Digital Out Not Working please help :(

[kingnothing83]

Hi,

My new beresford dac arrived today and i am excited to see what it can do. I have a soundblaster xfi xtreme music with 3.5mm "flexijack" out. Digital I/O is selected in the soundblaster settings, and a 3.5mm to toslink adaptor connects to a toslink then to the dac, then a phono to phono goes to my amp.

But there is no output from the pc.

I tested it from a dvd player via the toslink and it works fine, sounded great, so the dac definitely works.

My 3.5mm to toslink adaptor feels very loose, could the adaptor be faulty? Is there anyway i can test if my pc is outputting a digital signal?

Any suggestions very welcome!!

Simon

 

[kingnothing83]

thanks for the suggestions! I am writing this from the bus on route to the pub via the magic of mobile internet. Should the red light be bq noticiale as it was from my dvd player? Dvd player had a very strong red light.if this is the case then the sb certainly isn't outsttuing a digital signal.my first thought now is reinstall drivers what do u think?

 

[kingnothing83]

Well after hours of tinkering I have came to the conclusion that my soundblaster xfi xtreme music does not produce an optical output.

The dac is 100% set up correctly as adding the dvd player solves the problem, and i'm quite handy with pc's and built this one myself so am sure its working correctly and the software is correct.

I read for ages before i found a couple of posts on the net saying early OEM cards like mine do not feature optical outputs without the digital i/o which goes from the 3.5 flexijack to an external box.

Good news - this box is only £15!

Bad news - they dont make them any more.

So what shall i do? Try to find a creative 3.5mm i/o box on ebay? (seems tough) even if i find one, would that decrease the sound quality by adding an extra "layer"?

Perhaps buy something such as this http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0755232196.1207386110@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccfkadedkfkhhdjcflgceggdhhmdgml.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=691060&category_oid= which has a toslink out

Or how about this for an idea, apparently the soundblaster cards all upsample from 44.1 to 48 when you're playing a 44.1 mp3 for example. Now very very few cards do bit perfect digital output but the chaintech av-710 does. They dont make them in the uk but they are actually very cheap, might be worth tryig to find one.

Do you have any knowledge of bit perfect digital output? Does the soundcard really make a difference if you are using an external dac anyway? Thanks

Yours frustratingly.

 

[kingnothing83]

I have now found a good solution which may be interesting to some people.

I am going to buy this http://www.trust.com/products/product_detail.aspx?item=12950 the trust 5250 and use these drivers
http://code.google.com/p/cmediadrivers/wiki/FAQ

The advantage is, it outputs digitally and bit perfect. So should give a better sound than my xfi would have done. Going to order one and give it a try

 

[kingnothing83]

Thanks for the suggestion frog, i spent a good amount of time obsessing over soundcards this morning and think i learned a fair amount.

The M Audio 2496 has good reviews but part of its good reputation was due to its analogue output which really isnt an issue with my setup. That card will give a better quality sound than a creative card, but shouldnt be any better than the new card ive gone for.

My card was £15 inc delivery from play.com. It is basically the cheapest card you can get with a bit perfect digital output (via the modded drivers). Apparently there will be no difference between the digital out of this card and the digital out of a £50 soundcard, or £500 soundcard for that matter, as nothing is done to the signal.

So more delay, but it will be worth the wait when it arrives. Im going to connect my soundcard to my dac digitally (of course) and connect my soundcard direct to my amp (analogue) and then listen, it will be a good way to see what difference the dac makes as opposed to the soundcard - should be massive as the analogue on the soundcard is essentially rubbish.

 

[PJPro]

I would be grateful if you could post the results of your test.

 

[kingnothing83]

No problem at all