Question 1

Is this unit compatible with Windows 10?

Accepted Answer

I had windows 7 ultimate and upgraded to 10.. Havent had any issues with sound with this product since the upgrade. Installing on a windows 10 system i am not sure of tho, as i dont know what drivers it legacied over on my upgrade compared to a new install on 10

Question 2

What are the computer requirements and how much power will it consume?

Accepted Answer

Output Signal-to-Noise Ratio (A-Weighted):
104 dB
Output THD+N at 1kHz (Front-out) :
>0.005 %(-86 dB)
Frequency Response (-3dB, 24bit/96KHz input) :
10 Hz to 44 KHz
Output/Input Full-Scale Voltage :
Line output (RCA, 3.5) : 1 Vrms (2.828 Vp-p)
Headphone output : 1.3 Vrms (3.677 Vp-p)

Just download the  driver from the website, Mac OS X doesn't need a driver. Windows xp-Windows 10 has drivers and some others.

Question 3

Does this produce/output live/real time surround sound (to an appropriate receiver) via the coaxial SPDIF output.... or rather does it encode into 6ch audio in real time and pass it through spdif for decoding by the receiver?  I have an older pair of Klipsch PC/Console speakers that uses a 'single' coaxial SPDIF input (also has optical input)...  I used these way back with an nVidia mobo that had one of those "SoundStorm" DSP's on it... which produced real-time/live encoding and passed it through the spdif output to whatever decoder.  **I can NOT use analog mini-jacks for these speakers if I want 6ch audio.  (Creative Labs' past devices only ever seem to output in stereo via the spdif, even with their DDLive codec packa and other garbage, gaming always ends up in stereo.)

Accepted Answer

I think you are out of luck if you can't use analog connections for 5.1 with your setup. I don't think windows plays well with SPDIF. I've never been able to achieve 5.1 gaming with spdif, so it doesn't matter if this device passes the audio to be decoded by your receiver or if it decodes it first, Windows won't let you have 5.1 over the spdif port. It just doesn't work. I bought this xonar, and an older used AVR that has analog inputs for 5.1 and it works beautifully. My suggestion for 5.1 windows pc gaming, is to do the same, or purchase the xonar here, and a 5.1 headset with multiple analog leads you can plug in directly to the analog 5.1 ports on the xonar.

Question 4

Is this compatible with windows 8.1?

Accepted Answer

Yes it is.  I am using it with no problems or issues.

Question 5

I have a 2.1 speaker setup, however each individual speaker is active and independent. Splitting out left and right is easy... However, can I plug the sub into the center/sub out on the sub channel without putting the device in 5.1 mode and still pick up mono sub out? Or can I at least assign one of the other outputs to as a second full range output (stereo or not I have the equipment to make that work)?

Accepted Answer

Sorry Elie, I have no idea. I can tell you that what you have plugged into it has nothing to do with what "Mode" it's outputting. The computer uses the device as configured, if you configure it to output 5.1 then that is what you get, through it's respective connections, whether anything is plugged into them or not. I hope this helps.

Question 6

Will this convert my 3 plug 5.1 speakers to 1 plug for an iMac?

Accepted Answer

Convert, no. It is a legit 5.1 sound device, replacing your current 2 channel onboard sound. Connect this via USB, place on desk where you like, connect all 3 (front L/R, rear L/R and center/sub) 3.5mm surround connections. Now you have awesome 5.1 quality sound. One bad thing tho, this does no stereo to multi channel upmixing. Ive been struggling to find something to upmix 2 channel to at least 2.1 or 4.1 for music. I use a real sound reciever with 6 analog rca inputs using 3 3.5mm to 6 rca cables. Logitech type of sound systems have upmixing to forcefully transfer all bass to subs. so if you have one of these your good, if your like me with a reciever you wont enjoy 2 channel audio.

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