Sound Cards with Optical Output?

Scrambler asks: "I was looking around for a cheap sound card with optical output. I want it so I can record high quality MP3 music and recorded music/messages from my PC to my minidisc player. If anyone knows of a reasonalbly priced card would they please post it?"

Comments

Warning

[Anonymous Coward]

Avoid the SB Live at all costs. It wouldn't be hard to get an adapter for this card but the digital i/o on this card is supposed ot be very low quality. Timing errors and pops and whatnot. I guess the quality of the card fits the quality of their drivers (non smp capable)

Re:Warning

[spineless]

I don't know where you got your info on the SBLive, but the digital i/o is just fine. The digital i/o is locked at a 48KHz sample rate, so this may be the cause of many peoples displeasure, but are you going to notice it? I highly doubt it.

And yes, the SBLive is SMP capable now. Granted, there were some initial problems with the drivers, but they have all been rectified. I should know, I wrote the first online review of the SBLive.

hoontech

[henri]

www.hoontech.com has some.

henri

anyone know where i can find a cheap stand-alone DAC?

Re:hoontech

[dattaway]

A cheap stand alone DAC? The DAC integrated circuits are easy to use and can be liberated from old equipment. They are easy to interface with just a data bus with a latch for the input and an output. With a few logic chips or a PAL, you could hook one up to the parallel port. We used to do these kind of experiments in lab and can be done from scratch in a few hours.

Re:hoontech

[kijiki]

Before soundcards were reasonably priced ($150 for a SB1.0), I hooked the eight data pins from my parallel port up to a cheap 8 bit dac (forgot the part #) and even powered it off the port! No other parts needed, and I played Wolf3D with it, since it ended up being compatitble with the Disney Sound System! They charged $50 for the DSS, and it cost me about $3 for the DAC. One of the mod players supported it too, but its name escapes me. Homebrew hardware is always the most fun.

A few choices

[FigWig]

As already mentioned, the hoontech 4d Wave model looks very nice. It is fairly cheap and appears to support Linux along with the standard winxx. I have only seen it sold on their web site (www.hoontech.com), but it is only about US$40.

Another choice is the Xitel Platinum storm. It has a TOSLINK out and I have been happily been recording CDs and MP3s to my minidisc with it. This one is a little more expensive, around US$80. I bought it from:
http://www.minidisco.com/specifications/xitelpla tinum.html
I haven't tried it under Linux.

Aureal Vortex2 Chip

[Ars-Gonzo]

When there are Vortex2 drivers for linux, Aureal's reference design Vortex2 card has a Toslink out... I have one, but haven't tried it, as I don't want to haul that computer all the way to the room with the stere.. I mean home theater.

///Gonzo

AWE32/64 S/PDIF for MIDI only

[Anonymous Freak]

Yup. In the Creative Labs documents (I've only seen it on paper) it says that the S/PDIF output on the AWE series is only for MIDI, not for waveform data. I suppose you could hack something together that streams a wave to a SoundFont; and plays a MIDI that uses that soundfont, but I don't know how.

Does anyone know how to do this? (It would also allow a Sound Blaster Live to hardware accelerate 2048 voice streams, instead of the current limit of 32.)

Turtle Beach Montego & some Soundblasters

[scjody]

The Turtle Beach Montego has a digital S/PDIF connector on a dongle, whose output can be converted to optical fairly easily. Also some Soundblasters (AWE32/64 Gold) have a twisted-pair S/PDIF connector on the card its self.

My friend's Sony receiver (not sure the model number) has a "coax in" port that can talk S/PDIF, and Toslink (optical) outputs to connect to his minidisc. We are planning on connecting his AWE32 to his receiver via this input, email me if you want to know how it turns out. (remove the nospam and spamsux :)

Here are some links you may find useful:

• S/PDIF info
• Converting S/PDIF to Toslink
• Commercial S/PDIF -- Optical S/PDIF converter

Integrated on mobo

[mulle]

Don't know about separate soundcard but the guy here seems to have found a motherboard with integrated sound sporting an optical output. Couldn't hurt asking him I guess...

Parallel port sound devices

[jfunk]

I did a similar thing, only I used a resistor ladder (no DACs lying around).

Most modplayers and many trackers supported it as well as many demos. There was even a Win3.1 driver available (Covox Speech Thing).

It was through all this stuff I ended up buying a GUS. One of the best computer purchases I ever made. It cost CAN$215 and I'm still using it right now (listening to some PF Station, ahh yeah).

To be on topic, the adjacent computer has a TB Montego in it, I thought it to be a worthy successor to the GUS. You can get a SPDIF daughterboard for it with optical I/O. You can also buy a montego (or Montego II) with the daughterboard already on it. They're sold as "home recording studio" versions. While there are no open-source drivers available, the 4Front drivers work fairly well, and their support is awesome (I got an email within 10 minutes).

Compared to SB junk, the prices are a little high, but in my opinion are really cheap for the 18-bit quality and high bandwidth. They're comparable to more professional cards.

Built in *accessable* digital IO? & CD Changer??

[pete@unb]

Is the S/PDIF in the unit accessable, or do you have to wire one onto the board (SB-AWE Style).
Note: with the SbAWE, the S/PDIF was only for midi.
BTW: Anyone got experience building a CD changer/jukebox?