Hey all,
 
I've been thinking about getting a Bifrost at some point in the future, but I unfortunately do not have a Toslink (or SPDIF) output on my motherboard (MSI Gaming 5). What is the best way to get a good quality Toslink output on my computer? I know sound cards are a possibility, but I'd rather not have to deal with drivers and the potential for the sound card's drivers messing with the audio before outputting it to the Bifrost. Are my worries unfounded? Spotify Premium is my source, so I will not be using WASAPI.
 
What would you guys recommend as the best way to integrate a Toslink output into a desktop?

It looks like for and extra $100 you can order the Bifrost with a USB input, which should solve your problem.  

flinx said:

  It looks like for and extra $100 you can order the Bifrost with a USB input, which should solve your problem.  

Click to expand...

 
I was trying to get toslink on my computer specifically so I didn't have to pay an extra $100 for USB.

You could always look into a TOSLINK PCI-e card or something of the sort.  That should work, although, I do not have any experience with the TOSLINK cards so I cannot say anything about the quality (my mobo came with an optical TOSLINK out). 

taowolf51 said:

   
I was trying to get toslink on my computer specifically so I didn't have to pay an extra $100 for USB.

Click to expand...

 

phauszzie said:

  You could always look into a TOSLINK PCI-e card or something of the sort.  That should work, although, I do not have any experience with the TOSLINK cards so I cannot say anything about the quality (my mobo came with an optical TOSLINK out). 

Click to expand...

 
That's exactly what I'm looking for, though I haven't had any luck finding one, everything I've seen that outputs toslink from a PCI or PCI-E card is a sound card rather than a simple toslink output card.
 
 

protegemaniac said:

   

Does your motherboard have coaxial digital? I'm not sure if I'm looking at the same board as yours when I looked it up.

http://www.amazon.com/C2G-40018-Coaxial-Toslink-Converter/dp/B0002J2MV4/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1426738588&sr=1-1&keywords=coaxial+to+optical

 

If it only has USB, some cheap external soundcards have a combo jack with digital audio output on the headphone output, kind of like on the Macbook Pro. The Xonar U3 has that and I think it comes with an adapter (I'm at work and I can't check the box on mine). You'll have to deal with drivers though, and in such a case you'll have to mess around with overriding the stock drivers, which are already designed to do surround anyway.

What headphones are you using for gaming? Why not just use a cheaper headphone that the mobo can drive, use its stock virtual surround sound processing, and then just manually switch over to USB output to the Bifrost (just get the USB module) and whatever amp you're pairing it with when you're listening to music? I've tried my HD600 for gaming and when I'm focused on the game's other stimuli (and of course trying to win) I don't notice any advantages over my Superlux HD330. In fact, there's one disadvantage to using the HD600: the earpads are more expensive, and I can critically listen to music for 2 hours or less, but gaming takes around 2 hours at minimum per session.

Click to expand...

 
Not that I'm aware of, no. This is the motherboard:
http://us.msi.com/product/mb/Z97-GAMING-5.html#hero-specification
 
I actually don't game all that often on my computer, too busy, but I listen to music while working, which is a large portion of my day. I use the HD800's for both. As I said before, I'm not willing to pay the extra for the USB output. I'm very happy with my current DAC and very satisfied with my entire setup, so I'm not even convinced I should upgrade. Moving the price of an upgrade from $350 to $450 moves me it from a slight "maybe" to a solid "no".

taowolf51 said:

  That's exactly what I'm looking for, though I haven't had any luck finding one, everything I've seen that outputs toslink from a PCI or PCI-E card is a sound card rather than a simple toslink output card.

Click to expand...

 
I'm guessing you might have to settle for getting the Asus Xonar DGX or DSX sound card (both come with S/PDIF Toslink ports and are PCI-E).

If you are on the fence about upgrading your DAC, take a look at a good USB converter.  I have an older model of the one listed below and used it to output music from a Surface Pro 3 until I upgraded to a DAC that has USB input.
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Musical-Fidelity-V-series-USB-to-Coaxial-V-Link-192-with-warranty-free-USB-cable-/261617885590
 
The link above only has coax output and you did reference Toslink, sorry.  Here's an older one that does toslink as well:
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Musical-Fidelity-V-LINK-II-Asynchronous-USB-Adapter-Silver-NEW-/261777729155?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3cf32b2683

taowolf51 said:

 
Not that I'm aware of, no. This is the motherboard:
http://us.msi.com/product/mb/Z97-GAMING-5.html#hero-specification
 
I actually don't game all that often on my computer, too busy, but I listen to music while working, which is a large portion of my day. I use the HD800's for both. As I said before, I'm not willing to pay the extra for the USB output. I'm very happy with my current DAC and very satisfied with my entire setup, so I'm not even convinced I should upgrade. Moving the price of an upgrade from $350 to $450 moves me it from a slight "maybe" to a solid "no".

Click to expand...

