External 5.1 Soundcard?

[whitefang]

I got a MBP and currently it's connected to my 5.1 Z-5500 through toslink to coax convertor. The Z-5500 has inputs for miniplugs, toslink, coax. Even though the MBP audio output on the toslink is good, my PC's Creative X-FI is WAY better. Mostly because the X-FI has special features like a crystallizer and boost.

I'm wondering if I can get a external Creative X-FI USB card. Now, creative makes 2 external cards. One is called the XMod which wouldn't work because it's designed to give audio output to headphones. The second one (http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=208&product=17751&nav=3) would work and has all the features of the Creative X-FI but the problem is that it says it's only compatible with "Vista/XP".
So, do you think that it would work with the MBP?

 

[mcavjame]

I got a MBP and currently it's connected to my 5.1 Z-5500 through toslink to coax convertor. The Z-5500 has inputs for miniplugs, toslink, coax. Even though the MBP audio output on the toslink is good, my PC's Creative X-FI is WAY better. Mostly because the X-FI has special features like a crystallizer and boost.

I'm wondering if I can get a external Creative X-FI USB card. Now, creative makes 2 external cards. One is called the XMod which wouldn't work because it's designed to give audio output to headphones. The second one (http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=208&product=17751&nav=3) would work and has all the features of the Creative X-FI but the problem is that it says it's only compatible with "Vista/XP".
So, do you think that it would work with the MBP?

PC world indicates the X-FI does not work with a Mac.

The digital optical port supports 2 channel sound except in instances where a media file is encoded with AC3.

Check out this article on how to get 5.1 surround on a Mac: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20090215033647292

 

[w00t951]

I would recommend what I do: buy a Bose surround sound system, one like the Companion 5 that uses a USB port to supply the external sound card (inside to Bose module) and it delivers excellent 5.1 surround sound.