Is there any difference (signal wise) among digital outputs of lets say Sblive 5.1, Audigy 1, Audigy 2, M-audio Revolution 7.1, and other Sound Cards that provides Coax / Optical out? Sound Blaster seems to have all these dsp effects and I am not sure if they are processed on the sound card.
It's just that I am hooking my really old sblive 5.1 (with the coax digital out tray) to a high-end receiver (with all effects off, hopefully i'll get the cleanest signal). Just wondering if it will sound any different with a better sound card. Just not sure if the computer actually decodes the audio from the PC and encodes it back or if it's a straight digital pass thru (Not talking about DVDs, but something like mp3s or wavs) Anybody know?
Also, I am wondering if there's any real time encoding DD5.1 PCI sound cards. I know the Nvidia onboard "soundstorm" does it and makes you go DD5.1 as soon as you turn on your computer. But I can't find any PCI card with the same capabilities and I don't feel like junking my P4 3Ghz for an AMD board -.-
It's just that I am hooking my really old sblive 5.1 (with the coax digital out tray) to a high-end receiver (with all effects off, hopefully i'll get the cleanest signal). Just wondering if it will sound any different with a better sound card. Just not sure if the computer actually decodes the audio from the PC and encodes it back or if it's a straight digital pass thru (Not talking about DVDs, but something like mp3s or wavs) Anybody know?
Also, I am wondering if there's any real time encoding DD5.1 PCI sound cards. I know the Nvidia onboard "soundstorm" does it and makes you go DD5.1 as soon as you turn on your computer. But I can't find any PCI card with the same capabilities and I don't feel like junking my P4 3Ghz for an AMD board -.-