USB Sound Card with Optical/Coax Out

[shanezn]

Hi guys. Looking for a USB soundcard to use with XBMC on Windows 8.1. I have a Dell small form factor desktop, so the PCI options are very limited in terms of low profile cards, hence the need for an external USB device. I need one that can pass thru Dolby Digital as well as DTS. Any recommendations ? Thanks in advance.

 

[Pada]

Have a look at the Asus Xonar U3. I'm not sure if it meet all your requirements though.

 

[garyc]

Have you checked your motherboard to see if it already has a coax header on it?

 

[shanezn]

Thanks, Pada. Will have a look at that.

The onboard card is a standard stereo out, garyc.

 

[Dimpie (COMPUTEK)]

??
Asus Xonar U7 7.1 USB soundcard and headphone amplifier , with 192kHz/24-bit HD sound + dedicated mic volume control + volume control dial , C-Media 6632A DAC , Dolby Home Theater v4 , 4x 3.5mm + 2x RCA output , coaxial digital output
> http://www.asus.com/Sound_Cards_and_DigitaltoAnalog_Converters/Xonar_U7/

..... but a little expensive



EDIT: U3 description (as per Frontosa) ...
Asus Xonar U3 audio station , black , flash drive type usb audio , Dolby Digital & Pro-Logic IIx surround sound , 24bit 96KHz , EAX and DirectSound HW support , analog / optical digital output

 

[Dolby]

I found some cheap USB no name jobby at Matrix Northriding offering optical out - R350.00 or something

 

[garyc]

I was thinking of the motherboard spdif header. If you have one it will normally sit near the front panel audio headers. It should look something like this:



If you have one of these then a cheap (or DIY) connector will give you a coax lead coming out of the case.

 

[shanezn]

Don't have that on the Dell, garyc. I have seen it on other boards though. Didn't know there was a cable that could go into Coax. That's worth knowing !

Thanks, Dolby. I'll check Matrix down here. My budget is around R500 for the card, so hopefully I find something close.

 

[morkhans]

Take a look at this: http://hifimediy.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=83 I have the asynch version which works out of the box on Raspbian and Windows 8. Here is the cable as well: http://hifimediy.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=103

Cheap and cheerful there is also this: http://www.dx.com/p/c-media-cm106-u...x-with-7-1-speaker-spdif-optical-output-15746 you'll need to do a bit of fiddling for drivers though (check the comments).

 

[shanezn]

That looks perfect ! Does it pass thru Dolby Digital and DTS ?

 

[morkhans]

That looks perfect ! Does it pass thru Dolby Digital and DTS ?

The cheap and cheerful one does, not sure about the hifime version, but I don't see why not. It has a much better DAC on it.

Edit: Google says yes: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digi...-hifimediy-es9023-te7022-24-96-usb-dac-3.html

 

[shanezn]

The cheap and cheerful one does, not sure about the hifime version, but I don't see why not. It has a much better DAC on it.

Edit: Google says yes: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/digi...-hifimediy-es9023-te7022-24-96-usb-dac-3.html

Thanks. That is definitely now a contender

 

[shanezn]

Ok, so this is what I ended up doing ...

Bought a EVGA Nvidia GeForce 210, 1GB DDR3 Graphics card with HDMI out, and it came with low profile brackets so it installed in the Dell really nicely. Cost R469. The card passes Dolby Digital, DTS and Dolby Digital Plus via HDMI, so setting up in XBMC was a breeze. Connected to my Sherwood receiver, but I'm only passing thru HDMI audio. I chose to keep using VGA for video. I saw no difference in picture quality, so chose to use the otherwise neglected VGA port on my TV. Just configured the output settings and manually set Windows sound device to 24bit 48000khz and Bob's your aunty ! If you don't set it up this way, XBMC will pass thru all audio as Multichannel PCM. After that, pure digital bliss

 

[Soul Assassin]

Ok, so this is what I ended up doing ...

Bought a EVGA Nvidia GeForce 210, 1GB DDR3 Graphics card with HDMI out, and it came with low profile brackets so it installed in the Dell really nicely. Cost R469. The card passes Dolby Digital, DTS and Dolby Digital Plus via HDMI, so setting up in XBMC was a breeze. Connected to my Sherwood receiver, but I'm only passing thru HDMI audio. I chose to keep using VGA for video. I saw no difference in picture quality, so chose to use the otherwise neglected VGA port on my TV. Just configured the output settings and manually set Windows sound device to 24bit 48000khz and Bob's your aunty ! If you don't set it up this way, XBMC will pass thru all audio as Multichannel PCM. After that, pure digital bliss

Clearly I'm missing something here, isn't VGA maximum 640x480, do you mean DVI? Also why not Geforce to the Sherwood HDMI in and then HDMI out back to the monitor? Please tell me what I'm missing.

 

[shanezn]

No. I'm getting full 1920x1080 via VGA, not DVI. I did have it set up that way initially, with the HDMI in/out via the Sherwood. I saw no difference in picture quality so I chose to keep using VGA and leaving the last open HDMI port on my TV free for any future device I may want to add.

 

[Pada]

Clearly I'm missing something here, isn't VGA maximum 640x480, do you mean DVI? Also why not Geforce to the Sherwood HDMI in and then HDMI out back to the monitor? Please tell me what I'm missing.

You can do at least 1920x1200 @ 60Hz with VGA cables, with the maximum being around 2048x1536.

VGA's image quality is definitely worse than the digital counterparts such as DVI/HDMI! VGA may appear blurry, compared to the crisp image that you'll get with DVI/HDMI.

 

[shanezn]

I honestly saw no visible difference, which is why I opted to use the VGA out instead. Also, if I'm just browsing I don't have to switch on the amp in order to pass video.

 

[Electric]

You saw no visible difference between a vga cable and a dvi??
Are you sure?

What TV/Monitor did you use to make this statement?
Refresh rates on HD content alone are easy to notice.

 

[shanezn]

LG PW350 50" Plasma, and yes, I'm sure.

 

[Electric]

I was running a laptop with a vga, it looked ok but HD content clearly took a knock from the lower refresh rate.
DVi & HDMI didn't have the same issues.