Hi there.
I recently had a discussion with Obi-Wan Kenobi about analogue and digital outputs, those found on CD drives (and DVD drives of course).
The analogue output is a 4-pinned connector and the digital output is a 2-pinned connector. The analogue output connects to the CD input on the audio card through the standard cable that everyone has already seen at least once in his life. The digital one connects to the audio card through a S/PDIF cable.

I searched on Google for hours, seeking informations about these two connectors. The 4-pinned cable provides analogue sound, which is transferred from the CD reader to the audio card and finally to the speakers, using the standard green output from the audio card.
The 2-pinned cable, on its side, provides digital sound, meaning the digital signal from the CD drive is kept digital and goes to the audio card and to the speakers.

What I found out is that it doesn't change much in sound quality if I use the S/PDIF cable for listening to my CDs, MP3s and MIDIs. I'm still looking for some new informations, but it looks as though the digital cable doesn't provide better sound quality!
Then what's the purpose of having it on CD readers and on audio cards? This is driving me mad today...
If the analogue cable provides the same sound to my speakers, then I'd rather use the 4-pinned cable, right? I'm sure this isn't right, but nothing confirms that using the 2-pinned cable will change something to the sound quality.

And there is something more to it, which is driving me even more mad...
While seeking the Net for those infos, I learned that no cable is needed from the CD reader to the audio card in order to have sound from audio CDs. The signal runs through the IDE cable, through the PCI (or ISA), is received by the audio card and comes out of the speakers.
Then the best thing is not connecting anything and let the IDE and PCI/ISA bus do their work and process my audio tracks, found on CDs, right?

I'd like to know your opinions and I hope there is somebody who's a sound geek and who'll be able to explain these things to me (and to the others), because I really am confused now.
I just put an Audigy in my old PC because it has an S/PDIF input that I can connect to the CD drive, but if what I read is right, I'd rather put my AWE64 (not Gold) back again and use the analogue cable or no cable at all!

Please, some explanations would be more than greatly appreciated! I have all sort of doubts now...

The one question that's on my mind right now is: what is the best choice for a guy (me) who just plays old games (on CDs and diskettes) and listens to audio CDs, MP3s and MIDIs with modest Creative speakers (2.1 system)? Analogue cable? Digital cable? No cable?

:o

Well, the digital sound is for the audiophiles and those that digitally remix/remaster the Sound off the Drives.

If you're none of those, the analog Audio out might be just fine for you, although the Signal-to-Noise Ratio might be impaired, depending on specific Hardware used.

Running the Audio via the IDE Cable is actually very good, but alot of Software (Players) still do not support this way of getting data off the Drives, hence having it still connected another way is always a good idea.

If you're listening to MIDI's, the AWE64 is still one of the very best to ever exist :)

I knew this, I love SB cards!

;)

Got 2x AWE64, 1x AWE64 Gold, 1x SB16 and 1x AWE32 (36 cm long).

Thanks for your reply, you're always the first one writing something in my posts!

:P

BTW, I booted my system with no audio cable at all, set the digital playback in the CD properties tab, put an audio CD... WMP10 played the songs flawlessly!

:o

http://img36.echo.cx/img36/9480/sanstitre5wf.png

u still need the analogue cable to play PSX cds games with Audio Tracks (standard ones) , without the cable connected, in ePSX you will not get sound (just the audio tracks)

Thanks for pointing this out! Since I have an original copy of the PSX emulator Video Game Station from Connectix (rare one, since Sony sued them and bought the rights and everything), I will then need the analogue cable.

But how comes I hear my audio CDs without cable (digital signal goes through IDE cable and PCI bus) but no sound fx with PSX discs?!

???

Simply because the Software doesn't implement/support this feature.

A few do, most don't.

Hum, and is the digital playback option present under Windows 98 SE?

???

What is the purpose of the IDE connector found on some audio cards (my AWE64 for example)?

I connect an IDE cable to it from a CD reader and then?

In the very old days, IDE or ATAPI standards for CD-ROM Drives didn't exist yet, the first CD-ROM Drives came with proprietary Connectors, proprietary protocols and required special DOS Drivers.
(compatibility among Drives was almost non-existent at that time)

The solution was either a special Controller Card to support at least the most widespread manufacturers, or the SoundCard (not sure, but Multimedia advertising was basically accociated closely with SFX and CD-ROM Drives back then, thus it made at least a bit sense to include the proprietary Controller onto a SoundCard).
I guess the CD-ROM manufacturers got together with the SoundCard guys and made some deals to increase sales for both product types.

As the ATAPI Standardization took off and all new Drives and their connectors/protocols followed them, the old proprietary ones became obsolete.

I see...

But if I connect my old CD-ROM to my AWE64 using a generic IDE cable, wouldn't it be better?

I mean, I wouldn't need to connect an analogue 4-pinned cable to get the sound, since it'll go directly from the CD to the card using the IDE cable.

Need to try this...

???

Why would you try that, if you can simply hook it up on the IDE port of the Board ?

It may not even work on the AWE64, depending on the specific Model you have. And without proper Drivers, your OS additionally won't recognize the Drive anymore.

And last but not least, the Drive's performance may be severely limited by the AWE64 ISA Bus bottleneck. All in all, there is no reason to do that, you'll only have to battle the old Problems related to setting it up that way.

