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Digital CD ROM Audio Cable to Sound Card ?


Hagood

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I just installed a Santa Cruz in my PC in preparation for my PM 4.1 purchase (yes, I'm taking a chance on them). It has a connection for a digital cable along with the analog cable from the CD ROM, but did not include this cable. I'm wondering what the deal is with this connection ? Is it worth me buying a cable - what is the difference ?

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when i got my SB Live 5.1 MP3+, it came with two cords to hook up my dvd player and my cd player... only problem was that the cords did not work correctly (wrong format...) and so the only way i can get sound through my cd drives is to put it in the dvd player and use a dvd player (software like powerdvd) to listen to the cd. i can still extract the audio via a cd ripper program and make mp3's but i just can't listen to it via programs like winamp... quite a pain. maybe it is my card though. were there no cords from your old sound card to your cd/dvd drives?

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-justin

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  • 2 weeks later...

Justin, yes the old sound card was connected to the CD ROM with the regular Analog cable, which I did use for the Santa Cruz. In addidtion to this connection on the Santa Cruz, there is a 2-pin Digital connection which is also on the CD ROM. I am getting sound fine from the CD with the Analog connection (an I must say, I love the Santa Cruz), but I'm just wondering what the benifits of the digital connection are ? I saw the cables at Fry's, but haven't purchased one yet. I don't know if this connection should be in place of or in addition to the analog. It doesn't say much about it in the manual.

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What OS are you using? With XP you do not have to use the digital output, the os will handle it. Also, does your cd-rom support digital output? There should be a dedicated connector on the back for it. I have a Santa Cruz and 4.1's; they work well together.Hope this helps,,,mag

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  • 1 month later...

you know what? I actually heard from a very reliable source that the sound quality of CDs are actually noticeable better when you use the cdrom to sound card cable. When you don't connect the sound card to the cdrom with the cable, the computer reads the music cd like data, and somehow that's not supposed to sound as good as just reading right off the CD. I'm not too sure how this works, but I'd like to know more. Right now I don't have a cable connected from my audigy to my cdrom, but I would like to know how to switch it the cable mode (because I have the cable). I have tried attaching the cable but it still reads the CD like data, so I don't know what to do.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I got a similar question too.

If you play an audio CD into your CD-ROM drive and listen to it via the headphone out jack on the drive itself, you don't need a soundcard to do this.

So does this mean that the (digital) signal from the CD gets convert to analog (to your headphone out) by the CD-ROM drive ??

Can you get your soundcard to perform the conversion instead ?? would it make any difference ?

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kaapong,

Yes the CD Rom does convert the signal to analog. However using a sound card allows manipulation of the sound via equalizers and other sound card features that could 'enhance' your listening of the CD.

Blue skies,

Stu

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Dual PIII 733 mhz, 128 RDRAM, Elsa GeFORCE 2 Ultra, 40 GHD, 12x CDRW, DVD, Philips AE, Klipsch 4.1

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Yeah, I have the same CD-ROM internal 'cable' option with my new DMX 6 Fire sound card. I haven't connected up the included CD-ROM to card cable - yet, and the sound is very GOOD, so perhaps I will, and see if the CD's sound even better with it attached.

I would "assume" that the audio quality would indeed be better going straight from the SC to the CD-ROM, and therefore by-passing all the crap it really doesn't need, etc.

KEV

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Now doctors call this disease "hebromadrosis", but us regular folks who wear tennis shoes and the occasional python boot - call this exquisit little inconvenience - STINKFOOT!

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Hagood:

i prefer using the 2-pin cable instead of the analog audio cable if it's available. i think it will be better to let the soundcard to covert the digital CD signal for u. and by using digital cable, less noise will be generated.

i am now using a 2-pin digital cable to connect my dvd drive and soundcard. sounds great.

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