I had one of these back in my windows days: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Sound-Blaster-Surround-External/dp/B00FJMQ4C2
It works with the mac natively, without any system modifications, yet the sound quality was extremely poor, driving my 5.1 speakers with stereo produces 10 times better results
The optic connection also sucks hard, as it doesn't separate stereo to 5.1, it only works if an audio/video file is dts-encoded in my setup (it also causes my logitech speakers to pause whenever the audio pauses, this sometimes creates gaps in the audio, it's basically a worse stereo 99.9% of the time)
TL;DR: I'm looking for an external 5.1 sound card that will support 5.1 and separate stereo to 5.1, I'm also expecting this sound card to work without any third-party drivers (I don't want to risk contaminating the system with buggy drivers)
I'm guessing such a thing doesn't exist, I think OSX is pretty weak on the audio compatibility end, I would at least expect an always-on native 5.1 optical encoding, I think it was previously possible with something like "Perian" - but currently such solutions are also not possible
Edit: Just re-tested things, the X-Fi device + OSX behaves pretty strangely, although 5.1 is available, regular audio only uses 2 speakers (iTunes etc.), VLC drives all 6 of them, I re-remembered why I sticked to Stereo and 4.1 mode on the speaker system (A Logitech Z-906, the 4.1 mode is the best stereo mode, but the middle speaker is wasted ...)
It works with the mac natively, without any system modifications, yet the sound quality was extremely poor, driving my 5.1 speakers with stereo produces 10 times better results
The optic connection also sucks hard, as it doesn't separate stereo to 5.1, it only works if an audio/video file is dts-encoded in my setup (it also causes my logitech speakers to pause whenever the audio pauses, this sometimes creates gaps in the audio, it's basically a worse stereo 99.9% of the time)
TL;DR: I'm looking for an external 5.1 sound card that will support 5.1 and separate stereo to 5.1, I'm also expecting this sound card to work without any third-party drivers (I don't want to risk contaminating the system with buggy drivers)
I'm guessing such a thing doesn't exist, I think OSX is pretty weak on the audio compatibility end, I would at least expect an always-on native 5.1 optical encoding, I think it was previously possible with something like "Perian" - but currently such solutions are also not possible
Edit: Just re-tested things, the X-Fi device + OSX behaves pretty strangely, although 5.1 is available, regular audio only uses 2 speakers (iTunes etc.), VLC drives all 6 of them, I re-remembered why I sticked to Stereo and 4.1 mode on the speaker system (A Logitech Z-906, the 4.1 mode is the best stereo mode, but the middle speaker is wasted ...)
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