sound card with optical input?

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

"Neil Grant" <granty77@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:e3595ed4.0501210309.6fa571ec@posting.google.com

> Does anyone know of a reasonably priced sound card for my windows PC
> that has an SPDIF optical input? Im trying to transfer recordings from
> my Fostex fd-8, but when I use the line input on my current sound card
> it picks up all sorts of noises. Im assuming that transferring
> digitally through the optical line means a non destructive transfer.
> Im looking to spend around £50 - tops.

SoundBlaster USB MP3+ runs around $40 in the US, might be in your price
range in the UK. It has SP/DIF I/O and analog I/O that is pretty fair.
Obviously not a top-drawer audio production tool, but for the price...

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/mp3+/specs.asp

http://www.soundblaster.com/produc [...] familyid=7

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

"John_LeBlanc" <john__leblanc@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:8t2dnX2ggawclWzcRVn-qw@giganews.com

> "Arny Krueger" <arnyk@hotpop.com> wrote in message
> news:l-udnX0Z5P0Scm3cRVn-tw@comcast.com...

>> SoundBlaster USB MP3+ runs around $40 in the US, might be in your
>> price range in the UK. It has SP/DIF I/O and analog I/O that is
>> pretty fair. Obviously not a top-drawer audio production tool, but
>> for the price...

> Does the SoundBlaster do bit-perfect copies, or does it resample the
> S/PDIF input? I recall some cussing and discussing about this a
> couple of years ago.

It's been a while since I tested the optical I/O on a USB MP3+ so I don't
know off hand. Recent SoundBlaster SP/DIF hardware tends to be bit-perfect
so that it can handle Dolby Digital. The spec sheet says that the SP/DIF
does both 44K and 48K, so its probably bit-perfect.

I do know of even cheaper USB alternatives but they had some problems with
dropped data. The SoundBlaster USB MP3+ ran with zero tics and pops in my
tests. But, YMMV.

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

One UK reviewer pointed out the spdif out on your Fostex was just an
onboard AD conversion of it's analog outputs so you I'm not sure you
are any further ahead targeting something as hard to find as spdif i/o
in a soundcard.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/ja [...] d8.256.htm
(In other words, your spdif output is not non-destructive, if that's
the correct term)
The AD on one of the Tascam or M-audio PCI cards is probably as good
or better in your price range and you can run softsynths and DAW's and
everything under the sun.
On the other hand, Granty, does it happen you have an ISA slot
available in your computer? If that is the case then you are so in
luck my young friend. As fate would have it I still find myself in
possession of a now useless $500 bit perfect, top drawer, finest kind,
state of the art 10 years ago ISA slot Digital Transfer card made by
the proud, but I expect, now defunct and scrofulous people at ADB who
made the MultiWave Pro. Mine even has the 24 bit upgrade chip. The
drivers for 98 and ME worked mostly fine a good deal of the time in
the context of their respective OS. It has no xp or 2000 drivers if I
remember correctly, which is what made me hate ADB with such
vehemence. It has the glowing red spdif optical with scms defeat.
Yours for a song.
Get a modern card and mix in real time with the faders on your fostex.
Good luck for the new year.

On 21 Jan 2005 03:09:57 -0800, granty77@hotmail.com (Neil Grant)
wrote:

>Does anyone know of a reasonably priced sound card for my windows PC
>that has an SPDIF optical input? Im trying to transfer recordings from
>my Fostex fd-8, but when I use the line input on my current sound card
>it picks up all sorts of noises. Im assuming that transferring
>digitally through the optical line means a non destructive transfer.
>Im looking to spend around £50 - tops.
>
>In case it matters, Im running Windows 98 on a 1.3GHZ PC with 256MB
>ram and a 10GB hard drive. I'll be doing the mixing and mastering
>using CoolEdit Pro.
>
>This might sound stupid but does anyone know if I could use the Fostex
>as a mixer and record to the PC through the optical input in realtime?
>
>Many thanks
>Neil