[RonnyRulz]

I'm getting a Sound Blaster X-Fi Fata1lty for my PC

( http://www.soundblaster.com/products...&product=14000 )



It has digital optical and then it has.......this...it's something like RCA? But has to do with the 3 mini plugs.


Anyways, this is the link to it: http://us.creative.com/products/prod...&product=14309


Which is better, the digital optical cord or their fancy 3-mini to 8? rca?


My receiver is the Onkyo HTS790 receiver.


Just want the best sound quality and don't know which to get! Thanks!

 

[11001011]

I guess it would depend on who has the best Dolby decoder?


If your Onkyo is best then optical is the way to go


If the soundblaster is best then the SB analog out is the way to go.


Who's better? I dont know...


Personaly I would just use the optical as one optical patch cord would be cheaper than their fancy 1/8inch to RCA adaptor cords. Optical would eliminate any gound loop problems that often happen when attaching PC's to receivers. Besides soundblasters never have been known for being low noise on their analog outs anyway.

 

[RonnyRulz]

I don't really know which is better.... how can I tell???

 

[Ratman]

Try both and use what sounds best to you.

 

[antonehenry]

I was wondering the same thing. I bought:

turtle-beach 7.1 ddl (won't let post link, cause i'm a newbie)


And I was looking on creative and saw their little setup. So here's the breakdown (which you probably already know.)


Creative's Setup:

-Analog

-Can only be controlled through computer, you can only adjust volume on your reciever, not any of your equalizer or levels.


Optical Out:

-Digital

-Reciever must have dd/dts decoder built in.

-One cord

-Control on computer's setup

-Control on reciever's setup


I chose optical, because I like the one cord, and not having to select "multi-channel" on my Sony 6.1 reciever by getting up and pressing a button. All my other channels are digital, therefore, I have to manually select a different channel that's on the remote cause it's a different setup for analog.


As far as best sound quality goes.... I'm not very knowledgeable on numbers and such. But you have multiple ways of tweaking your setup using the digital. I'm really satisfied with my card for my media center pc w/ digital.


Cheers.