Sound Blaster card 'digital out' into my high-end stereo receiver?

BSound Blaster card 'digital out' into my high-end stereo receiver?A I want?to interface my iTunes music library?(all tunes in Apple Lossless file format) to my high-end sound system, using an optical (TOSLink)?cable and a "mini TOSLink adapter" that will plug into the 'digital out' jack on the Sound Blaster card in my Windows XP PC. This configuration will take advantage of the high-end DAC's in my Denon receiver.
I don't care about getting surround sound out of my PC, and I'm not a gamer. I just want hi-fi stereo music from my iTunes library.
Will this work?Can I expect CD-quality sound?
Also, would it be worthwhile to upgrade my model SB394 sound card to a hi-fi SB card like X-Fi Xtreme Audio, or is any sound card as good as any other for simply deli'vering the digital data stream to my Denon receiver?

Jebus wrote:
well, I have two devices that a combo CD player/Tape decks/radio tuner/amp; one has misc input, the other doesn't. Both are analog devices, both are old things I bought at a yard sale. I got 6 bookshelf speakers that use pairs of stripped wire as the input hooked up in 2 parallel wired sets of 3 to the CD/Tape/Tuner/Amp thing that has a misc input. Anyway, the one without misc input has a 3 disk CD changer, plus it would give me a way to input tape and radio sounds sources into my computer if I just connected it's audio outputs to the internally located Aux In on my soundblaster card in my computer. But I wonder, what considerations do I have to have?
Firstly, is the Aux In on my board analog or digital? I'm assuming if it doesn't say "digital", it's analog; correct?......
secondly, and more importantly; the CD/Tape/Tuner/Amp thing is supposed to be used with 8 ohm speakers and do I have to worry about sending too much current to the soundcard?
specific model of SB card; I'm not sure. It has 2 analog outs, analog in, mic in, digital out and a joystick port; and it came installed on a 200 Dell w/ Win ME
and please, don't try selling me something; I use old crappy hardware and really do not mind doing so.
any help will be appreciated, thanks.
Aux-In is an analog port (4-pin connector/stereo).
Don't connect powered output (= speaker outputs) into soundcard but, if possible, use some low-power connection like Headphones-Out (or if possible then some line-out port).
jutapa

Similar Messages

DVD-Audio and "can not detect sound blaster card" with Audigy2 Va

I recently purchased an "Audigy2 Value" card from an eBay user, because I recently purchased some DVD-Audio discs. I downloaded the Audigy2 drivers from the website, and the Creative MediaSource player. 5. Surround sound worked fine for me, though sometimes the driver would reset to the default 2/2. sound and I would have to re-select 5. sound, which was annoying.
Then I was completely unable to get the MediaSource player to recognise my DVD-Audio discs, and the EAX functionality of the player would never work. The EAX logo never appeared in the player. When I tried installing the MediaSource player from an install disc, I got the message "can not detect sound blaster card". Then I discovered the world of EEPROM problems.
I followed advice from some other threads, including using ScanPCI to get information on the card, which yielded the following result.
When installed on my machine (Asus A7A266 motherboard) the ScanPCI reads:
Vendor 02h Creative Labs
Device 0008h Unknown
Command 0005h (I/O Access, BusMaster)
Status 0290h (Has Capabilities List, Supports Back-To-Back Trans., Medium Timing)
Revision 00h, Header Type 00h, Bus Latency 20h
Self test 00h (Self test not supported)
PCI Class Multimedia, type Audio
Subsystem ID 0002h Unknown
Subsystem Vendor 02h Creative Labs
Address 0 is an I/O Port : 0000A800h
System IRQ 5, INT# A
New Capabilities List Information :
Power Management Capabilities
Supports power state D2
Supports power state D
Current Power State : D0 (Device fully-operational, no power saving)
On another machine (specs unknown, it's a "house pc") I got this (with 3 entries!):
Vendor 02h Creative Labs
Device 0002h EMU0K Audio Chipset (SB Li've!)
Command 0004h (BusMaster)
Status 0290h (Has Capabilities List, Supports Back-To-Back Trans., Medium Timing)
Revision 04h, Header Type 80h, Bus Latency 20h
Self test 00h (Self test not supported)
PCI Class Multimedia, type Audio
Subsystem ID 002002h CT4850 SBLi've! Value
Subsystem Vendor 02h Creative Labs
Address 0 is an I/O Port : 00009000h
New Capabilities List Information :
Power Management Capabilities
Current Power State : D0 (Device fully-operational, no power saving)
Vendor 02h Creative Labs
Device 7002h PCI Gameport Joystick
Command 0004h (BusMaster)
Status 0290h (Has Capabilities List, Supports Back-To-Back Trans., Medium Timing)
Revision 0h, Header Type 80h, Bus Latency 20h
Self test 00h (Self test not supported)
PCI Class Input, type Other
Subsystem ID 002002h PCI Gameport Joystick
Subsystem Vendor 02h Creative Labs
Address 0 is an I/O Port : 00008800h
New Capabilities List Information :
Power Management Capabilities
Current Power State : D0 (Device fully-operational, no power saving)
Vendor 02h Creative Labs
Device 0008h Unknown
Command 0004h (BusMaster)
Status 0290h (Has Capabilities List, Supports Back-To-Back Trans., Medium Timing)
Revision 00h, Header Type 00h, Bus Latency 20h
Self test 00h (Self test not supported)
PCI Class Multimedia, type Audio
Subsystem ID 0002h PCI Gameport Joystick (Guess Only!)
Subsystem Vendor 02h Creative Labs
Address 0 is an I/O Port : 00008400h
New Capabilities List Information :
Power Management Capabilities
Supports power state D2
Supports power state D
Current Power State : D0 (Device fully-operational, no power saving)
(Just a note: above you can clearly see that it does not say I have an Audigy, it thinks it is a SBLi've. Is this normal? The card IS an Audigy 2, it says so on the card.)
So, I put the card back on my own PC, thinking this has fixed my EEPROM, but I get the same as before. Subsystem ID 0002h. And of course the install software will not detect the card.
I realise that I could go back to using the web drivers, but this still leaves me with MediaSource not recognising the card and not enabling DVD-Audio or EAX, which is why I bought the card in the first place!
I have heard that the VIA chipset is possibly to blame for the EEPROM problems on the Audigy cards, and certainly it seems like it is not permanent, since it gave different information on the other PC. So now I am seriously considering getting a new motherboard.
Do other motherboards cause this same problem? I don't want to buy another board and get the same trouble. All I want is to be able to install my MediaSource and have it recognise my card so I can listen to my DVD-Audio discs.
Cheers,
Russ.

