Dear Vance ,
Thank you for contacting Creative Technical Support.
You may want to know that for digital connections, capabilities of the
soundcard is being bypassed. Therefore the quality of music will depend
on the decoder/receiver of your speakers system.
They neither confirmed or denied your claim. You asked them to state whether or not his statement was true or false. They mention the digital connection is bypassed but don't mention anything about the process before the connection and whether or not that is bypassed. The other two were "glad that YOU noticed the answer to your question" not that they answered it.
From Crysalis's link:
Thus, applying Crystalizer to modern maximized records will lead to manifold growth of distortions, resulting in cracks and pollution of the recording with spurious harmonics
From 003's link:
Thank you for suggesting this. But, it will not work for my
application because it resamples everything to 48kHz internally (i.e.
input 41.1kHz -> 48kHz -> 41.1kHz output). See the email I receieved
from Creative tech support below. The guy was very helpful, basically
confirming that *no Creative cards can play back CD audio (41.1kHz
16-bit) without resampling*.
> I would highly recommend you look at Apple's iTune software for
> playback. It has tremendous CDDB support.
My system will not have a keyboard or a mouse so it will need a custom
user interface. I am planning to make a simple UI for the command-line
linux sound applications (one that looks good on a TV screen).
Thank you for your suggestions.
Response from Creative tech support:
Dear Customer,
Request about 1:1 SPDIF output/input.
Either it is not supported, or can not be supported with the Creative
Cards.
Most Live and Audigy (1) SPDIF Output is 48000.,
The Audigy(1) only support the 48000. with no external clocking.
(Has hardware clock on board)
Thus resampled to the internal rate is done digitally.
Some cards also support 44100, 48000 and 96000,
for example
Audigy 2 and Audigy 2 ZS
1:1 not supported in the Creative Windows drivers. it MIGHT be there
is a Linux filter for recording without any extra processing, but I
suspect that playback would still require a conversion.
Or at least all done at 48000
But I don't know how much support there is under Linux.
I suggest the IRC chat
IRC CHAT
irc.freenode.net
#creative
In general, Creative does not support 1:1 bit transfer using the
Windows
drivers.
But you might look at the KXproject drivers.
For faster service please reply with previous correspondence when
replying to this email.
Best Regards
Phillip (Developer Relations)
Technical Support
Creative Labs Americas
Original Message Follows:
------------------------
=======================
Subject: CLI - Technical Support Request
MemberID: 0
Name: Brian Smith
E-mail Address: brian-l-sm...@uiowa.edu
Self Description: Advanced PC User
Country: United States of America
------------------
Support Inquiry: I am installing this product for the first time
Product: Sound Blaster Audigy MP3+
------------------
Operating System: Linux
Creative Model Number:
Computer Brand/Model:
Processor/CPU:
Memory:
BIOS Type/Revision:
System Board/Chipset:
------------------
Detailed Problem Description:
Do any of your cards provide true 44.1kHz SPDIF optical
out? I saw in the documentation for the Audigy MP3+ that
there is 44.1khZ output in "digital only" mode. However, it
is not clear in the documentation if there is a 44.1kHz ->
48kHz -> 44.1kHz conversion taking place on the card. In
particular, I read that all Creative cards upsample all
44.1kHz input to 48kHz even when attempting SPDIF
passthrough.
Basically, I am looking for your cheapest card that can
plays back its 44.1kHz input indentically bit-for-bit out of
the TOSLink port on Linux. Does the Audigy MP3+ meet this
requirement? This is literally the only sound card feature I
need (no analog out, no decoding, no anything). Do any of
your PCI cards meet this requirement?
Thanks,
Brian
The above answers the question. To repeat:
Detailed Problem Description:
Do any of your cards provide true 44.1kHz SPDIF optical
out? I saw in the documentation for the Audigy MP3+ that
there is 44.1khZ output in "digital only" mode. However, it
is not clear in the documentation if there is a 44.1kHz ->
48kHz -> 44.1kHz conversion taking place on the card.
The answer:
"1:1 not supported in the Creative Windows drivers. it MIGHT be there
is a Linux filter for recording without any extra processing, but I
suspect that playback would still require a conversion.
Or at least all done at 48000 "
What produces your sound and what you listen to it on does make a difference and so does the format. Some differences are quite noticeable and some are not.
003:
I doubt you would notice much if any difference between a high bitrate lossy format and a lossless format such as FLAC on the X-530 speakers.
It's not a put down of equipment it's beyond the capability of the computer speakers.
Stretching, compressing, decompressing,format makes a difference. Probably not too much on a computer system even with the best computer speakers available.
How are the different formats etc different and how can you tell? Look at it this way. You can see the difference in stretching on vcr recordings done in sp vs. slp and hear it in the sound. The quality of the recording in sp is better than slp. The recording in mp3 is the reverse of this. You can hear differences in formats like 8 track tape compared to cd recordings.
