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Topic: Sound Card and Cable Length (Read 8195 times) previous topic - next topic
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Sound Card and Cable Length

I've just digitized my CD collection and I want to start hearing my music again! 

I was looking for input on (2) things:

1.  Which sound cards offer the best sound quality?  I assume all of the newer cards offer Digital outputs... ?

2.  Is there any maximum to the cable length?  I will probably need a 40 foot run... is this possible?  Do they sell the cables that long?

Thanks!

Sound Card and Cable Length

Reply #1 –
Quote
2. Is there any maximum to the cable length? I will probably need a 40 foot run... is this possible? Do they sell the cables that long?

Well, of course you lose some signal amplitude with increasing cable length.  You also increase the possibility of acquiring noise with longer cable runs.  The noise problem can be minimized with balanced cables, but those connections are rare on most PC sound cards.

The good news?  I have my computer sound card hooked up to my high end preamplifier using both 7.1 analog outputs and also one coaxial S/PDIF cable.  I don't know the exact cable lengths, but they are approximately 39 feet.  Everything sounds great!  Even though the S/PDIF output on most sound cards is a mini jack or typical RCA phono jack connector, do not use a regular RCA cable for this connection.  You're supposed to use a coaxial cable design that still has a single RCA plug on each end.  You can buy a simple RCA plug to mini plug adapter for the sound card end if needed.  My 7.1 analog connections are nothing special, but I made my own.  I'm sure you can simply buy very long RCA cables for this hook up.  Try looking at:

Cables To Go

Sound Card and Cable Length

Reply #2 –
You didn't indicate whether your cable would be analog or digital, but as the above post indicates, either one can be successful at this length. It should be noted, however, that if you are sending analog signals over this distance, you need to be careful to keep the cable as far from AC lines as practical, and especially never run your cable parallel to an AC line.

Sound Card and Cable Length

Reply #3 –
You should also be aware that many gaming and multi-media cards resample the audio data to 48kHz before it reaches the digital out, so some multi-channel formats cannot be decoded properly at the other end.

Sound Card and Cable Length

Reply #4 –
Quote from: AndyH-ha on
You should also be aware that many gaming and multi-media cards resample the audio data to 48kHz before it reaches the digital out, so some multi-channel formats cannot be decoded properly at the other end.




I definitely want to use digital (I should've indicated that in my original post.)

I did not know about the sound cards resampling the audio data.  Does anyone know which sound cards do not resample?

Sound Card and Cable Length

Reply #6 –
I'm thinking about the Soundblaster X-Fi Elite Pro.

Sound Card and Cable Length

Reply #7 –
Creative cards have always resampled. They lied and said otherwise until they lost a lawsuit, not they just try to admit it in a misdirecting way, to hopefully make their potential customers believe otherwise. I've read comments saying there are ways to get around resampling with some models, and possibly someone over there has gotten bright enough to route the data stream around the DSP chip when S/PDIF output is being used, but be very careful to get some positive evidence before buying.

Sound Card and Cable Length

Reply #8 –
Quote from: AndyH-ha on
Creative cards have always resampled. They lied and said otherwise until they lost a lawsuit, not they just try to admit it in a misdirecting way, to hopefully make their potential customers believe otherwise.


Actually, re-sampling is not necessarily audible and not necessarily a bad thing.

Background
The old Creative sound cards like Sound Blaster Live (from around 1997) did re-sample and the quality of this re-sampling was not perfect, definitely not up to today's standards.
For the multimedia use where inputs with different sampling rates are used there is no other way - you gotta re-sample. But if you are not mixing - just playing back from a single source there is no need for that.
So with these early cards Creative did 2 mistakes:
- resampling was fixed
- resampling quality was relatively poor
On top of things their reps seemed to either have ignored the whole thing or were clueless and so made idiots out of themselves when the lawsuits came along.

Current Sound Blaster cards
With Sound Blaster X-Fi Creative learned their lesson - you can set X-Fi card to  bit perfect playback.
But even if you do not do this the chances that you ever notice a difference between re-sampled and bit-perfect playback are slim - re-sampling was that improved on the X-Fi..
It is a great sound card, my only complaint about it now is lack of any Linux driver.
Hope this comes along..

Hope this helps.

