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Headset help! USB to Toslink
Just wanted to know if anyone has done this or if I could do it with little sound quality degredation. I have a pair of Turtle Beach Ear Force Delta with wireless 7.1 surround sound headset. They are exactly the same as the new XP500's but with MW3 branding on them (but I got them on clearance a while back at Best Buy $80 off 
)
I originally bought them for playing Xbox/watching movies in the den late night without waking the whole fam but now I would love to hook them up to my laptop for gaming (laptop is hooked up to a monitor in another room). The headphones have bluetooth pairing and they pair fine with my laptop but the quality isn't 100% and obviously it doesn't do 7.1 surround sound via bluetooth. This leaves me having to hook up through the wireless transmitter which only recieves fiber optic or RCA (not going for analog).
I saw this to convert USB to SPDIF/Toslink and thought I could hook the base up this way.
It doesn't really seem like this product is really intended to do what I want it to but might work. Would I loose sound quality? It looks like I'd only get 5.1 coming out of the adapter and I guess I wouldn't be able to have 7.1? I would love to get these headphones working because they are super confortable and have excellent sound. If I could hook this up to my gaming rig and then have the bluetooth open to pair with my phone and stream music while I game then that would be a pretty sweet setup. **Also this adapter is $25 and I don't want to spend any more than that to get this setup working or else I'd just get a pair of Logitech G930's (or G35's haven't decided yet) since I can get it ~$109.
Are there any audiophiles/sound techies here that could give some guidance or advice? I've looked around the net but haven't come up with much.
Comments
I haven't tried any of these but here are some thoughts:
The difference between 7.1 and 5.1 is very slight, even in full-blown HiFi home theater setups. The rear sound field is split from 2 channels into 4, and the difference is very subtle. A well-tuned 5.1 setup would be nearly indistinguishable under most circumstances. Many times in earphones, the effects are simulated anyway (it's hard to cram that many drivers inside of each ear cup).
Which laptop do you have? It's possible it already has a digital output (for instance, Apple laptops have mini-Toslink built into the analog headphone jack, it just requires a special adapter to use).
As far as any adapter - they will have their own audio drivers or setup programs, most will not go through an existing sound card, and they will act as independent sound output devices (selectable via your Sound control panel).
It's an Asus G53jw-a1 and as far as digital out, it has 1 HDMI slot (which I use to connect to a monitor from when I game). Other than that, just the standard USB ports and a USB 3.0 port.
Not too sure, but I think you are looking for something like the soundcard that comes with the Steelseries 7H.
http://steelseries.com/products/audio/steelseries-7h-usb
You get the conversion from USB, the 7.1 and a soundcard, which should be somewhat better than intergrated sound on modern MBs, but not as good as buying a seperate soundcard (for a much higher price).
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1024/pg6/steelseries-7h-usb-headset-review-conclusion.html
I have this set myself, and I find the quality to be pretty good.
If you can buy this soundcard seperately I don't know, but at least what you are looking for is out there. Maybe it's worth looking around for it.
Edit: Snooping around I found this http://www.amazon.com/SteelSeries-Siberia-Sound-Card-White/dp/B000WJCM9G