Digital Optical out on Motherboard VS Soundcard

**fire** · 01-28-2007, 06:41 PM

Hi guys..
i have searched and found nothing that has the direct answer...

I currently have a CarPC and am sick of the HDD noise in my speakers.. its very faint but there is interference from within the computer… when the mouse is moved, or the hdd is overworked…doesn’t happen at all when I rev the car or anything as I have less than 2 feet of sound cables to the amp.

I am doing it all again in my next car… but I want optical out to a processor like the alpine PXA-H701. from this I can run super short RCA’s to the amp of my choice…. Optical input amps are rare and is hard to be flexible… this way I can have an amp for front, amp for backs, and amp for subs.. etc.

Anyway.. My question is.. is optical out on a Motherboard (say ASUS) that claim to be 24 bit as good as a creative Audigy or something with optical out (also 24bit)?...

I've read that optical doesn’t get processed on board, so does that mean there is no point in buying an external sound card?... I’d understand if I was using analogue from the computer that I need the best onboard processor…

BTW im not looking for SPL quality sound… I have the pioneer pro series speakers, and will probably just use them.. Nothing special.. I just want flexibility with clear sound. I don’t even play music all that loud anyway.

**RedGTiVR6** · 01-28-2007, 07:26 PM

Not all optical outputs sound the same.

The chipsets determine how they sound.

Since you will most likely be going to an outboard processor I would recomend attempting to achieve bit perfect. You can learn more about it here: FAQ: What is Bit-Perfect?

In short, yes, there is a difference in the sound quality of the optical outputs.

**kwchan** · 01-28-2007, 09:54 PM

I have a gigabyte motherboard that use ALC880 audio chipset (suppose to be 8 channel, high-def audio), i am planning to recycle my old Hoontech Digital Bracket that takes SPDIF signal from the motherboard and convert it to optical for the Alpine processor.

Hopefully it works fine...