Can i extent the Cable for 5.1 Channel (6 channel direct input cable) ?

[keavlar]

Hey all. 

I got my self Logitech z906 

The 6chanel cable is short, and unfortunately my 400$ MB does not have optical or coaxial input. (Never though i will use it)

 

I want to extent the cable from 1.8 meters to 3.3 with single extension aux cable. 
Is it ok, will I lose in performance? Or something like that ?

 

I do not wanna but a 100$ pci audio card for optical output

 

[mariushm]

Yeah you can get 3 stereo-stereo audio cables and extend it.

It will work, at most you'll just get lower volume (due to longer cables, wires have higher resistance, so there's some voltage loss in the wires, which the speakers amplifiers "sees" as lower volume, lower signal quality)

 

Check if the motherboard doesn't have a SPDIF header ... if it does you could get a digital out / optical out board with bracket, like a pci-e card.

 

Don't get the cheapest, try to get some with thicker wires.

 

[keavlar]

1 hour ago, mariushm said:

Yeah you can get 3 stereo-stereo audio cables and extend it.

It will work, at most you'll just get lower volume (due to longer cables, wires have higher resistance, so there's some voltage loss in the wires, which the speakers amplifiers "sees" as lower volume, lower signal quality)

 

Check if the motherboard doesn't have a SPDIF header ... if it does you could get a digital out / optical out board with bracket, like a pci-e card.

 

Don't get the cheapest, try to get some with thicker wires.

 

Well thats the point, i do not really wanna but a sound card . 

I guess ill have to get one. 

 

IS this good enough?

[mariushm]

Don't you have an Asus Hero VII  like it says in the description?

 

If so the motherboard should have SPDIF out (optical output) above the HDMI connector.

 

Otherwise, if your speakers are 5.1 with 3 stereo jacks then just get 3 extension cables, example: https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Extension-Adapter-Compatible-Smartphones/dp/B00LM4ON3I/

 

As for that particular sound card, it's a sound card, what can i say...

 

You'd want to make sure it has drivers for Windows 10 ... some of the older PCI sound cards made by Creative had issues in Windows 10 with drivers.

[keavlar]

42 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Don't you have an Asus Hero VII  like it says in the description?

 

If so the motherboard should have SPDIF out (optical output) above the HDMI connector.

 

Otherwise, if your speakers are 5.1 with 3 stereo jacks then just get 3 extension cables, example: https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Extension-Adapter-Compatible-Smartphones/dp/B00LM4ON3I/

 

As for that particular sound card, it's a sound card, what can i say...

 

You'd want to make sure it has drivers for Windows 10 ... some of the older PCI sound cards made by Creative had issues in Windows 10 with drivers.

I replaced the entire build. 
I have B-550 Gaming E 

 

 

[mariushm]

14 minutes ago, keavlar said:

I replaced the entire build. 
I have B-550 Gaming E 

 

 

You have SPDIF_OUT header on the motherboard

 

See page 10 and 31   in datasheet: https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/SocketAM4/ROG_STRIX_B550-E_GAMING/E16546_ROG_STRIX_B550-E_GAMING_UM_WEB.pdf

 

 

Example of brackets :

SPDIF Optical and RCA Out Plate Cable Bracket For ASUS MSI Gigabyte Motherboard | eBay

1pcs SPDIF Optical and RCA Out Plate Cable Bracket for ASUS Gigabyte MSI | eBay

SPDIF optical and RCA out plate cable bracket for asus msi gigabyte motherbY*sh | eBay

SPDIF Optical and RCA Out Plate Cable Bracket for ASUS Gigabyte MSI Motherboard | eBay

 

and you can buy long toslink cables if you want, they're good up to 5-10 meters...well, for much bigger distances, but up to 5-10m it's very common lengths.

A 12ft (~3.5m) cable is less than $5-6.

 

 

 

 

[keavlar]

2 minutes ago, mariushm said:

 

You have SPDIF_OUT header on the motherboard

 

See page 10 and 31   in datasheet: https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/SocketAM4/ROG_STRIX_B550-E_GAMING/E16546_ROG_STRIX_B550-E_GAMING_UM_WEB.pdf

 

 

Example of brackets :

SPDIF Optical and RCA Out Plate Cable Bracket For ASUS MSI Gigabyte Motherboard | eBay

1pcs SPDIF Optical and RCA Out Plate Cable Bracket for ASUS Gigabyte MSI | eBay

SPDIF optical and RCA out plate cable bracket for asus msi gigabyte motherbY*sh | eBay

SPDIF Optical and RCA Out Plate Cable Bracket for ASUS Gigabyte MSI Motherboard | eBay

 

and you can buy long toslink cables if you want, they're good up to 5-10 meters...well, for much bigger distances, but up to 5-10m it's very common lengths.

