View Full Version : Logitech Z-680 and SB Audigy 2 -- what cables to use for digital output?
I just got a Logitech Z-680 and want to use it to its full potential on my Sound Blaster Audigy 2 card (plain, not ZS).
There's a digital coax input plug on my Z-680's control pod, and a digital output 1/8th inch audio jack on my my Audigy 2.
Can someone show me a link for the type of cable I need. And possibly where I can get one for the best price. Thanks
grunjee
12-30-03, 09:20 PM
Pretty sure you're (and all of us) hosed. I've searched before and have never found such a cable... because you'd need an adapter. The "digital" output jack on the Audigy is a proprietary Creative job... go figure. It will supposedly work only with Creative brand digital speakers.
Perhaps someone else on the forums can help; maybe there is such an adapter... I've just never seen or heard of it.
thank you for your thoughtful answers (on this and the other thread)... yes i am hoping there is such a cable, altho from what you said, it sounds like it wont make much of a difference as far as hiss is concerned, and that is more of an issue to me than "digital" output if its hissing the whole time.
on the audigy 2 box it shows a cable "mono minijack to RCA Cable 3.5mm" which looks like it would work
just found this link..
http://alive.singnet.com.sg/tech/digital-io.htm
second section entitled "Get Coaxial Output from the Yellow Digital Minijack Output"
So, this is the cable? I would like to know as well...I have the 680's & a Audigy 2 but no digital sound.
yes i believe that is it.. i would like someone else to confirm that just to make sure. and also where to get one.... i cannot find one for the life of me. if i could get one for $5 like it says that would be great.. somehow i doubt that :)
i just searched on these forums, and what do you know, found some more info:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=255189&highlight=coax+cable+digital
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=237820&highlight=coax+cable+digital
looks like these guys are already on it, but no real good finds yet. only something that costs near $20
i found this but im not 100% sure it would work. my brother says it would-- i would just use one of the outputs:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/search/detail/base_pid/333055/sourceid=qIZmP-KSKiEMAlY@FnLn/befree_site_id=0039206422
it only costs $4.99 for a 6 ft cable, and with shipping it comes to $10.94 (to my zip code) which aint too bad.. perhaps a last resort.
Well, just give it a try! Get a jack->phono cable and hook it up! Unless there is some seriusly bad design out there, you won't hurt anything. I've hacked together a lot of audio stuff, and if you get it wrong, it just doesn't give any sound. I've never burnt any stuff by connecting things wrong.
..and my z680 are fed with optical signals..
goldenlight
01-06-04, 10:42 PM
I believe this cable is called a RCA cable. You can purchased this at bestbuy. forgot How much I paid for this cable. Just look in the audio video section where the audio cables are located it should be there.
Unless creative is using some funky POS, the standard for coaxial digital out is a 3.5mm mono to RCA. Go to radioshack and get it for like 5 bucks.
Thats what I used to connect my SBLive to a sony reciever. Here is a link to what you probably want.
http://www.radioshack.ca/estore/Product.aspx?language=en-CA&product=4212308&category=Cable+%26+Accessories&catalog=RadioShack
Couldn't find the equivalant in the Yankee ratshack cause they don't use the metric system very well(and their search engine sucks).
edit - I think this is the cable you want. You definitely don't want the stereo one.
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F007%5F002%5F003%5F008&product%5Fid=42%2D2444
end edit
About the stereo one, that one is a lot easier to find. But I'm guessing that only one of the phono plugs carry the digital signal, so a little (very little) testing is in order to get it right. ;)
hey thanks dartor :) ordering it now
tnx everyone else too
I just typed in my zip code and it looks like its available at my local Radio-shaft. for $3.99 I'm gonna give it a try. I have been using my Z-680's on analog ever since I got them. Do you think I will be able to tell a difference in sound quality?
yeah i was wondering the same. quality actually is fine, but if it reduces some hiss i will be very happy. dont think it will but would be nice..
that 3.99 is worth it to me just for the fact that i only have to plug in 1 cable to my soundcard, instead of 3.. which i always am confused as to which of the 8 spots they go in.
ok i bought them at my local radio shack for 3.99
and let me tell you it was the best 3.99 i spent for many reasons.. including those i mentioned earlier and a nice surprise bonus: i can use all these effects like "stereo x2" mode and it makes my music sound so much louder and better than regular analog stereo mode :D
happy i am
it made me like these speakers for the first time :)
just a word of advice to anyone still using those analog cables. go spend $4 more and be much happier with your $250-300 system :)
In your Audigy driver selcetion...did you select "digital only?" Thanks for the info. I haven't bought mine yet but I most definately wil now.:D
*Edit* I also noticed a marked improvement in sound quality yesterday, when I updated my Audigy 2 drivers on the Creative site.
hold it, i started one of these threads, and finally got an email back from them, you might like this
Dear Customer,
Actually you will get better speaker preformence from the analog jack
not the Digital.
For faster service please reply with previous correspondences when
replying to this email.
Best Regards
******
Technical Support
Creative Labs Americas
then i emailed them why this is true
Dear Customer,
The reason that I said you would get better preformence with the
speakers is that if you goto digital you will only get your front left
and right speakers unless you watch DVD movie or listed to an AC3 file.
With the analog you will get all the speakers all the time.
