I have an Sondblaster Audigy ZX soundcard & use a mini-jack to a RCA adaptor from my pc to my HKarden receiver to run digital music into my home stereo. The mini-jack to RCA cable spans 40 feet and I'm experiencing an annoying hsssssssing sound on those speakers hosted by the receiver. The chord is not located near any power supplies and I'm curious if I'm better off with a different strategy (without purchasing an overpriced DAR such as ROKU). Should I move the PC audio via a digital/optical out on the soundblaster or does my issue reside elsewhere? Thanks for the recommendations...
Wrong forum. If you have a digital output, and the receiver has a digital input then yes, use that. No interference with optic cable. Be careful not to fold or kink the cable or else the fibers will be ruined. Good luck.
optical cables don't reach 40 feet, so no, don't use optical. you might be able to get away with it with digital coax. I'd just recommend moving your PC closer though
I didn't know that about optical cable... How far can they go and what happens? I always thought that if the outer jacket was intact then the light signal never degrades... Tell me more if you can, thanks
its not the signal level that degrades, its the light level. rememder the digital optical cables transfer data through red light, and its not very high intensity, infact most are powered by red LEDs. and the light starts fading usually past 15 feet. Having said that, they do make toslink signal amplifiers, with higher intensity light that can travel farther, usually up to 20 meters.