Hello. I have come to you folks looking for advice. I made the mistake of not going over the stats of the Asus ROG Strix B450-I gaming board I purchased to upgrade my bedroom HTPC closely enough, and discovered that while it has a decent audio chipset (Realtek ALC1220), it lacks SPDIF out. I hadn't thought to check as every other high-end consumer desktop motherboard I've bought in at least the last 15 years has has had one. I hadn't counted on the ubiquitous availability of HDMI to have rendered SPDIF to the dustbin. Unfortunately, my Pioneer Elite receiver predates HDMI by two years, and as it is in my bedroom, I don't feel the real need to replace it. My main receiver will be delegated to the bedroom when it gets replaced, but I don't anticipate that happening any time soon.
So, as I need a SPDIF to get 5.1 sound to my receiver, and I have no available slots as it's an ITX mobo, it appears to me I need either a USB sound card, or an HDMI audio extractor. I have come to you folks for advice on which is the best configuration, and which USB sound card or HDMI audio extractor people have had the best experience with. I am not an audiophile, obviously, and am not looking for a gold-plated, vacuum tube driven solution.
Just something that adequately gets 5.1 channels of digital audio to my receiver in a form that it can pass on to my speakers.
I will appreciate any input towards my goal.
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Topic: USB Sound Card vs HDMI Audio Extractor (Read 2269 times)