Soundcard for BluRay

[mrmez]

Turning my system (below) into a bluray/htpc/game machine/video editing all in one rig.

Just read "Mastering HD PC Audio, Part 1" on Toms and it KINDA makes sense, but P2 may be more helpful.
In the meantime...

Asus P5B-D with realtek HD onboard sound.
Goes to: 5.1 amp + speakers via coax(digital)

The sound SEEMS ok doing that, and the clannels SEEM to seperate fine (by setting 2 speaker mode in windows, dont ask me why it works like that. Setting 5.1 etc results in stereo output)

However, ive heard conflicting reports that uning onboard/coax/optical cable for this is SHYTE.
My amp has the option of a single optical or single coax cale(digital), or normal coax stereo.

1) Will a new soundcard help? Which one?
2) Will i need a new amp (This one is ~9 months old)

Thanks in advance.

 

[doomturkey]

I think you would be ok with your onboard sound, but sound cards can be nice to have. I, myself, have an xfi platinum and I like it.
X-fi are good cards, and I've heard good things about the ASUS Xonar line of cards, I would definitely look into those.
And no, you should not need a new amp. Hell, I have 2 year+ old logitech X530 system, and that amp still bumps the bass clean and crisp.

 

[D3LTA09]

I was in a very similar position as you are in a while ago. I upgraded from onboard mobo optical out to a creative x-fi xtreme gamer fatality series sound card and is much as I wanted it to be super awesome and much better I can hardly say it was worth it especially if I had paid RRP for it.

I now run optical out to my sony home theatre amp from my x-fi card and I still have the same problem I did on onboard sound (I assume like you) where no matter what I do I still only get weird 2ch simulated 5.1 output when I do a speaker config test. my amp tells me when I'm multi source decoding and it never has no matter what application is being used on my PC. seems that from my experience that you are better off using either headphones or actual PC surround sound like logitech etc for a htpc setup.

so I wouldnt reccomend the upgrade to a X-fi card as it does sound a bit better with features like crystalisation turned up but hardly noticeable compared to the latest mobos with onboard HD sound. and no i dont think you will need a new amp and just for your info there is no difference in coax vs optical, well apart from the cable itself but no difference in the digital output you will hear so dont worry about which you use as I have tried both many times.

Stick with your current setup and spend the money on something cool.