Optical out from motherboard

[krell]

Any one tried optical out from mb and usb out from same mb feeding the dac who accepts both optical and usb inputs.
What findings u observed?one spare mb is lying around and I wish know from respected forum members before buying necessary ram and hdd.
Thanks in advance

 

[frend2001]

I tried the optical out from an old Asus 945 board. Fed into a Sony AVR.

Multi channel audio and Dolby/ DTS playback was good. SQ was also very clean.

Nothing much to write home about though.

 

[krell]

Ok thanks for sharing your experience, just intrested in stereo output,will see.
Thanks

 

[IndianEars]

I have am iMac running Win 10 via Bootcamp.

iMacs provide an Optical out.

My DAC accepts digital input signals via Both - USB & Optical (TosLink) .

Incidentally, Optical inputs or outputs are SPDIF.

I was pleasantly surprised when I compared the sound Quality of my DAC via USB & Optical inputs. The Optical input as 90% as good as the USB input. This was particularly significant, given the fact that my USB AudioQuest Coffee Cable is priced @ US$ 350+ and I was using a Rs 300 (Yes Rupees) TOSLINK plastic cable from Amazon.in

The limitation was that my DAC handles only 24/96 via SPDIF & Optical, but PCM 24/192 & DoP 512 via USB, so I continue using USB, since I have a Large HiRes & DSD library.

If 24/96 is adequate for you, I would highly recommend the Optical input.

P.S: My DAC is a Chord QBD HDSD 76 (The Model prior to the current DAVE)

 

[Eight1zero]

I have am iMac running Win 10 via Bootcamp.

iMacs provide an Optical out.

My DAC accepts digital input signals via Both - USB & Optical (TosLink) .

Incidentally, Optical inputs or outputs are SPDIF.

I was pleasantly surprised when I compared the sound Quality of my DAC via USB & Optical inputs. The Optical input as 90% as good as the USB input. This was particularly significant, given the fact that my USB AudioQuest Coffee Cable is priced @ US$ 350+ and I was using a Rs 300 (Yes Rupees) TOSLINK plastic cable from Amazon.in

The limitation was that my DAC handles only 24/96 via SPDIF & Optical, but PCM 24/192 & DoP 512 via USB, so I continue using USB, since I have a Large HiRes & DSD library.

If 24/96 is adequate for you, I would highly recommend the Optical input.

P.S: My DAC is a Chord QBD HDSD 76 (The Model prior to the current DAVE)

Hi
Do u feel any there is any noise or jitter when using the usb out from Mac to the dac or do u use anything in the middle to clean the path
Thanks

 

[IndianEars]

The Noise and jitter is Certainly there... Not audible in itself, but clearly apparent when some device is inserted that will clean it up.

Probably the BEST results were obtained using the Empirical Audio device, but it costs almost as much as the DAC !

The Uptone audio device too was good at a fraction of the cost.

Let me stress that the sound even without USB Clean up is very good, its just when these are added, the sound improves further

 

[Eight1zero]

The Noise and jitter is Certainly there... Not audible in itself, but clearly apparent when some device is inserted that will clean it up.

Probably the BEST results were obtained using the Empirical Audio device, but it costs almost as much as the DAC !

The Uptone audio device too was good at a fraction of the cost.

Let me stress that the sound even without USB Clean up is very good, its just when these are added, the sound improves further

Thank you

 

[edjamesx]

In built mother board spdif / stereo out sounds decent , but not the best. if you want good sound quality , Sound card is the way to go. I built new pc ,and used nvidia hdmi out , but the sound quality is not the best comparing to Sound card.

You may view the forum here

Dolby atmos from PC?

I am upgrading my PC . I was using the PC for playing movies && music. I was using a 7.1 sound card in my old pc for sending DTS signal to my av receiver which was working perfectly. I have connected with SPDIF cable from sound to receiver for sound. Since I am planning to build new PC , how do...

www.hifivision.com

 

[IndianEars]

edjamesx

What did you feed the Motherboad SPDIF to ?

Maybe the limitation was at that D to A ?

 

[edjamesx]

edjamesx

What did you feed the Motherboad SPDIF to ?

Maybe the limitation was at that D to A ?

Since i am using Nvidia graphics card , the sound is routed through hdmi (connected to AV/R). i felt the sound is flat comparing to the sound with my old pc which has dedicated sound card feeded through spdif cable to AV receiver, The sound from in built card is decent ..but not the best.
May be sound cards have better DAC built in , they have very high SNR ratio / high bit sample rates .

If some one is happy with spdif sound inbuilt on mother board then its fine., if someone is looking for better results may be they may look at usb external Sound DAC / or pci dedicated sound card.

 

[IndianEars]

Thanks, edjamesx for your detailed response.

 

[krell]

thanks everyone for sharing their valuable experiences.for normal redbook cds i am not able distinguish between the optical out and usb out form the same motherboard. both outputs are connected to auraliv vega dac, may be my speakers are not revealing more. let me check with some other and report back. happppppy posting.