Figured out my problem. Installing the drivers from the web to begin with was a bad idea. They just did not work properly with the card.
The "card not found" problem has gone as well, after installing it in another PC. I am also using the proper install disc now, as the other one I was using turned out to not be for the Audigy 2 value after all, but was an Audigy 2 install disc. That easily explains the "Card not found" error. The differing results from the ScanPCI program are still bizarre, though.
Thanks to all of the people on the forum who posted information in other threads to help me deal with this issue. For now I am sticking with the original drivers from the disc and I am not upgrading.

SB04100 Sound Blaster Card not working after computer rebuild

=SB0400 Sound Blaster Card not working after computer rebuildZ I did a full disk format and reinstall for a friend on a Dimension 3000, running XP SP3. There is no sound at all. Speakers are good, tested on another system. Model number on the back of the sound card is SB0400, so I assume this is an older 24 bit PCI SoundBlaster card. Although I reinstalled all drivers from Dell, I found no drivers for this. The Creative site has no listing for this model.
Computer does not seem to recognize the card. Have not opened the box yet but I assume if I were to remove and then reinstall the card it would be recognized (?) I then have to find an SB0400 driver.
Does anyone know where I can find an SB0400 driver ? Does the strategy of pulling and reinstalling the card make sense ? (I have really avoided tampering with any of the hardware on this box -- since it is not mine.)

Re: SB0400 Sound Blaster Card not working after computer rebuild? Thanks much for your response. Problem solved for now. I removed the board and then reinserted it, after which I was able to download the drivers directly. Some of my difficulty with this whole process has been ) I didn't know there was no working speaker in the computer and 2) I apparently misunderstood the BIOS settings for this. I re-set it up as an add-on board during the troubleshooting process. After loading the driver, I went back to the original setting (don't recall what it was but it was for integrated sound). The setting for integrated sound works fine, with external speakers and the new 24 bit driver. Still some noise (popping and static) but this board shares the bus with 2 other cards one of which is a wireless network card. May be a PCI latency issue but I'm reluctant to change that because the network card is a bit shaky anyway.
Everything works for now -- I'll be glad to get this particular computer out of my house !

Sound blaster Cards built for Vi

I have read the information about the Sound Blaster drivers and compatibiliy with Vista. Most of the cards listed on the website specification does not say it is supported by Vista but now there is a Vista Driver for it. What I read was that many of the cards now have Vista drivers that can be downloaded but not all functions may work under Vista that worked under Windows XP. I don't want to upgrade an existing Sound Blaster card that I have in my PC, I want to buy a new one. Which Sound blaster card is made for Vista with all functions of the card working out of the box with Vista. I could not find that on the support page. I want a card for Movies and Music. I don't want to buy a sound card that not all the functions will work because it is Vista.

