Optical recording differences?

[mon]

Can anyone help with this? I can't figure out whether some salespeople are just trying to make a few extra dollars off me. I assume there's is no difference in the recording quality for an optical S/PDIF in on different soundcards. Afterall it is digital, right? So when someone told me there is a difference between say, the Audigy 2 and more expensive pro-recording cards, I was a bit skeptical. Am I right or wrong. Thanks

 

[JP5]

i would imagine not -- don't trust salesmen. Trust forum lurkers (they are ALWAYS right)

 

[Crashman]

You're probably right! While the digital out is processed, so that a better processor can help, digital in should go directly to the CPU for data conversion I think.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[r2k]

The only difference will be the sound processor's sample rate capabilities. For example all consumer sound cards do a 44.1 to 48KHz upsampling that can affect the quality of the sound. When recording with these cards (including Audigy2), it's always better to record at multiples of 48KHz. Higher end cards don't do this resampling.

That issue put aside, if a digital connection works, it works and if not, it doesn't. No in-betweens for a S/PDIF connection that's properly set up. So you really won't find a big difference between various cards. At least not as much as the difference between cards when playing back or recording in analog.