[Eurobeat]

Hello all,


So I have been wanting to reuse my old Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro, and have gotten mixed comments about if I should or not.

Some people say "Onboard Audio is good enough"  Some say "The card is good," as well as "The software for is it good with the CMSS-3D" but also a lot of people are recommending external amps and DACS.

Most of the  DACs I've been seeing  are Stereo input or headphones.

I'm curious about a 5.1 setup...

Also, my speakers, Logitech Z5300e, has 3 cables for Front Speakers, Center/Sub-Woofer, and Rear in a Green/Yellow/Black plug setup that plugs into the sub-woofer, as well as the 5 colored cable plugs (white, red, yellow, orange, and black).

I'm curious if there are DACS that use the 3 plugs, since I noticed the speaker plugs are usually (White and Red), so that would mean direct plugging in of the speakers?  I don't know if I can do that since I have computer speakers?  I'm assuming a special computer dac is needed?

That being said, would using my old sound card work?

I found this adapter http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Express-Adapter-Card-PEX1PCI1/dp/B0024CV3SA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1444169321&sr=8-1&keywords=startech+pcie+to+pci

which I had purchased, but it seems it will only work "Low Profile" cards, and mine isn't one.  However I was recently shown this goodie

http://www.banggood.com/EXP-GDC-Laptop-External-PCI-E-Graphics-Card-p-934367.html which allows you to use a Laptop mini PCIe slot (usually wireless card) and create a PCIe out of it.


My laptop is old (2011), but I've been looking at upgrading some things on it to make it better.  I might build/buy another desktop, though, which is why I originally bought the adapter.  It seems that this would work perfectly for the sound card, and since there is no space requirements(like in a case), it should fit right on it...  But I'm not sure if I want to use it with the laptop... or not...  I guess I'll wait and see what people say, and if I notice a boost in the computer's performance with the ram/ssd(possibly cpu) upgrades.

So it comes down to... Should I use the old card, or get a dedicated AMP and DAC?

Thanks all!

 

[Eurobeat]

Anyone know of any good 5.1 DACs, or know what I should do in my case????

I want to use my old sound card, or a new sound card, but everyone keeps saying "Onboard Audio is "Good Enough," and you need an AMP and a DAC..."

So what kind of Amp/DAC can I use with 5.1 computer speakers...?


Thanks...

 

[obobskivich]

- The "red and white" connectors are NOT speaker connectors. They are RCA/phono cinch jacks. They carry SE unbalanced audio, one channel per connector - they can be adapterized to/from TRS (3.5mm stereo) quite easily. Most home audio/hi-fi components use RCA connectors while most computers use TRS (likely for size).

- A "5.1 DAC" is kind of impossible (kind of), at least if you don't want to deal with compression. Anything doing 5.1 over S/PDIF will require real-time encoding to DTS or Dolby Digital (like what you'd get from a DVD or some Laserdiscs), and then the external box can decode that to line out. There are plenty of devices that do this; they're generally all 10+ years old though. Examples include the Technics SH-AC500D and SH-AC300, Yamaha DDP-1 and DDP-2, Harman Kardon ADP 303, Sony SDP-E800, and Marantz DP870. Where I say "kind of" is that HDMI can technically support 5.1 lossless digital (and newer graphics cards can output audio via HDMI), but you'd need a DAC that can take that and give you line outs - I'm not aware of any, but that doesn't mean they don't (or can't) exist.

- I don't think Dolby Digital and/or DTS sound "bad" inherently, and for their intended uses they work quite well. For listening to music in stereo, I'd just send out a PCM signal in stereo (most (all?) of the above decoders should handle that), and use the external box as a DAC, and then send out surround sound via Dolby or DTS (whatever your soundcard supports). I have the AC500D mentioned above and this has worked just fine in the past, and its a quite nice sounding stereo DAC to boot.

- The X-Fi can output 5.1 analog directly, which is probably simpler than using one of the above devices, unless you need other connectivity or functionality that one of the above decoders can offer (e.g. if you want/need to support AC-3 RF).

- I have no idea about all of the adapters/converters/etc you're talking about putting together - it may or may not work.

 

[Eurobeat]

- The "red and white" connectors are NOT speaker connectors. They are RCA/phono cinch jacks. They carry SE unbalanced audio, one channel per connector - they can be adapterized to/from TRS (3.5mm stereo) quite easily. Most home audio/hi-fi components use RCA connectors while most computers use TRS (likely for size).

- A "5.1 DAC" is kind of impossible (kind of), at least if you don't want to deal with compression. Anything doing 5.1 over S/PDIF will require real-time encoding to DTS or Dolby Digital (like what you'd get from a DVD or some Laserdiscs), and then the external box can decode that to line out. There are plenty of devices that do this; they're generally all 10+ years old though. Examples include the Technics SH-AC500D and SH-AC300, Yamaha DDP-1 and DDP-2, Harman Kardon ADP 303, Sony SDP-E800, and Marantz DP870. Where I say "kind of" is that HDMI can technically support 5.1 lossless digital (and newer graphics cards can output audio via HDMI), but you'd need a DAC that can take that and give you line outs - I'm not aware of any, but that doesn't mean they don't (or can't) exist.

- I don't think Dolby Digital and/or DTS sound "bad" inherently, and for their intended uses they work quite well. For listening to music in stereo, I'd just send out a PCM signal in stereo (most (all?) of the above decoders should handle that), and use the external box as a DAC, and then send out surround sound via Dolby or DTS (whatever your soundcard supports). I have the AC500D mentioned above and this has worked just fine in the past, and its a quite nice sounding stereo DAC to boot.

- The X-Fi can output 5.1 analog directly, which is probably simpler than using one of the above devices, unless you need other connectivity or functionality that one of the above decoders can offer (e.g. if you want/need to support AC-3 RF).

- I have no idea about all of the adapters/converters/etc you're talking about putting together - it may or may not work.

Thanks.  

In reality it's just Stereo simulated into my 5 speakers with Logitech's "Matrix Mode" as well as Windows' "Speaker Fill."

I'm just not sure if it will still d0 all of my speakers, I guess it will...  Technically I do have a switch in the back to put it on 2.1 and it sounds good for all sides, but I like the sound stage with 5.1....


I just find it odd the headphone jack on the vol control is what conntects to a devie to power the speakers, when normaly it's for headphones to play the music....