I do understand that they all have supported Vista Drivers, but your website says that some functions may not work under Vista. All I am trying to do is to select a card that all functions work out of the box when I install it with Vista instead of finding out later that all functions do not work under Windows Vista. Here is the statement from your support page:
Creative is developing Vista driver updates for many of its soundcard products. Many are already available on the web for download and installation to support existing customers. However, after installing an updated Windows Vista driver, some features that work on Windows XP may no longer be available due to changes in the audio architecture for Vista. See below for details specific to your product.
So what I am asking is Pre-Sales Help to help me select a Sound Card where all functions of the card works under Vista which I will use only for Moves and Music, no games.

Goodbye from a 20-ish year user of Sound Blaster Cards

Today I removed my sound blaster card from my PC. This is the first time since I was brought a sound blaster Ver .0 in 990-ish that I have not had a Sound Blaster card in my main performance / gaming PC. I have had a Sound blaster V .0, V 2.0, PRO 6, AWE64, Li've! and an Audigy 4. I only did not get an XFI, as I was waiting for the PCI-E version and by the time it arri'ved I was already contemplating the action I took today, so did not bother to pick one up.
Why did I remove it. Well none of the games I am playing and none of the games that are coming down the pipe (as far as I can tell) deri've any advantage from there being any type of sound blaster card on board. Also I wanted to not have down sampled audio when watching Blu-ray movies. My motherboards on-board sound card provides a protected sound path so supports this functionality.
Until recently needing a sound blaster card on-board especially for games (my number factor), was a no-brainer. But with the death of EAX and hardly any take up of openal in recent games a motherboard on-board solution offers that same level of performance, in fact better in some scenarios.
I think this is a shame and that Creative could have done more to combat this. But it seems to me that soundcards are no longer that important to Creative anymore, now that they have moved into audio players and other devices. There has arguably not been a new architecture since the XFI's release in 2005 (I don't consider the move to PCI-E to be a new card or architecture).
So thanks for the memories Sound Blaster and I hope we cross paths in the future, but for now with much regret it is au revoir.

: Same here. Well, not exactly the same ...
In all my computers I've been using SB cards for 5 or 20 years, one of them having an extra Turtle Beach card which is the only exception. I also bought Creative speakers (incl. Cambridge Soundworks), headphones and other stuff. I'm still using 5 or 6 computers all with Creative cards (mainly Audigy2) on a regular basis, everything is still working fine. In fact, I used to be happy with Creative products ?...
... until I got my latest PC.
I ordered an extra X-Fi extreme audio in addition to the the built-in Realtek sound chip - for two reasons: supposed better sound quality and the Media Source software pack that usually comes with the SB cards. I've always been using the Media Source Player for instant recordings ... and I saved the sound files as MP3 (now you see where I'm getting to ...)
I learnt that now Creative wants to make me purchase an extra mp3 audio pack for the new media source player, $ 9.90 (which is just a few Euros in my part of the world ?), just to get the same functionality that my older media source players had. Extra payment for the most important sound format of our times?
No. I've decided to stop buying Creative products. Just because of this simple rip-off. I will never again buy anything with Creative (or Cambridge Soundworks) label.
Surprisingly enough, I'm more than happy with my brand new Logitech speakers ... the first purchase after I discovered the missing mp3 functionality of the latest Creative player.
Honestly, I doubt that this policy will pay off in the end ...
(this is just a customer feedback - I know that Creative doesn't care if they lose one customer)

Can't install drivers for sound blaster live Telling me there isn't a sound blaster card install

I am doing a fresh install of xp on a machine. This machine had no hardware issues before I formated the dri've and re-installed windows xp.
Everytime I go to install the drivers for the sound card I get an error message telling me that setup cannot find a sound blaster card installed on the system?
I even pulled a known working li've card from the machine I have downstairs. Put the card in and started up the machine. The driver pack is still telling me there is no card installed. I've tried three different pci slots as well.
I even went as far as re-installing windows xp without service pack 2 integrated and even that didn't help!!!
Is there some kind of fix that I am missing?

the unipack download from creative will not work. first, try asking around if somebody else has the same 5. creative card as yours. the only solution for your problem is to use the installation cd that came with your creative card. I lost mine so i went to a pc repair shop and inquired if they have a copy of such cd - they normally do.
. you need to remove all the programs concerning creative from add remove programs. 2. shut down, and remove the sound card. 3. turn the pc on and let windows boot normally. install the the softwares and drivers using the cd that came with the box. 4. shut down and install the sound card 5. turn on the pc. windows will find a new hardware and will find the right drivers bec you have previously installed them. There is absolutely no need to reformat your hard dri've.