Sound Card and Cable Length

Reply #9 –
Quote from: B.Fink on
Quote from: AndyH-ha on

Creative cards have always resampled. They lied and said otherwise until they lost a lawsuit, not they just try to admit it in a misdirecting way, to hopefully make their potential customers believe otherwise.


Actually, re-sampling is not necessarily audible and not necessarily a bad thing.

Background
The old Creative sound cards like Sound Blaster Live (from around 1997) did re-sample and the quality of this re-sampling was not perfect, definitely not up to today's standards.
For the multimedia use where inputs with different sampling rates are used there is no other way - you gotta re-sample. But if you are not mixing - just playing back from a single source there is no need for that.
So with these early cards Creative did 2 mistakes:
- resampling was fixed
- resampling quality was relatively poor
On top of things their reps seemed to either have ignored the whole thing or were clueless and so made idiots out of themselves when the lawsuits came along.

Current Sound Blaster cards
With Sound Blaster X-Fi Creative learned their lesson - you can set X-Fi card to  bit perfect playback.
But even if you do not do this the chances that you ever notice a difference between re-sampled and bit-perfect playback are slim - re-sampling was that improved on the X-Fi..
It is a great sound card, my only complaint about it now is lack of any Linux driver.
Hope this comes along..

Hope this helps.


X-Fi has audible dropouts when re-sampling to 96kHz.  Neither Creative nor anyone else seems to have come up with an answer to that problem.  Also if you set it for bit perfect playback you will disable all DSP.
SPDIF also will not output multichannel signals except for DTS and DD 5.1 pass-through.  Otherwise Stereo only, whether re-sampled or not.  For multichannel high resolution audio or EAX sound effects you must use the analog outputs.

Hope this helps

Manuel

Sound Card and Cable Length

Reply #10 –
Quote from: Madman1153 on
X-Fi has audible dropouts when re-sampling to 96kHz.  Neither Creative nor anyone else seems to have come up with an answer to that problem.  Also if you set it for bit perfect playback you will disable all DSP.
SPDIF also will not output multichannel signals except for DTS and DD 5.1 pass-through.  Otherwise Stereo only, whether re-sampled or not.  For multichannel high resolution audio or EAX sound effects you must use the analog outputs.

I admit that I'm a perfectionist, and for CD-material I would prefer bitmatched playback to my reciever. However I don't see any use for this when you use EAX effects (I assume you refer to gaming?)

Also which multichannel signal do you expect to be output?
Can't wait for a HD-AAC encoder :P

Sound Card and Cable Length

Reply #11 –
Balanced connections are very common on sound cards but unfortunately rare on amplifiers.

Sound Card and Cable Length

Reply #12 –
Quote from: AndyH-ha on
Creative cards have always resampled.

Know your classics!
The ancient ISA based SB16, AWE32 and 64gold did not resample. (but they lacked 48kHz support)
Back in those days, I glued an SPDIF chip on a SB16 for bitperfect 44kHz output 

Sound Card and Cable Length

Reply #13 –
Quote from: RealDeal on
I'm thinking about the Soundblaster X-Fi Elite Pro.

This one is recommended if you're interested in computer games. If you're not, there are cards that are cheaper and, most importantly, "better" from an audiophile point of view.

Sound Card and Cable Length

Reply #14 –
Quote from: Nikaki on
Quote from: RealDeal on

I'm thinking about the Soundblaster X-Fi Elite Pro.

This one is recommended if you're interested in computer games. If you're not, there are cards that are cheaper and, most importantly, "better" from an audiophile point of view.


Hello, I have a quite similar problem, I want a good cheap card, only to hear MP3 and so on, so I wonder if there is any sound card without resampling and with afordable price.

Sound Card and Cable Length

Reply #15 –
Anyone have any recommendations for a good sound card?

Sound Card and Cable Length

Reply #16 –
Quote
Anyone have any recommendations for a good sound card?

E-MU 0404. It's the best stereo soundcard I know. It seems to be Creative, but works properly somehow.

Sound Card and Cable Length

Reply #17 –
You could use USB for a long run with a hub or two.

Sound Card and Cable Length

Reply #18 –
I have been trying to find a 3.5mm to stereo RCA for my PC.  I don't need anything fancy, just something decent.  The cable needs to be about 14 feet.  I don't want to make my own.  Anyone?