My current sound card is an audigy 2 live from 2003. From what i have read it was the final version and a stripped down version of the audigy 2. This card has the digital i/o out and i have speakers with digital and analog inputs.

The digital input sounds far far clearer.

My curreent mobo only has analog out although it is this supposed great hd audio.
"Blu-ray playback outputs supported by high quality 106dB SNR ALC889A HD audio "
This has coax digital and optical out, but no 3.5mm digital out (that i have found)
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/Driver_Model.as...uctID=3013

I often use 2 pc's and wanted a cheap sound card to use on my second pc. I found an sb070 creative sb x-fi (everyone says it isnt a x-fi). http://tinyurl.com/6nk3p7
I got this for $15 usd from eBay and it works fine but it wont connect through my digital input on my speakers.

My sb live audigy 2 sounds the best by far. The on board sounds about the same as the sb07790.
I am a bit of a noob when it comes to sound cards so i have a couple of questions about this.

#1.If i get this sb digital i/o module and convert the digital coax to 3.5mm would this make the sbo790 sound better then the audigy 2?(curiosity sake, i know its better to just upgrade)
http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&sub...oduct=1780

#2. Am i doing something wrong with my on board sound that it doesnt sound as good as my old audigy 2?

#3. Any thing i am over looking?

I am planning on getting a new sound card this coming up summer, i just like to tinker.
Thanks again guys.

Micro.....

i'm getting a little confused in what you are trying to do......

What type of digital input to your speaker system that you are trying to use? is it 3.5mm, optical, or coaxial?

You and I have the same Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R motherboard.. When I first built my system and while it was in testing mode... I used the onboard analog and digital (coaxial/optical) out to my logitech Z-680. It sounded good. Much better than years past when it came to onboard sound.

But.... a couple of weeks later... I blew the onboard away to make way for SB X-Fi Titanium PCI-e card.... and I tell ya... it was a whole lotta kick but sound in comparison. Onboard is good and adequate.... the add-in card is the way to go if you want all possible sound quality when it comes to the pc realm...

is it that your speaker system only takes 3.5mm digital and 3.5mm analog input?

can you clarify what you are trying to do or at least what direction you trying to head down?

thanks...

G.G thanks. i didnt even think along the lines of mentioning that.

The speakers have 3.5mm digital and analong input (older harman kardon 2.1).
Thus i am limited in what i can use.
The sb audigy 2 has the only 3.5mm digital connector.

Micro.....

just thought of something....


If you want to unistall the current sound card from your GA-EP45-UD3R and go back to the onboard...... there might be a way to use the coaxial digital from mb to your speaker set's 3.5mm digital input..............

Stop by your friendly local Radio Shack and see if they have a Coaxial to 3.5mm cable converter (Coaxial on one end and 3.5mm on the other end)..... hell... even a gender bender would work... No electronic conversion needed.... It is just a matter of taking the digital signal from the positive line coming out of the coaxial line (in the middle) and moving it down the other end so as it ends up in the right position of the 3.5mm end....

Then all you need to do is re-enable the onboard sound and then reinstall the sound drivers for our mb and then tell the software to send the sound out the coaxial line of the mb..

G. G. said:
Tyvm for the advice. i was looking at those but i wasnt sure if they would work or not since they all say mono.I didnt know if it had to be stereo like the current speaker cable. I know that coax digital is only 2 wires, but the speaker wire is 3-4.But for a couple of $ its prob worth a try.

But what your saying is that the on board sound would be better quality then my audigy 2?
(i game and play music)

G.G. is right about the adapter. I'm running a SB Audigy 2 ZS with a Logitech Z-5500 set. The Logitech as both coaxial and optical input, but the digital out on the Audigy 2 is only 3.5mm, so I just went to RadioShack and got a 3.5mm to mono phono adapter to connect the coaxial cable to the Audigy 2, Voila. Good Luck.

great, ill try to get one tomarrow.

micro said:


Micro,

no.... you only need mono 3.5mm. if you look at a mono 3.5 tip, there will be only two rings. one for signal and the other is ground versus a stereo 3.5mm tip which as three rings to it, left signal, right signal, and a ground. So in your situation, you need a mono 3.5mm tip to a coaxial cable or adapter.

As for you mentioning speaker wire being 3 and 4..... not sure what you are referring to.....

if you were using your audigy 2 using the digital out to your speaker digital in..... then you would be using a 3.5mm mono tip to a 3.5mm mono tip cable.

And if you were using the analog out of your audigy 2 to your speaker's analog in.... then you would have three 3.5mm stereo tips to a 3.5mm stereo tips cable. Each cable will transfer two sets of signals... cable 1 will be left front signal + right front signal + ground. cable 2 will be surround left = surround right + ground, and then cable 3 will carry sub + center + ground. Now if you had a X-Fi titanium card, now contains an extra surround for a 7.1 setup if you had the speaker system for it. That extra surround would be cable 4 will be rear surround right + rear surround left + ground. All would be the 3.5mm to 3.5mm stereo tip connector type.


so basically, if you want to use your onboard digital coaxial (phono) connector to your speaker's digital 3.5mm input... you need a cable or an adapter that will convert that tip types.... I know Radio shack has it...


As for sound quality between the onboard vs add-in....

The analog from the Audigy 2 will be a little bit better than the analog of the onboard... The analog of an X-Fi Titanium is hands down way better than onboard. The onboard has a long way to catch up to the X-Fi. BUT... today's onboard HD is WAY better than previous generations.

Now... for digital..... Both will be the same.... reason? it is all digital... no digital to analog conversion to get tanted/smeared by the quality of the components. So in otherwords.... all you are doing is passing the digital signal over to the speaker system and let it do the conversion... better/cleaner signal transfer. This goes the same for optical...

As for you listening music and doing games using digital signal..... Music is not a problem as it is in stereo.... games may be an issue.... typically with digital... the onboard sound AND your Audigy 2 + all previous add in sound cards, can only tranfer sound of games in stereo via digital.... and all your EAX game effects standards are not transfered because it is not capable to.... so game sounds get coded as stereo.... in order to get all the effects, you needed to run all six analog signals.

until the X-FI.... sans the lower end X-Fi.... I have the X-Fi titanium.... it is capable to encode sound effects and send it down to the speaker system so it can port it off to the proper speakers, especially if you have a 5.1 or 7.1.....

I couldnt find the proper connector localy. I did manage to find in my old pile of cables an rca y adaptor and an audio cable with a 3.5 male to go into the speakers and a y'd rca at teh other end. It worked.So the onboard is now functional.

I cant tell if there is any difference in quality with music, but like you said, digital is digital. I assume newer games can still use eax 2 as i think that is all my audigy 2 can produce, so i may be better off just using my card rather then on board until i can afford a X-Fi Titanium.


Thanks a lot for your help guys.

Micro,

glad to hear that you got the coaxial digital from you onboard working. You wont hear any difference between the digital coaxial between the sound card and the onboard. You should compare the onboard digital to the onboard analog. you should hear the difference there.

For me, I run both analog and optical from my X-Fi titanium to my input analog and optical to my Z-680.

As for EAX2 from your Audigy 2.... in order to get the affect... you will need to use the analog. Because the Audigy 2 and older cards cannot encode it to be sent down the digital line. With games, it is stereo. You still need to use analog.