Do you need to still use optical when using a DAC

Gilbertomus · May 27, 2020

Hello, Thank you in advance.

I'm looking to buy a pair of RS 185's but sadly my motherboard (B450 Tomahawk Max) doesn't come with an optical port to support the 185's receiver.
Because of this I've been looking into USB DAC's but was wondering if I need to find one with an optical out or if when using one I can just use RCA without a drop in performance.

Setup would be:

Headphone Receiver -> DAC -> PC

Headphone to DAC would be either by Optical or RCA, and DAC to PC would be USB

Thanks again - Gilbertomus

The Flying Sloth · May 28, 2020

1 hour ago, Gilbertomus said:

-snip-

Just use RCA, you'll be fine. You can split 3.5mm audio from your MOBO to RCA and not need to worry about a DAC

ShearMe · May 28, 2020

The only benefit of an optical DAC is that there's no electrical connection between devices. There's no "performance drop" because optical and USB both send digital signals. USB can usually support higher bit depths and sample rates... but that's another discussion.