Thread: No head-unit, need optical out from PC to RCAs - Suggestions?

that's the one...... they were a fourtune when they first came out..... but that's only because they were ahead of there time pretty much.... optical was really exotic when they first used it for a car anyway, today it's much more common....

I know the 700 does it for a fact... I always assumed the 510 to do it as well, but I never ran one non ai-net.... I'm pretty sure it does....

Originally Posted by vettejock99

Hey all,

I'd like to use a DSP or Digial Analog Converter to break my ground loop problem, because I can't take it anymore. However, I'd prefer not to spend $300, either. So, I came across an old thread that said only the CY-AC300 and ADD51T would work for folks like me that don't have a head unit are simply planning to use the SPDIF optical out on my Audigy 2 NX to drive my standard 6-channel amplifier's RCAs (I know some may require an optical/coax SPDIF converter).

However, I hear rumors that there are others that will work as well, like maybe the Alpine PXA-510. Is this true? Are there others? My concerns are that (a) I don't want to have to buy a head-unit (b) I want to control the volume using my carpc (in other words I don't want to have to have another set of dials I have to use to adjust volume) and (c) I want to be able to get sound out of my fronts and rears, even when I am listening to non-surround material (read: I don't want my MP3s to just play out of the front speakers).

Some posts on this site have led me to ask about the items listed above. Please let me know if you can help me out. I will be very grateful to be done with this whine. Thanks!!!!

Mark

i really hate to get a little off topic but, i know the dammn engine whine bugs you, it bugged me too until i noticed it completely went away when i redid my carpc. the difference was a REALLY good ground for the mobo psu and all. now theres not one single indication of whizzing. when i put the ground loop isolator on it gives me a small hiss. in my previous carpc it got rid of it, but now its perfect without it. and im using onboard sound with a 1,8th jack to rca going to the back to a alpine amp f 250 i think. sounds great!

No, that is a very valid point. I understand and appreciate what you are saying to me, but I've spent HOURS and more HOURS and I don't know what to do differently. I mean, I have a 10AWG wired to a screw on the rear of the PC which secures the PSU to the back of the case, and the other end terminates at the common ground point. At one point I tried adding another such connection to the bottom of the case, again grounded to the same point, and it hasn't helped. The isolators didn't help, nothing. The guys at Circuit City couldn't figure it out, either. I am just so, so frustrated...

FWIW, I just put in an ADD51T to eliminate the RCA links from the sound card to the amp, and it still didn't help. I suppose the whine is coming from something else I am doing. I suck at drawing, but I am going to try to draw a diagram and scan it to post here, so someone may be able to point our where I am being a dumba--. I'll start another thread as soon as I get that done.

I would still like to know about the PXA-H510, as well, because I don't need DTS and I could do with getting rid of the ADD51T if I could find another fix....

I know exactly how you feel. I spent countless hours trying to eliminate the noise from my system...NOTHING seemed to work. I recently purchased the PXA-H510 DSP and it has COMPLETELY SOLVED THE PROBLEM. No engine whine, no noise during boot, no graphics card blitter noise, no EMI noise, just pure, clean audio. I would highly recommend purchasing the BlueGears XMystique soundcard to output the optical signal to this processor. The reason for this is that the BlueGears card is the first (and only, AFAIK) sound card with a Dolby Digital Live encoder built in, which means it can output every sound your computer makes in Dolby Digital. The main reason I got the PXA-H510 instead of a more expensive processor is that I really want all of the audio control to be done from the computer, so the audio processor only needs to be able to convert the signal and send it to the amp. I really would recommend this solution.