Hardware & Technical PSA: HDMI audio is amazing
- Thread starter szopin
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+Mikie: if you plug your speakers straight into your pc with headphone jack you're using SPDIF, if you use an HDMI cable to your monitor and use it's speakers it will use hdmi (your monitor speakers will most likely will be not good enough to see much difference, if you have audio out from monitor and can plug your speakers into that, do it and compare to what plugging them into your pc gives)
It might be that if you're using the SPDIF output from the on board sound card then it's just crappy quality. Just because something is a digital output doesn't mean it's going to sound good
Agreed, however this only happens with ED, I can play 44khz mp3, or 192khz mp3 and they will sound exactly the same whether through spdif or hdmi, as it is just hz (audiophiliacs will notice difference betwen them, I never could), there is something more happening with ED sound output though, again, no idea what exactly, there are quotes 5.1/7.1 only work through hdmi output, but even standard audio out on hdmi sounds better with standard two speaker setup, something is happening to hdmi vs spdif, would love to see someone from FD chime in
He was talking about twisting + and - which indeed results in crappy sound.
Ah, OK, I thought you meant for everything you listened to. I'm assuming the output formats on both devices are the same etc? I was going to say there isn't reckoned to be an appreciable difference in quality between the two transports using the same source files. Well, unless you're the kind of person who spends £500 on a 3' power cable
Now I need to try this which is a nuisance because it means dismantling either the PC or the HT setup in another room. Thank you so much
Now I need to try this which is a nuisance because it means dismantling either the PC or the HT setup in another room. Thank you so much
Twisting? In old stereo days, you had one black one red cable, if you switch the connection all it would result is left speaker having right sounds and right playing left sounds, no degradation of quality, not sure what you describe
Ah, OK, I thought you meant for everything you listened to. I'm assuming the output formats on both devices are the same etc? I was going to say there isn't reckoned to be an appreciable difference in quality between the two transports using the same source files. Well, unless you're the kind of person who spends £500 on a 3' power cable
Now I need to try this which is a nuisance because it means dismantling either the PC or the HT setup in another room. Thank you so much
Before you dismantle anything, just give it a try, maybe your setup is already using hdmi somewhere. If you are using spdif from pc, definitely give hdmi out a try (whether through an adapter as me originally or through audio-through like most monitors have). Again I cannot explain why there is so much difference, as I would assume hdmi-audio out will have same exact output as spdif, but it differs. Just give it a try before dismantling things, you might already have the good sound, we're still unsure where the diference is coming from
If you have one speaker wired out of phase (wires reversed) you get cancellation where the "top" of the sound wave from one speaker cancels out the "bottom" of the sound wave of the same frequency where they coincide in the listening space. It can make the sound quite distant and a bit muddy. It's the same principle active noise cancelling headphones use.
Would have the same issue before just plugging the hdmi->vga+sound adapter. I really don't think this is a bug, the whole soundscape is just much richer. Seriously just try to plug your current speakers into audio-out of hdmi monitor
I'm using SPDIF over optical to a decent DAC with a built in headphone amp and decent headphones, I can only run HDMI audio to the monitor but that has no analogue or TOSlink input so can't do a proper a/b test.
My main gaming machine had a feed into a decent 7.1 rig via HDMI and a direct digital feed into my mixer feeding my 8" studio monitors.
Surround is cool and pretty awesome but once you've heard this game through studio-quality gear you will never switch back to a consumer-grade DAC, even for surround.
Surround is cool and pretty awesome but once you've heard this game through studio-quality gear you will never switch back to a consumer-grade DAC, even for surround.
Running Elite: Dangerous via hdmi to a dedicated 5.1 (5 speakers, 1 subwoofer) home theater amplifier is equally amazing.
Sorry but that's completely wrong. The red cable is + and the black cable is -. It has nothing to do with left or right, these are a separate pair of cables. If you twist + and - the membrane of your speaker goes inwards rather than outwards, potentially destroying your speaker and resulting in a crappy sound.
Thankyou, Cmdr Babelfisch
There are always two connections to each speaker .... just that one of them may be invisible because it is part of the outer core of the cable and the plug. Reverse that connection on just one speaker (outer to inner, and inner to outer) and you get the effect I am describing.
No need to do this for real, unless you have two wires to swap over, it's a lot of trouble re-assembling your cable/plug
Just take my word for it.
Yeah. Key experience was turning on the lights in the ship - and to all the cheap headset owners: Yes, there IS a sound
I know, I do love a set of lights that make noise as well as light. It seems louder in the big ships but that's probably just me.
Another thing I wouldn't want to be without are the planet sounds. I usually fly with my headset around my neck and only put it over my ears in combat or when exploring, two completely different sides to the game but both make me want to pay more attention to what else is going on.
Starting with spdif is already a no go, try normal hdmi cable to something that has audio out that you can plug to your speakers
And yet if you switch red and black your right speaker will sound left and left right, not sure how mechanical/metal cables feel how you twist them as they have no gyroscopes and you either connect them or not, you'll have to elaborate
Can you try to plug your speakers into spdif? Then again from 5.1 it will be crap
The only way I can use the same amp and speakers with both types of output is to use the HT amp, then I can switch between SPDIF and HDMI without changing anything else so it'll be a fair listening test.
Please do, I'm still looking for that post that quoted one dev from livestream about hdmi being the only way for 5.1 and similar, but can't find it right now. The difference is however huge, so anyone that can try spdif vs hdmi will get it immediately. Let us know your results