Windows don't see my Sound Blaster card after moving it to a different PCI sl

Hi there,
MY CARD IS THE:
Sound Blaster XF-I Xtreme Music
==============================
MY PROBLEM IS AS FOLLOWS
==============================
My sound blaster card was working properly during year, but... [color="#ff0000"]when I changed it to a different PCI slot inside my PC (the card was removed from one PCI slot to a different one)... then Windows Vista is unable to find the card, and is not listed in the device manager... so I cannot play sound, because the card is not recognized by Windows Vista
In Windows Vista, in the device manager, all devices seems to work fine. I dont find yellow triangles neither question marks. The problem is the Sound Blaster XF-I Extreme Music card dont appear in the sound, video and game controllers list.
If I try to run the Creative Console... says it don't detect my card.
All this happened when I moved it to a different PCI slot, before this, the sound card was working fine
Consequently, I don't have sound and cannot play music.
A friend told me that perhaps it could be a very good idea uninstall the drivers and installing them again... but also I DON'T KNOW HOW TO UNINSTALL THE DRIVERS, because when I was searching in the control panel, programs... I don't see any reference to "creative drivers" or "sound blaster drivers"
The only I see are three entries...
Creative Sound Blaster properties...
The console (Creative Sound Blaster console)
And the initiator (Creative Console Initiator)
But I dont find any reference to the drivers... :smileysurprised:
[color="#ff0000"]===> Please, could you tell me how to solve the problem, to allow Windows Vista detect my sound card and again I can have audio?
[color="#ff0000"]===> Please, could you tell me how to uninstall the drivers?
Remember that Creative Recommend to uninstall the drivers the following:
To uninstall the driver, do the following:
Click Start -> All Programs -> Control Panel.<
Double-click the Device Manager icon.<
[color="#ff0000"]Double-click the Sound, video and game controllers option.<
[color="#ff0000"]Right-click the Creative SB X-Fi option, and select Uninstall.
The Confirm Device Uninstall dialog box appears.<
Select the Delete the driver software for this device option.
Note: This check box must be selected to avoid reinstallation issues.<
Click the OK button.<
Restart your computer.<
But also remember that I don't have that entry in the device manager, because Windows is not recognizing the card... so the situation is I have the drivers loaded in my Windows Vista... but I don't have that entry in the device manager list... so consequently I don't know where are the drivers to uninstall them, and again, install them... so I cannot uninstall and doing a clean installation afterwards.
[color="#ff0000"]===> Please, could you tell me if the proper drivers for my card are the following (in Spanish)
[url="http://es.europe.creative.com/support/downloads/download.asp?MainCategory=67&nRegionFK=&nCountryFK =&nLanguageFK=&sOSName=Windows+Vista+32-bit&region=3&Product_Name=X-Fi+XtremeMusic&Product_ID=4066&modelnumber=&driver lang=034&OS=26&select=0&x=32&y=6">TO SEE THE DRIVERS I WILL USE, CLICK HERE[/url]
Lately, the creative file containing the drivers for my model was this:
SBXF_PCDVT_LB_2_5_0002.exe
(Was from 2007)
Message Edited by mrmister00 on 04-04-2008 04:40 PM

Are you sure you have enabled viewing 'hidden files' in the explorer ?
http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/show-hidden-files-folders-extensions.html
gardener179 wrote:
If I try it again I will follow your advice when moving the catalogue to the default location. (but can you be more specific regarding what comprises the restored catalogue files (ie are they all inside one PSD folder, or are there other folders that sit alongside it?).
Suppose you have a backup folder named 'MyBackup'.
When you restore it to a 'custom' location, you state or create a destination folder on any drive. Let's call it 'My Restaur'. When the restore is complete, you get a new folder 'My Restaur' in which you find a subfolder named 'My Backup' = its the catalog ; along with other subfolders in the same structure as they were in the original folders.
The catalog folder contains :
(PSE6 test catalog)
To get rid of the unwanted folder heirarchy transferred from XP when restoring to a New Location but retaining Old File Structure would you suggest dragging and dropping the Folders in PS Folder View or some other process?.I gather I must do this from within PS to avoid having to reconnect all the files.
Yes, moving folder trees by dragging them in folder view to 'shortcut' unwanted subfolder stages is ok. I don't like it very much because I don't know what would happen if you had a power shortage during the process... But if you have still the backup, that would be good. For a big catalog, be patient, but there would be no need to reconnect.

Doubts with conectivity of sound blaster card with thermaltake armor c

Hi
I have a Asus P5WD2 Premium motherboard and a Thermaltake Armor case, im not satisfied with the onboard sound of this motherboard and i want to buy a Sound Blaster X-FI XtremeMusic. My question is, the case has on the top some ports for audio and speaker that is possible to connect with the motherboard through jumpers, does the sound blaster card has jumpers to connect to my case upper ports?
Thanks for your attention
Message Edited by pseq on 0-08-2006 08:55 PM

You could possibly but Id say you also may get interference and the like.
Nice case BTW

No System Sound when using Digital Out. What the?!

