Cheap card with coax out?
May 30, 2004 at 2:57 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 8

AndrewTosh

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I'm looking for a card with a coaxial digital out that doesn't resample to 48khz. I saw the AV710 mentioned in a few threads but it looks like it only has an optical out.

Does anyone have any cheap suggestions? I don't care about playing games or analog quality, as long as it has a good digital out.

Thanks
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May 30, 2004 at 6:22 PM Post #2 of 8
Quote:

Originally Posted by AndrewTosh
I'm looking for a card with a coaxial digital out that doesn't resample to 48khz. I saw the AV710 mentioned in a few threads but it looks like it only has an optical out.

Does anyone have any cheap suggestions? I don't care about playing games or analog quality, as long as it has a good digital out.

Thanks
smily_headphones1.gif



Sound Blaster Live!... about $25-$30 new, cheaper if used.

You'll need a 1/8" mono to RCA adapter, which you can get from Radio Shack for about $2, and an RCA cable. Then you have your coax output ready to connect to any coax input jack.
 
May 30, 2004 at 7:06 PM Post #3 of 8
Quote:

Originally Posted by kent1146
Sound Blaster Live!... about $25-$30 new, cheaper if used.

You'll need a 1/8" mono to RCA adapter, which you can get from Radio Shack for about $2, and an RCA cable. Then you have your coax output ready to connect to any coax input jack.



The Sound Blaster Live! doesn't meet the no-resampling requirement. That card resamples everything to 16-bit/48kHz at the hardware chip level no matter what - even audio that's going to the digital out - and then converts that 16/48 signal back to the chosen bitrate, losing bits of audio in the process. It never supported any audio above 16/48 to begin with. And the resampling alogarithm that it uses is really bad, with nasty distortion abound.
 
May 30, 2004 at 7:08 PM Post #4 of 8
no clock errors whatsoever, just crappy algorithm.. dsp does have virtually nothing to do with clock circuitry..
 
May 30, 2004 at 8:06 PM Post #5 of 8
Quote:

Originally Posted by Eagle_Driver
The Sound Blaster Live! doesn't meet the no-resampling requirement.


Right... I already have one of those and it doesn't do what I'm looking for. My SGI Indigo2 has a 44.1 coax out, but it doesn't run windows so I can't really use it for watching videos etc.

I guess the SBLive's digital out wouldn't be too bad for non-critical listening, but I was wondering if there was a cheap substitute that would do real 44.1 without the resampling.
smily_headphones1.gif
 
May 30, 2004 at 8:12 PM Post #6 of 8
The M-Audio Delta Dio2448 is discontinued but you can often pick them up on eBay for a reasonable price. It has bit-perfect digital coax and optical (both input and output).
 
May 31, 2004 at 12:48 AM Post #8 of 8
The Audiophile 24/96 is bit-perfect too. It was the successor product to the DiO 2448. The Audiophile 24/96 is still quite popular so it doesn't sell as cheaply on eBay. (Also, it doesn't have optical in/out, which I generally recommend for computer sources.)
 

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