Why my HTPC sounds worse than the CD Player even though both are connected over SPDIF (1 Viewer)

[Spragleknas]

Cool!

Note to Norwegian users (and probably Swedish/Dansih (?)).

This is availabele @ Claes Ohlson:
http://www.clasohlson.se/shop/store...=N&WAGID=15824&NoCache=10/25/2006+10:19:51+AM

Edit: Argh - lite version - no S/PDIF

 

[Spragleknas]

I just noticed this... I haven't really given CD playing a lot of thoughts nor listen on my box.. But being a (cheapskate) purist, just knowing that my soundcard upsamples my 44.1Khz CDs to 48Khz annoys me... (ALC850) And since I can't be arsed to install a new mobo before I upgrade to a Dual Core solution, I've been tempted to try this Trust card : http://www.trust.com/products/product.aspx?artnr=12950

It's about as expensive as dirt, kilo pr. kilo, and even comes with a Toslink cable :-|

And according to specs found here : http://drivers.trust.nl/manuals/getmanual.asp?file=12/12950-uk-pm-3.pdf it'll output 44.1Khz..

Has anyone else tried this card ?...

Only thing that annoys me is I have to use the PCI slot where I was going to drop in an extra PVR500 :-(

How about this card?
http://www.trust.com/products/product.aspx?artnr=12949

 

[Flerbizky]

[/quote]
How about this card?
http://www.trust.com/products/product.aspx?artnr=12949[/QUOTE]

Not for me.. The lack of optical out makes it, for me at least, useless.. I need the only electrical digital in on my receiver for my laserdisc (Yes, I rock, I know :lol: )

But if you're using an electrical digital connection now, I think it's just as good.. Seems to be the same card, bar the digital inputs and the optical in/out...

 

[Henry Mac]

Hi Henry Mac,

the ESI juli@ works very well for me, had a lot of problems with a RME Digi 96Pad and with a M-Audio Audiophile 192 before.

*Hibernation I do not use because suspend to disk only saves very little time compared to a full boot.
S3 suspend to ram works fine with the ESI juli@ in my case.
*I only have a 2 channel AD/DA converter at the moment, so I can say nothing about DD DTS pass through.
On the ESI Homepage it says:
-Built in digital optical output - 5.1 Dolby digital support
-Digital coaxial I/O (with support for up to 192kHz) - 5.1 Dolby digital support
* Passthrough of pcm with different sample rates works perfectly - the card automatically puts out the signal with the correct sample rate (CD/MP3 44,1kHz; DVD/Video/DVB 48 kHz)
* For me the card works perfectly with MediaPortal.

Google for 'esi julia review' and you can find quite some info about the card.

If you decide on the ESI juli@ or another solution, maybe you can report back here about how it works for you. It is good to know for others who are searching for an audiophile solution for their HTPC, that certain soundcards work and others not as good or are causing problems.

From the ESI forum:
Yes, you can send out any DTS signal with Juli@ as long as the software you use for playback supports it. The encoding format of the DTS signal (5.1, 6.1, etc.) does not matter for that as the signal is sent out 1:1. Of course if a signal is only 5.1 (e.g. on a DVD playback), Juli@ (or any other audiohardware) cannot magically create a 6.1 signal out of it. The speaker system / decoder could do that however, by copying signals.

So that probably means DTS ES as well
I will give it a try.

Thanks all.

 

[Spragleknas]

[off topic]Is there anyway to use SPDIF-in from from STB bia soundcard (like above mentioned Thrust)?[/of-topic]

 

[BugsBunny]

There are small converter boxes that can convert spdif optical to spdif coax and ones that convert spdif coax to spdif optical.
eg:
http://www1.conrad.de/scripts/wgate/zcop_b2c/?~template=pcat_product_details_document&object_guid=6F65BF3E915E506DE10000000A01021E&master_guid=&master_typ=&no_brotkrumennavi=&ownrow=8&p_load_area=1310121&p_artikelbilder_mode=Ein&p_sortopt=object_description&page=1&p_catalog_max_results=10&cachedetail=
http://www1.conrad.de/scripts/wgate/zcop_b2c/?~template=pcat_product_details_document&object_guid=820ABE3E9A451B38E10000000A01022B&master_guid=&master_typ=&no_brotkrumennavi=&ownrow=10&p_load_area=1310121&p_artikelbilder_mode=Ein&p_sortopt=object_description&page=1&p_catalog_max_results=10&cachedetail=
Maybe the card has got a digtial in for internal CD/DVD Drives - 2 pin conector. Looks like the card has got a 2 pin conector but I'm not sure if it is a digital in...

 

[Henry Mac]

ESI Juli@

Just got the Juli@ in and tested it.

Sample rates all ok
DTS ok
Dolby Digital ok
Sleep and hibernate ok.

Too bad it is quite expensive but then again all problems with audio are now gone.
I am a happy man

 

[rtv]

good hardware is always the key to success.. The chain principe

 

[heine]

after hours of struggle to enable passthrough on my aureon 5.1, I've finally found a solution:
cmediadrivers - Google Code
these drivers work flawlessly on my htpc machine. from what I gathered, several other cmedia cards are also supported which are mentioned in this thread, e.g. the nightingale.