Looking for a cheap coaxial S/PDIF output.
Mar 10, 2007 at 10:51 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 15
bonesinc

bonesinc

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I know, this has been asked a million times before. But I do need some advise in picking a reasonable priced soundcard with bitperfect coaxial s/pdif output.
Up till now I was using a Sonica Theater (which I bought cheap) USB soundcard.
I'm still having problems with hickups, pop, clicks in the digital output. Playback is done by foobar. I have tried numerous things to solve this problem permanently but to no avail. I'm tired of trying. It has to go, so please no suggestions on solving my problems, just advise on something new.

This is what I want/need, nothing more, nothing less:

- bitperfect coaxial spdif output (input is nice too but not important)
- up to 24 bits / 96 kHz
- AC3 throughput is not needed, just stereo is fine
- pricing well below €60
- I prefer PCI but a GOOD usb is fine too

I'm aware of the existence of the Chaintech AV-710 but this one does not have coaxial spdif output and is pretty hard to come by in The Netherlands.

I'm not in any way interested in the analog output quality.
I know that there are a lot of pci/usb soundcards who qualify but not at the price I'm looking for. I don't want to spend over €100 for just coaxial s/pdif output from my PC.

Maybe it doesn't exist. If that's the case, I'm willing to drop my need for 24/96 to 48/16 but I'd rather not.

My eyes hurt from searching the net.

Thanks for reading.
 
Mar 10, 2007 at 1:49 PM Post #2 of 15
I am afraid that cards, like you described do not exist. None that I know of anyway. The main thing which will have to change will be the "pricing well below €60" part I'm afraid.

I'll try to look something up since I would like it myself if it exists. All cheaper cards will support a toslink, but there is no RCA or coax to be found.
 
Mar 10, 2007 at 2:30 PM Post #3 of 15
Quote:

Originally Posted by EnOYiN /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I am afraid that cards, like you described do not exist. None that I know of anyway. The main thing which will have to change will be the "pricing well below €60" part I'm afraid.

I'll try to look something up since I would like it myself if it exists. All cheaper cards will support a toslink, but there is no RCA or coax to be found.


I came to the same conclusion but I was hoping that I overlooked something and someone else had found the holy grail already. One can buy a converter to go from toslink to coax but that would set you back another €25.

I've seen a Trust card (http://www.alternate.nl/html/product...artno=KK%23V84) that looks nice but there is hardly any information available about the samplerates and such. So I'm a bit afraid to buy it and come to the conclusion that it upsamples/downsamples everything to 48 kHz internally. For me, the lack of information seems to imply that it will.

I'll keep looking and will report here as well whenever I find my 'holy grail'.
 
Mar 10, 2007 at 3:07 PM Post #4 of 15
Quote:

Originally Posted by bonesinc /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I've seen a Trust card (http://www.alternate.nl/html/product...artno=KK%23V84) that looks nice but there is hardly any information available about the samplerates and such. So I'm a bit afraid to buy it and come to the conclusion that it upsamples/downsamples everything to 48 kHz internally. For me, the lack of information seems to imply that it will.


This might just be THE card. Maybe you can go somewhere to audition it. The manual says that it has two sample rates from which you can choose: 44.1 and 48 kHz. It supports EAX and direct sound 3d. The only thing missing is native ASIO, but for the rest it seems like a pretty good card. I might go and check it out some time.

Edit: now you will only have to buy a coax cable for €30 and you are on the €60 mark.
biggrin.gif
 
Mar 11, 2007 at 10:29 AM Post #6 of 15
Quote:

Originally Posted by joe_cool /img/forum/go_quote.gif
A USB-to-SPDIF converter can be had for $30 USD on eBay (auction 220090915081). Limited to 44-48kHz but you wanted cheap.


Thanks joe_cool. To be honest, I had seen that one but I was hoping there would be a similar priced soundcard around somewhere which can do 24/96, but I'm afraid I'm not going to find one. I'll keep looking some more and if I can't find one I'm buying one of those from eBbay.
 
Mar 11, 2007 at 5:11 PM Post #8 of 15
Look for a Creative Soundblaster Live! 24-bit PCI card. They have a coax output on miniplug (3.5 mm) and support up to 24/96 stereo output as well as 24/48 for 6-channel output. They are out of production but can still be found at good prices (~$10 USD).

I don't know if they re-sample 44 kHz to 48 kHz or not.
 
Mar 12, 2007 at 12:16 PM Post #9 of 15
My old SB Live! 5.1 (SB0100) has the Digital I/O Daughterboard (CT4660) and it has Digital COAX S/PDIF In and Out.
 
Jun 13, 2007 at 10:20 AM Post #13 of 15
I have the same dilema now. I'm planning on buying an external DAC and i need a cheap lets say, max 70$ transport with good S/PDIF... I also have the chance of buying a cheap Trust card , whic the owner claims that it can deliver bitperfect output with some drivers made by a guy on hydrogen audio foruml.
What do you think? Is it possible?
 
Jun 13, 2007 at 6:56 PM Post #15 of 15
How about the chaintech av-710? Does it have coax? It's pretty cheap.
 
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