Audigy 2ZS to Micro DAC - what cable?

[mkozlows]

This is a very dumb question. I want to hook up the digital output from the Audigy 2ZS to the Micro DAC, but I can't tell what kind of jack is on the Audigy, have lost the manual, and have been unsuccessful at finding the answer online. So:

1. Is the digital output from the Audigy optical or electrical?
2. If electrical, can a regular stereo 1/8" M/M cable be used?
3. If not, where do I (cheaply) find the cable that I need?

Thanks for any answers.

 

[ComfyCan]

I believe you need an optical out to bypass the DAC in the Audigy 2ZS. I have the same issue; I'm waiting on delivery of a new MicroDac and am looking for a good solution for delivering digital out from my laptop to the MicroDac. I have an old Audgy 2ZS, but I have doubts about whether it will deliver a pure digital signal. My doubts are based on the card's general performance rather than any specific knowledge about its digital out capabilities, however.

Does anyone know if the Audgigy PMCIA card optical out really works? Is there any other PMCIA card with a digital out that will transmit a clean digital stream to an external DAC?

 

[655dmd]

I am using the Audigy2ZS Notebook with optical out via glass toslink to a CI Audio DAC with bitperfect. Works fine.

 

[655dmd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mkozlows This is a very dumb question. I want to hook up the digital output from the Audigy 2ZS to the Micro DAC, but I can't tell what kind of jack is on the Audigy, have lost the manual, and have been unsuccessful at finding the answer online. So: 1. Is the digital output from the Audigy optical or electrical? 2. If electrical, can a regular stereo 1/8" M/M cable be used? 3. If not, where do I (cheaply) find the cable that I need? Thanks for any answers.

1. both, digital if you use optical, analog when "electrical".
2. yes. or for optical you need an mini-jack optical adaptor so you use your toslink cable .
3. go to radioshack, they have a straight and right-angle mini-jack adaptor.
works with any toslink cable. or go to walmart, they have a philips cable
that includes the mini-jack. RS may to, just ask. Creative does not
include this with the soundcard. only "electrical".

Been using mine since last year. I hope this helps.

 

[Rempert]

These replies don't make any sense to me. How are you getting a digital signal out this jack going through an adapter to pass it on to optical, and then suddenly when you swap in a regular piece of wire instead of optical that signal magically goes back through time and passes through the DAC? I don't think that's how my Audigy 2 ZS works. I think it has basically a stereo mini jack where one "channel" is the regular stereo digital signal, and the other "channel" passes a special digital signal which passes the rest of the 5.1 surround sound info which can only be used by Creative digital speakers.

Grab a simple mono-mini to RCA adapter, and a single RCA interconnect, and you have yourself a regular old coaxial digital output.

I could be wrong about this, but if the "electrical" signal is analog then I can't figure out how the coaxial digital in on my EMU 0404 gets a stereo signal from one channel of analog output? That would seem to be impossible for a whole lot of reasons.

I'm not saying the coaxial solution is better. I'm just saying it should also work.

 

[Rempert]

The other point I wanted to make was that "bit accurate recording" has nothing to do with the output capabilities of the card. It has to do only with bit accurate recording.

Digital output from Audigy2 ZS is either 48khz or 96khz, never 44.1 or multiples thereof.

 

[skyline889]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rempert The other point I wanted to make was that "bit accurate recording" has nothing to do with the output capabilities of the card. It has to do only with bit accurate recording. Digital output from Audigy2 ZS is either 48khz or 96khz, never 44.1 or multiples thereof.

Argh I really hate when people make these blanket statements, yes the cheap 2ZS models all upsample to 48khz but the 2ZS Platinum Pro allows stereo, bit perfect, 44.1khz digital output.

 

[Cousin Patty]

Only the Pro version allows this? I have an Audigy 2 ZS Platinum... does this version not allow for bit perfect digital output?

 

[mkozlows]

So, um, I hate to ask for advice and then say it was wrong, but I took a flyer on the jack not being optical, and bought a regular ol' stereo 1/8" M/M cable. Hooked it up to the Micro DAC and it works fine.

(And yes, I know it's not bit-perfect: This is for gaming and low-fi DRMed music; I have the Squeezebox for real music.)