Hmmm. I've searched and read many of the posts regarding sound problems on the mac mini but none experiencing what i think(?) is my problem. That being that when I use a toslink to connect my mac mini to my an external 5.1 amp the following is disabled:
- Volume control in menu bar disabled (greyed out)
- Apple Remote no longer controls volume
- DVD Player volume does nothing
- System Sound Preferences show 'Digital Out' but no options
Can someone confirm that these should still be adjustable? I can't believe that the now I have to use my stereo remote to control my Mac ?! Kind of ruins the 'Mac as a home theatre' experience. Unless I can find a solurion I guess it's back to analogue for me :o(
Please help!
Wayne.
Mac Mini, iBook, Flat Panel Lamp iMac Mac OS X (10.4.7)

I can't believe it! I'm not an audiophile I just wanted to have the clearest quality sound, so for Apple to allow fibre optic connection but disable the ability to change volume just flat out *****. There should at least be the option to treat the connection as stereo. Why should I have to switch back and forward to an analogue cable if i want to use the front row remote? Not very well thought out Apple!
Thanks for the Remote Buddy suggestion will look in to it.
Anyone else got any ideas for a work around??

Reco on high end Av Receiver? apple compatible

In my search to purchase a High End AV Receiver, it's hard to tell if any of them are able to interface with a Mac via WiFi, iPOD touch, Internet. ( but especially for firmware updates )
Can anyone recommend a brand or model that is compatible with Mac's?
Denon, Onkyo, Pioneer, Sony, HK etc

Tom,
May I suggest you post this same question – or even just search for your potential product – at the AVS forum. http://www.avsforum.com/
It’s got advertising on it so it’s not nearly as pretty and neat as this Apple site, but there are many discussions about the newer receivers, pre-amps, and AV processors. I’ve read a lot of posts about people with Integra, Denon, Marantz, and the rest with trouble trying to do firmware updates to their units.
With some of them you can do the update directly from the internet via an Ethernet connected pre/pro. Others appear to offer the option of downloading to a computer (PC is the usually one stated, but Mac may work too) and then copying the file to a flash drive. It may be that a flash drive formatted as a Windows drive might work for your unit. (For this information you really should contact the manufacturer. If you're spending $2,000, $3,000 or more for a processor they ought to be helpful.)
Some manufacturers, as someone said above, do require you to bring in your unit to an authorized service center for software updates.
Also, most modern units will have decent built-in D/A converters (that is at least part of what the “processor” is) so if you want to listen to music from your Mac you might want to get a mini-TOSLink to regular TOSLink digital cable. If your Mac has the dual mini output jack you’ll get a pretty clean digital signal direct from your Mac’s hard drive into the pre/pro for conversion to analog.
Good luck.

Need "reco" on high end Av Receiver? apple compatible

In my search to purchase a High End AV Receiver, it's hard to tell if any of them are able to interface with a Mac via WiFi, iPOD touch, Internet. ( but especially for firmware updates )
Can anyone recommend a brand or model that is compatible with Mac's?
Denon, Onkyo, Pioneer, Sony, HK etc

I think its going to depend on exactly what you'd like the interface to do...
If you are looking to control your receiver from your computer, most likely won't happen, except thru some type of web interface. No reason why it couldn't be done that way, but I just don't see the need for it.
If you are looking for receivers that can connect to the internet, that should be easy. If it has an ethernet port on the back or if it uses WiFi, then they should be able to connect to any network that your Mac is connected to.

2001 Dell w/ Sound Blaster card+strip end speakers and two things I don't know to c

well, I have two devices that a combo CD player/Tape decks/radio tuner/amp; one has misc input, the other doesn't. Both are analog devices, both are old things I bought at a yard sale. I got 6 bookshelf speakers that use pairs of stripped wire as the input hooked up in 2 parallel wired sets of 3 to the CD/Tape/Tuner/Amp thing that has a misc input. Anyway, the one without misc input has a 3 disk CD changer, plus it would give me a way to input tape and radio sounds sources into my computer if I just connected it's audio outputs to the internally located Aux In on my soundblaster card in my computer. But I wonder, what considerations do I have to have? Firstly, is the Aux In on my board analog or digital? I'm assuming if it doesn't say "digital", it's analog; correct?...... secondly, and more importantly; the CD/Tape/Tuner/Amp thing is supposed to be used with 8 ohm speakers and do I have to worry about sending too much current to the soundcard?
specific model of SB card; I'm not sure. It has 2 analog outs, analog in, mic in, digital out and a joystick port; and it came installed on a 200 Dell w/ Win ME
and please, don't try selling me something; I use old crappy hardware and really do not mind doing so.
any help will be appreciated, thanks.

