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noggin
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2014-04-21, 10:55
(This post was last modified: 2014-04-21, 10:56 by noggin.)
A couple of motherboards I've built PCs around in the past have just had motherboard SPDIF headers rather than back panel ports. To add SPDIF you buy an optional PCI-blanking slot (it doesn't connect to the PCI or PCI-E bus) with a coax socket and flying cable to connect to the header. Coax is less popular than Toslink these days, so it is included as an optional extra (like COM ports in many cases) (It was also used to connect SPDIF to early HDMI-equipped graphics cards that didn't have on-board HDMI audio)(
An optical to Coax converter shouldn't impact your audio quality though, it's the same 1s and 0s passing over the interface, just in a different medium. There are arguments about jitter etc. but AIUI in many cases the audio is reclocked on input - and any DD/DTS is decoded and buffered. I'd try a Toslink->Coax converter first - it's going to be a low cost solution, and if you don't hear any issues then you're fine.
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Thanks for your replies. Not only about cost and quality, but also this converter is just quite huge, ugly and even has an external power supply...
My quality concern is not about optical digital or digital coaxial being better (I could not care less and am not even an audiophile). I was just wondering whether this cheap converter (which apparently does something that it needs power for) would significantly impact the quality. Jitter as you said or even worse...
If digital coaxial is uncommon / unused in modern HTPCs, I probably indeed have no other choice than to go the route of the adapter.
Any final thoughts before I buy the converter?
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