[Sam21]

I am wondering if a S/PDIF out in a sound card outputs pre-processed signals (before DSP effects)/(Bypassing DSP) or processed signals (after DSP effects).
 
I am also wondering if software effects (like the equaliser in foobar2000/Razer Surround) are applied to the signals and then sent to the sound card....

 

[PurpleAngel]

  I am wondering if a S/PDIF out in a sound card outputs pre-processed signals (before DSP effects)/(Bypassing DSP) or processed signals (after DSP effects).
 
I am also wondering if software effects (like the equaliser in foobar2000/Razer Surround) are applied to the signals and then sent to the sound card....

The S/PDIF can pass digital audio all those different ways.
S/PDIF on a sound card can be set to bypass the audio processor (DSP), but I would say the default setting is usually includes accessing or using the DSP as part of the digital audio stream.
 
I'm fairly sure Foobar2000 does it's stuff before the digital audio signal reaches the sound card.
 
The Razer software I would assume runs off the CPU.
May or may not need to use the audio processor??

 

[mcandmar]

Think it depends on the card, a Creative x-Fi for example bypasses the DSP when using SPDIF so none of the fancy stuff works like the Crystalizer, CMSS3D, EAX etc, not that you would want to use any of them anyway.
 
On top of that you can switch to bit perfect output which will completely bypass the cards up/down mixing and just spit the raw data out to an external DAC. And if you use a WASAPI driver in foobar it will also bypass the windows mixer.
 
I guess the answer is it depends.
 
I would assume the Razer does its processing in cpu before handing over to the windows mixer -> sound card etc.