Jebus wrote:
well, I have two devices that a combo CD player/Tape decks/radio tuner/amp; one has misc input, the other doesn't. Both are analog devices, both are old things I bought at a yard sale. I got 6 bookshelf speakers that use pairs of stripped wire as the input hooked up in 2 parallel wired sets of 3 to the CD/Tape/Tuner/Amp thing that has a misc input. Anyway, the one without misc input has a 3 disk CD changer, plus it would give me a way to input tape and radio sounds sources into my computer if I just connected it's audio outputs to the internally located Aux In on my soundblaster card in my computer. But I wonder, what considerations do I have to have?
Firstly, is the Aux In on my board analog or digital? I'm assuming if it doesn't say "digital", it's analog; correct?......
secondly, and more importantly; the CD/Tape/Tuner/Amp thing is supposed to be used with 8 ohm speakers and do I have to worry about sending too much current to the soundcard?
specific model of SB card; I'm not sure. It has 2 analog outs, analog in, mic in, digital out and a joystick port; and it came installed on a 200 Dell w/ Win ME
and please, don't try selling me something; I use old crappy hardware and really do not mind doing so.
any help will be appreciated, thanks.
Aux-In is an analog port (4-pin connector/stereo).
Don't connect powered output (= speaker outputs) into soundcard but, if possible, use some low-power connection like Headphones-Out (or if possible then some line-out port).
jutapa

No Sound when using Digital out with Mac Mini

The Digital out on my mac mini has become seriously unreliable. The sound slider is all the way up but locked, no movement is possible. The Toslink cable shows light, and when plugged into another device the amplifier receives sound.
This is an intermittent problem, for awhile rebooting would make the sound come back, however this has stopped working.
unplug the toslink and the built in speaker plays fine. Sound slider becomes movable.
If you sent the sound slider to 50% then plug the toslink back in it jumps to 100% and all controls ar grayed out and 0 sound.
any troubleshooting tips would be most appreciated as this is my primary audio video device.

Not likely. Think about this: The output is simply a digital stream of bits. Volume does not apply to digital bits... The first place where you can adjust volume will be in an outboard DAC, a preamp or an integrated receiver.
For a great DAC, check out ps audio "digital link III", retails currently for around $695, B stock may be avail for around 550. There is a cheaper quality DAC available from Cambridge Audio "Digital Magic", but it is not in the same league as the PS Audio or other higher cost DACs (such as Benchmark Media's DAC1).
For a fantastic audio system that takes digital audio from a Mac Mini, I have a PS Audio DL III taking Toslink from the Mini and feeding RCA analog into a Zpre from Parasound with a couple of Zamp (zone amps) from Parasound going into very nice bookshelf speakers and in ceiling speakers.
The volume is controlled by the Zpre amp ...As it must be

Sound Blaster Z Digital Input Question

Hi,
Problem: PS4 connects via HDMI cable to my speaker-less monitor, cannot connect the PS4 to my stereo system since there is no separate analogue connector to use (there was on the PS3 but not on the PS4) and my stereo does not have a Digital Input connector (it's old).
Solution?: If I get hold of a Sound Blaster Z, can I connect the Digital Output from the PS4 into the Digital Input on the SBZ and therefore output my PS4 sound through my PC?
This is a relatively cheap solution for me so I would really appreciate it if you guys could give me a heads up on whether this is possible. Apologies if this is a straightforward/dumb question. I want to doublecheck before dropping the cash.
Thanks for reading,
-Yosh

Originally Posted by Yosharian
Hi,
Problem: PS4 connects via HDMI cable to my speaker-less monitor, cannot connect the PS4 to my stereo system since there is no separate analogue connector to use (there was on the PS3 but not on the PS4) and my stereo does not have a Digital Input connector (it's old).
Solution?: If I get hold of a Sound Blaster Z, can I connect the Digital Output from the PS4 into the Digital Input on the SBZ and therefore output my PS4 sound through my PC?
This is a relatively cheap solution for me so I would really appreciate it if you guys could give me a heads up on whether this is possible. Apologies if this is a straightforward/dumb question. I want to doublecheck before dropping the cash.
Thanks for reading,
-Yosh
Hi Yosharian,
Do you want to consider getting the Recon3D USB instead? The price is almost the same as the Sound Blaster Z and it can function alone without the computer. You may be able to save on your electricity bills using the Recon3D USB instead.
Here is an illustration of the Recon3D Omega Wireless connecting to the PS4 using SPDIF input. The Recon3D Omega Wireless is actually the Recon3D USB with a Tactic Link card connected to it and a wireless headset.