For faster service please reply with previous correspondences when
replying to this email.
Best Regards
******
Technical Support
Creative Labs Americas
This is what they really mean:
Dear customer,
The reason why you will get better performance out of the Analog jacks instead of the Digital is for the following reasons.
1) We're Creative and we are too buisy counting our money right now to be bothered with trivial little matters such as this.
2) Our marketing division made us put a cheap digital chip on the Audigy cards figuring that nobody would figure out how to use. Thats why we didnt' include the cable that you need.
3) We cannot take time from our buisy schedual to actually help resolve customer complaints...after all it takes a lot of people to count our money.
4) Any people we have left are all working on the Creative driver problems that we have been hearing about. and those people were taken off the janatorial crew. We have confidence in them and thier technical skills because they are the only ones who know how to unplug a toilet.
Dude! These are the real answers!!!!!!!!!!:rolleyes:
Originally posted by krag
In your Audigy driver selcetion...did you select "digital only?" Thanks for the info. I haven't bought mine yet but I most definately wil now.:D
*Edit* I also noticed a marked improvement in sound quality yesterday, when I updated my Audigy 2 drivers on the Creative site.
No, i don't select digital only. That way it will do both digital output and analog (i plug headphones into one of those jacks so I can always have them in). If you check "digital only" it will just turn off the analog ones. No reason to do that as far as i can see.
As for Audigy 2 drivers.. i would update it if i COULD. i had soo much trouble getting my audigy 2 to work in windows. I had to use some french drivers for the setup to be able to detect my card. Otherwise i'd always get the error "no sound blaster product detected" or somthing like that. So i dont have any of the extra programs installed with my audigy2 just the basic drivers to play audio :\
If you happen to know of this error and know how to get around this and use the current drivers with all the extra goodies... this problem is something lots of people have had, not just me.. i even rma'd my card thinking it was to blame :o
theklone
01-11-04, 12:29 PM
I purchased some Z-680's and a coax cable a few days ago, I haven’t had a lot of time to test but have some things I'd like to get some feedback on.
When you are using the coax input mode do you get a crack sound when it switches from Stereo (or the effect you were using) to Digital when you start playing a DVD?
And is it safe to max out the volume levels on the soundcard (Audigy2) and control the volume from the control pod alone?
Comparing the coax to the analog in I haven’t noticed any real advantages yet, although I do see some disadvantages like the crack when it changes to Digital and the fact you can't have other sound going while playing a DVD.
You should have had access to the Stereo x2 effect when using analog as well and if you have a Creative card with CMMS it will upmix when playing a stereo source anyway.
I also haven’t noticed any amount of hiss reduction using the coax and even the hiss in analog mode is only audible if I put my ear an inch or so away from the speakers.
Do note I haven’t had much time to test these yet though.
Thanks.
Originally posted by Flakk
ok i bought them at my local radio shack for 3.99
and let me tell you it was the best 3.99 i spent for many reasons.. including those i mentioned earlier and a nice surprise bonus: i can use all these effects like "stereo x2" mode and it makes my music sound so much louder and better than regular analog stereo mode :D
happy i am
it made me like these speakers for the first time :)
just a word of advice to anyone still using those analog cables. go spend $4 more and be much happier with your $250-300 system :)
yes you can max out the sound card and its safe, but sometimes at max there is slight distortion so i keep it around 75-80% and then control through the pod. yes i get the crack sound also.
voodoomelon
01-15-04, 02:06 PM
Yeah,
Its kinda crap that Creatives digital output on the Audigys, is only really usable by Creatives digital speakers, using the DIN cable supplied with the speakers. Kinda why I bought Creatives Cambridge Soundworks 5.1 speakers, the DTT3500's.
So, I guess their marketing strategy worked on me.:rolleyes:
i agree with you, but those are pretty nice, are they not?
i think there is a cable you can buy to hook up digital speakers to the audigy 2 though.
floater_
03-08-04, 11:29 PM
hey thanks so much for this thread. I googled it looking for proper cables for my z680s via Audigy2 and it definately helped in my search for the right cables..
as a note to anyone recieving a hiss in your pod, there is a fix for this from logitech if you haven't already known about it. That should fix the hiss.
to test your firmware, just press the input/settings buttons at the same time while the speakers are turned off. (beware this also resets your speaker settings) it should read 1.1.2 for the fixed control pod hiss version
the fixed control pod doesnt fully fix the hiss. it's still present in mine and they are 1.1.2
You should also be able to get digital out from the AD_EXT header on the card itself.
See this thread for pinouts: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=268106
For those having problems with drivers what is the part number of your card? Will be printed on it - CT#### or SB####
that doesnt really have much to do with this thread..
floater_
03-12-04, 02:20 PM
blah, the creative customer support rep was right.
you only get 2 ch using the digital COAX cable, what a shame.
guess i'll go back to using my analog...
blah, the creative customer support rep was right.
you only get 2 ch using the digital COAX cable, what a shame.
guess i'll go back to using my analog...
This is true because creative got lazy and didn't include a digital upmixer. So it depends on the content encoding. Pretty much everything except DVD and some games will be 2ch.
The good news is that you can pass the audio to a decent external amp and either upmix it or decode it. Other than that let the creative card upmix it and be stuck with analog out.
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