Digital out quality difference in soundcards?

I would compare the signal to noise ratios on the sound cards measured in db's. The higher the value the better ( less noise, higher quality) but unless you want studio quality sound then it really doesn't matter that much, and it does not pay to have a XXX sound card if your receiver/speakers are not good quality, not implying your yamaha isn't!).

By the way, what spectrum of sound are your ears capable of hearing at this stage of your life? As we age we lose the higher frequencies.

To have good quality sound, all the components in the audio setup must be able to produce 1-20000Hz which comprises of the whole audio spectrum.

Normal sound spectrum humans can actually hear and perceive are between 1-20000Hz. You need to check your receivers specs and speakers to see what range they play.


You may also compare at what sampling rates the sound card DAC/ADC uses. Higher is normally better.

All data in the PC is digital. Converted to analogue when the enabled the onboard DAC on your sound card is enabled. But, as you are using SPDIF (optical) output you will only get a digital output anyway. When the sound card DAC is enabled you can play audio through the analogue outputs of it.

My X-FI card analogue outputs seem to be enabled all the time no matter how I set it up.

The features of the sound card are dependant on what you set them to.

By the way:

There have been rumours that over 20Khz we cannot hear but our eardrums get "soothed" with higher frequencies even though we can't really hear them or know that they are there. ( old dispute over the limitations of CD quality audio which is limited to 20Khz due to the DAC only supporting 44.1Khz which is really 20Khz per channel). Vinyl records did not have this limitation.

I use my optical output for music and analogue outputs for games, I also have a yamaha receiver by the way

I hope this helps?