looking for USB to SPDIF audio card

[bololabich]

Looking for some cheap USB audio card with native SPDIF. Tried one from aliexpress but the SPDIF output was fake, windows would see the card as a regular analog output making it completely useless. 
HDMI to SPDIF won't work for what I need it. It has to be an USB card.

[Kalm_Traveler]

What exactly are you wanting to accomplish with it? Might help us find something that does what you're wanting.

[bololabich]

I want an USB card as this way I can plug it into KVM while I'm using 2 PCs (one is my job PC and the other the private one) and it needs to be a native SPDIF so that I can apply a patch to make it output DTS 5.1 audio.
So still the only solution is an USB audio card or PCI-E x1 to USB adapter but these don't exist

[EmoRarity]

The fiio k3 meets your requirements.

[ShearMe]

Startech DAC 

[bololabich]

On 1/29/2020 at 6:55 AM, EmoRarity said:

The fiio k3 meets your requirements.

WTF At this price range I'd be better off buying a complete new 5.1 :O....
 

22 hours ago, ShearMe said:

Startech DAC 

Not exactly cheap considering I only need digital signal plus it's over in the US BUT it's a good lead! - Comments say it's CM6206 and aliexpress have them for just 6$ :) I'll look into it but I kinda think the last one, the one with fake SPDIF had the same chip so I'll need to look into it a bit.

[Kalm_Traveler]

20 hours ago, bololabich said:

Not exactly cheap considering I only need digital signal 

The nature of the signal doesn't really have any bearing on price of the device in question - especially if you're wanting something capable of Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect encoding for 5.1 over Toslink. Honestly, I think the easiest solution would be one of Creative's external USB sound cards as long as it has optical output and DDL or DTS:C support.

[bololabich]

3 hours ago, Kalm_Traveler said:

The nature of the signal doesn't really have any bearing on price of the device in question - especially if you're wanting something capable of Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect encoding for 5.1 over Toslink. Honestly, I think the easiest solution would be one of Creative's external USB sound cards as long as it has optical output and DDL or DTS:C support.

Have PCI-E creative and their support of these technologies is a total disaster to say the least... As long as toslink is detected as toslink (and not as analogue out like on some cards) APO software will do the trick  
For now I'll just order that "CM6206" in a local store so that I can return it if it won't work for me not risking any money.  Actually, even if it doesn't work then just screw it not like I really need 5.1 for programming and I've rearranged HDMI's so that I get digital stereo out of HDMI switch.

 

[Kalm_Traveler]

On 1/31/2020 at 10:03 AM, bololabich said:

Have PCI-E creative and their support of these technologies is a total disaster to say the least... As long as toslink is detected as toslink (and not as analogue out like on some cards) APO software will do the trick  
For now I'll just order that "CM6206" in a local store so that I can return it if it won't work for me not risking any money.  Actually, even if it doesn't work then just screw it not like I really need 5.1 for programming and I've rearranged HDMI's so that I get digital stereo out of HDMI switch.

 

That is definitely interesting to hear - my own experience with Creative has been that their cards and software have been the only reliable stable way to get DDL or DTS:C piped out of a computer. Literally never had a single issue with any of their PCI-E cards or accompanying software.

 

That all being said, I'm not sure that your APO software will do what you think because in order for the outgoing optical signal to be DDL or DTS:C, the software controlling the hardware needs to be able to encode an already-present surround signal. In other words, you need 2 things in place; 1 - the sound device needs to be seen and configured as 5.1 ch in Windows, and 2 - whatever software is controlling the sound hardware (specifically the optical port) needs to be able to encode the aforementioned 5.1 data into Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect. 

As far as I've seen, if the sound device itself can't be seen as a multi-channel device in Windows, and or the software/drivers that run it lack provisioning for DDL/DTSC there wouldn't be any way for additional 3rd party software to make the magic happen.

[Derkoli]

2 hours ago, Kalm_Traveler said:

That is definitely interesting to hear - my own experience with Creative has been that their cards and software have been the only reliable stable way to get DDL or DTS:C piped out of a computer. Literally never had a single issue with any of their PCI-E cards or accompanying software.

 

That all being said, I'm not sure that your APO software will do what you think because in order for the outgoing optical signal to be DDL or DTS:C, the software controlling the hardware needs to be able to encode an already-present surround signal. In other words, you need 2 things in place; 1 - the sound device needs to be seen and configured as 5.1 ch in Windows, and 2 - whatever software is controlling the sound hardware (specifically the optical port) needs to be able to encode the aforementioned 5.1 data into Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect. 

As far as I've seen, if the sound device itself can't be seen as a multi-channel device in Windows, and or the software/drivers that run it lack provisioning for DDL/DTSC there wouldn't be any way for additional 3rd party software to make the magic happen.

I find creative stuff the same, I actually really like the SoundBlaster AE-9 from them.