Solved! Optical + analog at the same time?

[elite44]

I have a pair of Edifier powered pc monitor speakers and also a Polk subwoofer.

I want to run the bookshelf monitors on the optical connection and the sub with the sub out...is this possible?

The sound from the optical is much better than the analog so that's why I'm trying to do this. WIth the sub it won't really matter much if it's analog so if i can play those at the same time it would be perfect

i have an asrock z170 K6 gaming board with an i7 6700k

 

[americanaudiophile]

Check in your PC audio control panel whether you can turn on both outputs. I suspect you can't.
You could split the optical audio output and connect a cheap DAC to one output to provide an analog output for the sub. The downside to this is you would have to control volume from the PC which degrades sound quality because the control is digital.
Or you could use a DAC that is better than the one in the Edifiers to provide an analog output for both. That's the way I would go. A Schiit DAC is likely better and not that expensive.

 

[elite44]

Check in your PC audio control panel whether you can turn on both outputs. I suspect you can't.
You could split the optical audio output and connect a cheap DAC to one output to provide an analog output for the sub. The downside to this is you would have to control volume from the PC which degrades sound quality because the control is digital.
Or you could use a DAC that is better than the one in the Edifiers to provide an analog output for both. That's the way I would go. A Schiit DAC is likely better and not that expensive.

Yes I've bought an adapter and also a new sound card that may have some control settings that helps. Either way I will report back in case anyone else is trying to do the same thing.