Fiber optic connection better than conventional gold plated cables ?

[Mouse-Potato]

I've been digging around trying to figure out which is best, i've found mixed reviews of both.

 

This is for my home surround sound computer, I have a Sound Blaster Audigy Rx internal sound card going to my Marantz dolby atmos receiver using a fiber optic cable.

 

I'm trying to figure out what is the best way to set it up if anyone has any experience with this i'd be more than happy for recommendations.

 

Thanks,

MP

[Volbet]

It might have been better to ask this in the Home Theater sub, but here goes.

 

If you plan on running anything more than a 5.1 setup, I wouldn't recommend using Toslink, as it can't do more than 5.1 lossless.

For a home theater, especially if you plan on doing Dolby Atmos/DTS-X, an HDMI connection to the receiver is the way to go.

 

If you only plan on doing stereo or 5.1, then I would recommend just using the Toslink connection, as using the analog outputs can be a hassle.

[Mouse-Potato]

2 minutes ago, Volbet said:

It might have been better to ask this in the Home Theater sub, but here goes.

 

If you plan on running anything more than a 5.1 setup, I wouldn't recommend using Toslink, as it can't do more than 5.1 lossless.

For a home theater, especially if you plan on doing Dolby Atmos/DTS-X, an HDMI connection to the receiver is the way to go.

Hmm, I never thought of that, what if i don't run the image through the HDMI? Would it be better to actually run the image through the HDMI with the audio to the receiver and out to the TV ?

 

Currently it is a 3.1 setup, two column speakers, one center and a subwoofer, i'll be adding the satellites later with the atmos downfiring speakers when I move.

[Volbet]

4 minutes ago, Mouse-Potato said:

Hmm, I never thought of that, what if i don't run the image through the HDMI? Would it be better to actually run the image through the HDMI with the audio to the receiver and out to the TV ?

 

Currently it is a 3.1 setup, two column speakers, one center and a subwoofer, i'll be adding the satellites later with the atmos downfiring speakers when I move.

I know some AMD graphics cards have had issues outputting sound through HDMI, if there's no image being outputted.

Although, you could always run a cloned display with no display and just use the HDMI for sound.

You could also run the image through the receiver, but in my experience that introduces a lot of latency to the image signal.

 

The best solution for PC use would be to run an HDMI to the TV and then run HDMI to the receiver from the TV via ARC/eARC. But I don't know if your supports ARC.

[Mouse-Potato]

6 minutes ago, Volbet said:

I know some AMD graphics cards have had issues outputting sound through HDMI, if there's no image being outputted.

Although, you could always run a cloned display with no display and just use the HDMI for sound.

You could also run the image through the receiver, but in my experience that introduces a lot of latency to the image signal.

 

The best solution for PC use would be to run an HDMI to the TV and then run HDMI to the receiver from the TV via ARC/eARC. But I don't know if your supports ARC.

Ah that sucks, so i got a sound card for nothing . It has a RX 550 GPU and the reciever does support ARC through HDMI. So I would just split the audio to the receiver and the video to the receiver and bypass the sound card? I use foobar to listen to DSD audio sources, I guess I could still runb that through Toslink or should i just use the audio through HDMI ?

[Volbet]

4 minutes ago, Mouse-Potato said:

Ah that sucks, so i got a sound card for nothing . It has a RX 550 GPU and the reciever does support ARC through HDMI. So I would just split the audio to the receiver and the video to the receiver and bypass the sound card? I use foobar to listen to DSD audio sources, I guess I could still runb that through Toslink or should i just use the audio through HDMI ?

If you use HDMI for sound, then you would bypass the soundcard, yes.

In most cases, you would bypass the soundcard by using the Toslink, as well, as you wouldn't use the DAC and amplifier in the soundcard. With Toslink you would "just" pass the digital signal on to the DAC in the receiver.

 

With DSD it becomes a bit more complicated.

If you're doing the DSD decoding in software on your PC, then it wouldn't matter what output you're using.

However, if ou rely on hardware decoding of your DSD content, then you might be tied down to a specific output.