Interesting bracket, where did you find it? And the answer about spdif in may be no 🙁

Depends on the bracket.
The coaxial S/PDIF should be fine with a simple coaxial cable directly connected.
For the optical S/PDIF (TOSLINK) you'll need a connector that's capable of receiving an optical signal and turning it into an electrical signal. Usually this is done with a different jack, with a cheap audio out breakout board with only three wires I'm almost certain there'll be only an emitter present.

Thanks for the clarification guys. Guess I'll have to look for a card with an optical audio in port. I initially wanted to get one of those Audigy2 ZS front panels, but they are impossible to find nowadays. Not for a reasonable price that is.

As for the bracket, it's from Aliexpress. Just search for "SPDIF bracket" on that site and it will pop up.

Any card with optical in and support for your OS will do. It's a digital signal so there shouldn't be any losses even on low end cards. I don't think you'll need to spend much. 😀

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2020-02-22, 14:20:

I initially wanted to get one of those Audigy2 ZS front panels, but they are impossible to find nowadays. Not for a reasonable price that is.

any live drive front panel should work with the audigy too afaik.

imi wrote on 2020-02-22, 14:36:

any live drive front panel should work with the audigy too afaik.

Interesting, I didn't realize that.

Is the 40-pin ribbon cable which connects the card to the panel always the same? I might be able to get an Audigy1 front panel for much less money.

actually, I'm not so sure anymore, I just read it before, but I just googled now and found a thread pointing out that the pinouts are indeed different, so while it would theoretically still work you'd need a custom cable for it.

this thread states that it should be compatible up to the normal Audigy: Audigy 1 -> Live! Drive IR
the Audigy 2 ZS uses a different one but it didn't work? idk all a bit confusing.

You can use X-Fi panel with Audigy 2 and vice-versa. Although external boxes for Audigy/Audigy 2/Audigy 4 Pro are more handy and cool.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2020-02-23, 00:05:

You can use X-Fi panel with Audigy 2 and vice-versa.

Cheers, those seem to be less rare and more affordable in my area. I'll try getting one.

careful though, the audigy and audigy 2 seem to be using different pinouts

Hello all.
@Joseph_Joestar: as an option, you could use an optical-to-coaxial converter followed by a self-made cable with an RCA jack on one end and a 2-pin internal connector on the other end, attached to CD_SPDIF header. The signal will be availble via CD Digital channel in Windows mixer for both playback and recording. (That is, if optical source is PCM. Not sure what happens when there is an AC3/DTS stream and how to record it properly.)

HTH

That's an interesting idea.

However, it looks like some PS2 games do use AC3 for cutscenes and such, so I'm going to play it safe and go with the front panel.

Got a great deal on a Sound Blaster Live 5.1 and an Audigy1 front panel. I can confirm that these two work together perfectly.

It's amazing how much clarity the optical output can get out of PlayStation2 games. Audacity reports no background noise whatsoever, so I'm super happy with this setup. Have a listen to the PS2 startup sound recorded at 48 kHz and exported to FLAC.