PC & Home Theatre Audio Question

[Joshbad]

Hello, In about a hour, I'm probably going to be driving for about a hour to go pick up a Bose Acoustimass 6 5.1 surround sound system and Yamaha HTR-5550 receiver from a guy selling them pretty cheaply on craigslist. I am still a bit on the edge if i want to buy this though so here is my question. I know the speakers are quite good, most products from Bose i hear are. The receiver seems decent, but I dont ever use my TV. I was going to hook them up to my computer via a Optical cable to my Creative Titanium sound card. Would I get the same sound quality from this receiver and speakers from my PC as i would get from hooking it up to a TV?

I know these home theater systems are made for TV's not computers. So the question is, will i lose sound quality by hooking it up to my PC instead of a TV.

 

[anwaypasible]

wrong...

the home theater systems are made to be connected to a digital s/pdif connection.
doesnt really matter where that s/pdif connection comes from.

if you connected the receiver to the computer with a digital s/pdif connection.. it would be the same as using the digital audio connection from the cable box, BECAUSE the dac inside the receiver is the one used in both situations.

you might follow my previous advice about all of the tweaks you can do with a soundcard for an audio system.
your sound would be a lot better from the soundcard than from the set top box, mainly because the set top box doesnt give you any chance to alter or tweak the audio.


same dac.. same thing.
adding time delay.. reverb.. equalizer.. these things make the sound better regardless of what dac you are using.