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First post, by SScorpio

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I'm attempting to have a best of both worlds Win 98 build that has real A3D 2.0 and EAX. I have a Diamond MX300 and I'm using its expansion header to connect its output to another card digitally.

I previously had this working correctly with an SB Live 5.1 (SB0060) into a Live Drive IR (SB0100) after having to do some continuity tracing and figuring out jumpers to allow the SPDIF IN connection on the Live Drive's Digital IO connector to bridge to the AUD_AUX connect that connects to the sound card. For anyone that needs it JP10 which is a two-pin header will bridge Pin 15 of the Digital IO and AUD_AUX to enable SPDIF1_In, JP8 is an 8 Pin header that bridges SPDIF2_In to various ports, and jumping Pin 5 and 6 will bridge Pin 6 from Digital IO to AUD_AUX.

I'm now attempting to get this configuration to work with an SB Audigy which still has the same AUD_AUX connector. I'm using an Audigy EAX Advanced HD (SB0090). The Drive these came with appears to be the same as the Live Drive IR with the addition of a Firewire port that uses a separate cable this Audigy Drive is the (SB0100D).

I verified SPDIF Out/In is working to the Audigy's CD Digital In port from the MX300's output. I'm now attempting to have this work once again with the Live Drive, but I wasn't getting any sound. Interestingly, I tried changing the Digital Out settings from MX300 from 44KHz to 32 or 48KHz and I get a lot of static noise but can at times hear the looping sound I'm pushing through. This causes me to believe that 44KHz is the correct setting, but something is being filtered within the Live Drive itself. I attempted wiring directly to the Audigy, but couldn't receive anything, it appears the Live Direct is detected somehow, and the Windows Driver disables IO based on that.

Does anyone have any insight on this?

Reply 1 of 6, by Wanderer

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Hello SScorpio,
which pins on AUD_EXT connector are you trying to use for SPDIF input?

The pinout is as follows:

Spoiler
                        VCC +5V power supply    1 X X 2    VCC +5V power supply
GND Ground 3 X X 4 AC97CLK 24.5 MHz clock output
GND Ground 5 X X 6 GP_SPDIFIN#2 SPDIF input signal
GND Ground 7 X X 8 GND Ground
SPDIFO#3 SPDIF Out signal 9 X X 10 GPO1 General Purpose Output #1
GPO2 General Purpose Output #2 11 X X 12 GND Ground
GPO0 General Purpose Output #0 13 X X 14 GND Ground
GP_SPDIFIN1 SPDIF Input signal 15 X X 16 GND Ground
SPDIFO#0 SPDIF Out signal 17 X X 18 GND Ground
SPDIFO#1 SPDIF Out signal 19 X X 20 GND Ground
GND Ground 21 X X 22 SPDIFO#2 SPDIF Out signal
GPI0 Digital Input (GP Input 0; Reserved) 23 X X 24 GPI1 Digital Input, (GP Input 1; Reserved)
OUTMIDI MIDI Output 25 X X 26 GND Ground
INMIDI MIDI Input 27 X X 28 GND Ground
No pin 29 30 No pin
ADCSDO2 I2S audio data input 31 X X 32 GND Ground
ADCSDO1 I2S audio data input 33 X X 34 GND Ground
ADCSDO0 I2S audio data input 35 X X 36 GND Ground
I2SCLK I2S serial bit clock 37 X X 38 GND Ground
I2SFS Frame sync 39 X X 40 GND Ground

On my SB0090, 3 inputs are used simultaneously (CD_SPDIF + pins 5-6 & 15-16 on AUD_EXT) without issues, all fed by 48 kHz signals from another Audigy. The card is run by the kX driver. With Creative's driver the pinout won't change, but just 1 or 2 inputs will be enabled and available to OS: only CD Digital without a drive, and CD Digital + SPDIF In with a drive. Input from pins 15-16 corresponds to "Coaxial/Optical In" in the kX driver, and from pins 5-6 to "ZVideo I2S In" - hope this helps.

Last edited by Wanderer on 2020-11-01, 19:28. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 2 of 6, by SScorpio

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Wanderer wrote on 2020-11-01, 17:14:

Hello SScorpio,
which pins on AUD_EXT connector have you tried to use for SPDIF input?

That is the pinout I'm using, and it worked with the SB Live but not the Audigy. Are the kX drivers you are using for newer version of Windows and to support OSX? I'm wondering what they give you over Creative's drivers.

Reply 3 of 6, by Wanderer

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SScorpio wrote on 2020-11-01, 17:26:

That is the pinout I'm using, and it worked with the SB Live but not the Audigy.

It doesn't work anymore with input through the Live! Drive, as far as I understood.
By the way, why did you not settle on using the CD_SPDIF connector?

SScorpio wrote on 2020-11-01, 17:26:

Are the kX drivers you are using for newer version of Windows and to support OSX?

I prefer version 3550 in Windows XP and the latest in Windows 7 (3553 at the moment, compatible with 8/8.1/10 as well).
Not sure about OS X support, but there were kX releases for Mac OS in the past.

SScorpio wrote on 2020-11-01, 17:26:

I'm wondering what they give you over Creative's drivers.

They cannot compete with Creative drivers in gaming/multimedia, but are helpful if you need to implement custom real-time routing and processing. I described my configuration here: Re: What sound card do you use on your modern PC ?

Last edited by Wanderer on 2020-11-01, 18:28. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 4 of 6, by SScorpio

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Wanderer wrote on 2020-11-01, 17:53:
SScorpio wrote on 2020-11-01, 17:26:

That is the pinout I'm using, and it worked with the SB Live but not the Audigy.

It doesn't work anymore with input through the Live! Drive, as far as I understood.
By the way, why did you not settle on using the CD_SPDIF connector?

I'd prefer using CD_SPDIF for the actual CD-ROM.

Last edited by Stiletto on 2020-11-02, 01:50. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 5 of 6, by Wanderer

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As an option, you could connect the MX300 output to pins 15-16 on AUD_EXT and somehow trick the card into thinking that it has the Drive attached (people did this in the past I think, though don't have a link at hand), so as to enable the extra input in Windows.

Edit: found the link about how to do that: http://sblive.narod.ru/AudigySPDIF_INx2/AudigySPDIF_INx2.htm
Summary: wire pins 1 and 23 through an 1kOhm resistor. Then "SPDIF In" fader should appear in the mixer.
There is also a warning that AUD_EXT inputs expect TTL level signal (unlike CD_SPDIF that accepts any), therefore MX300 output might require conversion. Here are implementation examples (see S/PDIF input circuits): https://www.epanorama.net/documents/audio/spdif.html

Edit 2: found a confirmation here Re: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 40-Pin Header

Also, do you use both MX300 and Audigy in games simultaneously? If not, another option is to temporarily switch to kX drivers for Audigy when you need the digital input, and switch back to Creative drivers when you don't (switching will require to reboot the PC).

Last edited by Wanderer on 2020-11-01, 19:17. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 6 of 6, by SScorpio

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I'll have to figure out a good way and get the parts to do the bridge to trick it as a test. In the end, I do want to use other ports (headphones, MIDI, etc) on the Live Drive so forgoing it wouldn't be a solution.

I also think I'm going to attempt connecting an RCA jack to the MX300's output to connect to the Live Drive's front SPDIF in. I'll see if that has the same limitations.