I cant seem to find any good 5.1 (optical, not coaxial), PCI Sound Cards that are Mac Compatible. anyone know of any?
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Mac Compatiable, 5.1 PCI Sound Cards (for PowerMac G4)?
- Thread starter JeDiBoYTJ
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Creative Labs makes the SoundBlaster Extigy.
http://www.soundblaster.com/products/extigy/
It's not "exactly" Mac compatible (meaning there are no Mac drivers as far as I know) but it does work. It connects via USB to a Windows machine (not that you'd need that), but it also has optical in and out, and coax in. It has the analog outputs for a 5.1 speaker system. I'm using one because I've got multiple computers that support 5.1 audio. My only other option (yours, too) would be to buy a surround sound receiver, and that wouldn't work as well with my speakers. Hope this helps.
Regards,
Marc
http://www.soundblaster.com/products/extigy/
It's not "exactly" Mac compatible (meaning there are no Mac drivers as far as I know) but it does work. It connects via USB to a Windows machine (not that you'd need that), but it also has optical in and out, and coax in. It has the analog outputs for a 5.1 speaker system. I'm using one because I've got multiple computers that support 5.1 audio. My only other option (yours, too) would be to buy a surround sound receiver, and that wouldn't work as well with my speakers. Hope this helps.
Regards,
Marc
im looking for a PCI Slot 5.1 optical card, but i'll still look into that, thanks for you help. any more help is still greatly appreciated though 
JeDiBoYTJ said:
Forgive my ignorance, but isn't coax used for cable TV and internet? I see none of those jacks on the M-Audio PCI sound cards, only RCA and 1/8".
Hemingray said:
The M-Audio Revolution 7.1 PCI sound card has a coax surround sound connection, that's the RCA jack. It's digital, so they must be multiplexing it somehow. It's not the coax you're thinking of.
Regards,
Marc
mslifkin said:
WOW! Are u using the extigy on ur Mac? Im curious to hear how it works? I have one sitting right next to me but havent used it since I got the Mac...guess I should try pluggin it in! I just keep it around to collect dust and the occasional use of a Windows XP laptop which is about once in a blue moon!
I also was curious about buying an M-Audio setup and if its necessary on the PowerMac G5. I already run optical out to a Klipsch DD-5.1 Digital Decoder and thru Klipsch Ultra 5.1s with two extra subs!
I had tried out the Logitech Z-680s since they have a built in digital decoder but the bass sounded like crap. Way too boomy and the speaker controller was just too big. I would love to hear how the extigy works with Mac since I checked for some kind of files to run the EAX technology but that was a waste of time.