My Past, Present & Future with Creative Sound Blaster cards

I wrote a small product review of a Z-series card i regrettably purchased and creative responded. I replied to them and copied+pasted it here. First and foremost please understand this is just an open letter talking about my love for and mostly positive experiences with the Sound Blaster line of cards since the mid-late 1990s.
Attached is an annotated picture of almost all the Creative hardware I've bought over the years.
Take a good long look at that picture. Think about how many songs have been played through those devices, think of how many movies have been heard through those devices, think of how many games made me jump out of my seat from sound effects heard through those devices, and lastly think how many thousands of hours this amounts to.
STOP READING and LOOK at that attached PICTURE.
I use the word 'almost' because it does not include the card I recently purchased off e-bay, which was listed as (and was) mint condition new, and cost me $250.... a Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series card.
If the direction Creative is going to continue to go is the direction that it's been going over the past handful of years this will be the last Creative product myself or anyone i influence or make purchasing decisions for will ever buy. Being in my mid 30s I'd say you'll miss out on at least another 20-30+ years of future product purchases.
Below is my address of your reply to my review of your product in a piece by piece layout:
"Based on user feedback we've done the following:
- Take up less disk space"
I run two 128GB SSDs in a hardware based (LSI Logic 8704ELP) raid-0 array so the disk footprint of drivers and software is important to me but whatever space you reduced your driver to is trivial.
%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Creative\(ALchemy, AudioCS AutoMode Switcher, Console Launcher, Shared Files, ShareDLL,THX Console, Volume Panel)
in total take up about 100MB of space. reducing this means NOTHING because it does not allow for more hefty software (Games or Design/Drafting/3D-Modelling Software) to be installed. Now if say your driver and software had a 1GB footprint and you reduced it to 500MB that would be significant because 500MB is enough space to account for one or 2 of average installation footprints of the products in the Adobe Creative Suite. Reducing the size from 100MB to 25MB/50MB/75MB is moot.
"- Optimized controls for touch screens"
This point is amusing, why? because you are making the same mistake Microsoft made with Windows 8 & Metro. Most people who buy a creative sound card are putting it in a PC and do not have a touchscreen. I don't manage a lot of computers but the ~200 i am responsible for bypassed Windows 8 (maybe even Windows 9, we'll see) and either moved from Windows XP to Windows 7 or they will be staying with Windows 7 for the foreseeable future. The touch centric design of Windows 8 is a significant part of this decision despite all the things Microsoft did that i think are steps forward (like better native support for multiple display devices to name one example).
"- Streamlined the interface so it's easier to navigate (removed "modes" and have all controls available regardless what you want to use the card for)."
Dumbing-down a product to reach a greater audience is walking the fine line of Quality vs. Quantity. Why you've sacrificed significant Quality to increase Quantity i do not know. While I will agree making 1 interface instead of 3 can be a potential step forward you did more than streamlining the user interface- you removed prominent, useful, and important features.
"- Better tie in with the Windows audio sub-system."
Through out the decade the only problems I experienced with Windows and my Creative products i can count on one hand. The first would be when Microsoft abandoned DirectSound and moved to an UAA based audio stack in Vista forward and your company dropped the ball and Daniel_K picked it up and made working drivers for your products and you went after him... I was one of the people who used his working drivers to make your sound card work properly when you failed to do so. Second was the fact that you people charged for ALchemy when the move to Vista occurred... this was truly a sh*ty thing to do. The third was the X-RAM causing a BSOD (STOP 0x50 - PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA) in windows on a regular random basis because of your device drivers and the best working solution was to disable using the X-RAM on the card- a selling point of the cards to begin with (albeit in years prior).
Allow me to elaborate some more while I have time since it's sunday night and the family is busy with other things and will be off to bed thereafter.
Creative's device drivers and software has always been a point of contention. You don't make the install discs available for download on your website for starters. This is a fascist move on your part. Your driver installation procedure and reliability is hit or miss. I personally have not had a lot of trouble with the drivers (only a few hiccups here and there) but i have read on the forums where all sorts of other people have (I'm not in disagreeing that their problems are partially their fault, but that's the price of running Windows instead of buying a Mac). My experience with your driver software suites over the years have been mostly (A) "When it works as expected it's sheer aural bliss beyond that of any other sound card in existence! THIS is why 'Sound Blaster Compatible' was what other companies put on their products, because Creative set the standard for everyone else to meet." but also sometimes (B) "everything installed and worked fine but now something is corrupt and not all the speakers have sound coming from them or the sound is all screwed up and the driver won't uninstall/reinstall/update correctly because it's corrupt and it's not deleting the driver files because windows has the files locked and safe mode isn't helping so now i have to physically remove the card from the PC and try to completely clean out my system of the Creative software. I can't believe they went after Daniel_K the way they did, i wish he'd come back and fix their drivers. Now which box did i put that install cd in...."
