Acer Aspirations Soundly Quashed - Is It Me?
When I bought my shiny new Acer Aspire 5750 back in early Feb this year, I have to admit that it was something of an impulse buy. Usually, I do some research. But on this occasion the OH was buying a notebook to replace the Dell laptop purchased at the same time as mine, and I got a bit carried away by the allure of those sleek modern beauties in the shop and bought myself a new toy, too. At the time my principal thought was that the 1Tb HDD could contain one heck of a lot of photos and maybe some of my music.
Subsequently I have thought a bit more about laptop-based music and decided to experiment. One thing I was keen to try out was the benefits of coax/optical vs USB. The other day I did a search on the interweb and came across a site that said the output jack of the Acer Aspire 5750 is spdif compatible. Marvellous! I had read various discussions about the spdif and toslink cables and got the general gist that they are pretty much the same thing bar the connection. I bought a long optical toslink cable and a 3.5mm adaptor. This evening I tried them out - nothing, nada, zip. No signal reaches the Dacmagic. The laptop registers the jack and that's the lot. Silence.
Have I misunderstood something? Was the website completely wrong about the headphone socket or is a 3.5mm adaptor to toslink cable the wrong way to go about it? Well, at least it's only 12 quid, I suppose.
Since I have successfully played music via USB, is there any advantage at all in buying a USB to toslink adaptor? It's my understanding that USB can limit the sound quality received at the DC, whereas spdif/toslink technology is more capable of delivering the goods.
Anyone care to explain to a simple soul (and without starting any arguments 
) please? Thanks.
have you looked for 'digital out' in the audio settings?
My acer (older model) has realtek HD audio and you have to change the output device to get digital to work.
If it does support it and you enable it, sexy red light should be visible at the headphone socket if it has optical spdif output!
have you looked for 'digital out' in the audio settings?
My acer (older model) has realtek HD audio and you have to change the output device to get digital to work.
If it does support it and you enable it, sexy red light should be visible at the headphone socket if it has optical spdif output!
Thanks - I'll take another look. TBH, this Windows 7 tart is all windows-dressing, making it harder to find the nitty-gritty.
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Grrrr! A spot more research late last night led me to believe that the Aspire 5750 I have does not support spdif output afterall. There are several sub-versions of the model and clearly the one claimed to have the facility is not the one I have.
That brings me back to whether it is worth trying a USB to optical converter?
Naim Uniti (24/192); ProAc Studio 140 Mk2 ; Synology DS212j & Logitech Squeezebox Touch (it's a kind of magic!) ; Fewer boxes and stringy bits than previously. Subject to change at a whim or WHF delivery.