[s0matic]

Sorry for the stupid question, but...

Does the Realtek AC97 onboard sound (ALC850 chipset) support outputting a signal to both the S/PDIF Digital out & the analog out simultaneously?

I'm asking because I am planning to buy a Zhaolu D2, and I wish to use it along with my regular computer speakers. In the end, I will need to output S/PDIF either from my AC97, or from a separate sound card if need be.

Thanks!

 

[Solude]

I think so. But you can also plug your computer speakers to the D2 so really who cares

 

[jvs]

You know the digital out of the AC'97 onboard sound will be resampled to 48kHz and will therefore not be bit-perfect? It will work quite well but not be optimal. To get bit-perfect digital output you will need to use a soundcard in this case.

 

[Bones13]

The answer should be that both the Digital out (SPDIF) and the main Analog out should be active at the same time from your motherboard.

You might have to go in the drivers and activate the SPDIF out. I would imagine that the main analog sound out would be active with sound unless something was done to turn it off, and even then I don't know if you can actually do that. Some systems allow this output to be on the front case of the computer as well, and you can plug in the speakers, and many headphones.

The onboard audio systems on motherboards are not considered well in the audiophile world. There is a lot of electrical going on in the midst of the audio circuitry, adding noise and distortion. The SPDIF both optical and coax on most all of these units is designed for delivering Dolby/DTS audio to a multiple speaker system (DVD movie audio) and delivers it at the 48 khz frequency that DVDs use. Stereo music, from CDs comes on the default frequency of 44.1, and the ubiquetous onboard sound cards do not allow you to turn the frequency down to 44.1. Therefore, the circuitry within the sound chip "resamples" your music from 44.1 to 48, raising another complaint in the audiophile community.

Your options are to just use the onboard sound for your music listening, from speakers and headphones, which might sound just fine to you. Try not to let preconceptions from some of the harder audiophiles here prevent you from having fun.

Obviously you could spend more for a different sound card. A search here for the AV710 will describe a very inexpensive card that will have a "good" SPDIF out. The various drivers for this card, and the proponents of each, if you read over everything here, is great for an afternoon headache break.

The M-Audio Transit will provide a "good" SPDIF out, as well as an analog output for your speakers. Not expensive, and recommended well here on this board. I am in the process of comparing the Transit to more expensive options in the USB -> SPDIF arena. Until I decide which way to jump, I will probably just use my motherboard SPDIF out.

 

[s0matic]

Thank you very much for the input.

Yes, I've thought about it and I think I will forgo the option of using my onboard sound. Therefore I will be looking into a moderately priced soundcard solution, and I've narrowed it down to 2 options:
Chaintech AV710
Diamond XtremeSound 7.1

Hopefully I can pair one of those cards with a Zhaolu D2C I will be receiving soon, and possibly a pair of HD-595's in the middle of September. Definitely excited! as this is pretty much my initial jump into the "audiophile" world.

The Diamond card came up into consideration only because of the somewhat lack of current AV710 shipments, although I'm sure that the card will be available soon at a later time. However, the Diamond card sports a Coaxial output, as opposed to the AV710's Optical. This raises a couple of questions for me:

Does anyone know if the Diamond card does "bit-perfect" output?
and
What would be an overall better option for those with experience with them? whether be it just traditional Coaxial vs Optical comparisons, or a direct head-on comparison between the two.

 

[Solude]

Get the 710 even if you have to wait.

 

[drp]

I have an Asus P4P800-E motherboard (phono, optical and coax digital outs) so use the same sound driver. If you can find the Asus Sound Manager (download from Asus if you don't have it), you can set the output for for digital only or digital and analog at the same time. Try it!

As far as potential sound quality, I'm currently testing digital out going to a Resolution Audio Opus 21 via a Zu Ash digital coax. Using the latest version of Foobar with the ASIO and Apple Lossless add-ins, Foobar reports 44.1 KHz output; the K-Mixer seems to be bypassed. Playing ALAC, the computer seems to be feeding the right stuff to the CD players DAC section. Simply amazing sound quality.


Quote:

Originally Posted by s0matic Sorry for the stupid question, but... Does the Realtek AC97 onboard sound (ALC850 chipset) support outputting a signal to both the S/PDIF Digital out & the analog out simultaneously? I'm asking because I am planning to buy a Zhaolu D2, and I wish to use it along with my regular computer speakers. In the end, I will need to output S/PDIF either from my AC97, or from a separate sound card if need be. Thanks!