l4d:
Hi I have a few very simple questions about the 9.1.
What is the impact of a computer soundcard? Does it have any? Does it depend on the input used?
Currently if I connect my hifi via optical cable to the soundcard, none of the 'software' functions of the card work, but when I switch to analogue they do - so will it be simialr to this?
Final question - what is the best input for these speakers? Is it an optical cable or would an iChord minijack to 2 RCA be better
Thanks
I4d - unfortunately it depends on the soundcard. if you had a Mac, it really is plug and play. PC - If you've got a decent audio card capable of accepting different sample rates (pretty much most do I believe these days, except for some of those motherboard solutions and older cards) then you'll be fine ... But remember the old Microsoft standard of 48khz meant that many older cards would resample everything and anything to that sample rate, even if you bypass the K-Mixer.
But if you've got a fairly decent card, you're away. I'm running mine off of a cheapo C-Media audio card using specially programmed drivers. If you google C-Media Code you should land yourself at Dogbers page. You can pick up such a card for less than £20, install his drivers and get bit perfect output with no audio card resampling. His page also explains some of the shortcomings of XP (assuming you're on XP). Vista doesn't have quite the same issues. Dogber knows the card inside out and I can probably dig out links explaining the shortcomings of the manufacturers own drivers if you are interested.
Only downer, the C-Media solution is limited to 16bit at 44, 48 or 96khz. If you wish to listen to bit rates higher than this and believe you'll hear a difference then I'd recommend ESI's Juli@ which can output up to 24/96 over the optical output.
I may purchase one this coming weekend though I'm sure Ashley of AVI will suggest I could be wasting my money as the difference between 16/44 vs 24/96 will be minimal. My thoughts - well - the speakers can handle it, so I want to hear them at their full. I also want to get back into producing some music so this card is perfect.
Hope this helps.
Matt.