-extension-card-logitech-z-5500-digital-5-1-speaker-system[/url]

Thanks very much and hope nothing is toooo dumb a question!

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