Are all digital signals created equal?

[theconspicuousninja]

I've been thinking a lot lately about getting a sound system. One of the things I've been tbinking about with this is whether an amplifier would make the same result out of a cheap USB sound card optical signal, as it would out of an optical signal from a more elite inboard soundcard? Or if its worth just going and buying a dragonfly DAC. Thanks in advance for Amy facts, findings or even speculation you may have. P.S. my experience spans as far as cheap PC surround sounds due to past budgeting failures, so please keep everything dummy proof if possible.

 

[John Duncan]

From recent experimentation, I have found that the optical output from my TV introduces a degree of digital 'chatter', making it unsatisfactory when listening in surround mode, whilst my Virgin TiVO does not, so no they are not all equal.

I'm slightly confused by the suggestion of a Dragonfly DAC though, since that will only work in stereo, whereas you mention surround elsewhere - what exactly are you trying to do?

 

[theconspicuousninja]

That is a very good point, stario dac's may be a little pointless. That said I'd be using it more for music than film (as silly as that seems) as a little side note, are any of the speaker and amp packages sold online (Denon AVRX7200W + Dali zensor 7 5.1 for example) to be trusted or are they all thrown together based on specs rather than sound?