SPDIF OUT and DACs Options

[kennedyb4]

Hello. I started this discussion with Pio and he suggested it would be a good hardware thread.

The questions were this..

1 My computer is hooked up to my Yamaha surround amp via the SPDIF output on my SBLive soundcard. I know this is not really a great soundcard otherwise, but does the quality of the soundcard have as much or any effect when using SPDIF?


2 Also, the DAC in my Yamaha is a 20 bit but I dont know if it would be considered good quality or not. Can you comment on this, or offer advice on an outboard DAC?

3 Would a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz make a significant difference?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[kennedyb4]

Thanks for your response.

I may get a new soundcard, but not because of its onboard DAC. My computer station is about 15 feet away from the receiver so I want to run SPDIF out to it to avoid the signal problems associated with a fifteen foot run.

I suspect your right, that the onboard Yamaha DAC is decent quality.

What I need is a soundcard that will pass on the output of my decoded Lame files to the amp DAC unaltered.

Does anyone know if the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz resamples its SPDIF out as well? I read that it is also a 48KHz resampling card as well, but I am not sure if this applies to the SPDIF output.

I have a santa cruz stuck in a closet somewhere.