I have an EPoX EP-8RDA+ with nForce2 Soundstorm, which was an upgrade from my SB Live! MP3+ (which I still have... somewhere). I have a couple problems though, here is a link to what the receiver and button layout looks like.

1. If you look at the button on the receiver above Dolby Surround, it says DIGITAL IN and ANALOG IN. I have no idea which of these I want to select. I imagine DIGITAL could only be selected if I had a DIN plug from my soundcard to the receiver--but alas it works without DIN strangely.

ANALOG can be selected only when the [MUSIC], [MOVIE], [FOURPOINT] and [STEREO] modes on the left are not lit up. As I don't have a DIN plug at the moment I'm guessing I can only use the analog mode though. On the back of the reciever is a tab that can be switched to either ANALOG or AUTO. Would hooking a DIN plug from my motherobard to the DTT2500 improve the quality rather than using Analog?

2. If someone can give me a quick low-down of what the difference is between Analog and Digital modes, I would greatly appreciate it. The instruction manual I found, after owning this speaker system for close to 4 years, doesn't do it much justice. I got hooked on audio as a hobby quite a while ago and I'm starting to take interest in the hardware part of it now (I would also like to know how this blasted Cambridge Soundworks works while I'm at it ).

I'm basically asking if someone can help me with which setting I should use so both the DTT2500 and my onboard Soundstorm will coincide nicely.

digital (a.k.a coax or optical) is what you should use if you got SoundStorm, it encodes everything into ac3 surround anyway so everything you play becomes surround. point being that you don't have to switch and have digital and analog cables, it's only one cable plugged in at any time.

my friend's got MSI with SoundStorm works wonders he's really please that he doesn't have to switch modes when he watches a DVD movie or listens to mp3 or plays games.

(analogs on non-SoundStorm cards would be used for CD, mp3 etc playback)

Whoops, looks like I responded to your message to early

Like lexor said, all you need to connect to this system from your 'Soundstorm' board is the single digital (SPDIF) audio connector, which I do not believe comes with your board by default (Epox will sell it to you though).

This is not the same thing as the Creative DIN plug, but rather the "Dolby Digital SPDIF In" connector on the top of the back panel of the decoder module.

Without the additional SPDIF header from Epox going into the SPDIF input of the decoder, you will have to connect to the DT2500 with the analog output jacks.
Using the analog input, it appear that you'll be limited to four speaker surround (line in + rear in -> 4 channel) maximum, which is kind of a bummer.

You cannot use the Creative DIN plug with anything besides a creative labs card (which is why the SPDIF-input is ther).

As for the level of quality - the 8RDA+ uses the ALC650 Realtek CODEC to perform DAC duties, so analog output quality is not as good as it could be. Digital should be essentially flawless, so it's in your best interet to contact Epox and buy the digital-out header.

I'm very happy at this moment! When I bought a pair of wireless headphones a year ago they also gave me an adapter(analog to red white jack i think). I didn't realize it until half an hour ago that I can now use my Cambridge amplifier by plugging my horrible MDR-CD180's into the one side, and on the other side take the 2 audio plugs and replace them with my left and right speaker plugs. Of course though I had to remove all the other speaker plugs along with them because sound still came out.

I feel a sort of different sound with more bass, but is my amplifier really amplifying anything or it is just passing the sound through normally?

Another question about SPDIF plugs and such, sorry I'm horrible at explaining stuff like this. In the back of my Cambridge amp the SPDIF plug is, to my surprise, a normal kind of audio plug. I mean the kind that modern console systems use, the red white and yellow jacks (not sure the name). I always thought, and seeing from pictures etc that the SPDIF plug was one of those really skinny and short cords from the comp's CDrom to the motherboard. But anyway, if I call up epox and get the plate that has that to put in the back of my comp, plug that into my amp, and I won't have to use the analog plugs and I'll have improved sound? I thought using plugs like that, 2 of them were necessary, red and white. Anyway if someone could help me out I'd really appreciate it!

BTW: I have a SB Live! mp3+ in antother comp and it doesn't allow for DIN to be pluged into it It must be for later Creative cards methinks.

It is the same type of jack as standard analog audio RCA/phono/cinch jacks that you are used to using, but in this case it is a digital jack carrying all audio data (l/r, 5.1 etc) digitally thru a coaxial cable.