Olds

Hello, I have a question about digital connections. First, system specs:



AMD Athlon 64 3000+
Asus K8V SE Deluxe
VisionTek Radeon X800 XT PE
Seagate 250 gig SATA HDD
1 gig Crucial ram
Antec P180 case
Antec TruePower 430 ps
Altec Lansing ADA885 digital speakers (awesome sound)
Altec Lansing headset (cheap but works for voice and gaming)
ADI AD1980 onboard sound
Windows XP Home



I'm looking to buy an Audigy ZS 2 soon, and have a question about the digital output. The card calls for a 4-pole mini-plug on the digital out, but the speakers have an RCA connection. I have an adapter for this, a 3-pole plug, with two female RCA connectors. Since the speakers are basically 4.1, and the connectors call for 7.1, will the 3 pole work, and still allow a digital signal to the speakers? I just want to make sure the speakers still work and sound great. This is an awesome set of speakers, even if they are old.



Thanks in advance for the help

Russ

See the following picture for the pinout of the digital out jack:
http://ask.americas.creative.com/wwi...oundcard19.jpg

A 3-Pole adapter will probably only give you front and rear (or 4.1 when decoding DD, etc, as that would only use the front SPDIF).

Olds

Thanks for the reply. Since this is a 4.1 system, with 4 speakers and a sub, all I have is front and rear. Sounds like it might work for this. I don't want to damage the card or speakers.

Russ

More info:

Sorry, I thought that was a digital speaker system, but it seems it is an analog system that also has a single digital input. From looking at the info for that speaker system (found here), it seems that the digital connection of the speaker system is for PCM (stereo only) or AC3, so you will not be using the other SPDIF outputs anyway. So you will only get 4.1 (from that jack) when decoding AC3.

i.e.
Use the analog connections for normal use (the speaker system does not appear to have a discreet sub input, so you should not have to worry about that channel), and use the digital connection for PCM/AC3. Your adapter should be fine this (just refer to the info in the above link and you should be alright).

That should not be a problem.