Coaxial out?

jake the snake

jake the snake

New member
im trying to hook my first pair of monitors (behringer ms40's) to my pc with a digital coaxial cable. i dont have anything other than 1/8" speaker jacks on my tower. what type of sound card should i have installed? should i worry about getting analog outputs L and R also or just the coaxial?

im not doing any recording with my pc... im using a boss digital recorder and importing tracks into reaper.

thanks
 
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Any number of interfaces in the $200-250 price range will offer SPDIF out.
Edirol UA25 USB Stereo Audio Interface, M Audio Fast Track Pro are two that come to mind.
Edit
Whats your budget? I know one of the first sound cards I used was an Emu 0404 . I done basically the same thing you are doing. I used a separate recorder and then input the tracks into my PC. The Emu 0404 may not be top of the line sound card but they are fairly inexpensive and will serve the purpose you are looking for. Look at this link http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com...tem?sku=240390
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Looks like we were posting at the same time.
The EMU is a better choice for your application, I think.
 
Jeff_D said:
MAudio Audiophile 2496 has spdif outs for $100.

I don't like Emu for anything.
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Thats a pretty cool little sound card. I actually looked at that one as well. I myself decided to go with the emu 0404 because it, in addition to the spdif ins and outs, had 1/4" analong ins and outs. The audiophile 192 has spdif ins and outs and 1/4". Might be an option. Its a bit higher at 179 bux though.
 
Dude. If you're just using it for monitoring, screw paying for an interface.
Buy one when you wanna record with your computer, but until then, All you need is something like this:
http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--HOSCMM1
or this:
http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--HOSCMR2
and then presumably a way to connect the two monitors together, assuming they didn't come with a cable for connecting them already. It'll be significantly cheaper than buying an interface just to take advantage of Behringer's (likely crappy) audio/digital conversion.
I don't understand why you'd want to "keep the digital signal pure" (I'm pretty sure I saw that as a selling point for some monitors like those, if not those) until you get to the monitors.
The A/D conversion has to happen somewhere, and I doubt it's gonna be much better coming from the monitors than it will be coming from your built in sound card.
Not a dig on you, mind, just can't understand exactly what the point of that product is.
Happy listening.:)
 
The Cancers said:
Dude. If you're just using it for monitoring, screw paying for an interface.
Buy one when you wanna record with your computer, but until then, All you need is something like this:
http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--HOSCMM1
or this:
http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--HOSCMR2
and then presumably a way to connect the two monitors together, assuming they didn't come with a cable for connecting them already. It'll be significantly cheaper than buying an interface just to take advantage of Behringer's (likely crappy) audio/digital conversion.
I don't understand why you'd want to "keep the digital signal pure" (I'm pretty sure I saw that as a selling point for some monitors like those, if not those) until you get to the monitors.
The A/D conversion has to happen somewhere, and I doubt it's gonna be much better coming from the monitors than it will be coming from your built in sound card.
Not a dig on you, mind, just can't understand exactly what the point of that product is.
Happy listening.:)
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yes, the 1/8" to rca cable seems like the way to go.
"keeping the digital signal pure"... yeah you make a good point. im definately a noob and that never even accurred to me. i was just trying to get a decent pair of monitors at an offordable price.
so when using a digital coaxial,, the behringer monitor is converting the digital signal into an analog signal to be played through the speakers?
and if i use the 1/8" to rca input, my stock sound card from my pc is converting digital to analog before it hits the monitors?
 
Exactly.
And I've been trying to envision the situation where you would not want to do that conversion until the monitors - maybe with a really long cable run? But the point of near field speakers is that they are near you, so i just don't know.
As I said, I'm definitely not trying to imply any bad feeling toward you by criticizing, just toward Behringer and their crazy approach to marketing...
They've also got a tube condenser mic where you can see the tube and it glows blue or something.
"I just don't see anybody shelling out $60 for this preamp/compressor. I know, lets put aerodynamic fins and racing stripes on it!"

That being said, don't let anybody tell you Behringer isn't good enough. If it's what you can afford, it's better than not recording music at all, and lord knows it's all most of us can afford.:D
 
Also, you will, as you read more, find that there is a lot of shit talked about the stock soundcards that come with computers. And, as you hear more, you'll learn that most of it is true.
However, until you really wanna invest quite a bit more in an external digital to audio converter along these lines:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ADI2/
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MiniDAC/
your current setup should treat you fine.

Of course, I was sitting where you are not too long ago, and I spent that money on a new computer and a good interface. That's got all my AD/DA needs covered, along with providing me all the outs I need for my monitoring purposes.
The next upgrade is gonna have to wait a good couple years.
 
I agree with Mr. Cancer. Until you are ready for the interface, just use some connectors to get soundcard to monitor. (I think you said 1/8" - rca. Even check Radio Shack).

If you have the $75-$100, you can't beat the EMU 0404 PCI card. I used to like the m-audio 2496 is nice, but no 1/4" inputs or outputs so you are back to adapters. I also dislike the m-audio/digidesign/pro-tools thing. I like my software and hardware interchangeable and not locked to each other, even thought the card is not.
 
Washburn100 said:
I agree with Mr. Cancer. Until you are ready for the interface, just use some connectors to get soundcard to monitor. (I think you said 1/8" - rca. Even check Radio Shack).

If you have the $75-$100, you can't beat the EMU 0404 PCI card. I used to like the m-audio 2496 is nice, but no 1/4" inputs or outputs so you are back to adapters. I also dislike the m-audio/digidesign/pro-tools thing. I like my software and hardware interchangeable and not locked to each other, even thought the card is not.
Click to expand...

I'll disagree. I'll take the MAudio with a rca to 1/4" adapter over anything Emu makes.

...and for the record, you don't HAVE to use the ProTools stuff with MAudio hardware; its just an option. The last MAudio hardware I bought, the first thing I did was throw away the Protools stuff. :p:D
 
i hooked up the 1/8" to rca cable last night.. actually had one in one of my balled up cable drawers. working good enough for now. thanks guys
 
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