usb sound

[Shard92]

anybody know much about this? My brother is thinking about getting one. It has a digital out put for a set of digital speakers that he has. Now someone told him you can play cd audio as long as you have the proper software to do it.... He is currently on a VERY limited budget and so is trying to find the cheapest way possible to be able to use his digital speakers. He is running:

ASUS super socket 7 ( don't know the model number yet )
K6-2 400mhz
at least 128 mb ram ( I think he's upgraded )
windows 2000

The rest completely unsure off. He has gotten into computers somewhat of late but he is no tech but he has been scrounging stuff up.. ( close outs, goodwill, friends ect )
and came up with some digital only speakers that he'd like to use. thanks for any ideas/input

[Radical Dreamer]

You talking about the extegy or what?

[Shard92]

Posibly he called me from work and did have many details.... I'll try and catch him this weekend and find out more.... I think he had mentioned that once while we were talking though so it might be...

[ilovetheusers]

What's he doing? Are you asking if he needs a special set up or what speakers he should use?

To play a CD on a PC all you need is a CD player, sound card or built in sound, the cable running between the CD player and the sound card (to the "CD in"). Stick CD in player after it's set up and windows media does the rest. You can get the lot for $30-40 at newegg.

If you are looking for speakers to use - any will do. USB speakers are alright but are not usually top of the line. They will not circumvent having a sound card however. You can get cheap speakers at any local store ($5-20) but if you are looking for super high quality sound you have to spend $$$$.

[Shard92]

Okay here is what he has.... He currently has a dvdrom drive and an analog sound card. However he recently aquired a set of DIGITAL ONLY speakers. What he wants to do is be able to use those digital only speakers.... The wife is already upset because he bought speakers he can't use so doesn't want him to spend a lot to make them work ( she wants them to go back ) Anyway someone told him you can get a usb sound card, one that plugs into the usb port, ie. external sound... His question is how do you get the cd sound to the external usb sound card? Or can he inexpensively convert his analog out to digital to drive his speakers.

So he already has the speakers and such just no way to get DIGITAL sound to them....

[PeLiGrOsO]

I am sure the sound from the cd will come through the usb sound card as long as you have the right software (it should come with the sound card ). It will be just like windows xp, you dont need to have the sound cable from cd rom to sound card to get sound to your speakers, xp softwares takes care of that. But then again, you have to find out how much the usb sound card will cost you, maybe for the same or a little more money he can get an audigy with digital output for his speakers and we all know that audigy is a very good sound card.

[Shard92]

Thanks actually that's why he was asking as he can pick up the usb card he was talking about for quite a bit cheaper than the audigy card.... He had been looking at the sb live cards but it's cheaper than those too so.... I thought I remembered you could do the cdaudio through the ribbon cable but I wasn't sure.... I didn't know if you could only do that with MP3's or if you could also do it with an actual commercial audio cd as well.....

[Archer]

Dealtime.com Soundblaster Digital cards $22-60

Originally posted by ilovetheusers
To play a CD on a PC all you need is a CD player, sound card or built in sound, the cable running between the CD player and the sound card (to the "CD in").

A bit off topic but thats not quite true ILU.
I have a set of cheap USB speakers that require no soundcard installed and work through the windows OS,plays CDs from the CDROM just fine

[confus-ed]

Originally posted by Shard92
.... He is currently on a VERY limited budget and so is trying to find the cheapest way possible to be able to use his digital speakers....

...He had been looking at the sb live cards but it's cheaper than those too so....

Is it ?????? Mmmmmm ...

Well the cheapest thing off the top of my head that'll do that is a s/b live (these can/do come with a digital out ... mine did !)

The thing that jumps out at me here, is what version of USB port does he have ?? ... socket 7 'whatever' is likely to be usb 1 ... that's NOT good enough to run an external s/c with !!!! You need usb 2 for that

[Shard92]

Thanks confused I didn't know that..... Never dealt with a usb sound card. He does have a few computers at his house ( another reason he needs to get the cheapest possible as she already thinks he spends way too much on this stuff ) but I'm pretty sure "his" is a k62-400 so that would be socket 7 and even if not I'm also pretty sure NONE of his computers currently have USB2. He has been ebaying for a sound blaster live card but so far hasnt' come up with one ( yes she is that fed up with his spending ! ) I'll tell him to keep looking for a sblive card!!!!

[ilovetheusers]

Originally posted by Archer
Dealtime.com Soundblaster Digital cards $22-60



A bit off topic but thats not quite true ILU.
I have a set of cheap USB speakers that require no soundcard installed and work through the windows OS,plays CDs from the CDROM just fine

Ya know what, you're right. I forgot that the CD-roms can translate the CD to speaker automaticaly. I thought it was just through the earphone jack in the front but ya learn something new every day.

[Rellik]

On the cd audio issue: Most new media players (WMP8+, Winamp 2.8+, Real, etc.) use Digital Audio Extraction rather than the analog cable. you may have to check the config optns though.

You can get a SB Live, which had a digital out for about $30, just check around.

[confus-ed]

If the performance of the card isn't too much of an issue ? ... s/b also make a 4.1 digital card about 1/2 the price of a live ... but how cheap do we need to get ? ... like Rellik says above a s/b live is $30-35 ... so the 'cheapie' version must be less than $20 ...

[PeLiGrOsO]

HERE is a Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer SB0090 w/ Firewire OEM for $44

[Shard92]

Thanks all!! Not sure HOW cheap he just said as cheap as possible.... Also he had been looking at the live 5.1 cards but the cheapest ( except ebay ) he had found last I talked to him was $50 ( total incl ship ) and that was a bit too much unless he can sneak it somehow.... You married guys may know what I mean.... I'll Have him check it out this weekend and see what we can do... Maybe he will have found one on ebay by then too.... so far he's been getting sniped or it's gotten too high ( wife is a big ebayer so she keeps tabs on him....