[Kiont]

I have a Realtek sound card, the kind that comes with every laptop...., the sound that comes out of is not that good, as expected.
 
I'm not familiar with the whole digital path inside sound cards and optical interfaces in general, how clean is the signal coming out from the mini 3.5mm Optical ?,
I understand it's a digital signal, but does it get processed by the sound card first, or is it straight digital information from the music software?(in my case foobar/wasapi).
 
And if it does get processed by the sound card, does it really affect anything, it's just 1 and 0's right?

 

[Kiont]

Bump

 

[nagual]

The best way you can use your laptop´s Realtek  is through optical out.  
Good luck !

 

[Kiont]

The best way you can use your laptop´s Realtek  is through optical out.  
Good luck !

Certain DAC ( like the Schiit's )offer optional USB input at a higher price.

So I'm trying to find out if I actually need to use USB.
I'm concerned that if I use the optical out, the sound card may be degrading the signal before it gets to the external DAC.

 

[nagual]

My rig:
 
S/PDIF(onboard)--->Asus interface to Toslink(out)--->Optical cable(generic)--->Fiio D3 DAC Toslink(in)--->D3 RCA(out)--->Belkin cable--->Audioengine A2 RCA(in)
 
The audio signal bypasses the onboard DSP, no noise,  and it´s very difficult to me staying away from it.
(I´m running AIMP3 in W7 "Exclusive mode" WASAPI)
I hope to have answered your question.