Connecting it to the Soundcard will also not do anything about you getting the Data directly from the Soundcard (digital), it will merely act as an independent Drive Controller. You'd still have to connect the Audio cable, if the Software you use does not allow to get the Audio Tracks via the Drive Bus. Whether digital Sound output is available from that old Creative CD-ROM Controller is a whole different story alltogether (unlikely)...

If what you say is right, then of course I'm not even gonna try it. Just tought it was like the digital option you can enable under Windows 2000 (and 98 too...).

The point is, I read that if a CD drive has the jack for earphones in the front panel, then the digital playback using the Windows option CAN'T work... ugly... where am I gonna find a CD drive without the jack? All those I have hanging around here have it...

Hm, that's the first time I ever heard that.

AFAIK, analog Audio should still flow through all connectors, regardless if a headphone is attached or not (Control should remain solely to the Windows audio control panel).

Worst case (if the Drive has headphone sensing at all), it may shutdown the analog Audio out, but it simply cannot shutdown Digital Audio out (the Drive can't tell what type of data it is tasked to deliver via the IDE Bus, it is simply digital data requested from it which it must deliver; otherwise the Drive data transfer would fail alltogether)

At least that's the only way I ever got to know it, never noted things working any other way (?)

I found strange too that having the little jack would disable any digital way of recording and playback...

Anyway, on my CD reader without jack, I can use the digital playback (no 4-pinned nor 2-pinned cable attached), but on those with the jack... no way, if I enable the digital playback, it doesn't work or the CDs play crappily!

Looks like it is true then...

???

Not much info on Google, lost all my day looking for that!

That's really odd.

A solution might be to connect the Headphone to the Line out, or via a cheap Splitter to the Speaker out of the Soundcard (sharing the Output with the Speakers).
That way, you won't have to compromise digial Audio out :)

There was one day when I also wished to find and plug the 2 pin digital audio cable because I was unsatisfied with my CDROM's internal D/A, after a while (searching through various local and internat pc stores) I figured that there is almost no way getting one... :-[

BUT... ;D What is life without some soldering from time to time
Simple as cake, I brought a piece of slim coaxial and some pins with the right spacing (those that come in a row of more that you cut into pieces are great for the job)
It works perfectly, so if you really want digital I suppose that is the easiest/simpliest way of getting it.
(this was done with a SB Live! 5.1)

BTW: I'm getting soon an AWE32 (CT 3600 the medium one)
Has anyone got to sell the biggest one (CT 3900 I belive)

Quote:

BTW: I'm getting soon an AWE32 (CT 3600 the medium one) Has anyone got to sell the biggest one (CT 3900 I belive)

I have both, I personally prefer the 39XX series. They pop up on ebay from time to time. Gary gave me one a while back. That one was included in the sale of the Mercury System. The other one I pick up on ebay for $1.00 plus $4.00 shipping. The 3600 (the smaller one) was a similar deal, I don't recall the exact price but it was under $8.00 total. Not a high demand for these any more with the lack of ISA or EISA support on modern motherboards.

Great for DOS Sound Blaster compatibility on older games ;)

Well I got my 3600 for 1EUR combined shipping with a miro hiscore² and a hiscore pro alltogether for 5,66 EUR + shipping  ;D ;D
But so far I have not seen any 39xx, will be looking after it.

BTW: do you have any idea what's the largest amount of ram that you can put in such card?

If you need the long one (36cm!), I got it.
DOn't know how much you can go up to.
Still, that's naughty out topic...

;D

By the way, the digital cable (S/PDIF) is a good choice, but after hours of searching and reading stuff I ended realising the best was simply having the digital data being transferred through the IDE cable and onto the sound card through the PCI or ISA bus.

My problem now is, how do I know if a CD reader supports this method and does Windows 98 SE has the option from my picture (page one on this thread)?

???

check the cd ripping procesure with programs like Nero (encode tracks) it would be quite fast...

and check with winamp, go to 01:32 , 04:02, 00:10, etc, without pause, then u will find that if the digital read is enabled, it will be a lot faster (than analog read)

:)

Well, on my CD readers that don't support digital playback through IDE cable, the sound stutters or doesn't work at all.

Can anyone with Windows 98 SE tell me if there is the digital playback option under CD-ROM reader properties?

A bit off topic... I GOT MY AWE32 ;D ;D
It's a CT3620 ( actually this one is one of the long 36xx so: 32cm  ;D )
Now in matter of days I'll test all that IDE interface stuff and report

Must be a thread about old sound cards...

@ st4r4m4m4

yeah Lux like you said:
http://www.falconfly-central.de/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=offtopic;action=display;num=1106305871;start=45#45

hehe anyways, glad to hear you got part of your problem solved, sorry I answered abit late :-X but about 98SE it should have the option where you can ennable digitally.

the wierd this is the enable ditital sound is grey in my option bay, maybe it wasn't possible afteral:

click thumbnail to enlarge.
http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/albums/album93/my_CD_ROM_settings_for_digital_sound_is_grey.thumb.jpg

I suppose I got mixxed up with the other 3 PC's I have  :-/ sorry Luxkiller, at least I did find out where the option should be changable, got to settings then control pannel afterthat go to Multimedia, then Music from CD and on that tab there is a square tab onwhich you can enable of disable digital sound for CD players.

I never knew that this wasn't possible for SB AWE cards, very odd indeed.