First Contribution:

[TheColdWarKid]

I needed to turn my SPDIF-optical port on. Should have required the click of just one box. Yeah - RIGHT!

On my way the naysayers were thick, and numerous. "You can't get two outputs from a PC. I did not believe. Too many people doing the same things on a PC, every day. No way ALL of them are going to fail!

Here, after 4 days of looking (no joke) is how it CAN be done!

In the "Virtual Audio Cable" shareware there is a program called "Audio Repeater." It works, with or without the installation of "Virtual Audio Cable." Grab it.

In the "recording devices" pane of your Winblows Mixer, right click on an empty space. Select (check) the Show Disabled Devices. "What You Hear" will appear. Select, and activate it.

Run the Audio Repeater program. As input, select the What You Hear output device. As output select (for example) your SPDIF-optical port, on the back of your sound card.

And voila! Output from TWO devices, in the same PC!

 

[ecc83]

I needed to turn my SPDIF-optical port on. Should have required the click of just one box. Yeah - RIGHT!

On my way the naysayers were thick, and numerous. "You can't get two outputs from a PC. I did not believe. Too many people doing the same things on a PC, every day. No way ALL of them are going to fail!

Here, after 4 days of looking (no joke) is how it CAN be done!

In the "Virtual Audio Cable" shareware there is a program called "Audio Repeater." It works, with or without the installation of "Virtual Audio Cable." Grab it.

In the "recording devices" pane of your Winblows Mixer, right click on an empty space. Select (check) the Show Disabled Devices. "What You Hear" will appear. Select, and activate it.

Run the Audio Repeater program. As input, select the What You Hear output device. As output select (for example) your SPDIF-optical port, on the back of your sound card.

And voila! Output from TWO devices, in the same PC!

Thanks for that, in fact many computer MOBOs have a S/PDIF header on the PCB and just need the approriate plug and cable (any back street PC shop should be able to wreck one out of a failed board for a $) You will almost certainly need to get into the BIOS to turn it on but it could be handy?

In the past I have used optical to co-ax converters, both ways around when I was messing with Mini disc (optical) and a 2496 card (RCA) I detected no loss of quality. Another handy device is the "Techole" S/PDIF to analogue converter.* As the name suggests, this takes a digital source and outputs L&R on RCA plus a fairly punchy headphone output. Easily powered from any handy USB port.
I have one on my JVC smart FSTV feeding a fairly decent hi fi rig.

*Input is optical and RCA.

Dave

 

[TheColdWarKid]

Thanks for that, in fact many computer MOBOs have a S/PDIF header on the PCB and just need the approriate plug and cable (any back street PC shop should be able to wreck one out of a failed board for a $) You will almost certainly need to get into the BIOS to turn it on but it could be handy?"


That port is part of the on-board sound. Most older ones don't have an optical out. Few people use this stuff, or even know what it is. It probably exists, deactivated, in your recording devices. Software should turn it on, just like all the rest and will, BY GOD, mute all other outputs, when it does. (Select default device)

First, we may have different interests in this conversation. My goal was to get the stupid computer to provide me with two outputs - digital, and analog. Should have been soooo simple.

But this stuff was designed in the 1080s and has, apparently, been ignored, since then (You could still get Qualudes in the '80s, which may explain the windows "mixer") No one perceived the PC as an audio processor until long after it's inception. Today, it's a PC in name, only, and more than up for the task! Time we USED those eight cores....

Funny, how things work. This farcical issue stopped me, dead in my tracks, and augmented my humility, greatly I was not a happy camper there, for a while. But I *AM* the PC God (my PC, anyhow) and I *WILL* prevail. I always do. Sometimes it takes a while... In the meantime, something I was stone clod certain was extinct came back, from the dead. A need, in the PC software jungle.

Now I have become interested in the overall capabilities of PC sound "architecture." I just might try to improve the capabilities of a system not designed with with what we now do with these computers in mind. I found a program that creates the "patch cord," which will be the basis of my offering (if any), so I know it can be done.


"In the past I have used optical to co-ax converters, both ways around when I was messing with Mini disc (optical) and a 2496 card (RCA) I detected no loss of quality. Another handy device is the "Techole" S/PDIF to analogue converter.* As the name suggests, this takes a digital source and outputs L&R on RCA plus a fairly punchy headphone output. Easily powered from any handy USB port.
I have one on my JVC smart FSTV feeding a fairly decent hi fi rig.

*Input is optical and RCA.

Dave

I have a modest audio system, myself. It has been with me since my college days. God willing, it will be with me, always. I am a member of the killer watt club (of course!). I top 1,000 Watts (RMS). ah, but it's HOW it's done

Two "stereos" sit across from me, "blended," so they seem one. First, the standard, powering a set of 12 inch woofer, 3-way transducers, via crossover.

The second breaks in between pre-amp and power amp, with an active crossover. Second system is tri-amped, powering transducers in a 18 inch woofer cabinets. No cross overs. L/R Pairs of component transducers are powered by their own amp.

This aint my first rodeo. I'm 71. I have purchased and consumed countless cases of bullshit repellent in order to resist buying everything new, and pre-ordering it, as well... My formerly rich "friends" come slumming, now and again. Their ears could not be more pleased. Their egos... well, that's another story .) This aint my first try, ether

But seriously, it's as good as they get. It needs NOTHING! But I want to bring it up to speed with the 21st century - a place I inhabit, only when no other option os available

Forever, there has been a patch cord between the computer and the Stereo. Rip CDs, enhance audio, make my own tunes - yeah, I do all that. lol Always looking for more. If I wasn't, guess I'd still have that Macintosh tube system I got for nearly nothing in College. It worked, just fine...

Sound like your situation?