problems with my Audigy 2

[nbmarky]

Right now I've got my Audigy 2 hooked up to my Onkyo receiver via a coax cable and a mono plug adapter. The mono plug adapter is plugged into the Audigy's digital output. Sound quality overall is excellent, however I'm having three minor (yet highly annoying) problems:

1) Constant, yet soft, hissing. When I hook my Audigy up to my receiver via Analog, the hiss is gone. I've selected that my Audigy only use it's digital output.

2) Pops and clicks. If I mute CD audio, the hissing gets softer, but then whenever Windows XP makes any sort of sound, I get a clicking sound afterwards. Also, whenever I play music i get a pop before the music starts. If CD audio is enabled, the Windows sounds clicking stops, but the pops still remain. I get no pops or clicks when connecting via analog.

3) I cant figure out how to use Digital CD audio. In Creative Mixer, the volume slider for Digital CD doesnt have any affect, while the slider for regular CD Audio does. Does this mean the Audigy isn't using Digital CD audio?

I've updated to the latest Creative drivers and installed the necessary BIOS upgrade (needed for my Dell Dimension 8200). Both my computer and receiver are plugged into the same Surge Protector as well so I've ruled out a grounding issue. I have not messed around with anything in Windows XP itself to fix the problems as I have no idea where to start. There's also something called "Digital Output Sampling Rate" in AudioHQ which is set to 48 KHz- I have no idea what this does.

Can somebody who's familiar with this particular soundcard please help me out? I've done everything I could to the best of my knowledge and abilities and am fresh out of ideas. However, I'm sure its all just a matter of a few quick Windows system changes that I'm not familiar with (I hope). By the way, should I even be using a digital connection in the first place? Would analog be better? Sorry for all the questions, but I'm at a total loss as to what to do. Thank you all very much in advance.

-Mark

 

[Rav3n]

I had a Live Platinum 5.1 on my system, and every time I tried using the digital audio only option, I got that hissing sound I think you are describing. I think Creative Labs has yet to work out all the kinks in their drivers and software because it all sucks. That said, if you don't have any problems using analog, and you do not notice a difference in the sound quality, then switch to analog and all your problems are solved. If you insist on using digital, I think the volume controls might actually be what you need to play with. Make sure that the only IN enabled is what you are actually using (mute everything else). Also, make sure that in the programs you are using for playback that the proper OUT is selected for playback. Windows update will try t get you to download different Creative drivers, DO NOT download these drivers, they just mess everything up. Oh yeah, there is an option in the sound control panel in windows (I am using a mac, and I can; remember the exact windows and stuff, and I hate macs just for the record) where you select the number of speakers you are using. I think you can also select digital there - or maybe its just surround... oh god its been too long since I used a good windows machine.... good luck. Sorry if I didn;t help.

 

[AbsolutDealage]

What else do you have plugged in that power strip? A 21" monitor? a big amp/reciever? something else very high draw?

Try getting an extension cord and plugging just your computer into a completely seperate output. I had a hissing/popping problem that was actually my reciever feeding back onto the strip (which even managed to get past the filtering on the strip I have).

Just a thought...

 

[nbmarky]

I've tried plugging my computer into the same strip as my receiver and also into its own outlet but the clicks and hissing still remains. I think it might be a Windows or driver problem since I only get clicks and hissing while using digital....

Does anyone know how to enable digital out in Winamp?

 

[Rapier21]

You need to enable or force S/PDIF bypass somewhere in AudioHQ. I think its under speaker settings or something.

I had my onkyo reciever hooked up via optical cable to my audigy 1 with an optical/digital IO2 card, had perfect results using S/PDIF bypass. I'm not sure if that will work with your setup since you don't have the IO2 card, but it's worth a shot.

If you're still not getting good audio, you may need to get the Audigy drive for your card, and use the optical on that. Creative claims that the optical/digital IO2 card doesn't work with the Audigy2, but I think it may, because allegedly the optical dongle can plug in to the digital out on the audigy 1 and work (without using the daugher card at all).

Once you enable s/pdif in the creative programs somewhere, you shouldn't have to configure any other software to do digital out, like winamp. The audigy will simply pass all pcm signals to the digital output.

As for the digital cd audio bit, does the cd/dvd drive have a digital audio port on the back (its got 2 pins), and are you using a digital cable to connect it to the digital cd in on the audigy? If not, it definately won't work. If so, then I have no idea, lol.

Hope this helped.

~Rapier21

 

[JackHawksmoor]

Yeah, I was confused by that Digital CD thing too. If you don't have any cables (other than IDE of course ) between your sound card and CD-ROM drive, then if CDs work at all, it's doing digital by streaming through the IDE cable like any other data. That's what I'm doing. If you've got a digital cable for it, that would probably be better as streaming CD audio through IDE would blow some of your bandwidth, versus sending it directly to your audio card.