[Pete7]

I bought a coaxial cable today to try out with my new Emu404 and MicroDAC. I'm having a real difficult time setting this up and I'm pretty embarrassed I can't do this on my own, but the so-called "help" manual is incredibly vague about how to get an external source to actually work. I've got the external S/PDIF synch set up and that's all that is actually explained. There is some kind of a connection- I've got hiss. Can someone explain how to set up the PatchMix DSP so I can get some music playing? Like maybe a few,simple step-by-step instructions? It's driving me nuts knowing I could listen via USB...

 

[PsychoZX]

Did you enable the spdif output in patchmix?

 

[Pete7]

Check,did that except on your TV screen where it says "I/O Card Out 1/2" mine says "PCI Card Out 1/2". Not sure if this is just because of a different version # or if it's something else I need to do.

 

[PsychoZX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete7 Check,did that except on your TV screen where it says "I/O Card Out 1/2" mine says "PCI Card Out 1/2". Not sure if this is just because of a different version # or if it's something else I need to do.

Its just because I used to have a emu 1212m that comes with a seperate I/O Card.

Have you tried using an optical caple instead of the coax?

 

[Pete7]

Optical's coming in the mail sometime next week, could it be a crappy connection? I did have to bend the prongs back on the co-ax so it could fit into the MicroDac. Seems like it's connected okay, then again it is a G.E. cable. By the way, thanks for taking the time to help. Time to switch back to USB for now.

 

[MikeW]

When you say "Coaxial cable" your not talking about TV cable are you? There's a big differnce hehe. Digital Coax has an rca connection. tv coax has an f-connector. anyway that sounds extremly obvious so I doubt that is your problem.

 

[Pete7]

Sorry Mike, but I don't think anyone's that stupid... I did get a few of the Playboy channels, though. Just kidding...I got the optical cable delivered by UPS and got it hooked up in a jiffy. Still a mystery why I couldn't get the coaxial digital audio cable to function with the soundcard. Anyway, after listening via USB the last 5 days and then hooking up via optical I noticed an immediate improvement in sound reproduction. Then I started fiddling around with the core preset equalizer function of the Emu404 and all I can say is I was simply blown away by the sound. I fail to understand how there could be a debate of optical vs. USB, unless the people saying there isn't a significant difference between the two haven't actually heard it with the optical out and a decent sound card. I found the difference to be incredibly obvious.

 

[EdipisReks]

there are many reasons why USB can sound inferior to Coax or Toslink, including having many devices on the same bus and subpar USB implementation on your motherboard. i would suggest a separate PCI USB card dedicated to only the USB DAC is you want to use it that way. a properly set up USB connection should sound pretty much the same as any other digital connection.

 

[Borat]

Nevermind

 

[Jahn]

honestly, i had a hard time with it too- getting an analog input into my 0404 to register via the emu driver software. so i just tooled around their presets until i found one that worked - and i found one, it's called "Guitar" i think. now i can rip my turntable analog tunes into WAV, whee!

 

[PsychoZX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete7 I did have to bend the prongs back on the co-ax so it could fit into the MicroDac.

Thats why your having problems with the coax. The coax input on the microdac is a mini coax/mini optical jack. You need a cable like this.

http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/RCA-mini-spdif.html

 

[Pete7]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Borat I always wondered about that when I saw pics of the MicroDAC. So you basically have to do that in order to fit a coax cable in there since the jack sits flush.It accepts coax, but that kind of sucks, especially if you buy a nice "audiophile grade" cable.

Yeah, but I tried for hours to get it to work, and I couldn't get it to. The second I attached the optical cable into the optical out of the Emu404, I heard the sound coming from my headphones on the desk. Is there maybe a special min-to-mini coax cable? It seems strange that the prongs should have to be bent back for it to fit.
Edit: Oh DUH, didn't read the last post before I replied.

 

[Borat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete7 Is there maybe a special min-to-mini coax cable? It seems strange that the prongs should have to be bent back for it to fit. Edit: Oh DUH, didn't read the last post before I replied.

Yeah, that info that PsychoZX just posted is news to me. I'm new to the whole digital output thing and just learned about TOSlink, mini-TOSlink, and coax. Now I know there's mini-coax as well. I don't think the mini-coax format is as commonly used as the others.

 

[Teerawit]

There's an adapter to convert RCA-to-mini, even for digital coax cables. No need to bend back the prongs!!