Thank you for contacting Creative Technical Support.
You may want to know that for digital connections, capabilities of the
soundcard is being bypassed. Therefore the quality of music will depend
on the decoder/receiver of your speakers system.
They neither confirmed or denied your claim. You asked them to state whether or not his statement was true or false. They mention the digital connection is bypassed but don't mention anything about the process before the connection and whether or not that is bypassed. The other two were "glad that YOU noticed the answer to your question" not that they answered it.
From Crysalis's link:
Thus, applying Crystalizer to modern maximized records will lead to manifold growth of distortions, resulting in cracks and pollution of the recording with spurious harmonics
From 003's link:
Thank you for suggesting this. But, it will not work for my
application because it resamples everything to 48kHz internally (i.e.
input 41.1kHz -> 48kHz -> 41.1kHz output). See the email I receieved
from Creative tech support below. The guy was very helpful, basically
confirming that *no Creative cards can play back CD audio (41.1kHz
16-bit) without resampling*.
> I would highly recommend you look at Apple's iTune software for
> playback. It has tremendous CDDB support.
My system will not have a keyboard or a mouse so it will need a custom
user interface. I am planning to make a simple UI for the command-line
linux sound applications (one that looks good on a TV screen).
Thank you for your suggestions.
Response from Creative tech support:
Dear Customer,
Request about 1:1 SPDIF output/input.
Either it is not supported, or can not be supported with the Creative
Cards.
Most Live and Audigy (1) SPDIF Output is 48000.,
The Audigy(1) only support the 48000. with no external clocking.
(Has hardware clock on board)
Thus resampled to the internal rate is done digitally.
Some cards also support 44100, 48000 and 96000,
for example
Audigy 2 and Audigy 2 ZS
1:1 not supported in the Creative Windows drivers. it MIGHT be there
is a Linux filter for recording without any extra processing, but I
suspect that playback would still require a conversion.
Or at least all done at 48000
But I don't know how much support there is under Linux.
I suggest the IRC chat
IRC CHAT
irc.freenode.net
#creative
In general, Creative does not support 1:1 bit transfer using the
Windows
drivers.
But you might look at the KXproject drivers.
For faster service please reply with previous correspondence when
replying to this email.
Best Regards
Phillip (Developer Relations)
Technical Support
Creative Labs Americas
Original Message Follows:
------------------------
=======================
Subject: CLI - Technical Support Request
MemberID: 0
Name: Brian Smith
E-mail Address: brian-l-sm...@uiowa.edu
Self Description: Advanced PC User
Country: United States of America
------------------
Support Inquiry: I am installing this product for the first time
Product: Sound Blaster Audigy MP3+
------------------
Operating System: Linux
Creative Model Number:
Computer Brand/Model:
Processor/CPU:
Memory:
BIOS Type/Revision:
System Board/Chipset:
------------------
Detailed Problem Description:
Do any of your cards provide true 44.1kHz SPDIF optical
out? I saw in the documentation for the Audigy MP3+ that
there is 44.1khZ output in "digital only" mode. However, it
is not clear in the documentation if there is a 44.1kHz ->
48kHz -> 44.1kHz conversion taking place on the card. In
particular, I read that all Creative cards upsample all
44.1kHz input to 48kHz even when attempting SPDIF
passthrough.
Basically, I am looking for your cheapest card that can
plays back its 44.1kHz input indentically bit-for-bit out of
the TOSLink port on Linux. Does the Audigy MP3+ meet this
requirement? This is literally the only sound card feature I
need (no analog out, no decoding, no anything). Do any of
your PCI cards meet this requirement?
Thanks,
Brian
The above answers the question. To repeat:
Detailed Problem Description:
Do any of your cards provide true 44.1kHz SPDIF optical
out? I saw in the documentation for the Audigy MP3+ that
there is 44.1khZ output in "digital only" mode. However, it
is not clear in the documentation if there is a 44.1kHz ->
48kHz -> 44.1kHz conversion taking place on the card.
The answer:
"1:1 not supported in the Creative Windows drivers. it MIGHT be there
is a Linux filter for recording without any extra processing, but I
suspect that playback would still require a conversion.
Or at least all done at 48000 "
What produces your sound and what you listen to it on does make a difference and so does the format. Some differences are quite noticeable and some are not.
003:
I doubt you would notice much if any difference between a high bitrate lossy format and a lossless format such as FLAC on the X-530 speakers.
It's not a put down of equipment it's beyond the capability of the computer speakers.
Stretching, compressing, decompressing,format makes a difference. Probably not too much on a computer system even with the best computer speakers available.
How are the different formats etc different and how can you tell? Look at it this way. You can see the difference in stretching on vcr recordings done in sp vs. slp and hear it in the sound. The quality of the recording in sp is better than slp. The recording in mp3 is the reverse of this. You can hear differences in formats like 8 track tape compared to cd recordings.
