Choosing cheap usb s/pdif card

[Journeym]

Im a bit fed up with constant audio troubles with my PC > reciever setup, and wanted to buy something that is not tied to motherboard and working on delivering 5.1 sound in DTS or DD to my old reciever over S/PDIF.

I found this cheap polish THING ADA-71 USB 7.1 SOUNDbox | Axagon. It costs 33 euro here, and looks like it's not straight up using realtek chip or drivers.

Anywone have some advice what to buy here in europe with low budget?

My reciever is Yamaha RX-V463

Thanks

Oh it's not polish its czech lol, anyway

 

[Super Firm Tofu]

Amazon.de

You’ll need to make sure your source (media player, music player, or game) Supports 5.1 out.

I use this from my computer to my DAC on a motherboard that doesn’t have optical out.

 

[Journeym]

It looks like it just emulates s/pdif in windows with the same 2channel restriction, so i will need an APO to get 5.1, it's the thing i want to actually circumvent.
I wanted something that emulates 5.1+ in windows devices, with speaker setup like hdmi.

 

[Ferather]

If you have a multichannel SPDIF transmitter, it would have its own software to config 5.1 PCM, Windows does not currently support channel config with SPDIF.
My multichannel SPDIF transmitter works as intended, however the receiver also needs a multichannel SPDIF receiver, not stereo.

HDMI is the same but has the config option, if the receiver is 2 channels, you see 2 channels, if its 8 then 8.


CS42518 | Cirrus Logic | CS8416 | Cirrus Logic

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You can temporarily convert SPDIF to HDMI in Windows, you will see Windows reads the data directly from the SPDIF transmitter.
Any format or sample rate options that where ticked, essentially convert to EDID with Windows, has config.



Old image of Windows 10 on my other computer.

 

[Journeym]

So it's reciever who's restricting it to two channels, not windows?
Reading other threads here i was under impression that it's quite the opposite.
Also, what driver is used in this screenshot? I dont have this info on my s/pdif with original realtek driver

 

[Ferather]

In this case the transmitter, which is what Windows reads. JIS F05 is simplex, so Windows can only read the transmitter, there is no way to read the receiver.
You can get full duplex SMI 250 Mbit/s, but no audio system is using SMI at the consumer end, so no ability to read receivers.

Even with HDMI, you could have a 16 channel receiver, but if the GPU transmitter can only do 8, then you are stuck with 8, not 16.

 

[Journeym]

All right, this is getting too complex for me to comprehend.
My reciever supports 5.1 obviously, cause it advertises so over hdmi

So i need a device that is emulating audio device that supports 6 channels advertises it that same way to windows, encodes it in DD or DTS and passes stream to the reciever over S/PDIF. Meaning it will offload this encoding task off windows APO and other drivers that i found here.
Is my way of thinking correct, or im missing something?

 

[Ferather]

Sounds like I should help you install DTS. You simply add the DTS APO to SPDIF and you get 6 channels.

 

[Journeym]

Thanks, i already using your driver, and it's working fine.
I just a bit weary that each time i change hardware i need to find a MB with s/pdif and install all these custom drivers and services.
I was thinking it would be better to replace all this with just 1 hadrware box, if it's possible.

 

[Ferather]

Good to know. All in one box, I am not sure there are licensed external encoders other than Creative DTS-610.

DTS Interactive Technology (audioholics.com)

 

[Journeym]

Al right, seems this it pointless in regards of simplyfing anything. Only viable for adding S/PDIF if motherboard doesnt have it

 

[Ferather]

Pretty much yes, you can also add the DTS APO's to HDMI if you really want to, and get DTS Interactive over HDMI, 0 benefits though, absolutely none.
Even if your HDMI can set as 6 channels, older encoded formats still use a stereo stream to send the data, so it sets stereo.

A little complicated to explain, but there is audio engine format, and final out format.

The DTS APO's have a latency that is less than 0.0ms, whereas other methods (including newer HDMI formats), can be 50ms or more.
HDMI is primarily a video connector, so much so that audio data is put between video data packets, terrible.

Fun fact, the DTS APO's perform so well on optical, you don't need an audio buffer.

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Should be: SFX, Mixer, MFX, EFX > Final out (hardware).