Finally! I have all the parts to hook up my laptop digitally to my 5.1 receiver!

Well, If you have been following the old threads, I said the parts would arrive, and as promised, I will post them and tell you if the parts worked or not. I have all the parts in their pretty packages right here, and you can expect the final result on friday, after my ocn 201 midterm. I had to spread the news early, I was as excited as a fat boy with chocolate cake. FYI, I haven't connected them yet, but theoretically (and I've done my research) this should work. And the great thing is, I can listen to all my music, movies, online videos, and games, through my receiver. Although, the online videos and music will not be in 5.1, but I can configure my receiver using some matrix technology so it will all still come out, and some games, like Half Life 2, actually do have dts, so it can output via spdif.

Anyway, heres a teaser.
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See ya friday.

 

sounds interesting.....cant wait till fridayy!

 

umm you could have just got something like this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1636638&postcount=8

or this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1638134&postcount=11

We discussed about Professional audio alternatives to the regular consumer level (Sound Blaster crap).

The M-Audio external audio devices are not expensive and are better than anything that on-board sound or Creative can ever pull out of their butts.

 

I know the USB passthourgh wouldn't be as fast, having software to be installed with the device, and I know this solution I presented here, will work, and all of it put together costs around only $60 total.

 

its not a USB passthrough, its a external soundcard that owns all on-board sound and even the Creative stuff.

It is professional, not consumer level stuff we are talking about here. I work with professional music producers and artists, its M-AUDIO all the way... especially for working with DTS, 5.1, Nuendo, SoundForge, etc.

 

I would definitely see the benefits of an external audio option.. usually clears up any electronic noise to begin with, products like Imic being a low-end option. The m-audio card is much better. But how much quality can really be expected from this combination? I mean, will it allow speakers to image and showcase a song properly, or is there a cieling in components and speakers here? I used to sell High-end audio gear, and though I enjoy using my computer to play music, produce sound and play games.. it's never stood up to a dedicated rack as far as imaging goes. How do you feel Gophn? can it be done?

 

I still am working with people that are using both Mac OS X's Logic Pro, and Windows' Nuendo, SoundForge. Both using the same M-Audio external equipment (Firewire and USB2.0) and on notebooks. Seems to be a definitely great quality and performance, especially with the Professional M-Audio, Creative has no leg to stand on when it comes to the quality difference.

The sound output is too good to put in words, especially with great headphones or SPDIF output (S-Dat speakers)

I do like the simplicity of Logic Pro, though.

 

Erm, no a side note...
Does that external sound card you bought handel Dobly Live?
The big problem with games and surround right now is that they loose the EAX stuff when using a digital output.
Very few cards I know support this, and are all desktop solutions.
Anyway, why did you bother getting both Coax and optical?
And you're Dell doesn't have the optical output built into the headphone jack like most other laptops?