Would like to know if these devices can be connected and used at the same t

Question

Hi
I firstly need to apologise for being not that technically minded when it comes to soundcards and audio equipment. I have good ears and really appreciate high quality music. I have nearly $2000US of AV equipment that I want to connect to my sound card.
In the past I have been unable to use any of the Creative Labs products (looking back a few years) as they did not have an SPDIF inerface. My old motherboard did, but has now being retired.
) I need to be able to connect my AV amp via the SPDIF connection and also a microphone using a normal headphone plug (no idea what you call that connection), and be able to use both at the same time. My old motherboard allowed this with ease, but it would appear that not all of the creative labs sound cards will!
2) The SPDIF connection must be located at the back of the computer. Connecting it at the front of the machine will be unsightly and dangerous to have the lead lying around in my current situation
3) The mic connection can be located at the front or the back of the computer. A connection at the rear of the computer would be preferred.
May I ask what is the cheapest X-Fi soundcard in the range that will allow this. I don't believe that spending more money will by me better sound quality when it comes to playing movies and music over the SPDIF interface.
I am not interested in any fancy features, or special game acceleration modes or enhancments. Just good quality music through an SPDIF connection, and the ability to use a mic to talk to ppl online.
From my research it would appear the cheapest option is the (expensi've) Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum
Many thanks for any assitance you are able to offer.
3)

Answer 1

That's like the 00-th post that asks for the same thing: digital connection of the Creative soundcard to a receiver.
Yes, you can connect the card via a jack situated on the back of the card - you just need a cable with stereo minijack and RCA. All the older Creative cards (since Li've!) have that SPDIF output on the back, on the form of a mini-jack. It is labeled as "digital".
The ONLY problem is that you will be able to send surround sound via SPDIF only if it is encoded DD or DTS on a DVD-ROM. The card itself will not encode surround sound CREATED in the PC. So, games, mp3's, CD's all will be stereo PCM. I guess that your old MoBo SPDIF was in the same situation (except for a SoundStorm integrated from nVidia that does DD 5. encoding on the fly). If you don't care about gaming performance, Turtle Beach make a card that does DolbyDigital encoding on-the-fly - they are calling this Dolby Digital Li've.
About mikes: one mike input is existing on the back of the card, and another one on the expansion bay (if you have platinum version). both of them will take only a el-cheapo (electret/condenser mike), not a proffesional one.
Message Edited by SoNic2367 on 04-24-2006 2:47 PM