Surround Sound Processor

[Xero (1)ne]

Long time no see. :icon_tiphat:

I'm tired of my soundcard being absolute **** in 5.1 mode and since I have 5.1 headphones I'm tired of not using them that way. SO....

I am going to use the digital output on my motherboard as opposed to the analog on my card (Crosshair II here).

So what I need is something that converts the digital signal to analog for 5.1 speakers or headphones.

I have found this (http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=4&subcategory=136&product=9468&nav=technicalSpecifications) but it's out of my price range and it's not made anymore.

I have found other portable sound processors that do what I need but only for stereo headphones and I need analog outputs for 5.1

Also, I assume optical would be slightly better than the coaxial for digital output, right?

[PP Mguire]

Why dont you just buy a good sound card?

[trueg50]

An actual sound card would help, but realistically, 5.1 headphones aren't going to be as good as 5.1 speakers.

[Xero (1)ne]

I don't have room in my computer for another sound card.

Regardless of headphones or speakers I still need 5.1 output.

UPDATE: I just checked our old DVD player that doesn't work anymore but we still use for surround sound (hardly) and it does have optical input so tomorrow I'll pick up an optical cable from radio shack and see if it works.

nuther updaet lul: I got the optical all hooked up and working and it sounds great except for I don't have the option in my soundmax panel for enabling DTS which is how I get 5.1 over optical. It's available in XP but not Vista so I'm gonna try out some modded drivers here soon.