There are 2 reasons I've bought Creative sound cards for over a decade now. CMSS 3D when listening to music while working throughout the day and EAX in videogames at night.
I remember the moment when I experienced EAX for the very first time. I was in college and over at a friend's place. He had just got a new game called Thief: The Dark Project. I remember him telling me about something new called EAX and that only Creative cards had it and that it was supposed to be awesome. About an hour later after watching and HEARING him play Thief I was hooked. Creative had secured a place for it's hardware in my budget for every PC i built from that day forward.
Being that I've worked from home for about a decade now I will listen to music while I work and get in an hour or so of gaming at night as time allows. Straight off the bat the first time i ticked that box for CMSS 3D long long ago and heard music coming from every speaker in my home office i was amazed and overwhelmed. Then when you introduced the ability to set the individual speaker distance and volume from the listening position it was the icing on the cake. I was surround by sound. It was SHEER AURAL BLISS. This feature called CMSS 3D would become the second reason I purchased and recommended Creative sound cards for the decade to come.
As i stated in my review, the only reason i bought a new sound card was because the motherboard I was purchasing had no PCI slots (I remember when motherboards stopped having ISA slots as well...). Before making my purchase I read. I read a lot. I read about the changes you made with the X-Fi Titanium HD and then the Recon3D, and the more i read the more a feeling of apprehension began to take hold. Then i got to reading about the Z-series and read about some of the positive changes between it and the Recon3D line of cards and I became a bit more hopeful.
Sadly my apprehension was spot on... Listening to music was a worse experience when compared to my X-Fi Platinum (or even my old Audigy 2)... and did not even come close to justifying the purchase of the card compared to just using the integrated sound capabilities of my motherboard, an ASRock Z87 OC Formula/ac. But none the less I still had EAX to fall back on right? wrong... I installed a couple games, some new and some old, some with EAX and some without, and for about 2 weeks i played a bit of each one to see how the card handled new and old games. Sadly EAX compatibility didn't even matter because it was overshadowed by poor directional audio reproduction... that same front center speaker that was overbearing when listening to music was noticeable when gaming to the point that it was negatively affecting my gaming experience. I tweaked and toggled every setting i could and even uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers and software to try to mitigate this but to my dismay i could not. It was at this point I went weighing my options... and looking for an X-Fi Titanium (NON-HD!) and suffered the capitalist price gouging that occurs in such supply & demand situations... at least i talked the guy down from his original asking price of $300. I bit the bullet on this because chances are this is going to be the last Creative card i ever own...
I've had my Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series installed for just over a week now. Everything sounds precise and as it should when you have a quality piece of hardware paired with quality software. Directional audio in games comes from all speakers appropriately and not excessively from the front center speaker unless it's supposed to. Ambient music floats through the air all through out the day creating that familiar feeling of sheer aural bliss as it did before. The only downside is I'm getting to experience the problems other people have with this card (strange loud static-like warble EMI type noise coming from speakers, unaffected by windows volume control) but I have found a work around that I'm using on the rare occasion this happens (disable the device in device manager, re-enable device in device manager).
Chances are what i've written above is perhaps an opening soliloquy of the requiem for the Creative Sound Blaster, the card that defined an industry and the company that turned it's back on it. I don't expect anything to come from this letter and I don't expect a meaningful reply from you. You'll probably write me justifying your decisions you've made with your product line and offer some false sincerity about how you are happy i am enjoying my price-gouged discontinued soundcard i had to buy off e-bay because your current line of products are not a step back in your eyes because of the profits they turn. This generation of customers who buy your Platinum HD, or Reco3D or Z-series line of cards probably oblivious to what they are missing out on (through no fault of their own), funny how the bliss of ignorance works and lines your pockets...
It saddens me that i had to buy a discontinued product off e-bay because it's a better product than what your company currently offers. I wish this wasn't the way things turned out. When you dropped the fun presets and finite control of the EAX effects during the transition from the Audigy to the X-Fi line of cards I noticed but since they were not the main reason I owned a Creative card I tolerated it. But now you've gone and ruined the features that were the reasons i bought Creative cards, and this I will not oblige.
My Creative Hardware.jpg

@To the OP:
I own a X-Fi Elite Pro for the past 8 years now.
Since there, this card has faithfullly seen me through 3 major PC upgrades.
I'm currently at a point where, very sadly, much of what you've described is also weighing on my decision to not go for a Z line.
@Creative:
I do hope you're listening and can come up with a solution to a simply design feature - namely a fully working Stereo Surround, like the one that was available in the X-Fi line of cards via CMSS-3D.
Regards,

Sound Blaster card 'digital out' into my high-end stereo receiver?

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