Why is a digital signal that is delivered to the ESI Juli@ via the coaxial input not available at the digital coaxial output? No matter which settings on the Juli@'s control panel I try - I can't get it to work. Am I missing something?

Since I don't know that soundcard, my remarks have to be a bit general. I don't believe your's is a very common need so it might not be provided. However, just how familiar are you with using S/PDIF? Are you certain a valid signal is coming in? Without the proper settings, you will not have an input signal to go anywhere. Have you verified that you can record from the S/PDIF input (the normal thing to do) so you are certain that part of the circuit is working?

I'm quite familiar with it, but I have only used consumer devices so far.


Yes. The signal comes from a satellite tuner card, and if I understand Juli@ control panel correctly, the signal is coming in:




Probably that's the point because this involves the correct DirectWire settings (and I am still not familiar with this ESI feature). I have tried to record the tuner card's signal with Audacity and KRISTAL. Audacity doesn't record, but KRISTAL does; however, I am not able to verify that the S/PDIF input signal is used.

I have read this DirectWire tutorial but to no avail - very probably I haven't got enough basic knowledge.

Your picture of the Julia control panel shows it using the internal clock. For S/PDIF input, the card must use the external device's clock, which comes in on the S/PDIF line. Some cards will allow recording the input signal without this setting being correct, but the recording will not be good. The timing will likely be funny and unstable.

Without something funny (so to speak) happening elsewhere, this control panel should not be showing any signal under S/PDIF out (even with the clock set correctly). S/PDIF, in the normal course of cosmic events, is the digital output of a playback application.

What are you trying to accomplish? To where is the S/PDIF signal supposed to go from the card's S/PDIF output jack, and why do you want to route the digital signal through the card? Not being a DirectWire user, I have little incentive to learn how to make it work. However, if I understood just what was supposed to happen, I might spend a few minutes thinking about it.

Ah, I see - I wasn't aware of these facts.


I have an external DAC and a headphone amplifier connected to the S/PDIF output of the soundcard so I can use the speakers and the headphone separately (in other words: muting the speakers does not mute the headphones).


This would make things a lot easier. The digital signal I would like to feed into the soundcard comes from a satellite tuner card, and opposed to foobar2000 and Winamp (both with ASIO plugins) the soundcard only outputs the tuner card's analog output.

If the soundcard will not output the digital signal of the tuner card I have another option. The DAC has two inputs, one coaxial and one optical. The first one could be used for the tuner card and the second one for running foobar2000 and Winamp, but switching applications would then require to operate the input switch on the back of the DAC.

Thanks for your help!

In general terms, you want to monitor a particular input, the S/PDIF In. Monitoring is generally done on analogue outputs. The Direct Wire "instructions" seem to say that monitoring is available when the monitoring button is engaged for a particular driver (when it says ‘out' rather than ‘off').

I think you first need to assure you can record from the direct S/PDIF In. I don't think this should require DirectWire, although I not sure about how this card's driver works.

Anyway, to start at the beginning, have no connections made in the DirectWire panel.

Do not input anything to any input jack of the card except the coax S/PDIF In. You want to be certain that if something happens, it can not be attributed to any other input. Your post seems to say you were uncertain where the input you recorded came from.

Set up the control panel.
The clock must be EXT.
Set the sample rate to equal what your tuner outputs.
I don't know if there is anything else relevant to recording from S/PDIF under Config at the top of the control panel. The DirectWire Tutorial mentions selections for coax In and CD digital In but this refers to a different card. I don't know if there are any possibilities other than the coax jack on your card.

Select S/PDIF In as the Recording Device in Audacity's Preferences. Select Stereo Under Channels.
On the Quality tab, set the sample rate to the same value you selected on the card's control panel. Set the bit depth (‘Default Sample Format') to what you want.

Press the Record button. The program should begin recording. The information in the left hand panel should match your selections. If this is good, continue.

As recording is occurring, you should be able to monitor on the card's analogue outputs. Verify this.

If everything is working ok so far, try monitoring on the card's S/PDIF output jack. This will be via your external DAC and headphones.

If this works, it should work the same even when no recording program is loaded.

Many thanks for your detailed help. Recording from the S/PDIF in works perfect, and I am able to monitor the recording via the analog outputs.


Unfortunately this does not work - neither the coaxial nor the optical output delivers a signal; only foobar2000 and Winamp with their ASIO plugins do.

jiitee has posted this diagram in the Head-Fi forums (click to enlarge):



If I understand it correctly it is not possible to route the digital signal directly.

Old topic, but I'm having the same problem: can't monitor an input through the digital output of my Juli@.
The only difference is that it's an analog input, but it's the same problem.

Actually not a "problem", because ESI' support acknoledged it by e-mail. It's more like a missing feature.