Asus W2V Audiophile'ish sound quality - another option ?

Hi, read all the stuff about sound quality, having the same issues as everyone else. So right now I'm tossing up on a couple of options..

1. Echo Indigo PCMCIA Card
2. Creative Audigy ZS Notebook Card
3. M-Audio Transit or Theatre USB device

However, before I get one of those, I'm wondering if anyone has tried the sound quality from the S/PDIF connection? Surely it won't have the same bass drop out as the analog connections. Ie can I get a full range stereo signal from the digital out ?

Can anyone confirm ? I have nice big receiver under my desk that's just itching for some good sound... And this seems like the sensible option.

Many thanks
Rowan

 

I dont think the digital out suffers from the same issues.

 

The S/PDIF connection is probably OK (I haven't tested it but noone has complained), but consider that you will have an optical cable sticking out of the front of your laptop. Optical cables are not very flexible so it will be hard to route in a convenient way.

I am also thinking about an external soundcard, as an added benefit it would be connected on the side of the laptop.

My top priority for the card though would be that windows can switch between the external soundcard and the built in speakers automatically when I disconnect the external card.

 

Can't get the s/pdif connection to work in stereo from Windows Media Player. Anyone gotten it to work? Tried a coax cable with a mono 1/8 to rca converter (1/8 to coax digital cables are rare as hens teeth), connected it all up but no sound.

I have all the realtek drivers installed yet I have no option for enabling/disabling output from the S/PDIF connector. In the sound levels dialog (standard windows one) there's an option for s/pdif, but it's all disabled (greyed out).

????????????

All my manuals are in shipping at the moment so I'm kinda screwed as to finding out how this all is supposed to work.

TIA if anyone can help.

Rowan

 

It is not co-axial out, rather MINI-OPTICAL out. So you need to have Optical cable with 1/8 mini optical adapter( it is commonly used by those Sony MD walkman before). It is not that expensive, for $15 you can get a Optical cable with 1/8 adapters.

 

cool. thanks. bah sometimes google gods are wrong !

Anyone tried it ? I'm still very interested before I make another trudge to hardware store to see if it actually works (in terms of improved sound quality) ?

 

okay more adventures in the dramas of sound. got the minitoslink to toslink cable, cheapest/only one I could find was about $40cad.. anyway, I *think* it's sounding better, checked against polk rti6 bookshelfs, and sennheiser 595s running through a yamaha a/v receiver, noticeable difference, but not huge. high end detail seems to be better. starting to hear all sorts of noise in recordings now !

one interesting thing, windows sounds are getting mixed in, using the "surround out- configured as front speakers", no windows sounds were getting mixed in, now they are through the s/pdif out...