[blur510]

I am planning on getting a dacmagic for my pc. I will be hooking it up via USB. I know I can output it unbalanced RCA to my headphone amp. My question is would I still be able to output through toslink to my receiver, using usb as my input? I read the manual online and it kept talking about only using the toslink as a passthrough for recording purpose. I am a little confused, hopefully someone can clear things up for me. thanks

 

[playbuoy]

What would the point be of using the toslink output? You would need a DAC in your receiver as well since the toslink output is digital. A neat setup would be to pass the signal through to a second dacmagic which would feed the receiver.
Another point, you should avoid using the USB input as it is only 16bit. I use spdif out from my audigy notebook to my dacmagic and there is a noteable difference over using USB.

 

[wasp131]

I agree with playbuoy,the dacmagic's usb input is dull and flat sounding,
spdif and toslink input is far superior.
if you intend to just use the usb input you should look elsewhere.

 

[project86]

This is what I think you want, correct me if I'm wrong:
 
Have computer play the file, send audio out through USB to the DAC. Have DAC decode file and send analog signal out to a headphone amp for listening. At the same time, have the optical output from the DAC connect to a surround receiver, in case you want to watch a movie or something without headphones.
 
Is this correct?
 
The cheapest option I've heard that can do this for you is the Audinst HUD-mx1. It performs very well as a DAC, possibly better than the DacMagic, and even has a built in headphone amp. It also sends out a signal via toslink, and can pass  Dolby Digital files when used in that way.

 

[blur510]

Quote:

This is what I think you want, correct me if I'm wrong:
 
Have computer play the file, send audio out through USB to the DAC. Have DAC decode file and send analog signal out to a headphone amp for listening. At the same time, have the optical output from the DAC connect to a surround receiver, in case you want to watch a movie or something without headphones.
 
Is this correct?
 
The cheapest option I've heard that can do this for you is the Audinst HUD-mx1. It performs very well as a DAC, possibly better than the DacMagic, and even has a built in headphone amp. It also sends out a signal via toslink, and can pass  Dolby Digital files when used in that way.

that is correct.  But I already bought the dacmagic yesterday. So the dacmagic can't do that I guess huh. So about using toslink instead of USB, My onboard has toslink can I use that? There is a discussion on OC where some people are saying that toslink from a good soundcard > toslink from onboard. can this be true?

 

[project86]

I just flipped through the DacMagic manual and on page 17 it addresses this issue: It will in fact pass a 5.1 DD or DTS signal through its digital outputs. Obviously it won't decode these files itself though.
 
So what that means is this: you can use your PC to play music, sending a signal via USB or toslink, whichever your prefer, out to the DacMagic. The DacMagic will decode that signal and send it via stereo analog out to your headphone amp for listening. But then when you play a movie with surround audio, the DacMagic will not decode that audio for headphone listening, but will pass it right through to your surround receiver for decoding.
 
Hopefully this is what you wanted.