Optical Cable on Logitech Z680

[psd99]

I got some Z680 Speakers

Had them for 3 years now.
Atm I have been using the 3 input channels
ie the black, orange and green "headphone" type of jack.

Sorry not so cable wise myself.
But three of these leads go into the back of my logitech decoder and the other three go into the back of my pc.
At the moment I am using a sound blaster live 5.1 card which does not seem to have a optical port on the back. But as you will see in my other thread ( dont know when I will write this) I am thinking of changing over my pc's and the other board has got a SPDIF in which to me LOOKS like optical input. Although I am not so sure..

Here are the questions.

1. do you think I will notice a HUGE difference in the quality of sound when using the optical cable?

2. Am I right in assuming that I will not need the THREE headphone type inputs when I get the optical cable? i.e I will only need the optical input nothing else? Except power etc..


3. Please look at the pictures attached. Is SPDIF and optical the same?
How lazy can psd99 really become?

picture one is the back of the logitech decoder
picture two is the card on the back of my motherboard that I reckon is optical although I am not so sure.

Any help appreciated

thanks for your time.

psd99

 

[psd99]

bump................

 

[psd99]

bump again

I just got the optical cable
it sounds so much better
less distortion too!

Reccomend it
i got mine from ebay for a fiver.

now comes the hassle of changing around the insides of both pcs!
hence my other support thread................

 

[chelseafc2005]

Reccomend it
i got mine from ebay for a fiver.

I have one, sorry didnt see this thread until now I would have told you tog et one anyways. What brand is the cable that you bought?

 

[psd99]

it is from ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Pure-Optical-...QQihZ007QQcategoryZ116850QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

what do u think?

U reckon if I spent £20 on a cable there would be any difference in sound?

 

[chelseafc2005]

Im not sure but when i went to richer sounds to get a cable like that for my speakers they told me that you really can hear the difference between the cheap and the not so cheap, but cables for speakers can get very expensive (£100 for 1m of cable)

I spent £30 at the time on this cable

it is coaxial as i do not have an optical out on my mb.

It sounds great and on surround sound in films is fantastic.

Compared to the old cables it is a huge difference but I do not know how much difference there would be between your cable and a fancier cable. I think there would be a noticable difference but there is only one way to find out.

 

[psd99]

Im not sure but when i went to richer sounds to get a cable like that for my speakers they told me that you really can hear the difference between the cheap and the not so cheap, but cables for speakers can get very expensive (£100 for 1m of cable)

I spent £30 at the time on this cable

it is coaxial as i do not have an optical out on my mb.

It sounds great and on surround sound in films is fantastic.

Compared to the old cables it is a huge difference but I do not know how much difference there would be between your cable and a fancier cable. I think there would be a noticable difference but there is only one way to find out.

good point
but i would have thought
if it works it works
and it can't work any better with sound..
I can understand with vision that might not be the case.

I speakers do have coaxial input too and one of the motherboards has got coaxial input too

do you know what is better
optical or coaxial?

I was thinking of ringing around my friends to see if anyone has got a £20/£30 optical cable
would be nice to try it out and see if there is any difference
rather than go out there and waste that cash

i wonder what everyone else thinks too.

 

[psd99]

hi

i want to replace a damaged cable for these speakers
it is not the optical cable

if u look on the first picture of this thread there is a "6 channel " written on the back part of the logitech control panel
three of these leads plug in to the back of this and the other three plug in to the pack of the pc the sound card

what is this cable called?

I am a novice to audio!

 

[Alf]

You know, you could upgrade to a X-Fi
and of course some new speaker....

 

[Abarbarian]

do you know what is better
optical or coaxial?

Optical is better . I doubt if you will notice any difference in a cheap/expensive optical cable unless you have a very high spec set up .

http://compreviews.about.com/cs/soundcards/a/CompAudioPt3.htm

The above is a pretty oldish guide but should fill in some gaps in your knowledge .

 

[psd99]

no thank you

those speakers cost me 250 quid at the time

any ideas of the cable name?

 

[V_R]

any ideas of the cable name?

thats just standard 3.5mm jack plug x3. They are colour coded for ease of use. AFAIK any3.5mm jack to 3.5mm jack will be fine.

I had a quick look, not found the three together. but you could get 3 good quality single cables.

Like this maybe

 

[psd99]

hi thanks

it would be nice if they were together

 

[V_R]

Then you have two options.....

1. Google and find the three together.

2. Buy the three seperate and use glue or cable ties etc!


Why does it matter? If its at the back of your pc, your not gonna see it are you.....

 

[psd99]

i guess it dont really matter!




3 of these http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/3-5MM-STEREO-...732QQihZ007QQcategoryZ295QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

and im done!!

cheers