[montana girl]

Hello, I am totally confused by some of the computer connections. I read about spdif, coaxial, toslink but I am unsure about which of these my computer has, if any. My computer is approx. 4 years old, has a headphone jack in the front and the back of my computer has audio output (line out) jack, and audio input (line in) jack. Are these coax or toslink? I'm getting ready to buy a dac and don't really want to use my USB ports as it won't do 24/192 high resolution. If these connections aren't the above, do I buy a pci card and have it installed in my computer? Thanks

 

[Alai]

Here is a labeled picture of all the connections:

http://ph.hardwarezone.com/img/data/.../lasttn(1).jpg

This one is a picture of the back of a mobo with the labelled connections:

http://www.hardwarezone.com/img/data...08/rear-io.jpg

In the above link, the furthest bottom left is coaxial. To the right of that is optical (toslink). They are both SPDIF out (aka digital out).

And if you don't have these ports, you should get a soundcard that does.

 

[montana girl]

Thank you Alai. In other words, the connections have to be labeled as such? (spdif, coax, etc.) All mine say is audio output and audio input, so I'm assuming that these aren't the right connections for a dac? Exactly what do I hook up to my audio connections, speakers only?

 

[Uncle Erik]

Quote:

Originally Posted by montana girl /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thank you Alai. In other words, the connections have to be labeled as such? (spdif, coax, etc.) All mine say is audio output and audio input, so I'm assuming that these aren't the right connections for a dac? Exactly what do I hook up to my audio connections, speakers only?

You most likely have analog connections to your sound card. Those aren't amplified, so you would need to run a cable from the computer to an amplifier (or to a preamp connected to an amplifier) and then connect the speakers to the amp.

If you want to use an external DAC with your computer, you will need to install a soundcard with a digital out jack. There are a lot of soundcards out there and I'm sure you can get a recommendation here for any budget. I found a decent one on eBay for $20 once.

Once you have a soundcard with a digital out (either coax or Toslink), you can use a digital cable to connect your computer to your DAC.

A couple of exceptions:

1. If you're running a Macintosh with an Intel processor, the line out jack has a mini-Toslink connector in it. You can plug the cable right into the jack and run that to your DAC.

2. There are USB based DACs, too. Those will plug into a USB port on your computer instead of a soundcard.

 

[montana girl]

Thank you very much Uncle Erik, that makes things more clear. I will probably buy a new computer soon and add a soundcard with digital outs. Thanks for the replies.