A 12ft (~3.5m) cable is less than $5-6.

 

 

 

 

Damn, you right, I didn't notice it, Thanks. 

This look really, small, will it do the job as intended?

[keavlar]

I mean, what is he difference then, with sound card on top?
This SPDIF Optical and RCA Out Plate Cable Bracket For ASUS

It looks so small, how it can provide 5.1 - 7.1

 

[mariushm]

It's just a bracket, not a sound card. The digital signal comes from your onboard sound card, that's why bracket connects to that header.

 

It's a tiny board with the physical connectors (the optical output, a led behind a lens more or less, and the coaxial output which is basically a RCA jack).

 

The header on the motherboard (well, your onboard sound card) outputs the digital signal SPDIFOUT and then you have ground and 5v which is needed to power the LED that sends bits through fiber if you use toslink cable.

 

The board is like those tiny brackets with more USB connectors, or how computers in the past had parallel and serial port connectors on separate brackets.

 

So you just go on your sound card's application (Realtek HD Manager or whatever it's called) and select the digital output you want instead of analogue 5.1

 

 

[keavlar]

2 minutes ago, mariushm said:

It's just a bracket, not a sound card. The digital signal comes from your onboard sound card, that's why bracket connects to that header.

 

It's a tiny board with the physical connectors (the optical output, a led behind a lens more or less, and the coaxial output which is basically a RCA jack).

 

The header on the motherboard (well, your onboard sound card) outputs the digital signal SPDIFOUT and then you have ground and 5v which is needed to power the LED that sends bits through fiber if you use toslink cable.

 

The board is like those tiny brackets with more USB connectors, or how computers in the past had parallel and serial port connectors on separate brackets.

 

So you just go on your sound card's application (Realtek HD Manager or whatever it's called) and select the digital output you want instead of analogue 5.1

 

 

if you had to choose, which cable you use? 6-channel or SPDIF Optical?

I heard optical tend to lose some sounds, or so. 

[mariushm]

Well, spdif can do uncompressed 48 kHz STEREO audio , or can do 5.1/7.1 with some compression (AC-3, DTS etc)

 

If you're watching a movie with a codec supported by SPDIF and your speakers, the movie player - if it's smart enough - can simply take that track and push the bits through the SPDIF header and have your speakers decode it (if the speakers know how to decode that codec)

 

This way you can get better quality and you use less cpu because you don't need to decode the audio track. Better quality is because you don't convert from digital to analogue, then output sound through 3 analogue cables which go to speakers.

 

If you're listening to music in your favourite player or Youtube or whatever, most of that is stereo, so you could just send uncompressed stereo and have your speakers convert it to 5.1 (if the speakers are smart enough)

 

Anyway, you always have the option of using 3 separate extension cables with plain old regular stereo jacks.

 

-

 

edit:  as an example my movie player  - Media Player Classic Home Cinema - allows me to chose the codec if I want to send through s/pdif or hdmi) - you can see choice between ac3, eac3, dts  (dolby truehd , dts-hd only on hdmi)

 

 

 

[keavlar]

6 hours ago, mariushm said:

Well, spdif can do uncompressed 48 kHz STEREO audio , or can do 5.1/7.1 with some compression (AC-3, DTS etc)

 

If you're watching a movie with a codec supported by SPDIF and your speakers, the movie player - if it's smart enough - can simply take that track and push the bits through the SPDIF header and have your speakers decode it (if the speakers know how to decode that codec)

 

This way you can get better quality and you use less cpu because you don't need to decode the audio track. Better quality is because you don't convert from digital to analogue, then output sound through 3 analogue cables which go to speakers.

 

If you're listening to music in your favourite player or Youtube or whatever, most of that is stereo, so you could just send uncompressed stereo and have your speakers convert it to 5.1 (if the speakers are smart enough)

 

Anyway, you always have the option of using 3 separate extension cables with plain old regular stereo jacks.

 

-

 

edit:  as an example my movie player  - Media Player Classic Home Cinema - allows me to chose the codec if I want to send through s/pdif or hdmi) - you can see choice between ac3, eac3, dts  (dolby truehd , dts-hd only on hdmi)

 

 

 

Looks so complicated all this stuff. 
Thanks .