https://mattgadient.com/optical-spdif-out-on- … aster-audigy-2/

Thanks, I ordered one of the cheaper black PCB ones, they're like half the price of the Asus ones that have a large capacitor on them, hopefully works with my setup. My only slight concern is I need to install it behind the sound card bracket and hope those wires can stretch that far.

Alternatively, you can also use a mono 3.5 mm to RCA adapter and connect the cable to a coax to optical converter.

Stretch wrote on 2026-04-23, 22:55:

Alternatively, you can also use a mono 3.5 mm to RCA adapter and connect the cable to a coax to optical converter.

The official manual (PDF) allows this method for connecting 2.0/2.1 speakers, but I'm concerned because the DIGITAL OUT jack on the Audigy2/2ZS cards is a 4-pole jack and provides three S/PDIF outputs (6 channels). This connection is used for Creative's 5.1 digital speakers.

With a 3.5mm mono jack plug, all three digital outputs will be shorted to single pole, which is probably not good (I hope there's protection for this).

I'd rather use a 3.5mm 4-pole jack plug to 3x RCA A/V cable - fortunately, it's ideal for connecting three S/PDIF outputs:
- SPDIF#1 (red RCA): Front channels (Left, Right)
- SPDIF#2 (white RCA): Center, LFE
- SPDIF#3 (yellow RCA): Surround Left, Surround Right

And what exactly should be at the end?
If you just need a recording, Creative sound cards have a special source in the control panel called “Wats-U-Here”.
This returns a fully processed audio stream from the DSP.
If you’re sending it to, say, a ‘receiver’, then multi-channel audio won’t fit into SPDIF; you’ll need Dolby Digital or DTS encoding.

ott wrote on 2026-04-24, 12:11:

The official manual (PDF) allows this method for connecting 2.0/2.1 speakers, but I'm concerned because the DIGITAL OUT jack on the Audigy2/2ZS cards is a 4-pole jack and provides three S/PDIF outputs (6 channels). This connection is used for Creative's 5.1 digital speakers.

With a 3.5mm mono jack plug, all three digital outputs will be shorted to single pole, which is probably not good (I hope there's protection for this).

I've been using a set of Cambridge SoundWorks Digital 2.1 speakers with SBLive/Audigy cards for years. The speaker manual confirms that mono 3.5mm to RCA is the official connection method for SBLive cards.

Not sure if the Audigy cards are wired differently, but I've connected an Audigy 2 ZS to those speakers using the same method and haven't encountered any issues.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2026-04-24, 12:40:

I've been using a set of Cambridge SoundWorks Digital 2.1 speakers with SBLive/Audigy cards for years. The speaker manual confirms that mono 3.5mm to RCA is the official connection method for SBLive cards.

Not sure if the Audigy cards are wired differently, but I've connected an Audigy 2 ZS to those speakers using the same method and haven't encountered any issues.

Thanks, I will keep it in mind.

In addition to my previous post, I found description of the DIGITAL OUT jack on the Creative's knowledge base:
https://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=5764