I watched some of Z’s vids and ended up buying some x58 Jubilees from Sennheiser. I bought a G6 Soundblaster from Creative as an amp/Dac combo (even tho i have a usb Yeti microphone). The software on this thing is terrible and I’m going to return it. So if I could get suggestions for some stand alone Amp/ Dacs or decent Amp/Dac combos that would be nice. My budget is around 300 dollars and I want to be able to do 5.1 surround out through optical/coax (for z906 speaker system). Thanks again for any and all help. (For Gaming and Music)
To my knowledge there are no desktop dacs or amp/dacs that pass through 5.1 via spdif. Your best option might be to split the signal before it reaches your speakers and future dac:
J-Tech Digital Premium Quality SPDIF TOSLINK Digital Optical Audio 1x3 Splitter (One Input 3 Outputs) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HQ2R314/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_xkK9Db1B80PPT
Use something like that to have one line go to your surround speakers and another go to your future dac. As for dacs and amps, an all in one solution is the Fiio K5 Pro. For $300 you could also get an SMSL SU8 dac or a Geshelli Enog 2 dac and then add a separate headphone amp. I recommend the JDS Labs Atom for most applications in that price range. The Monolith Liquid Spark is another solid option. Apparently the new Schiit Heresy is right there too.
The all in one Fiio option is simpler. The separate dac and amp approach makes future upgrades and expansion easier and will likely sound slightly better than the K5 alone - though not by much.
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Do you have a desktop or laptop?
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I have a desktop. =). i invested in everything but the audio, its time to catch it up.
Thank you very much, I will check all of these out as soon as possible. part of why i got this G6 is it does supposedly do optical out at 5.1 surround. Granted this thing is really jank so meh. Thank you so much again.
You can probably do 5.1 spdif out of your motherboard already if it’s fairly moden
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Ah yes. I was assuming you had optical out on your mobo. That is an important first step for my above post.
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Most modern motherboards have 5.1 channel out through spdif support, so I don’t really think you would need to buy anything extra on that front. The the k5 pro is great and I don’t think you could go wrong with it. I think that also you could get a smsl m100 dac and a liquid spark or atom, and that would probably all fit in your budget. The main issue with the splitter idea is that if he configured his spdif out to be 5.1, the m100 would not work normally when multichannel content would play (if that matters)
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I don’t think it’s a problem. When the controller doesn’t recognize the input signal it just doesn’t do anything. The Splitter makes the initial setup one step trickier but will simplify operation when it’s all up and running.
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Just saying that it won’t work normally as it won’t recognize the signal, won’t harm anything though
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Yes, its a z390 Prime A Asus motherboard. Should be good enough. I’m still learning so youre right, I can definitely do optical out and everything should be fine. I have been using the standard 3 cable jack set up into the Surround System. Getting the rest squared away for the headphone end would be fantastic.
You should be able to enable 5.1 support via optical through that motherboard then. It will only play 5.1 when you play 5.1 encoded content though
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Oh yeah, that will work just fine. I’ve been using the optical out on my Asus mobo that I bought way back in 2011 (longest living build I’ve ever had by far) for a long time and have no complaints. @M0N is doing a good job of helping you with expectations, though. The splitter idea will allow you to run your surround speakers and your headphone system from the same output from the computer. When there’s a stereo signal, both the speakers and the headphones will play simultaneously. When you switch to a multichannel signal, the speakers will play but the headphones will go silent as the DAC is unlikely to recognize the signal. When that happens, it doesn’t mean things are broken, just that you have a signial compatibility issue. So one thing to keep in mind then, is if you’re going to play games while wearing the headphones, you’ll need to switch the audio options in the games’ menus to stereo or headphones. That might be the one use frustration you run across if you leave your game sound settings to surround speakers but then switch to headphones, you’ll need to change those game menu settings manually. With any gear we’ve discussed on this thread though, you’re gonna hear a marked improvement in audio quality over that sound card. Enjoy.
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I would try the K5, but it doesnt appear to be available anymore =/. Atleast not on Amazon. I’ll keep looking tho.
Yeah it seems to be sold out for alot of places. I think the smsl m100 and liquid spark combo is very solid for the price. You could also get a jds labs atom if you wanted as well instead of the liquid spark
Going to take a look at them right now. Will let you know what I decide. You guys have been a great help to me.
didn’t bother to read the whole thread, the Topping D10 actually has USB in and SPDIF out both coax and toslink. A very good implementation of it as well based on measurements.
Yeah it’s pretty good imo. The main issue though is that it doesn’t support 5.1 or dts over the optical out (or usb in for that matter)
Thanks for that. I don’t use the 5.1 but assumed that the toslink would support it as I know it does. But you’re saying the implementation of the Topping doesn’t specifically support it? I have the D10 and use it as a DAC for my passive desktop speakers but love the fact that it allows me to do optical out to my Enog 2 Pro.
Most usb dac’s wont support 5.1 or multichannel at all, so it’s not just the topping
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