 

http://www.amazon.com/SPDIF-RCA-Plate-Cable-Bracket/dp/B0035J9Z7W This may work for you, you would need to be careful wiring it up so you dont fry anything on your mobo.

taowolf51 said:

I've been thinking about getting a Bifrost at some point in the future, but I unfortunately do not have a Toslink (or SPDIF) output on my motherboard (MSI Gaming 5). What is the best way to get a good quality Toslink output on my computer? I know sound cards are a possibility, but I'd rather not have to deal with drivers and the potential for the sound card's drivers messing with the audio before outputting it to the Bifrost. Are my worries unfounded? Spotify Premium is my source, so I will not be using WASAPI. What would you guys recommend as the best way to integrate a Toslink output into a desktop?

Click to expand...

 
In the Window's Playback tab you can set the digital audio signal to bypass the sound card features (S/PDIF Pass-though Device).
 
Here is a PCI-E sound card for $28.99 that comes with a S/PDIF optical output port.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/381114059112?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
 
Here is an optical cable to connect the sound card to the Bifrost, $1.68 plus shipping
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=102&cp_id=10229&cs_id=1022901&p_id=1447&seq=1&format=2
 
Here is a RCA cable to connect the Bifrost's RCA output to the RCA input on your headphone amplifier, $2.35 + shipping
http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=102&cp_id=10218&cs_id=1021814&p_id=5346&seq=1&format=2

protegemaniac said:

   

Looked it up, no coaxial SPDIF. Best you can do is use some other kind of PCI-E card with SPDIF optical, or use a USB to SPDIF optical converter. If anything, when you play games, you can just hook up the HD800 directly to the mobo (does it send the high-power audio circuit to the front audio connector? if not, just use an extension cable so you don't need to reach over to the rear all the time), that way you can still use the mobo's virtual surround. Avoid the external soundcards though - they might be cheap (like the $39 Xonar U3) but the problem there is they need the software suite installed in order to work, and that might create problems with the mobo's drivers.

Alternately if you'll just use the virtual surround on the Xonar U3 through the same DAC and amp for the HD800 then you can just totally remove the mobo's audio drivers and use that for when you play games. No need to unplug the headphones too.

Click to expand...

 
I don't use my motherboard's (or any) virtual surround and don't really want to, so that shouldn't be a concern. All I want is a straight clean signal from my computer to DAC. I have that right now with my ODAC via USB, and was trying to find a way to get the same via a toslink signal in case I ever got a Bifrost.
 

phauszzie said:

http://www.amazon.com/SPDIF-RCA-Plate-Cable-Bracket/dp/B0035J9Z7W This may work for you, you would need to be careful wiring it up so you dont fry anything on your mobo.

Click to expand...

 
That looks like an option, thanks. The lack of MSI directions and the potential to wreck my mobo is scaring me away, though. I just built this computer maybe 6 months ago and rely on it for work, so screwing things up is especially scary.
 
 

purpleangel said:

   
In the Window's Playback tab you can set the digital audio signal to bypass the sound card features (S/PDIF Pass-though Device).

Click to expand...

 
Excellent! This is exactly the information I was looking for. Now, a quick follow up question, does it simply pass through the sound card? Or does it fully disable any sound modification through windows? I use EqualizerAPO to tweak the frequency response of my setup and consider it vital. Would you happen to know whether this would cause an issue with EqualizerAPO? (It's a software system-wide parametric EQ). My best guess would be that since it describes it as "pass-through device" it only ignores the device (sound card), but I thought it was worth making sure. Worse comes to worst, I can always replace the Equalizer APO functionality with something like a MiniDSP, which I've been thinking about doing at some point anyway.
 
Thanks for the help so far everyone!

taowolf51 said:

  Excellent! This is exactly the information I was looking for. Now, a quick follow up question, does it simply pass through the sound card? Or does it fully disable any sound modification through windows? I use EqualizerAPO to tweak the frequency response of my setup and consider it vital. Would you happen to know whether this would cause an issue with EqualizerAPO? (It's a software system-wide parametric EQ). My best guess would be that since it describes it as "pass-through device" it only ignores the device (sound card), but I thought it was worth making sure. Worse comes to worst, I can always replace the Equalizer APO functionality with something like a MiniDSP, which I've been thinking about doing at some point anyway.

Click to expand...

 
I believe digital audio simply passes thru the sound card. it's a setting for the sound card, but does not say anything about Windows.
I'm assuming Windows itself does not do a lot with audio anyway, unless it's told to.
 
I would assume your EqualizerAPO itself decides how much Windows might be involved in the EqualizerAPO's function.
I'm assuming USB & optical & coaxial might be on equal footing, when it comes to EqualizserAPO.
 
I'm not the expert, just making my best guess.

taowolf51 said:

That looks like an option, thanks. The lack of MSI directions and the potential to wreck my mobo is scaring me away, though. I just built this computer maybe 6 months ago and rely on it for work, so screwing things up is especially scary.

Click to expand...

There should be the correct pinout in your mobo manual, but if you are not comfortable playing with the guts of your computer I would suggest getting a plug and play soundcard so you dont have to worry about applying correct voltage/crossing wires.

taowolf51 said:

   
I don't use my motherboard's (or any) virtual surround and don't really want to, so that shouldn't be a concern. All I want is a straight clean signal from my computer to DAC. I have that right now with my ODAC via USB, and was trying to find a way to get the same via a toslink signal in case I ever got a Bifrost.

Click to expand...

 
Then practically any USB to SPDIF converter will work. AFAIK USB to coaxial is easier to find, if you're using a Bifrost then just use coax.